Why are my muscles smaller?
Makoce
Posts: 938 Member
What the hell, can you guys help me out?
A few months ago I took the picture on the left, then a few weeks ago I started binging .. which means eating a surplus
In which I said okay .. and started lifting heavier to compensate.
The picture on the right is from yesterday!!
Why does it look like Ive lost loads of mass?
(big image might have to open in browser)
A few months ago I took the picture on the left, then a few weeks ago I started binging .. which means eating a surplus
In which I said okay .. and started lifting heavier to compensate.
The picture on the right is from yesterday!!
Why does it look like Ive lost loads of mass?
(big image might have to open in browser)
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How much weight did you lose from the time you took the picture on the left to the time you started eating at a surplus? Did you lift weights during that time?0
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I have been lifting weights the whole time, I hadnt lost any weight since the left picture, I was at maintenance.
Now Im 5Lbs heavier. Its weird...0 -
i can't see the after pic, but it could be different lighting? it could also be that if you added 5lbs most of that is fat and that will cover your muscle definition. but not seeing the pic, i can't tell.1
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I have been lifting weights the whole time, I hadnt lost any weight since the left picture, I was at maintenance.
Now Im 5Lbs heavier. Its weird...
That is weird, cuz if I were to guess just looking at the pics, it seems like you lost fat and muscle. Super weird. Anybody's else have ideas?0 -
Can't see the second pic but the first looks like it's in the gym - did you have more of a 'pump' on in the first one, maybe?0
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Sorry, I see it now. That is weird. Are you sure you are at surplus - it looks like you have more of an 'recomp' thing going on. Have your lifts improved? Is it possible that you have strengthened the existing muscle in that area but you're not actually adding anything in the way of new muscle.
In all honesty, I don't know if they get more compact as they get stronger but that's the only thing I could think of
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Well couple things; really not enough info to give a clear answer. Binging does not equal strategic bulking, they are not one in the same. Second gym pump plays a key role, not to mention carb, sodium and water intake can visually make one appear flat or full. Somedays I look F'ing jacked especially on chest day as my shoulder pump is ridiculous. However and it's unfortunate until I build to that level, I don't walk around looking like that. It does appear between the two photos that a recomp is going on bc you actually look leaner in the right picture.
Building muscle takes a hell of a long time, effort and continuous eating at a surplus and while some will disagree, regards to your macros do play into it. 5lbs could be a matter of a "binge" effect with an uptake of carbs and water retention, not muscle gain.0 -
well there is no question you look "smaller" but you don't just look smaller- you look more defined- my guess is the attack on the lifting has made you lose body fat making you get smaller by way of removing the muscle fluff.
I agree with HMVOL- binging =/= eating at a surplus =/= eating to put on muscle- those things can all be very closely related by they are not necessarily the same thing. you can be eating at a surplus- and NOT building. But you have to be eating at a surplus in order to put on muscle.
And binging is not just eating at a surplus.
I also agree with her (to an extent) on the macros'- there is no question that carbs play a huge role in your appearance, so while I"m not a die hard MACROS ALL THE TIME person- I never dismiss the fact they can and will impact your appearance.0 -
Well I was low carb on the left..but it wasnt realistic for me ( tried the whole paleo thing ) as thats what triggered the binges.
So now im back to eating whatever as long as I hit my protein macro and I dont pay attention to carb or fat anymore.0 -
Had a glance at your diary. Regardless, binging and then reduction of calories to under maintenance and the constant back and forth is going to take a toll on your body, hormones and progress.
Find a way to control your binges, I know easier said than done, start working your way up to eating consistently at maintenance for awhile until you can feel in total control then consider a true extended bulk if your goal is to put on more muscle.0 -
I have been lifting weights the whole time, I hadnt lost any weight since the left picture, I was at maintenance.
Now Im 5Lbs heavier. Its weird...
