SO Confused?

wdeidra19
wdeidra19 Posts: 30
in Fitness and Exercise
I have a Question If your working out and sometimes you go weigh in and have gained a pound or two but you are doing all you can possibly as far as working out and eating right and staying within your calories and people say that "maybe your gaining muscle" how does that eventually turn to weight loss? I dont get it? How does muscle (weighing more than fat) equal results?

Replies

  • A_Warrior_Princess
    A_Warrior_Princess Posts: 344 Member
    Bump! Great Questions! I would like to know the answers as well!
  • jakesfitness
    jakesfitness Posts: 123 Member
    People focus a lot on the term "Weight loss" when really they should be focusing on the term "fat loss" a person who is in good shape and muscular can weight more than someone who is not in shape and kind of fat looking. thats why you should really look at your measurments to see your losses rather the number on the scale. that is where you will see real results.
  • michellechawner
    michellechawner Posts: 892
    It could be water weight. Whats your sodium levels like? And water intake?

    Also what are you calorie levels? You may not be eating enough in which case your body is holding on to more fat trying to survive, which isn't muscle gains.

    Yes you do gain muscle, but I don't think you can see it on the scale in just one week.
  • Sylvia529
    Sylvia529 Posts: 5 Member
    what i have realized that its not the actual number on the scale that matters, its inches lost. I have been working out 5x a week for the past 2 months and i have lost, but every once in a while ill step on the scale and see a 1 lb weight gain. don't get discouraged, just keep working hard. muscle equals results because your burning the fat away and it is turning into muscle therefore reducing your bmi and body fat percentages
  • jenf235
    jenf235 Posts: 157 Member
    I really want to know that answer too! Anytime I hit a point where I seem to stall, everyone tells me that I am gaining muscle. I don't understand it. So glad you asked!
  • Anthonydaman
    Anthonydaman Posts: 854 Member
    I doubt it is a complete pound of lean muscle mass, more than likely it is water. If you are resistance training your muscles will retain water to repair, or if your sodium is high for the day, water retention. One would have to train like an animal for a solid year to show 6-7 pounds of lean muscle mass. I step on the scale daily, but the true testament to ones weight loss is how their clothes fit. Best wishes
  • jakesfitness
    jakesfitness Posts: 123 Member
    also btw as an example, i did a 90 day weight lifting (bulking and cutting) program where i gained 15 lbs, but i lost a half an inch in my waist and over an inch in my hips.
  • cassiegal724
    cassiegal724 Posts: 63 Member
    People focus a lot on the term "Weight loss" when really they should be focusing on the term "fat loss" a person who is in good shape and muscular can weight more than someone who is not in shape and kind of fat looking. thats why you should really look at your measurments to see your losses rather the number on the scale. that is where you will see real results.

    i second this
  • Librariangetsfit
    Librariangetsfit Posts: 71 Member
    Oh boy, well first you are a woman (assuming by the pic), so your cycle will affect your weight especially if it is just 1-2 lbs. Or if you haven't gone to the bathroom recently. Muscle mass is a good thing burn more calories just sitting there, is more dense so takes up less space, so you are smaller. I would track you 1-2 lbs and see when it happens, like for me I gained 1 lb the week before my period, it goes away after that is done.
  • CajunTexan33
    CajunTexan33 Posts: 76 Member
    WEll one way that helps turn into weight loss is when you have more muscle mass, you burn more calories, hence the weight loss. But the poster above is correct- its more about fat loss that "weight". Personally I would rather gain two pounds of muscle and have a higher tighter butt than lose 5 and be afraid to have muscle because of what the scale says!! Would you rather weigh the magic # in your head..but stay at the same size..or have a higher number on the scale, but be in a smaller size? Sometimes you have to get ouside of being glued to #'s and the end all be all!
  • maybeazure
    maybeazure Posts: 301 Member
    Muscle doesn't really weigh more than fat, in that a pound is a pound. But it is more dense than fat. So if you were to take a cup of fat, and a cup of muscle and weigh the two of them the muscle would weigh more. So a pound of muscle would look smaller than a pound of fat. That's why when you are gaining muscle, you might be losing inches, but not pounds.

    Right at the beginning of an exercise routine though many people see a temporary gain in water weight. This is because you are stressing the muscles and the body responds by sending more fluid to the muscles to help them heal and grow stronger. Eventually, within a week or two, that water weight goes away.

    Another advantage to having a greater ratio of muscle to fat is that muscle requires more calories than fat to maintain, so adding muscle can make your metabolism go up.
  • AJ_G
    AJ_G Posts: 4,158 Member
    Focus on lowering your body fat percentage, not lowering your scale weight. As mentioned above, scale weight is actually irrelevant.

    I guarantee you the guy on the left weighs more than the guy on the right, but I know what I'd rather look like...

