Dear people that say large weight gain is muscle..

novalh42

I had not thought about it but I say that too, that muscle weight more than fat. I know what I meant, it jut sounds funny. If you had a bucket of fat and a bucket of the same amount of muscle, the muscle would weigh more because it is denser.

kennethmgreen

Cool tip for people as well.. If you want a water displacement test (I called it water dip) or a DEXA scan, call your local university and many of them will scan you a small charge or a donation. They use it to let students learn how to do the tests! I've done it several times that way!

That is a great idea. Thanks.

_Bob_

I'm cultivating mass, bro!

I love the burrito's in the trash bag episode!!.. Burritos are awesome dude.. I think we need some crack...

rofl, it's always sunny is the best. I fall victim to the it's muscle mass thing. but it has been nice increasing my max while dropping weight. Doing negatives is better than steroids in my opinion

SergeantSunshine_reused

The thing that gets ME is when people don't post the time over which the gain has happened, or their lifestyle before/after starting, or their build, or anything. It bothers me when people say something is impossible only because we all carry, hold, and adjust weight differently.

It's like when people say 10lbs = 7 inch loss. No, not for everyone. Same with this muscle business. If you have a lot of muscle to begin with, if all of that muscle bulks just a little bit, you can easily gain several pounds... However, it's outside of the "averages" and is not the case in most circumstances.

So, say someone posts they gained 8 in 2 weeks. Well, if they were very tall, this is possible. Not LIKELY, but it's possible. I just get tired of it when people make blanket statements, because this is a journey that is very specific to the individual, and though it can be a good jumping off place to start at the averages... I think people should encourage those that are freaking out to get personalized professional assistance, instead of asking for MFPinions.

The human body doesn't work like that. You don't gain tiny bits in different places to add up to huge gains. The human body is a whole system. It breaks down and builds up muscle tissue all over on a daily basis. Net gain or loss depends solely on the body's physical need, and appropriate nutrition. Even if your body did put on an extra pound of muscle in your arms, it probably removed 1 pound of muscle from other parts of the body that wasn't using it. It can't magically create something out of nothing.

Think of a house made from blocks. You can build one of the walls higher by taking blocks off of the other 3 walls, but you still have the same amount of blocks. You can't build up all the walls without going out and getting more blocks. When a person is eating at a caloric deficit, they aren't adding any new blocks to their house, so they are not building muscle, especially in a matter of days.

It's not a question of averages, it's a question of physics and biology.

Exactly. Perfect explanation as always!

8 pounds in 2 weeks. Heh....

d2footballJRC

Cool tip for people as well.. If you want a water displacement test (I called it water dip) or a DEXA scan, call your local university and many of them will scan you a small charge or a donation. They use it to let students learn how to do the tests! I've done it several times that way!

That is a great idea. Thanks.

Usually it's been running me around $40 to get it done which is a steal compared to going to a fitness center that has the equipment.

MoreBean13

So what is it if your BF% goes down and your weight stays the same, but according to calculations your LBM goes up by 5 lbs within about a 5-6 week period? Along with all measurements going down?

LBM gains don't automatically mean muscle gains. LBM is everything in your body that isn't fat. Bone, organs, partially digested food, water, blood, nerves, skin, hair, teeth, ligaments, tendons, those are all part of lean mass. One thing that people often ignore when starting heavy weight training is the bone density effects. Lifting heavy weights requires strong, dense bones for support. Bones are living tissue, and they do get heavier and stronger when you exercise.

I figured it wasn't all muscle, but it was nice to see since the scale wasn't moving....

If the same qualified person is taking the measurements- then you should still be thrilled- the body fat loss is genuine! The extra 5.88 or whatever the # was pounds are of LBM will be a little bit of muscle, water that the muscle is holding during repair, and water weight. Just because you didn't gain as much muscle as you thought doesn't mean you didn't lose the fat!

soontobesam

interesting reads - bump

TourThePast

no no no, the fat turns INTO muscles.... and it WEIGHS more!

Fat and muscle are composed of totally different cell structures, one cannot become the other.
You can also not target an area and only lose fat there.
FYI

No, fat metamorphosises straight into muscle, and if you stop lifting it turns back into fat in like two days flat.

