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Remedial body comp question

Stripeness
Stripeness Posts: 511 Member
edited February 11 in Health and Weight Loss
Frequently "you can't gain muscle while cutting fat" is asserted. Yet when I ran my numbers this morning, using 2 different methods, I seem to have increased lean body mass while dropping weight.

Further thought is that college water polo saw me lose 22 lbs & 2 pants sizes, while doing progressively heavier lifts in our morning weight sessions. I don't think I'm some metabolically special snowflake, and have seen other athletes do this simultaneous downsizing/strengthening too (polo, swimming, & x-c running, for reference).

What point am I missing or forgetting? Is it a subtlety of gaining size for bodybuilding, or...?

Total weight loss: 8 lbs

A. Scale Data
Starting FFM (Fat-free mass): 170 lbs
Current FFM: 166.5 lbs
FFM Loss: 0 lbs
Fat Loss: 8 lbs

B. Measuring Tape Data
Starting FFM (Fat-free mass): 142.6 lbs
Current FFM: 144.5 lbs
FFM Loss: 0 lbs
Fat Loss: 8 lbs

Either way, I appear to have gained lean muscle mass while losing fat?
And yes, the discrepancy between the 2 systems is darned funny. All I care about is the trend over time, so it works!

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