    5d5ahe.jpg
  • kirstyfairhead
    kirstyfairhead Posts: 220 Member
    Lifters out there correct me if I'm wrong but if you weigh in and you've gained a pound or two it is 'never' muscle gain that has done it. I don't know about you chaps but I get the impression that it is pretty near impossible for a lady to gain a couple of pounds of muscle in a week.

    1 or 2lbs is a fairly standard variation and could be down to sodium, water weight or even a big meal but not likely to be muscle.

    If you see a longer term incremental gain in weight whilst you are strength training, coinciding with a reduction in body fat and a reduction in measurements, that might be muscle gain!!
  • TeaBea
    TeaBea Posts: 14,517 Member
    I have a Question If your working out and sometimes you go weigh in and have gained a pound or two but you are doing all you can possibly as far as working out and eating right and staying within your calories and people say that "maybe your gaining muscle" how does that eventually turn to weight loss? I dont get it? How does muscle (weighing more than fat) equal results?

    Fat is a shapeless, formless blob. Muscle is very compact. So 1 pound of fat takes up much more space than 1 pound of muscle.

    You could lose inches ...... and still weigh the same. That's why you hear people say the BMI is bogus or the number on a scale is just a number.... fat to muscle ratio is not factored in. Your fat to muscle ratio is really very important for "looking" thin (or fit).
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    You're not gaining muscle OP...what you're experiencing is water weight fluctuations. Weight loss isn't linear and weight maintenance isn't static...you don't weigh exactly XXX Lbs all of the time.

    Muscle is incredibly difficult to build and requires a surplus of calories to do so...so if you're dieting, you're not putting on any appreciable muscle.

    To the other part of your question though...people put way too much emphasis on "weight" loss rather than fat loss. When you maintain LBM while losing fat, you're gong to look a lot better in the end than just racing to some arbitrary scale value that often leaves you at some arbitrary goal weight, but at a higher % BF than someone with some muscle would otherwise be at the same weight.
  • MinnieInMaine
    MinnieInMaine Posts: 6,400 Member
    I have a Question If your working out and sometimes you go weigh in and have gained a pound or two but you are doing all you can possibly as far as working out and eating right and staying within your calories and people say that "maybe your gaining muscle" how does that eventually turn to weight loss? I dont get it? How does muscle (weighing more than fat) equal results?

    if you mean you weigh yourself right after you workout and see a gain - that's not the best time to weigh yourself.

    If you mean you're working out and eating right and still seeing a gain - it's not muscle gain, that's a myth. When you're on a calorie deficit, it's pretty much impossible to gain muscle. In fact, if you're not eating enough/properly, you may actually lose some muscle mass. There are such things as newbie gains but they're slight and don't last long. What you're seeing on the scale is water retention in the muscles. When you workout hard, your cause small tears in the muscle fibers/tissue (which is why you feel sore) and that leads to water and glycogen retention as those are needed to help aid healing. It's kind of like when you sprain your ankle and it swells only it's not as visible because it's spread over a larger area.

    And as someone else said, weight loss is more about fat loss. And the scale should not be your only tool to measure success. Take body measurements, pay attention to how your clothes are fitting, take progress pictures, look into getting body fat % measured.
  • askeates
    askeates Posts: 1,490 Member
    At a certain point in your journey you will have to step away from the scale, and move towards measurements and comparison photo's. Not knowing where you are in this journey I can't say for sure that it is this moment, but it could possibly be.

    Have you noticed a change in how clothes are fitting?
  • RGv2
    RGv2 Posts: 5,789 Member
    Lifters out there correct me if I'm wrong but if you weigh in and you've gained a pound or two it is 'never' muscle gain that has done it. I don't know about you chaps but I get the impression that it is pretty near impossible for a lady to gain a couple of pounds of muscle in a week.

    1 or 2lbs is a fairly standard variation and could be down to sodium, water weight or even a big meal but not likely to be muscle.

    If you see a longer term incremental gain in weight whilst you are strength training, coinciding with a reduction in body fat and a reduction in measurements, that might be muscle gain!!

    It's pretty hard for a professional body builder to gain a couple lbs of muscle in a couple months, let alone weeks.
  • RGv2
    RGv2 Posts: 5,789 Member
    I really want to know that answer too! Anytime I hit a point where I seem to stall, everyone tells me that I am gaining muscle. I don't understand it. So glad you asked!

    Are you eating at a caloric deficit, or maintenance. If so, you're not "gaining muscle". It is most likely water retention used to repair you muscles post exercise. It is very, very hard for an individual to gain enough muscle to stall out or really affect the scale at all when trying to lose weight. There might be some noob gains in the beginning, but not that much.
  • LaurenAOK
    LaurenAOK Posts: 2,475 Member
    It is more likely water than muscle. If you're eating at a caloric deficit it is very difficult to gain any muscle, let alone a couple pounds' worth.

    However, exercise CAN cause the scale to stall but it doesn't mean you're not losing fat. Most bodybuilders are "obese" by weight standards yet have hardly any fat on them. That's why measurements and pictures are generally a better measure of progress than the scale.

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