I'm working on seriously building up my pecs, so that when I stop working out I'm going to have ENORMOUS norks. :bigsmile:

MoreBean13

no no no, the fat turns INTO muscles.... and it WEIGHS more!

Fat and muscle are composed of totally different cell structures, one cannot become the other.
You can also not target an area and only lose fat there.
FYI

No, fat metamorphosises straight into muscle, and if you stop lifting it turns back into fat in like two days flat.

I'm working on seriously building up my pecs, so that when I stop working out I'm going to have ENORMOUS norks. :bigsmile:

Finally someone's making some sense! Tig 'ol bitties from chest presses.

TourThePast

no no no, the fat turns INTO muscles.... and it WEIGHS more!

Fat and muscle are composed of totally different cell structures, one cannot become the other.
You can also not target an area and only lose fat there.
FYI

No, fat metamorphosises straight into muscle, and if you stop lifting it turns back into fat in like two days flat.

I'm working on seriously building up my pecs, so that when I stop working out I'm going to have ENORMOUS norks. :bigsmile:

Finally someone's making some sense! Tig 'ol bitties from chest presses.

I may also have to work on my butt so I don't overbalance and fall flat on my face.

CookieCrumble

Thanks very much to the posters who answered my query on determining muscle mass. I know my doctor has a set of calipers, I could start with him! I never thought of the university hospital - we have one quite locally and the water displacement test is probably something they do.

This site is such a wealth of great information... thank you to all those who give up their time to help, really appreciate it. :flowerforyou:

warmachinejt

To those that say that. Please just stop it... just stop.. I see tons of posts on here daily where someone has gained 5-8lbs in a couple days to a week and the answer people give is "You've gained muscle" No... Not even likely if they are on a prohormone/gear(steroids)

This extra weight is usually water.

When you start doing more exercise, your body begins storing more fuel in your muscle cells, where it can be used easily and quickly to fuel your workouts. The process of converting glucose (carbohydrates) into fuel that your muscles actually store and use (glycogen) requires three molecules of water for every molecule of glucose. As your muscles are building up glycogen stores, your body has to retain extra water for this purpose. That's what causes most of the initial weight gain or lack of weight loss. This is a good thing—not something to worry about.

However, despite what the scale says, you are actually losing fat during this time. The extra water retention will stop once your body has adjusted to its new activity level.

Other reasons if they aren't working out included:
•Sodium intake
•Food weight (especially if eating more heavy proteins than usual)
•If they had ate low carb for a few days then carbing up.
•They aren't measuring their food right and estimating wrong.

thanks. It's ridiculous. You might be lucky if you gain 1/2 lb of muscle in a week (lifting heavy as **** and eating in a surplus with tons of protein)

Quasita

The thing that gets ME is when people don't post the time over which the gain has happened, or their lifestyle before/after starting, or their build, or anything. It bothers me when people say something is impossible only because we all carry, hold, and adjust weight differently.

It's like when people say 10lbs = 7 inch loss. No, not for everyone. Same with this muscle business. If you have a lot of muscle to begin with, if all of that muscle bulks just a little bit, you can easily gain several pounds... However, it's outside of the "averages" and is not the case in most circumstances.

So, say someone posts they gained 8 in 2 weeks. Well, if they were very tall, this is possible. Not LIKELY, but it's possible. I just get tired of it when people make blanket statements, because this is a journey that is very specific to the individual, and though it can be a good jumping off place to start at the averages... I think people should encourage those that are freaking out to get personalized professional assistance, instead of asking for MFPinions.

The human body doesn't work like that. You don't gain tiny bits in different places to add up to huge gains. The human body is a whole system. It breaks down and builds up muscle tissue all over on a daily basis. Net gain or loss depends solely on the body's physical need, and appropriate nutrition. Even if your body did put on an extra pound of muscle in your arms, it probably removed 1 pound of muscle from other parts of the body that wasn't using it. It can't magically create something out of nothing.

