Losing inches, gaining weight

pamwhite712
pamwhite712 Posts: 193 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
The good news is I'm slowly losing inches around my abdomen (which is where I carry most of my excess weight). The bad news is I've gained about 2 pounds in the last two weeks.

I'm only doing cardio and Pilates at this time. I'm going to check out a gym either today or tomorrow. I didn't want to start at a gym until I knew I was committed to getting in shape and staying that way. I do an hour's worth of cardio almost every day, and according to my HRM burn around 400 calories. I guess my question is, am I building muscle in my legs? My husband says the cellulite on the back of my thighs is almost gone. So I looked, and he was right.

I'm practically obsessive about recording what I eat, and measuring it. Saturday was the only day that I didn't finish recording, and even then I didn't go over by much, certainly not enough to gain two pounds.

So if you can tell me that the scale going up is normal, I'd feel a lot better.
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Replies

  • treehopper1987
    treehopper1987 Posts: 505 Member
    Bumping, because I'd like to see an answer to this as well.
  • khall86790
    khall86790 Posts: 1,100 Member
    Completely normal.
    Muscle weighs more than fat. Use inches to track your progress, not the scales :)
  • SquidgySquidge
    SquidgySquidge Posts: 239 Member
    Muscle weighs more than fat.

    No, a pound of fat weighs the same as a pound of muscle.
    Same as a pound of feathers weighs the same as a pound of concrete - a pound :tongue:

    However I agree that you're probably seeing a rise in weight as you are building muscle in your legs.
    Or maybe you are close to time of the month?

    If you are seeing your belly shrink, I wouldn't worry at all, you are obviously doing something right so keep it up!
  • GaryRussell123456
    GaryRussell123456 Posts: 87 Member
    Muscle weighs more than fat.

    No, a pound of fat weighs the same as a pound of muscle.
    Same as a pound of feathers weighs the same as a pound of concrete - a pound :tongue:

    However I agree that you're probably seeing a rise in weight as you are building muscle in your legs.
    Or maybe you are close to time of the month?

    If you are seeing your belly shrink, I wouldn't worry at all, you are obviously doing something right so keep it up!
    The statement "muscle weighs more than fat" is not incorrect. You can make it sound wrong by saying "a pound of fat weighs the same as a pound of muscle", but you can also interpret it as "a cubic inch of muscle weighs more than a cubic inch of fat". It's just how you interpret it. Basically stop being pedantic. Everyone knows what was meant!
  • jonnythan
    jonnythan Posts: 10,161 Member
    2 pounds is well within the noise level of the human body when it comes to mass. You might well be losing body mass, but it just doesn't show on the scale yet.
  • jonnythan
    jonnythan Posts: 10,161 Member
    Muscle weighs more than fat.

    No, a pound of fat weighs the same as a pound of muscle.
    Same as a pound of feathers weighs the same as a pound of concrete - a pound :tongue:

    However I agree that you're probably seeing a rise in weight as you are building muscle in your legs.
    Or maybe you are close to time of the month?

    If you are seeing your belly shrink, I wouldn't worry at all, you are obviously doing something right so keep it up!
    The statement "muscle weighs more than fat" is not incorrect. You can make it sound wrong by saying "a pound of fat weighs the same as a pound of muscle", but you can also interpret it as "a cubic inch of muscle weighs more than a cubic inch of fat". It's just how you interpret it. Basically stop being pedantic. Everyone knows what was meant!

    This is not an argument you can win. Muscle is more dense than fat, but muscle does not weigh more than fat - it weighs more than fat per unit volume. These are not the same thing.
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
    Jesus people...

    First...
    Yes, we get it. 1lb of fat weighs the same as 1lb of muscle. The implication is volume. 1 cubic foot of muscle does in fact weigh more than 1 cubic foot of fat. Alternatively, 1lb of muscle takes up less volume/space than 1lb of fat. Doesn't everyone know this? Isn't the volume part inplied? Do we really need to spell this out every damn post? Good lord...

    Second...
    An increase in muscle isn't why she is seeing a 2lb gain. God. Could she possibly be gaining muscle? It's possible, but not likely. Giving her the benefit of the doubt, let's say she is. She sure as hell isn't gaining 1lb/week.

    Scale weight is incredibly inconsistent and influenced by a number of different factors. Stop basing your progress on scale weight, ESPECIALLY when you are seeing progress in your measurements.
  • jonnythan
    jonnythan Posts: 10,161 Member
    Isn't the volume part inplied? Do we really need to spell this out every damn post? Good lord...