What are your goals? Are you trying to lose weight, maintain, or bulk? I took a look at your diary as well. Your calorie goal is set to1480 (without exercise) so I'm assuming you are trying to lose weight. I went through the month of June/end of May and can tell you straight away that you are not building muscle eating that way. Most days you are eating at a deficit, some days you are undereating to the tune of 1000 calories, and then you have your occasional binge day where you eat 3000 calories over goal.
In order to do a proper bulk, you need to be eating a small surplus of a couple hundred calories every day for weeks if not months at a time. And you are going to gain weight including fat.
So my question to you is - are you really trying to bulk or just compensate for your binge days? If it's the latter then sorry to say muscle building doesn't work that way.
If you're interested, here are some links that will help you get more aquainted with the process of bulking:
http://www.acaloriecounter.com/building-muscle.php
http://strengthunbound.com/bulking-complete-guide-for-beginners/0 -
My goal was to maintain and recomp.
I was eating 1800 calories which was a small surplus.
They're only set to 1480 now because I went on a huge binge and gained over the course of two weeks so I want to get back to where I was.
At the beginning I was really trying to put on muscle, but now I do admit I'm trying to compensate for losing control.0 -
At the beginning I was really trying to put on muscle, but now I do admit I'm trying to compensate for losing control.
so step 1.) admit this is an issue (check)
step 2.) before you start gaining/losing/bulking/cutting... find a way to get eat consistently and get a grip on the food. Bulking and putting on muscle is very difficult- physically and mentally. It's systematic self torture in terms of women's health/media (since we are constantly fed LOSE LOSE LOSE LOSE) .
Ultimately you have to just learn to eat properly without major upswings or downswings- once or twice a week a few hundred over is fine- but if it's consistently 1000 over- or several hundred low- you're not doing your body any favors.
You can do it- just takes a little thought and self evaluation-
Couple biggies for me are recognizing.
Are you bored?
Are you hungry?
Are you stressed?
Are you eating your emotions?
Do you have foods that you have a hard time controlling what you eat? (chips- I cannot eat just 1 servings size- I know when I open the bag- it's going to be a hot mess)
Good places to start to evaluate WHY your eating habits are the way they are.0 -
See, I cant figure out #2
I was at maintenance for like 3 months, doing perfectly fine.
I switched to the primal-eating fan-boat and was doing hell of a lot better with my appetite than previous
( before my blood sugar was crashing every few hours and I was hungry, on primal I could go 4 - 6 hours before feeling hungry ) - for about 5 - 6 months and did great. Was doing a lot of lifting.
But then just one day I sucked down 5,000 - 6,000 calories because I felt so hungry.
It started with meat -- ( now my protein macros were already way over day-to-day) then switched to meat AND fruit ( Id also binge on steamed veggies )
THEN it went back onto processed foods and the binging never ended.
Now I just feel hungry ALL THE TIME, like my body is starving, but its not because its obviously at maintenance and or a surplus.
And I just cannot get a grip on it.
I dont know if its because I was low-ish on carbs
( 50 - 100gs, usually between 70-75 )
or because I was restricting my diet -- but I never felt deprived/denied anything
( in fact my appetite was suppressed for quite a bit and food satisfied me )
and I never felt like I was eating because of stress or emotional reasons.
I just felt like a starving animal.
And would eat and eat in the kitchen for hours.
Weeks later Im still battling with it, and then compensating for it -- but this week and last week have been consistent in numbers, Im getting my will power back, but the feeling to want to shove myself full of food remains, and Id be damned if I could figure out why.
Its like my "im full & satisfied" mechanism is broken.
But question -- why is it that you have to consistently eating like 100 - 200 calories over to bulk, and not just count a weekly surplus as such ( such as a binge )? How does the body work like that? Orr. Im a little confused in that respect.0 -
But question -- why is it that you have to consistently eating like 100 - 200 calories over to bulk, and not just count a weekly surplus as such ( such as a binge )? How does the body work like that? Orr. Im a little confused in that respect.