Think of a house made from blocks. You can build one of the walls higher by taking blocks off of the other 3 walls, but you still have the same amount of blocks. You can't build up all the walls without going out and getting more blocks. When a person is eating at a caloric deficit, they aren't adding any new blocks to their house, so they are not building muscle, especially in a matter of days.

It's not a question of averages, it's a question of physics and biology.

Exactly. Perfect explanation as always!

8 pounds in 2 weeks. Heh....

As far as I'm concerned, you still have not addressed my point, nor proven me wrong. You cannot prove 100% that there never was a person in existence that did this. I never said that it was common. In fact, I said it was unlikely. I just admitted that I could believe it was possible.

I know a woman that has 16 extra bones in her body. I bet those extra bones make her weigh more. If she didn't know that, she could be fighting the pounds from those bones for years thinking it was stubborn fat deposits.

Just stop demeaning people and insulting people that have a differing understanding, way of wording things, etc. It really is best help, for us to encourage the confused to get personalized assistance, and not defer to the people on here. Face it, we all have some sort of lack of education and ability. At least a personalized source of information could be assessing the actual situation, instead of just the details the person chose to share.

kimi131

Thanks. This helps me feel a little better. I had a big gain after lots of working out and it really bummed me out. So much so that I've backed off the big workouts a little.

tigersword

The thing that gets ME is when people don't post the time over which the gain has happened, or their lifestyle before/after starting, or their build, or anything. It bothers me when people say something is impossible only because we all carry, hold, and adjust weight differently.

It's like when people say 10lbs = 7 inch loss. No, not for everyone. Same with this muscle business. If you have a lot of muscle to begin with, if all of that muscle bulks just a little bit, you can easily gain several pounds... However, it's outside of the "averages" and is not the case in most circumstances.

So, say someone posts they gained 8 in 2 weeks. Well, if they were very tall, this is possible. Not LIKELY, but it's possible. I just get tired of it when people make blanket statements, because this is a journey that is very specific to the individual, and though it can be a good jumping off place to start at the averages... I think people should encourage those that are freaking out to get personalized professional assistance, instead of asking for MFPinions.

The human body doesn't work like that. You don't gain tiny bits in different places to add up to huge gains. The human body is a whole system. It breaks down and builds up muscle tissue all over on a daily basis. Net gain or loss depends solely on the body's physical need, and appropriate nutrition. Even if your body did put on an extra pound of muscle in your arms, it probably removed 1 pound of muscle from other parts of the body that wasn't using it. It can't magically create something out of nothing.

Think of a house made from blocks. You can build one of the walls higher by taking blocks off of the other 3 walls, but you still have the same amount of blocks. You can't build up all the walls without going out and getting more blocks. When a person is eating at a caloric deficit, they aren't adding any new blocks to their house, so they are not building muscle, especially in a matter of days.

It's not a question of averages, it's a question of physics and biology.

Exactly. Perfect explanation as always!

8 pounds in 2 weeks. Heh....

As far as I'm concerned, you still have not addressed my point, nor proven me wrong. You cannot prove 100% that there never was a person in existence that did this. I never said that it was common. In fact, I said it was unlikely. I just admitted that I could believe it was possible.

I know a woman that has 16 extra bones in her body. I bet those extra bones make her weigh more. If she didn't know that, she could be fighting the pounds from those bones for years thinking it was stubborn fat deposits.

Just stop demeaning people and insulting people that have a differing understanding, way of wording things, etc. It really is best help, for us to encourage the confused to get personalized assistance, and not defer to the people on here. Face it, we all have some sort of lack of education and ability. At least a personalized source of information could be assessing the actual situation, instead of just the details the person chose to share.

You can believe anything you want, I'll believe the laws of science. You CANNOT add new tissue to your body while eating less calories than your body needs to maintain it's current size. It is physically and biologically impossible. Thermodynamics, you can't create something out of nothing.

beckylawrence70

Agreed!

Still_Fluffy

I agree.

trentonfraley

Good point, I agree.

fromfattofine

I totally agree. My scale has went up 5lbs since Monday and I know it's water not muscle.

thepanttherlady

no no no, the fat turns INTO muscles.... and it WEIGHS more!

no no no, the white stuff in your pee is really your body getting rid of the fat. :bigsmile: