What is going on with me?!?!? HELP!!!

samseed101

MUSCLE DOES NOT WEIGH MORE THAN FAT ! A pound is a pound ! A pound of fat takes up more room than a pound of muscle. Common misconception !

Yes, muscle does indeed weigh more than fat. In fact, you even contradicted yourself in your own post! You said that a pound of fat takes up more room than a pound of muscle. Do you know why? That is because muscle is more dense than fat and therefore needs LESS room to reach an equal weight.

Yes, a pound is a pound, but we're talking about density here. let me put it another way. A pound of feathers will weigh the same as a pound of rocks (obviously.) However, the pound of rocks will take up FAR less room than a pound of feathers. That is because rocks weigh more than feathers.

erickirb

Like others said it apears you are not eating enough. You should have no less than 1200 Net calories. So if you eat 1400 and burn another 400, your are only at 1000 (1400-400) Net calories and therefore may be in starvation mode. You may want to start tracking on MFP your food and exercise and adjust till you find the right balance.

abredbenner

Read this link (and many others on here) about eating back exercise calories.

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/6556-the-answers-to-the-questions?page=1

How do you know your meals are under 400 calories if you are not counting calories? Are they prepackaged meals? Maybe you are taking in a lot of salt from those meals and retaining water.

I am about the same BMI as you, just under 25. I am on about 1200 calories a day to lose 1.5 pounds/week. I exercise about 6 days a week (walking, running, biking, swimming, strength training or combo). I usually don't eat back all of my exercise calories (sometimes 800/day) but I try to eat back most of them.

I would strongly suggest filling out your goals and then track your calories and exercise. MFP will tell you how many calories you should have/day.

samseed101

I'm confused because the personal trainer always said that a pound is a pound.

Kind of like, if you have a pound of butter and a pound of sugar..it's still a pound.

So how exactly does muscle weigh *more* than fat?

If anyone can explain that, I'd love to know!! lol

I just explained it above. You are thinking of it the wrong way. Yes, a pound is a pound. But think of the density. Muscle is much more dense than fat. Think of this as another example:

Lets say you are 200 lbs. Now lets say that through exercise, you manage to burn 20lbs of pure fat, and you also manage to gain 20 lbs of pure muscle. Of course, that's not going to happen quite that way, but let's just use that for arguments sake.

Now lets say that you step ion a scale. You will be greatly disappointed to learn that you are still 200lbd after all that work! But wait a second, if you are still 200 lbs, why are your clothes fitting more loosely than before? Your waist size, hip size, etc all shrunk, yet your weight is the same? How is that possible?

That is because muscle is more dense. Given a certain volume, muscle will weight more than fat. So you could actually be a few sizes smaller and in much better shape yet when you step on the same it says the same exact thing.

parvati

First of all quit weighing yourself every day...try once a week.
You could be stressing yourself out which will prevent you from losing weight.
Second, take your measurements....some weeks i am down more in weight....some down more in inches....either way i feel good about a loss.
I think you probably need to up your calorie intake or make an adjustment to the types of foods you are eating.
Eat tons of fibre & tons of protein...no simple carbs at all & keep your complex carbs to a minimum, but still eat them. You also need good fats....almonds, avacado, ect..... eating like that WILL make you lose weight.
Watch your salt intake & drink plenty of water.
Also how long have you been doing this....your body still could be adjusting to everything.....also for women certain times of the month can hold onto several pounds of water.....which you will lose soon.
This will pass....relax a bit, it will all be good!!

chgudnitz

But even if I'm not eating enough, which I think I'm close to it . . . shouldn't I be losign weight regardless??? Or if I didn't lose weight, shouldn't it just stay the same and hit the wall so to say? Why would I GAIN weight??? *cry *cry

you would gain weight because your body will start storing the food you are eating instead of just using it for fuel. then your metabolism slows down in order to make what foods it gets last.

Well again not realllllly necessarily true. If you are putting in less than you are burning in a day you will still lose weight, just at a slower and slower pace.

samseed101

I'm confused because the personal trainer always said that a pound is a pound.

Kind of like, if you have a pound of butter and a pound of sugar..it's still a pound.

So how exactly does muscle weigh *more* than fat?

If anyone can explain that, I'd love to know!! lol

Just to add (although i already mentioned this above.)

