I just don't understand.

By chance is it fat turning to muscle? Muscle weighs more.

No chance. It is very difficult to gain muscle for women, especially on a calorie deficit.

No chance? Yes, Chance. It's happens all the time. Especially if you're weight lifting. Your muscles tone up, you add muscle and lose fat. The fat you lose, weighs less than the muscle you gained. It's not really turning into muscle, you're just trading it out. You will really notice it if you were athletic growing up. Muscle memory, it doesn't just tone when you start working out again, it builds. Usually its just a constant loss if you've never really built up any muscle to begin with.

You are wrong. Sorry.

Give her some credit, strength training builds muscle. Muscle helps the body become more efficient at burning calories, especially while repairing muscles after training. In this case, one may not lose any substantial weight but still see some body composition changes and loss of inches.

That said, if OP is on a calorie deficit already from diet and doing cardio for burn, it's damn near impossible for muscles to successfully grow. Now that the diary is open, you don't seem to be doing any real muscle work so I doubt this is why. I'd say try to incorporate vegetables, and maybe increase your protein by a few grams. Finally, are you drinking enough water? By enough, I don't mean 8 glasses a day. Sweating means you need even more water than if you were not doing any cardio.

Keep making sure your calories are within 100 (above or below) your goal, you drink lots of water, and you incorporate cardio and you will start to see results. However, I do suggest you look into adding some strength training to your workout routine.

Well personally, my weight has turned to muscle, but of course I do see it.

Well personally, my weight has turned to muscle, but of course I do see it.

When you reduce body fat, the muscles underneath are more visible. Fat does not turn into muscle and gaining muscle on a calorie deficit is nearly impossible.

I'm glad you are seeing success, though. Well done!

I think this thread was highjacked.....

What do you mean gain weight? How much have you gained over what period of time?

muscle isnt created out of thin air. you have to a) be eating a surplus of calories and b) be doing the correct type of workouts.

i'm one of those women who gain muscle very easily. i've always known it and it's always been apparent because i've always been stronger and faster than most other women of similar weights and heights even before i started exercising and training. but even though i'm an easy gainer, i didnt build muscle over the past 8 months of my weight loss even though i was actively doing strength training (for instance i increased my 1 RM deadlift from 135 to 235, bb row has increased from 55 to 125) . not only did i not build muscle, i LOST muscle (10% of my weight loss is from muscle) because i have been eating at a calorie deficit.

not saying it's impossible, but i do think it's interesting that all these women who have never been easy muscle gainers suddenly think they are when they start losing weight and start being able to feel or see muscles under their fat. it's like why are these awesome muscle building genes just now kicking in?

You're really lucky! But I wouldn't say it's a matter of whether or not one is an "easy gainer". I know I noticed that I have a really easy time putting muscle mass on in my legs because I played soccer for about 15 years and they were really muscular when I was younger.
3 years without soccer and they deteriorated a lot, not to mention that I generally gained about 30 lbs. But as I started strength training these past few months, I've actually noticed an inch INCREASE in the size of my thighs! I found my pants felt tighter, so I measured. It's less than 2" so quite insignificant, but this was while my waist and chest measurements decreased. I think individual muscle memory does play a bit of a role in how we build muscle. It's easier to bring back what you had than to build where you never did.

Aside from all of that, your 100% right in that you cannot build muscle if you are eating a deficit and not doing strength exercises. Low calories and cardio will cause overall weight loss, muscle and fat.

Edit: Sidebar-you have a wicked deadlift! :drinker:

You know who else just don't understand??


Parents.

I'm with you! Idk what I'm doing wrong Everyone says 20% below TDEE... but that means I'd eat 2000 cals a day. I have a hard time convincing myself I can eat that much and still lose weight!

Holy crap.

Now that I feel like I'm doing everything wrong... I think I'm going to go to the grocery store...

I've only been on this for about 2 weeks now and I still have a lot of adjusting to do. I've been adding in more wheat, tuna, fruits and veggies, while weening out the other things.

I've been going by whats on my phone, (which doesn't show me protien, sugar, sodium, etc) because that's all I have access to during the day.

it is tough going from crap to healthy , you have to let your body adjust it is hard to change what you eat!!! i know !!! fruit has to replace the craving for sweets, takes about a week, I suggest water with lemon and avoid all artificial sweeteners also try shocking the body with about three days of being a vegetarian, that will help cleanse the body just my two cents

#1: How long have you been exercising regularly & counting calories? It typically took me about 2 weeks of Insanity & stringent eating habits to start showing results. If you lose anything drastic before that, it is usually water weight and not permanent.

#2: If you undereat, you WILL NOT GAIN WEIGHT. Your body does NOT go into "starvation mode" and start storing your calories as fat. That is the most ridiculous thing in the world. When you eat excessive calories that your body does not burn through exercise or just from resting (yes, your body burns calories even while you sleep), your body will store them as FAT. When you eat a large deficit of calories and your body needs the fuel to keep going, IT WILL USE THE FAT ON YOUR BODY. That is what your fat is there for. As long as you have an ample amount of fat, YOUR BODY WILL NOT SHUT DOWN from a lack of calories. You DO, however, need to make sure you eat enough nutrients (such as amino acids, vitamins, etc) to keep your body from shutting down. People also say that your body will start breaking down muscle before fat; that is also B*LLSH*T. A gram of fat has 9 calories and a gram of protein has 4. It is also much more taxing on your body to break down muscle than fat. From the entropy law in thermodynamics, your body will go towards the way of least resistance & most outcome. Your body will choose to break down something with more energy per gram other one that outputs less. Source: http://thefoodwarrior.com/healthy-tips/when-you-fast-does-your-body-burn-fat-or-muscle/

#3: I'm looking at your food diary, and I would suggest going more towards the simplest of foods. Ex. Less ingredients, the better. Sweet potatoes, nonfat milk, eggs, canola oil spray instead of olive oil, simple chicken breast, etc. When you eat foods that are lumping a lot of different ingredients into one (like a tuna sandwich), oftentimes you end up undercounting and overeating. Eat smaller portions, and you also have have have to cut out processed foods (like Oreos). Even if you eat just 4 of them, a lot of times the processed sugar that you eat will make you crave more junk, and it becomes and unending cycle.

#4: You can do it!!! DON'T starve yourself; but don't be afraid to undereat if you think your body can handle it. You know your body the most. Being dizzy/nauseous is definitely a very very bad sign. Drink lots of water.

Hope this helps. I'm sure I'll get a lot of hate for my point #2, but it is honestly the truth. The source I referred to even talks about a monitored, SUPERVISED fast about a guy that fasted for 1 year and 3 weeks and he went from 450 lb to 250 or something like that. He just ate vitamins, drank water, and worked out for the entire time. He was SUPERVISED, so don't attempt to do this on your own.