How long before I lose weight instead of build muscle?

Elizabeth_C34

You won't start building muscle until you start eating a surplus and progressive lifting.

Agreed. You aren't building muscle, you are retaining water.

From my personal experience, I don't agree. I have been lifting heavy for only 6 weeks and I can see a marked difference in my shoulders, chest, and especially my legs. There is definitely muscle there where there wasn't before. I have only lost 2 lbs in that time but have gone done a pants size. This at eating 1500-1800 calories a day.

Unless you got a body scan done that tells you that you gained muscle, then you have no way of knowing. Conditioned muscle is more volumous than unconditioned muscle (it appears bigger) but there is likely no new mass at least no significant mass. Combine that with loss of fat and water retention, and you've got your answer.

cloud2011

I didn't start losing until I stopped overexercising. I build muscle quite easily, so my focus had to be the quality of my food (more whole foods, fewer processed) and it was just really tweaking what I was eating and trying new recipes.

When I exercise a lot (4-5 days a week for over an hour, including 1/2 strength 3x week), I feel hungrier. Then, if something forced me to stop exercising even temporarily (injury, illness) I would gain again, because I still had a healthy appetite.

It's a balance of trying to figure out the right proportion of exercise to calorie reduction. Trainer Bob Greene says not to do both at once, at least in the beginning. I know some people will disagree. I walk briskly and take a lot of stairs, but that's about it.

Barribomb

how can one most accurately figure out their BMR?

Annafly3

bump

Hopelessbird

I don't know about this. I am a short asian female, I know it takes me a long time to gain 1lb of muscle (more than a month). I remember it took me six months to go from 10lb single arm bicep curls to 25lb.

laurenmeyerherr

I don't think I'm over-exercising. Most of what I do is cardio and not weight training. I work out with a personal trainer 1-2 times per week and I shoot for working out 5-6 days per week for no more than 40-45 min. I generally do elliptical, treadmill, swimming, walking or bike riding as exercise though I can't wait for kayak season to start around here! I've been within 100 calories of the net 1200 (below) but it seems like a ton more food than I've ever eaten before and I swear it's too much for me most days. I don't have a problem with being hungry either so not worried I can't sustain whatever that magic calorie number ends up being. I have been at this for 12 days now and no cheating - and I've only netted a loss of a single pound. There are positives - I have more energy, I am more aware of my body shape overall if you get what I mean, I see some small changes starting to happen in larger muscle groups - but this is highly discouraging that the scale doesn't reflect any real change. I am a match to give my husband a kidney - but they won't allow me to do so until I drop at least 20 pounds. I am highly motivated to make this happen not only for him but how cool will it be to go down some pant sizes?

jacksonpt

I don't know about this. I am a short asian female, I know it takes me a long time to gain 1lb of muscle (more than a month). I remember it took me six months to go from 10lb single arm bicep curls to 25lb.

Don't confuse building muscles (growing new tissue) with strengthening existing muscle.

Elizabeth_C34

I don't know about this. I am a short asian female, I know it takes me a long time to gain 1lb of muscle (more than a month). I remember it took me six months to go from 10lb single arm bicep curls to 25lb.

You shouldn't confuse strength gains with muscle gains. My max legpress has gone from 95 to 210 and I LOST 5 lbs of muscle. Conditioning muscle is not the same as adding new mass.

P.S. 25 lb bicep curl is AWESOME. I'm only at 15

dawnemjh

So how do you know if you are gaining/building muscle or gaining weight from over-eating/water retention. If you see the numbers go up, and you are not going down in size???
Does it matter what macros are if you are eating at surplus to gain leanu muscle mass?

Elizabeth_C34

So how do you know if you are gaining/building muscle or gaining weight from over-eating/water retention. If you see the numbers go up, and you are not going down in size???
Does it matter what macros are if you are eating at surplus to gain leanu muscle mass?

You need to go get a body scan done. You can call around to your local gyms and see if they know where you can get a DEXA scan. I have mine done every 6 months at a rehab center. It's about $75-$85 to get one done, but it'll tell you exactly what your body composition is (body fat, lean mass, muscle, water, all of it). It's good to know.

Othwerise, you can safely assume that unless you are lifting heavy and never done it before and are morbidly obese, that you're not putting copious pounds of muscle on, but that those muscles are simply being conditioned and retaining water.

My suggestion is to forget the scale period and focus on your fitness goals and sticking to a reasonable calorie restriction (i.e. NOT below 1300 NET calories per day if you're working out really hard). Let the weight come off as a side effect. The scale will drive you insane if you're not careful especially women since we retain more water throughout the month than men do. My weight fluctuates a good 6-8 lbs throughout the day and 8-10 throughout the month. It's the long term trend that matters more.