10 answers to common questions

6) Q: Am I not losing weight because I'm gaining muscle mass?
A: Probably not. Muscle is a lot harder to build than people would have you believe. For someone to put on 10 lbs of pure muscle in a year is a remarkable feat. Not impossible per say, but not something that most of us can easilly accomplish. There are, of course, exceptions. Those who focus on muscle building to the exclusion of other types of activity (like competitive body builders for example) who closely monitor (I mean REALLY closely) their nutrition and follow specifically designed muscle building routines, can have this kind of gains (and even greater in some cases), likewise someone with very low muscle mass who begins a training routine can develop muscle very quickly at the begining. But generally when you begin a new training regimin, you don't gain muscle right away (despite significant early strength gains and muscle size gains). The reasoning is basically that you are activating your current muscles that were in a partially dormant state, which gives you more strength, and also requires more glycogen at the muscle site (which makes the muscle look bigger and work with more force), but you aren't gaining muscle, you're gaining essentially water weight, which is fine, but it's something to note.

You are definitely wrong on this account. I have seen many people on here that start a challeging routine, such as p90x for example, and gain 7+ pounds of muscle during their first 30 days on the program!

Yet another reason we need a "sarcasm font".

My wife changed the name of Microsoft font "Curlz" to "Sarcastica." It's just our little code. We primarily use it in emails from our work accounts when we want to drive home the sarcasm without tipping our hands to our corporate overlords. Too bad MFP doesn't allow font choice...