Lose weight OR work out?

starfsh

This might seem like a dumb question; of course we've all heard the "muscle weighs more than fat" I like to see the scale go down in number so I shy away from exercise, but when I enter my MFP "Daily Food Diary" and "pretend" and add exercise, it projects a completely different (lower) number. But I'm afraid that if I start exercising my scale will rise! Will exercise make me lose slower?

valmaebel

Muscle weighs more than fat, this is true. But also, muscle helps to burn fat. So the more muscle you have, the faster that fat will burn away. Not only this, exercise does not just burn the calories during that session. It boosts your metabolism so that you burn more calories faster in the future. So while for the first week or two you might see an increase in weight, over the long run it is much better for you to exercise as well. Not only that, it strengthens your heart, helps lower your blood pressure. It's just some good stuff!

Cassaaaaandra

It won't have that dramatic an effect on the scale, especially if you are overweight. When you cut calories and exercise you loose weight - you're not some body building burley man - it's not naturally in your physique to be all huge and sculpted. However, the more lean muscle mass you have on your body the faster your metabolism will be and the more you will need to eat to keep that muscle. A pound of muscle burns about 50 extra calories a day. 3 lbs of lean muscle mass would be nice for all of us

SugarHi

Muscle does NOT weigh more than fat!!!! 1 pound of fat and 1 pound of muscle... the only different is fat is lighter and bumpier and takes up more room. Muscle is lean and dense and takes up less room. Exercising and eating healthy make a healthy you! If the scale is slow to drop in pounds it may be that you're burning fat and slimming down and replacing it with healthy muscle tissue. That's why it's very important to take your measurements! Google image 1 pound of fat and 1 pound of muscle. they weight the same but the density is different.

SarahJackson

I am right there with you!! Thats how I felt up until recently when i finally powered through with working out and just hoped that it would eventually pay off. I feel slimmer and think I look slimmer but the scale wasn't moving at all! Then I surprisingly just in the last week I dropped 2 pounds. If you keep up with exercising and watch what you eat it will eventually show on the scale you just have to not let it frustrate you. Go by how you feel not what the scale says that is what I am working on right now!! Good Luck!! :happy:

paddlemom

No exercise will not make you lose weight slower. The only time you can really think about muscle truly adding to your weight is if you are a lean body builder actually trying to build muscle and using the scale as one of your forms of measuring that that will happen.

As for the rest of us, the best thing you can do is get exercise, work on building some muscle, burning some calories and getting your body toned and fit. After all,. it's not really the number on the scale that is important, it's the ratio of fat to muscle on your body and I'm assuming the size if your jeans It's not the muscle weighs more than fat...it that for the same amount of weight muscle takes up a lot less room than fat. This means that if you exercise, building that muscle, and watch your calories properly, then you will shrink in size even though the scale might say you weigh the same.

Besides, you will just look and feel better!

amymeenieminymo

Yes muscle weighs more than fat in the sense that it takes a smaller volume of muscle to weigh the same as a large volume of fat. If you're doing HEAVY lifting, you could definitely see a increase in weight, but for the lifting that most people do (ie, not weight lifters) I doubt you'll see much of a difference if at all.

I've lost 50 pounds so far and I honestly cannot say if I ever noticed an increase in weight due to muscle gain. For the most part I am just toning and shaping my muscles, I highly doubt I am gaining all that much. And I completely understand the desire to see the number on the scale go down, no matter how good I feel, it always irks me a bit when the scale doesn't move. But your weight loss journey isn't just about this weeks weigh in, it's about overall success. So if the scale stays the same but you look and feel great, then that in and of itself is a success.

Start off slow, I didn't start doing any weight training until the last couple of months. Up until now I've been doing cardio like walking, biking and now running. Its sculpts muscle as well, but you won't bulk up and gain serious muscle weight just from that. I think the week after I started circuit training (a mix of cardio and weights) the scale either moved up a pound or stayed the same, and I think that is because your muscles tend to retain water when you first start working them, but other than that I have seen NO evidence of having gained weight from exercise. Plus think of the fact that the more you exercise, the more you can eat, yay!

TCASMEY

Do both at the same time! Work out and ramp up your weight loss. Make your heart healthier, improve you mood, burn calories, tone your body, ramp up your metabolism. And I know there are lots of benefits to exercise that I am forgetting because I am tired but you get the idea.l Exercise and weight loss together like Batman and Robin!:happy:

paddlemom

I am right there with you!! Thats how I felt up until recently when i finally powered through with working out and just hoped that it would eventually pay off. I feel slimmer and think I look slimmer but the scale wasn't moving at all! Then I surprisingly just in the last week I dropped 2 pounds. If you keep up with exercising and watch what you eat it will eventually show on the scale you just have to not let it frustrate you. Go by how you feel not what the scale says that is what I am working on right now!! Good Luck!! :happy:

I know! This happens to me and I think this is why so many people thing that all of a sudden they are bulding tons of muscle and putting on a bunch of weight. In actuality there are a lot of other things going on with your body as that muscle is growing - most of them causing you to hold on to fluids and making the scale not your friend. Suddenly things normalize, you let go of that fluid and bang you get that drop in weight that validates all that looking and feeling slimmer and more toned! Then you go and start a more intense work out regimin and the cycle starts all over again!!!

freedMan

Lastyear went about losing weight all wrong. I decided to lift weights and cut calories. I did lose quie a bit of weight, but I did not gain muscle. My muscles felt bigger and became more defined, but that because I was losing the fat covering the muscle and my muscles were bigger because I was workingout. They were filled with blood and water to help repair them after a workout.

Heres the problem. My intention was to have the best of both worlds, lose weight, gain muscle. Its not going to happen...

A calorie deficit will cause you to lose weight, but a colorie deficit will not allow your muscles to get larger. When you lift weights, you need to eat your BMR plus the excercise calories from strength training. Then eat just a little bit more to gain muscle. The key here is protein because that helps repair and grow your muscle. Have you ever been to a gym and met someone thats an amateur bodybuilder. They are incredibly large and very muscular? They eat a lot of calories while they gain muscle and 2 weeks before their competition they "cut", which means they take a calorie deficit to burn the fat theymay have gaine whil building muscle.

I hope this makes sense.

So, if you want to lose weight, you can lift weights and cut calories, but you are not growing more muscle. My advice (from experience),cut your weight down first to within 10lbs of your goal weight, then hit the weights!