This is from one of the links above (stengthunbound):It is often said and widely believed that using a smaller calorie surplus will lead to cleaner gains (better muscle to fat gain ratio), however this really isn’t true. Smaller intakes pretty much just lead to slower gains at about the same ratio of muscle to fat, on down to the point where the plan becomes a lean gaining plan with periods of muscle gain and fat loss. The reason why is quite simple. The body does not build muscle first, putting the excess calories to fat second; the body does both simultaneously. At lower intakes, surplus periods are increasingly localized around meals, with periods of maintenance in-between.
Somewhere around a surplus of 400 calories per day, a little more for men, a little less for women, is about where it seems the localized effects of meals begins to vanish and your body is in a calorie surplus and building muscles 24 hours a day.
That intake level is also very good from a first timers point of view; it is very user friendly. You don’t really know how your body is going to react to a calorie surplus. Chances are you are going to need an intake higher than you expect. That level has a built in buffer either way; if you miss low chances are that you will at least be making gains, just not fast enough. If you miss high it won’t be so high that the fat gain is excessive.
Muscle is built around the clock each day (assuming sufficient training frequency); [8] because of this you should try to keep a constant calorie surplus every day when bulking, whether you are strength training that day or not.
If you only have a surplus one day a week (or a binge), you're not going to be very efficient in terms of building muscle. Most of the surplus will go towards fat gain.0 -
Regarding the low-carb thing, I personally HATE it when people say things like "just eat protein and fat and you'll feel full." That's entirely dependent on the individual, so you can have people who are doing just fine on a moderate or higher-carb diet who don't do well on low-carb but keep on it because it's "supposed" to work for everyone. It doesn't, and you shouldn't feel pressure to stay on it if it doesn't work for you. For the most part, I'll still feel hungry (and often shaky) after eating a low-carb meal, no matter how high in protein or fat it was. (End personal rant
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I took a peek back through your diary, because very often people eat an extra 500 calories and call it a binge. I realize that's not the case with you (just for your sake, I was hoping it was, though). If your bingeing just started out of the blue and you really don't think it has a stress/emotional component, I'd really suggest getting checked out by a doctor to make sure there isn't something physically going on.0 -
Thanks for the info Freckles! Makes sense.
Wait so, how many calories over maintenance a day does it take then?
100 or 300?
And Alice, my carbs were super high before I switched.
I would get shakey/irritable/hungry after 2 - 3 hours after eating.
When I switched to just fat-protein it worked...for like 5 - 6 months.
Then I suddenly got ravenous, and now Im back to square one.
And I just said F-it and went back to eating whatever I want under goal within reason.
Lifes too short to not enjoy icecream and candy and bread every day if thats what I want
But yeah, everyones body is different.
I thought maybe it was medical but I had blood tests done with no answers on that line, so who knows!
I originally had a emotional binge eating issue, thats how I originally gained all my weight.
But that was a year and a half ago, if not more, and I havent had issues with that since.
This is completely different than those feelings and was like I said, out of the blue!
Like I said I was checked by a doctor once, but maybe its time to go back?
What else can I test for? I had like 10 pages of bloodwork done the first time.0 -
Appetite is a tricky thing...it can be affected by many different things (physical, mental, emotional). And of course how much you're eating, what your macro ratios are, etc. can affect appetite as well. My appetite is most affected by stress and medications and usually decreases when I'm really stressed. Sometimes I won't even feel the mental/emotional affects of stress (because I've gotten better at managing it mentally), but because undoubtably I am under a lot of stress, I'll still have some of the physical symptoms like inappetence. Is it possible that you could be under stress and it's manifesting as a ravenous appetite? Any changes in medications or vitamins/supplements? If the bloodwork you had done wasn't done recently, I would probably go back to the doctor. And even if you had it done recently, it wouldn't hurt to go back.
