Fat or muscle?

Brashellb

Hi! First time to post here! I have a question about weight gain. I had a baby two years ago, after having her I was back down below pre pregnancy weight. I started doing very small work outs every day, slowly building up to some weighted work outs with a kettle bell. Now I mainly just try to get one or two quick work outs In a week, I only use a 15lb kettle bell for squats and such. I have gained 10lbs since having her and doing the work outs. My question is- is the weight gain from muscle or fat? I mean the work outs are not every day or even every other day at this point. But more than I was doing before having my baby. My jeans still fit, maybe a little tighter but nothing crazy lol! Thoughts?

Brashellb

Oh I should add I obviously lift a toddler every day so idk if that would aid in muscle also but probably not much! Haha

AnnPT77

Brashellb wrote: »

Oh I should add I obviously lift a toddler every day so idk if that would aid in muscle also but probably not much! Haha

Lifting the toddler may contribute more than you'd expect. How many times a day do you lift her? How much does she weigh? Do you lift her as many times per day, on average, as your kettlebell, and does she weigh 15 pounds or more? I wouldn't be surprised! Has her weight gradually kept increasing, day by day? I'm betting yes! Sometimes, people don't recognize that movement in daily life counts.

Certainly, I'm not saying that toddler-wrangling has the same effect as a full, well-designed progressive weight training program, but it's not zero, either. And you've got a bit of both.

It's hard to say whether you've gained fat or muscle or some of each, without some more info. If you tend to gain weight evenly over your body, 10 pounds of just fat might leave you with jeans still fitting. (Ten pounds would be a thin whole-body layer, y'know? ). On the other side of the equation, you've been doing more formal exercise, and you've been lifting that increasing-weight baby girl probably dozens of times a day every day, and chasing her around as she's gotten more mobile. That's exercise, too.

My best guess would be that it'd be a combination, a little fat, a little muscle - but it's just a guess. Women, under ideal circumstances, might do well to gain a pound a month of muscle under truly ideal conditions. Ideal conditions would include a well designed progressive strength training program consistently performed multiple times weekly, adequate nutrition especially protein, relative youth, good genetics for it, and at least a small calorie surplus.

From your description, you'd come up a bit short on the ideal strength training program (though non-zero), but you might be hitting better on the other points, so a small bit of muscle gain is conceivable. As much as 10 pounds in 2 years? Hmmm. Dunno. Ten pounds of muscle gain in 2 years would only be an average of less than half a pound a month, true. On the other side of the equation, if that small calorie surplus was in play, it only takes on average about 50 calories a day above your maintenance calories to gain 10 pounds of fat in two years.

Like I said, best guess, combination. If you want to change the situation, the good news is that it shouldn't take huge changes in habits to get some good results: Reduce calories a little bit (over a long period of time), maybe work on a more-structured progressive strength training program alongside. Or just keep lifting your daughter dozens of times daily until she's in her 20s?

Best wishes!

NorthCascades

There's a story from ancient times about a guy who got strong from lifting a baby cow. As it grew he kept lifting it, making him stronger like adding 5 pounds into the bar every week. That's what you're going to do, only with a human baby not a cow. 🙂

Nobody gains just muscle alone, it comes with fat. So don't think of it as one or the other.

If your good is to gain muscle, there are some free "programs" that tell you what lifts to do so you don't wind up with a muscle imbalance. Also, you said you're not doing it every other day, which is good because you need time to recover after don't strength training.

If your goal is more general fitness, it sounds like you're on the right track.

PAV8888

A mix of both with unknown percentages 😎 baby squats and lifts I hear can be fun and exciting! I think Ann's post covers things quite extensively, and lifting baby girls into their 20s would be quite an achievement too!!!! 😇