We also all know that a pound of feathers is the same exact weight as a pound of lead. But isn't it safe to say that lead weighs more than feathers?

chgudnitz

I am 25 years old, 5'8" and weigh 164lb.
I haven't been losing since last week Wednesday, I dont' expect to lose every week but I certainly do NOT expect to gain 3 pounds. I weigh myself religiously every morning wearing the same thing (nothing) at the same time. How could I gain 3lbs in a week with all that I"m doing. And yes. . . I know what hard cardio is . . . I'm NOT one of these people that take 20 minutes to walk 1 mile and think they worked out hard. No offense intended to anyone with that but I push myself HARD!!

I was simply looking for clarity, no offense intended. Don't freak out over 1 week with a weight gain on the scale. Did you have salt yesterday or the day before? Maybe not go to the bathroom? If there were a long term pattern of weight gain then you should look at changing something, but for a blip on the radar, it's really not that bad. Add to it that you're a woman and you all have those tricky little bodies that do weird things all the time, who knows why you may be retaining water for a certain reason.

Don't worry about it.

CasperO

Semantics are confusing us here, it comes up a lot.

1 pound equals 1 pound.
1 pound of muscle weighs 1 pound - hence the name.
1 pound of fat weigh one pound, again, hence the name.

Density is another issue, and yes, fat is slightly less dense than lean muscle. But both kinds of tissue are mostly water and the diff is pretty subtle. This is not a case of "1 pound of muscle fills a bean can - 1 pound of fat fills a breadbox".
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I strongly doubt that she's gained muscle while eating 1200 cals a day and exercising like a demon. And even if she is,,, Arnold S on full 'roids never gained 3 pounds in a week. It just doesn't work.

To gain muscle mass your body must have excess material to make the muscle out of, most protein. If you're in a 1500 calorie a day deficit then you don't have the excess material (and your size, with your exercise routine, and not eating your exercise calories - I'm sure you're in at least that much deficit).

SO - you're probably in starv mode. Your abused body has grabbed 3 pints of water in self defense. I don't blame it, I would too.

So,,, what'cha gonna do?

CasperO

I'm confused because the personal trainer always said that a pound is a pound.

Kind of like, if you have a pound of butter and a pound of sugar..it's still a pound.

So how exactly does muscle weigh *more* than fat?

If anyone can explain that, I'd love to know!! lol

Just to add (although i already mentioned this above.)

We also all know that a pound of feathers is the same exact weight as a pound of lead. But isn't it safe to say that lead weighs more than feathers?

No, it is safe to say lead is more dense than feathers. It would be safe to say that 1 cubic inch of lead weighs more than 1 cubic inch of feathers. But "weighs more"? - no,,, a pound is a pound.

lisa811

Do yourself a favor: Take the time to count your calories. This web site makes it easy. Doing it in your head just doesn't work. After a couple of weeks, if you're still gaining (which I predict you won't be if you follow the guidelines on this site), you can look back and see where you possibly went wrong. Think of yourself as a computer. If things aren't working quite right, it helps to have solid data to review in order to determine what's wrong.

Jennfit

If you think you are hitting a wall, try changing up your workouts By lifting more at least 4 days a week for a while in a circuit style training alternating between upper and lower body exercises, so you can maximize your caloric burn. Try HIIT - high intensity interval training for your cardio. Make sure you are eating your exercise calories. Eat all day long every 2-3 hours, measure your food. And take your measurements don't relay on the scale and BMI, get your body fat tested.

PJilly

Do yourself a favor: Take the time to count your calories. This web site makes it easy. Doing it in your head just doesn't work. After a couple of weeks, if you're still gaining (which I predict you won't be if you follow the guidelines on this site), you can look back and see where you possibly went wrong. Think of yourself as a computer. If things aren't working quite right, it helps to have solid data to review in order to determine what's wrong.

I agree wholeheartedly. It's hard to know which adjustments to make if you don't know exactly what you're adjusting. You may be eating too little, but what if you're eating too much? It doesn't sound like you are, but you're better off knowing than guessing. If what you were doing was working, I'd say keep doing what you're doing. But it isn't.

PJilly

P.S. If you had one coffee can full of fat and another full of muscle, the one with muscle would, indeed, weigh more.

samseed101

Semantics are confusing us here, it comes up a lot.

1 pound equals 1 pound.
1 pound of muscle weighs 1 pound - hence the name.
1 pound of fat weigh one pound, again, hence the name.

Density is another issue, and yes, fat is slightly less dense than lean muscle. But both kinds of tissue are mostly water and the diff is pretty subtle. This is not a case of "1 pound of muscle fills a bean can - 1 pound of fat fills a breadbox".
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I strongly doubt that she's gained muscle while eating 1200 cals a day and exercising like a demon. And even if she is,,, Arnold S on full 'roids never gained 3 pounds in a week. It just doesn't work.