Since you have a history of binge eating, my guess would be that this is maybe another episode? But I can't speak from experience since I don't have a binge eating disorder. But I do have depression/anxiety, so I can say that for many mental disorders, the symptoms can manifest in weird ways or the symptoms can change at times. These disorders can also influence hormones like leptin which affect appetite....so yeah it can be tricky to rule things out. But, I would suggest that you take note of possible stressors or changes in your routine and just your overall mood, energy level, etc.0 -
i finally saw the after pic, you are flexing different ways in each pic. That will affect how the muscle appears.0
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Have you ever wondered why you often get hungry a few hours after what seemed to be a large meal? Maybe you get a cookie craving 3 hours after a large pasta dinner? Well there's a very good reason for that. It has to do with how the body processes carbohydrates and it's related to one of the body's most important hormones - Insulin.
"When we eat a carbohydrate rich meal, blood sugar levels increase as the carbohydrates are broken down into their base molecules - sugar. As blood sugar levels increase, insulin is released in response. Insulin is a hormone which moves glucose (sugar) from the blood into the muscles and fat cells for storage.
insulin reacts to an increase in blood glucose levels. After the ingestion of a carbohydrate rich meal, blood glucose levels increase rapidly. Once the body detects these elevated blood glucose levels it releases insulin.
blood glucose levels peak and then fall off and insulin does the same, however insulin levels peak later than blood glucose. Once blood glucose levels reach normal again, you can see that it takes insulin a little bit longer to reach normal again. It is this lag time in normalization of insulin levels which gives us those sugar cravings after carbohydrate rich meals. This is because blood sugar levels are normal but we still have insulin present in the blood and that insulin needs something to do - without sugar to store it gets bored! So it has the effect of asking the body for more sugar. That's why we get hungry even though we just ate a few hours ago.
So what can we do to eliminate or at least reduce these hunger cravings? We have to learn how to control the insulin response to some degree. If we can decrease the amount of sugar we dump into our blood, thereby decreasing the size of the peak in blood glucose levels, the insulin response will decrease accordingly. By levelling off the peaks and valleys in insulin during the day you'll be able to exit that 'hunger rollercoaster' that plagues millions.
There are a couple of ways we can do this, some of which are detailed in other sections of this website so I'll just touch briefly on them. The first way is to choose your carbohydrates wisely - see Good Carbohydrates, Fats and Proteins. Another good plan is to try to include carbohydrates, fats and protein in every meal and snack throughout the day. Fat and protein will slow down the release of insulin. Also, carbohydrates that have a higher fibre content do not cause as large an insulin response as those which contain less fibre."
Copy pasted all that. But its true, I had a 2 day binge over Christmas and it took me 2 weeks to stop feeling hungry. I also went through the whole I need to bulk, oh no I need to cut thing for several months. Currently lifting heavy ( for me heavy) on maintenance and seem to be doing OK. I put on a little weight, mostly on holiday sadly. I am feeling a bit fluffy now but I am going to stick with it , maybe increase calories a little over. I think true results are only going to happen with some long term commitment. If you binge, then drop calories too much you will inevitably suffer some muscle loss. The trick is a very slow cut, to minimise muscle loss as you lose fat. Or so I read, am going to try this year to put it into practise, but not for another couple of months.
You say you get hungry 2-3 hours after eating. Have you considered eating every 2-3 hours. I do, smaller more regular meals seem to work for me. Even just a milky coffee will help me if I am starting to feel peckish.
Low carb may be fine for some people, but I think if you are working out, you need enough carbs, it is counter productive to do a big workout then not refuel your body. It just doesn't have to be sugar cake bread and ice cream.
Not that I am an expert, I am still learning. I google a lot of stuff, and a lot of information is conflicting. In the end you have to figure out what is best for you. I am still working on it but I feel things are starting to fall into place. It has taken me a year though!0