    No, I don't think it's implied.

    It's not like it's so much easier to say "muscle weighs more than fat" than it is to say "muscle is more dense than fat." One is correct and the other doesn't make any sense.
  • LaurnWhit
    LaurnWhit Posts: 261 Member
    Bumping to read later!
  • zampi03
    zampi03 Posts: 8 Member
    If you've lost .5 lbs of fat and gained 1 lbs of muscle, then you will see a rise on the scales of .5 lb.
  • hookilau
    hookilau Posts: 3,134 Member
    2 pounds is well within the noise level of the human body when it comes to mass.

    I'm gonna keep telling myself this until I believe it!:wink:
  • Ge0rgiana
    Ge0rgiana Posts: 1,649 Member
    The scale going up is NORMAL. Exercise can cause you to retain some water (you are NOT putting on muscle, I'm sorry to tell you), but that's ok, because...

    LOSING INCHES = YOU WON! :flowerforyou:
  • seanezekiel
    seanezekiel Posts: 228 Member
    I can't believe some people are childish enough to try to use the argument "one pound is one pound" everyone knows what he meant and he is correct. This is a support forum. Don't turn it in to yet another haven for the low end of the internet.

    Muscle is 70% water and, as a result, is a relatively heavy tissue—much heavier than fat. On the flip side, fat takes up much more space than muscle, actually three times as much. So when you lose a little fat and replace it with a little muscle, the scale will probably say you’ve gained weight because muscle weighs more than fat. But as you have seen your size will decrease because the muscle takes up less space.
  • jonnythan
    jonnythan Posts: 10,161 Member
    So when you lose a little fat and replace it with a little muscle, the scale will probably say you’ve gained weight because muscle weighs more than fat. But as you have seen your size will decrease because the muscle takes up less space.

    See, this is the problem with saying "muscle weighs more than fat." This part of the post is nonsensical. It implies that if you lose fat and replace it with an equivalent volume of muscle you will have gained weight. Well.. yeah, but that's not something that happens. The volume of fat you lose is completely unrelated to the volume of muscle you build or don't build.

    If you lose a little fat and gain a little muscle, your actual mass could go up, down, or unchanged. Mass is mass; volume is a different concept altogether. Treating these concepts as interchangeable leads to nonsensical statements like "if you lose fat and replace it with muscle you will be heavier."
  • ngyoung
    ngyoung Posts: 311 Member
    Pretty sure you're just strengthening up the muscles that you are using with your increased activity. Working your core in your torso has significant effects to how your abdomen looks in a resting position. When it is strong it is like a girdle, someone that has never gained any weight can look bigger as they age if they don't keep their core strengthened because the muscles don't hold everything nice and tight.
  • ApexLeader
    ApexLeader Posts: 580 Member
    Isn't the volume part inplied? Do we really need to spell this out every damn post? Good lord...

    No, I don't think it's implied.

    It's not like it's so much easier to say "muscle weighs more than fat" than it is to say "muscle is more dense than fat." One is correct and the other doesn't make any sense.

    i always felt like it was implied.
  • jonnythan
    jonnythan Posts: 10,161 Member
    Isn't the volume part inplied? Do we really need to spell this out every damn post? Good lord...

    No, I don't think it's implied.

    It's not like it's so much easier to say "muscle weighs more than fat" than it is to say "muscle is more dense than fat." One is correct and the other doesn't make any sense.

    i always felt like it was implied.

    If everyone felt that way, it would never come up as a topic of discussion ;)
  • SquidgySquidge
    SquidgySquidge Posts: 239 Member
    WOW I certainly didn't mean to change the thread from helping the OP to a thread about what weighs more etc...:embarassed:

    :laugh: CALM DOWN PEOPLE!! :laugh:

    Lets just focus on the OP's original post, yes?
    Someone quite rightly pointed out this is supposed to be a website for support so lets get back to that.
  • Smackemdanno
    Smackemdanno Posts: 83 Member
    When you first start exercising please don't weigh yourself for the first 7 weeks. Your muscles will retain fluids while your torn muscle fibers repair. This will continue until your muscles learn to compensate for the exercises by becoming stronger, leaner, more efficient fat burning machines.
  • laa83laa
    laa83laa Posts: 8 Member
    I'm in the same boat. I started a DVD program 3 weeks ago and have only seen the scale either stay the same or go up 1-1.5 lbs... BUT I have lost 1/2" off my natural waist, and another 1/2" off my waist at my belly button... my thighs I think have gone down .5-1" as well.. but the scale isn't matching up.... it's so frustrating!!! ugh.
  • jonnythan
    jonnythan Posts: 10,161 Member
    When you first start exercising please don't weigh yourself for the first 7 weeks.

