sick, no gym for a week, lost 9lbs lean mass???

longtimeterp
longtimeterp Posts: 614 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
is this possible? i've been sick (nasty cold, chest congestion) for about a week now, so i've been taking it easy, mostly light walking if at all cause i feel crappy. according to my scale i've gone down 5lbs, but lost 9lbs of lean mass and put on 4lbs of fat...

this seems a little excessive, i have been eating right around my tdee (accrding to my fitbit, i have a 2000 cal surplus for the week, which is almost exactly all the alcohol calories on st. pats, lol) including getting around 200g or protein each day.

i realize these scales aren't perfectly accurate, and but i am still a little worried...is some of this the water and glocogen stored in the muscles that they aren't storing because im not using weights? also could this be due to not taking creatine and n.o. suppliments this week as i'm not working out?

Replies

  • wellbert
    wellbert Posts: 3,924 Member
    If you were totally immobile, and ate under 500 calories a day: Yes.
  • DostThouEven
    DostThouEven Posts: 148
    probably a lot of water
  • longtimeterp
    longtimeterp Posts: 614 Member
    If you were totally immobile, and ate under 500 calories a day: Yes.

    nope, closer to 3700/day...
  • RunDoozer
    RunDoozer Posts: 1,699 Member
    Throw the scale away. They're highly inaccurate when it comes to anything but weight.
  • Iron_Duchess
    Iron_Duchess Posts: 429 Member
    Water, it was all water.
  • bunbunzee44
    bunbunzee44 Posts: 592 Member
    probably just dehydration.. don't worry about it too much :3
  • kekpron
    kekpron Posts: 38 Member
    Combination of most of the above. Largely dehydration which, incidentally, makes those already inaccurate scales even more inaccurate. If you are going to use one, always try to relatively the same hydration level when you do.
  • FrnkLft
    FrnkLft Posts: 1,821 Member
    Just do the math right? 9 lbs lean mass due to one week of walking around = 36 lbs lean mass if you did it for a month... 432 lbs lean mass if you did it for a year.

    You would be nothing but a skeleton in less than a year at this rate. I don't think this is right, seriously, toss the scale or just use it for weight.

    If you want a better measure of BF%, use body fat calipers.
  • Unknown
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  • bokodasu
    bokodasu Posts: 629 Member
    Those scales don't measure composition changes very accurately, so I wouldn't even bother measuring when something weird like getting sick happens.

    You're probably dehydrated from being sick, which is part 2 - water measures as "lean body mass".

    And
    also could this be due to not taking creatine and n.o. suppliments this week as i'm not working out?

    I hold 3-4 lbs of water from creatine, and I'm smaller than you. So yeah, that too. See how much "lean body mass" you gain when you start taking it again.

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