What am I doing wrong? Please help me!

PikaKnight

if you are going to the gym 4 times a week, the weight may very well be muscle that your are building..

A lb of muscle a week while eating at a deficit? I'm going to have to disagree. It is really hard to build muscle. Natural bodybuilders are lucky to put on 5-10lbs a muscle a year, so I don't think the OP just went and put on 4lbs of muscle.

I think OP needs to answer a majority of the questions asked for there to be really any insight on what's going on.

I know nothing about the science of how quickly muscle builds, but wouldn't it be faster for someone who starts with little muscle to gain muscle more quickly than for someone who is already pretty muscular to bulk up? Similar to how it's easier to lose fat when you have a lot of fat to lose than when you're down to those last few pounds/inches/percentage points? My own experience is that when I take a break from working out for several months, and lose strength, it seems to come back relatively quickly - to a point - and then plateaus. I, however, don't know if that's actually building muscle - or just reconditioning muscle, or whatever.

Actually no. If someone has a lot of fat to work with (I'm talking very overweight), it would be easier for them to recomp their body than it would be for someone with little muscle to make gains.

strength =/= muscle gain. You can strengthen the muscles you already have but that doesn't mean you are building additional muscle.

Some reading:

http://body-improvements.com/2012/08/22/qa-how-can-i-go-about-building-some-muscle/
http://body-improvements.com/2013/09/04/can-you-build-muscle-and-lose-fat-at-the-same-time/
http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/adding-muscle-while-losing-fat-qa.html

eldamiano

Must try harder. You probably arent being honest with yourself. All the excuses listed on here - water, sodium, etc - these are cosy excuses designed to make people feel better. Weight loss is all about being tough with yourself.

Prepare yourself for the worst case and also more likely scenario - i.e. you are eating more calories than you are listing or not burning off enough.

GillianMcK

Maybe time to speak to a nutritionist or dietician, you might not be eating enough!!
I run 4 times a week, weights twice a week and a PT session (tends to focus on cardio) once a week, I'm 1800 calories on my days that I'm not training and add in an extra 200-300 calories on the days I'm training.
What are your percentages for Carbs, Protein and Fat they might need adjusting, I used to be really high on carbs, loved pasta, bread, rice, noodles, potatoes, PT instructor gave me basic nurition advice when I started and shifted my percentages to 40% carbs, 30% protein and 30% fat (it's a pain in the behind when you first start trying to balance it, these are rough guides not exact, I don't tend to go over/under them by any more than 3% though)
I also started putting a protein source in my breakfast (protein powder mixed with yogurt as it's east and I don't have to take long to prepare it)
I took ages to come to terms with eating more having spent so long with the eat less, move more mindset, but it's working for me.
I had a test done as well on my first dat of PT that measured my resting metabolic rate and thats where the 1800-1900 calories came from, at that point I was only doing PT once a week because of an injury, since I've recovered the nutrition has changed (think diets need to be looked at on a regular basis and changed to match what training you're doing at the time)
Good luck, stick with it.

michellekicks

Hi, I am 5'2" and currently 130lb. I count calories, so I know it is actually 1800 that I 'm eating, and I burn at least 800 calories each time I am at the gym- according to the machines. I don't know that 1800 is low enough for calories, but it had been working for the last several months, so I kept it as a goal.

How old are you?

The machines are not a good estimate of your actual calorie burn.
Here's a site I use: http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/

If you are 18 years old, at 5'2", 130 lbs and average body fat, and you are working out 3-5 hours a week, your estimated BMR is 1325 calories daily and your TDEE is estimated at 2054 calories daily.

If you are 60 years old, at 5'2", 130 lbs and average body fat, and you are working out 3-5 hours a week, your estimated BMR is 1118 calories daily and your TDEE is estimated at 1733.

If you are closer to 18 years old, even if your exercise is more like 5-6 hours a week of strenuous work, your estimated TDEE is still only 2286.

Everything not measured can be misjudged. I know I don't measure cream in my coffee each day, mayonnaise, butter, jam, the marinade I use to bake my chicken breast and a few other things here and there. If your TDEE is somewhere around 2000, it's completely possible that aiming for 1800 calories daily is just putting you right around maintenance, or even above. And while you wouldn't be up enough to gain actual fat, you could have just slowly increased to maintenance which will replenish glycogen stores that are typically exhausted in the first week or so of cutting calories.