Muscles looking like fat?

xcgirl078

So, I have been building a lot of muscle lately. I can feel it, and I am in great shape fitness-wise: I can run for well over an hour at a good pace, do lots of reps with weights and lots of reps with leg strength training, etc. I'm so excited about this, but it has really only made my legs look fat and made it so that I have trouble fitting in my jeans. I have been gaining weight, which I know is typical, but I don't think I'm overweight from it-- 5'4" and 135 pounds now.

Is this okay? Is anyone else having this problem? I want my muscles to look like muscles, not like fat!!

wellbert

They are swollen with water.

VMarkV

It's just from increasing bodyfat
Training wise, if you don't want your legs to grow in size, don't do hypertrophy rep ranges (8-12). Stick to 5 or less reps/set and lower bodyfat/calorie deficit of course if you want smaller yet muscular legs

I had the same issue in the past with jeans fitting, not due to my waist but because my thighs were too massive compared to my waist size

mfpcopine

Possibilities:

1) You may still have a high body fat percentage and need to lower it through continued weight loss.

2) You may be at a reasonable or low body fat percentage but have a predisposition to carry more fat in your legs. If you develop muscle in your legs, you can end up looking bigger.


Ballet dancers, who are selected for their naturally very lean builds, don't use direct resistance weight on their lower bodies because they don't want their legs to get bigger.

If you're concerned about this and don't need a huge amount of strength in your legs, I would do body weight exercises, or at least, as the person above said, avoid training to create hypertrophy.

aproc

Muscles don't look like fat. It's the fat on top of the muscles your seeing. Keep on building muscle and you'll just have to cut the bodyfat later.

xcgirl078

It's just from increasing bodyfat
Training wise, if you don't want your legs to grow in size, don't do hypertrophy rep ranges (8-12). Stick to 5 or less reps/set and lower bodyfat/calorie deficit of course if you want smaller yet muscular legs

I had the same issue in the past with jeans fitting, not due to my waist but because my thighs were too massive compared to my waist size

exactly!! in my waist my jeans are too big, but in my thighs they are too small!