    !
  • laa83laa
    laa83laa Posts: 8 Member
    PS - my profile pic on my page is from when I started my DVD to 2 weeks into it... there is a bit of a noticeable difference I guess but, again, the scale is complete opposite! grrr
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
    So when you lose a little fat and replace it with a little muscle, the scale will probably say you’ve gained weight because muscle weighs more than fat. But as you have seen your size will decrease because the muscle takes up less space.

    See, this is the problem with saying "muscle weighs more than fat." This part of the post is nonsensical. It implies that if you lose fat and replace it with an equivalent volume of muscle you will have gained weight. Well.. yeah, but that's not something that happens. The volume of fat you lose is completely unrelated to the volume of muscle you build or don't build.

    No, no one implies that, you just like to infer it so you can correct people. All these posts are about losing inches but gaining weight (or losing inches and weight remaining steady) NECESSARILY mean the volumes aren't equivalent.
  • eliseofthejungle
    eliseofthejungle Posts: 113 Member
    Isn't the volume part inplied? Do we really need to spell this out every damn post? Good lord...

    No, I don't think it's implied.

    It's not like it's so much easier to say "muscle weighs more than fat" than it is to say "muscle is more dense than fat." One is correct and the other doesn't make any sense.

    i always felt like it was implied.

    I've always felt it is implied as well. It's a conversational expression, not the thesis of a scientific research paper.
    If everyone felt that way, it would never come up as a topic of discussion ;)

    Not true. some people feel the need to nitpick semantics even though they immediately knew the meaning of what was expressed. I think it makes them feel smart and slightly better than others even though it actually makes them come across as a little bit sad.
  • jonnythan
    jonnythan Posts: 10,161 Member
    No, no one implies that, you just like to infer it so you can correct people. All these posts are about losing inches but gaining weight (or losing inches and weight remaining steady) NECESSARILY mean the volumes aren't equivalent.

    I'm not even the one who brought it up in the first place.

    The rest of your post doesn't even make sense. If someone did lose a volume of fat and gained an equivalent volume of muscle, they would lose inches and gain weight, so I have no idea how you decided it necessarily means the volumes aren't equivalent.

    This whole discussion doesn't even make sense. It's not like we know that anyone, least of all the OP, is even gaining muscle in the first place. That's a big assumption.
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
    I give.


    OP... body weight fluctuations naturally due to a variety of factors. 2lbs is well within that natural fluctuations. If you are seeing progress with your measurements, I wouldn't get too worked up over what the scale does or doesn't say.
  • droneofvelvet
    droneofvelvet Posts: 290 Member
    Keep tracking what you eat and keep exercising. A loss of inches is an accomplishment far greater than seeing a smaller number on the scale. The 2 lbs is probably just food and water inside your body. It takes 24 hours for food to fully leave your body. So if you eat everyday- there is always some of your food inside you and depending on what you eat it will always change. :smile: Now if you see a 10 lbs difference up or down you know your plan is working / not working. If you gain that much you must be eating too much or tracking incorrectly. The exercise you are doing is awesome and keep it up!!
  • SophieA9083
    SophieA9083 Posts: 63
    I know how you feel, it feels like what I am doing isn't paying off, I put on half a kilo last week and I know it's nothing to really worry about but the doctors want me to loose weight not inches apparently!
  • Bevkus
    Bevkus Posts: 274 Member
    I can't believe some people are childish enough to try to use the argument "one pound is one pound" everyone knows what he meant and he is correct. This is a support forum. Don't turn it in to yet another haven for the low end of the internet.

    Muscle is 70% water and, as a result, is a relatively heavy tissue—much heavier than fat. On the flip side, fat takes up much more space than muscle, actually three times as much. So when you lose a little fat and replace it with a little muscle, the scale will probably say you’ve gained weight because muscle weighs more than fat. But as you have seen your size will decrease because the muscle takes up less space.

    THIS

    Standing ovation!
  • Pixi_Rex
    Pixi_Rex Posts: 1,676 Member
    It is normal. Although you are not building muscle right now, you are burning fat. The wieght gain you are seeing is probably water retention which is a result of many things - hard work out - muscles repairing themselves, hormons amount of sodium etc.

    Don't worry about the scale, it will catch up.

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