weight loss vs. gaining muscle vs. body fat

Happens all the time to me....in fact, I get measured tomorrow and I'm expecting my weight to be up due to muscle gain.

One thing that has been helpful is that I get my fat free mass vs fat mass measured. Two months ago, I gained 2 pounds for the month - but it was because of gaining 3 pounds of muscle while losing 1 pound of fat. I'll take that trade off every single month for the next year.

As far as this month goes, the scale hasn't budged over the last month, but my clothes are all a bit looser - that's why I'm expecting to be up in muscle

get good facts under your belt as well as a few months of watching what happens when you lift. It makes life easier to handle for sure!

Absolutely. I think that sometimes we get obsessed with our scales and yet we can lose inches in measurement, be well toned and not lose any weight, in fact we can put it on!

Happens all the time to me....in fact, I get measured tomorrow and I'm expecting my weight to be up due to muscle gain.

One thing that has been helpful is that I get my fat free mass vs fat mass measured. Two months ago, I gained 2 pounds for the month - but it was because of gaining 3 pounds of muscle while losing 1 pound of fat. I'll take that trade off every single month for the next year.

As far as this month goes, the scale hasn't budged over the last month, but my clothes are all a bit looser - that's why I'm expecting to be up in muscle

get good facts under your belt as well as a few months of watching what happens when you lift. It makes life easier to handle for sure!

Not trying to argue here at all... But how do you get your lean mass measured as a 3lb gain of muscle in a month is really going some for a woman eating at a deficit. Seems a high figure to me?

Happens all the time to me....in fact, I get measured tomorrow and I'm expecting my weight to be up due to muscle gain.

One thing that has been helpful is that I get my fat free mass vs fat mass measured. Two months ago, I gained 2 pounds for the month - but it was because of gaining 3 pounds of muscle while losing 1 pound of fat. I'll take that trade off every single month for the next year.

As far as this month goes, the scale hasn't budged over the last month, but my clothes are all a bit looser - that's why I'm expecting to be up in muscle

get good facts under your belt as well as a few months of watching what happens when you lift. It makes life easier to handle for sure!

Not trying to argue here at all... But how do you get your lean mass measured as a 3lb gain of muscle in a month is really going some for a woman eating at a deficit. Seems a high figure to me?

My thoughts exactly.

Happens all the time to me....in fact, I get measured tomorrow and I'm expecting my weight to be up due to muscle gain.

One thing that has been helpful is that I get my fat free mass vs fat mass measured. Two months ago, I gained 2 pounds for the month - but it was because of gaining 3 pounds of muscle while losing 1 pound of fat. I'll take that trade off every single month for the next year.

As far as this month goes, the scale hasn't budged over the last month, but my clothes are all a bit looser - that's why I'm expecting to be up in muscle

get good facts under your belt as well as a few months of watching what happens when you lift. It makes life easier to handle for sure!

Not trying to argue here at all... But how do you get your lean mass measured as a 3lb gain of muscle in a month is really going some for a woman eating at a deficit. Seems a high figure to me?

DEXA scan. Otherwise it's a guess based upon a scale and not accurate. That 3lbs is very easily water and glycogen in the muscles that never had to be there before taking up weight to make up for fat loss.

Bump

You cannot build muscle as fast as you can lose fat. That simply is not possible. If that is the case, then the scale must go down when your nutritional goals are for fat loss (this is unless you are having problems with water retention or there is some medical reason). You can delude yourself into thinking it is possible, but that is not very productive. Guys go thru mass gain/fat loss cycles relentlessly in a year hoping to gain maybe 5-15lb of lean mass. Keep in mind us fellas be packing some hormones that make is a little easier for us to build muscle. We also lose a small amount of muscle while we shed the pounds. You will not maintain 100% of your muscle while you lose fat. Sorry, that's not happening either. Yes, we can come up with a plan to save as much as possible, but you will lose a small amount. Its just part of the game. Go listen to anyone that has done loss/gain cycles and they will talk of losing a bit on their lifts.

The density of muscle vs. fat is completely pointless in this discussion. It is true that muscle is much denser than fat; however, the fat loss, muscle build question is about the rate we can do either. If one is working to lose fat that happens at a much faster rate than you will build muscle during a mass gain cycle.

In the early stages you may be able to build muscle while you lose fat, but that ends and you must pick your focus to be either fat loss or muscle gain.

I do not believe a 3lb muscle gain in a month. I too once thought my BI scale was telling me I was gaining 0.4lb/wk, but I did come to realize that was not so. They are horribly inaccurate regardless of how meticulous you are with the timing and attention to the water levels in your body.

The mass of our bones is not very much. We each have something like 8-14lb of bones in our body and once we are fully grown it is amazingly stable. It is not an important consideration when speaking about fat loss or muscle gain.