Weight loss vs muscle gain

DaveWatling
DaveWatling Posts: 2 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm a little frustrated and hope it's temporary. First a bit about my self: I'm 5'10 and was always "small" growing up. Until I hit the late 40's. I worked out seriously in the mid 90's to gain size/strength. Heavy lifting, 6,000+ calorie diet, etc. I went from 140 lbs all the way up to 190 "clean" lbs, that took a number of years.
Then the past half dozen years I stopped lifting and ever so slowly ballooned up to 228 "non clean" lbs. (read FAT). Eating horrible, lots of alcohol, etc. So I set a goal of 50 lb loss @ 2 lbs/week. Calorie goal is a net 1570/day with 4 workouts per week. Drink only water (no booze). I've completely changed my weightlifting. Lighter weights, higher reps (15-20 x at least 3 sets per body part).

So the first two weeks I dropped 9 lbs. (Yay) Then Christmas came and two days of feasting, I put on 4 lbs. And for the past two weeks, there has been little to no weight loss. I'm pretty good on the daily calorie goal. Well under for the week, total. But I don't seem to be losing like I did at the start. Am I gaining muscle at the same time as losing fat? I don't see it, and don't have a scale that reads BF.

Will the muscle gain/fat loss change? By that I mean, will I all of a sudden start losing fat again? Because right now it seems as if I'm not losing, yet I've completely changed my eating and exercising.

Replies

  • MarcPower
    MarcPower Posts: 67 Member
    I'm a little frustrated and hope it's temporary. First a bit about my self: I'm 5'10 and was always "small" growing up. Until I hit the late 40's. I worked out seriously in the mid 90's to gain size/strength. Heavy lifting, 6,000+ calorie diet, etc. I went from 140 lbs all the way up to 190 "clean" lbs, that took a number of years.
    Then the past half dozen years I stopped lifting and ever so slowly ballooned up to 228 "non clean" lbs. (read FAT). Eating horrible, lots of alcohol, etc. So I set a goal of 50 lb loss @ 2 lbs/week. Calorie goal is a net 1570/day with 4 workouts per week. Drink only water (no booze). I've completely changed my weightlifting. Lighter weights, higher reps (15-20 x at least 3 sets per body part).

    So the first two weeks I dropped 9 lbs. (Yay) Then Christmas came and two days of feasting, I put on 4 lbs. And for the past two weeks, there has been little to no weight loss. I'm pretty good on the daily calorie goal. Well under for the week, total. But I don't seem to be losing like I did at the start. Am I gaining muscle at the same time as losing fat? I don't see it, and don't have a scale that reads BF.

    Will the muscle gain/fat loss change? By that I mean, will I all of a sudden start losing fat again? Because right now it seems as if I'm not losing, yet I've completely changed my eating and exercising.
    1. You will probably never lose weight as fast as you did at the start. At the start, much of what you are losing is water and it gets shed quickly. 2. You put on weight over a half dozen years...it will take time to lose that weight.

    Be patient. Keep working hard while focusing on the long term. It is not likely that you are putting on muscle while losing fat. Those two goals often conflict. You need to have a surplus of calories to put on muscle (anabolic growth) and a deficit of calories to lose fat (catabolic loss).

    Eat at a reasonable deficit and work out hard and don't stop doing it! You will see the biggest possible positive change that way!
  • BigGuy47
    BigGuy47 Posts: 1,768 Member
    for the past two weeks, there has been little to no weight loss.
    It's 2 weeks, no need to panic. Stay focused, be disciplined and re-evaluate after six weeks (or give it 8 weeks).

    Patience.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    Like "overfat" beginners to weight training people returning from a layoff can add some muscle at a deficit. However, with a big deficit like you are running I'm not sure how much that would occur or how long it would last.

    If you are confident in your food logging then I would just say be patient, give it a few weeks and see what your results are like.
  • Will_Thrust_For_Candy
    Will_Thrust_For_Candy Posts: 6,109 Member
    I agree with not panicking about not losing for a couple of weeks. Your loss won't be linear like that.

    Also, and this is just my opinion, but I think that your calorie goal is quite aggressive. I think that you could have fantastic results going 1lb/week. You also don't have to change how you lift. If you enjoy lifting heavier for lower reps, then do it. Or do a hybrid program so you can have the best of both worlds.

    Best of luck to you!
  • DaveWatling
    DaveWatling Posts: 2 Member
    thanks for the replies.

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