To gain muscle mass your body must have excess material to make the muscle out of, most protein. If you're in a 1500 calorie a day deficit then you don't have the excess material (and your size, with your exercise routine, and not eating your exercise calories - I'm sure you're in at least that much deficit).

SO - you're probably in starv mode. Your abused body has grabbed 3 pints of water in self defense. I don't blame it, I would too.

So,,, what'cha gonna do?

Muscle has a density of 1.1 g/cc compared to fat, which has a density of 0.9007 g/cc. So essentially a pound of fat will take up roughly 20% more space than a pound of muscle.

Getting back to the topic, Yes I agree that there's no way that someone would gain anywhere near that much muscle mass, especially when they are barely eating. Put in ideal situations with a perfect diet and exercise routine, you may see 2lbs per month of lean muscle mass.

stacyoct19

I just want to clarify that everyone's bodies are different. And although not everyone will start gaining weight right away, it is very possible to gain weight if you starve your body. It was a suggestion.

Women's weight can go up and down. I just had posted this morning about being frustrated because this morning I weighed and it was nearly 5 lbs more than two days ago. I thought 1 or 2 lbs was normal, but found out that it's very possible to go up even 6 lbs. They made it very clear that just like it would be nearly impossible to gain muscle that quickly, it's nearly impossible to gain fat that quickly. Don't panic over this one week. I've had to tell myself that all day today!

And I agree, use this website for all it's worth! Take time to count your actual calories for a while. Log your exercise. You can even put in your weight, your activity level, how much you want to lose in a week and it will help you figure out the amounts you should consume. When you exercise, log it. It gives you extra calories because you need to eat those to keep fueling your body for that work. That's what eating your exercise calories means.

Don't fret. Don't stress. If you need to, seek medical advise if you're really thinking there's something wrong with you.

Good-Luck!

chgudnitz

No, it is safe to say lead is more dense than feathers. It would be safe to say that 1 cubic inch of lead weighs more than 1 cubic inch of feathers. But "weighs more"? - no,,, a pound is a pound.

Where have you been?

GinaB30

I'm confused because the personal trainer always said that a pound is a pound.

Kind of like, if you have a pound of butter and a pound of sugar..it's still a pound.

So how exactly does muscle weigh *more* than fat?

If anyone can explain that, I'd love to know!! lol

I just explained it above. You are thinking of it the wrong way. Yes, a pound is a pound. But think of the density. Muscle is much more dense than fat. Think of this as another example:

Lets say you are 200 lbs. Now lets say that through exercise, you manage to burn 20lbs of pure fat, and you also manage to gain 20 lbs of pure muscle. Of course, that's not going to happen quite that way, but let's just use that for arguments sake.

Now lets say that you step ion a scale. You will be greatly disappointed to learn that you are still 200lbd after all that work! But wait a second, if you are still 200 lbs, why are your clothes fitting more loosely than before? Your waist size, hip size, etc all shrunk, yet your weight is the same? How is that possible?

That is because muscle is more dense. Given a certain volume, muscle will weight more than fat. So you could actually be a few sizes smaller and in much better shape yet when you step on the same it says the same exact thing.

LOL Thank you! I just had that same conversation with my mom LOL

GinaB30

I'm confused because the personal trainer always said that a pound is a pound.

Kind of like, if you have a pound of butter and a pound of sugar..it's still a pound.

So how exactly does muscle weigh *more* than fat?

If anyone can explain that, I'd love to know!! lol

Just to add (although i already mentioned this above.)

We also all know that a pound of feathers is the same exact weight as a pound of lead. But isn't it safe to say that lead weighs more than feathers?

No, it is safe to say lead is more dense than feathers. It would be safe to say that 1 cubic inch of lead weighs more than 1 cubic inch of feathers. But "weighs more"? - no,,, a pound is a pound.

That's what I was saying...lol

Kittany

Muscle doesn't weight more than fat, sadly. They weigh the exact same, they're just different volumes. Muscle is leaner, smaller. But the same weight.

http://www.onemorebite-weightloss.com/muscle-to-fat.html


*Edit* Btw, that is a total dream killer. I used to always say that muscle weighed more than fat, and it was my weigh in excuse.

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It sounds to me like you need to consume more calories, sometimes your body can react negatively to little calories and too much work. I would research some possibilities.