MUSCLE MASS OR PLATEAU??

FARMERCHIC13
FARMERCHIC13 Posts: 7 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I've been working out (3-4 days of cardio and strength training for 30-45mins a day) and watching what I eat for the last 8 weeks (trying to keep my net calories around 1200 per day, through balanced diet/healthy snacks, not starvation). It's been a steady loss of about 1-2lbs a week, but last week I decided to amp it up. So I tried 7 days of no refined sugar or enriched flour. I kept my sugar intake at 1/3 of my daily limit (the most sugar consumed at once would be from pink grapefruit for breakfast, the remainder from whole grains, vegetables, etc..). While sticking to the 1200 net calories goal. I did amp up my daily protein by eating salmon, tuna fish, hard boiled eggs (from free range chickens) light mozzarella cheese sticks, etc... I also amped up my exercise to working out each of the 7 days for 30minutes to hour and a half doing cardio and strength training (with 6,8,10 weights) combination. Then on day 5 and continuing into today, day 9, I'm constantly hungry, not the munchies, stomach growling type of hungry, eating small meals and snacking (healthy snacks) all through day, going over the daily calorie goal by 400-500 calories. Not really ever satisfied. A little background about me:40 years old 5'8' started out at 183lbs, which for my height was considered overweight/borderline obese. I've lost 11lbs so far so I have another 22-27lbs to go to be my 'ideal' weight. I do see definition taking place, but my clothes are only slightly looser than when I initially started. However my disappointment comes from last week when I really pushed myself and didn't lose a single pound. Have I reached a plateau or did I gained muscle mass to counter the fat loss?? I don't want to get buffed, just tone while losing weight. Why is there a sudden feeling of uncontrollable hunger I can not get rid of?? Have I reached a point where I need more calories due to more muscle mass? And how does one do that while still trying to lose weight? More cardio less strength training? This is just frustrating and I don't know which way to go.. Someone help!! :sad:

Replies

  • dmenchac
    dmenchac Posts: 447 Member
    You won't gain muscle mass while at a deficit. However, since you were over your 1200 limit, you could have gained muscle, but I doubt it. And if so, its only muscle underneath the layer of fat.

    A more important question is, why are you only eating 1200 calories? And you better be eating back those exercise calories.

    If not, there is your answer. You ramped it up on 1200 calories and are constantly hungry. How do you expect to fuel your body when you eat 1200 and burn 400? That means you had 800 calories for the day.


    Logic.
  • dmenchac
    dmenchac Posts: 447 Member
    Your BMR is like 1500, meaning you will burn 1500 calories just by being in a coma. Add in all of the exercise and sweet baby Jesus, I really hope you eat back your exercise.
  • liftreadphilosophize
    liftreadphilosophize Posts: 180 Member
    Why did you feel you needed to "amp it up" when you were losing 1-2 pounds a week? That's a sweet spot for weight loss (when you have over 20 or so to lose) and losing more per week might actually be detrimental to your long-term goals.

    Also: you need to eat MUCH more. Eat back your exercise calories - or at least half of them. Your body is hungry because your body is HUNGRY! It needs more food, especially if you are if you are going to be amping it up every day. Check out the below TDEE calculator and try to accept that what your body needs is slow and steady weight loss with nutritional intake in an amount sufficient to make sure your organs and brain are happy and healthy.

    http://scoobysworkshop.com/calorie-calculator/
  • Ninkyou
    Ninkyou Posts: 6,666 Member
    It's been a week. You're not at a plateau. A plateau lasts 4+ weeks. Also, it's extremely hard to gain muscle on a deficit.

    It's water retention. You're retaining water from the increased exercise for muscle repair. You also ate more calories, which means your glycogen stores probably replenished a bit too, which means more water being stored. For every 1 gram of glycogen 2.7 grams of water is retained.

    Give it time, it'll go away. Patience.

    Also, weight loss isn't linear. Don't expect to lose every single week, because frankly, some weeks you may not lose anything at all, very little, or *gasp* show a gain (again, due to water retention, for various reasons, exercise, glycogen, period, ovulation, salt intake, etc).
  • sharebear2012
    sharebear2012 Posts: 122 Member
    Sounds like you are doing the right things and sometimes the scale stops dropping for a week or two and then bam you are down. You said 1200 calories is net so I assumed you are eating your calories back. To keep the hunger at bay try ensuring you have a good protien at each meal, eggs, lean meat or fish. When you eat a protien you stay satiated until the next meal. And you might want to go up to 1400 calories if this does not work and you remain hungry. Patience is what you need in this game. People always say eat more whenever someone posts about stalling, but in my experience eating more translates into more pounds not less.
  • LoseYouself
    LoseYouself Posts: 249 Member
    1.) It's impossible to gain muscle mass at a caloric deficit, so it's not that.

    2.) Women won't ever bulk up without chemical enhancement. It's all perpetuated myths. Many women lift heavy and look fairly average sized, but are lean and strong. No need to stick to 5-10 lb weights for fear of muscle bulk either.

    3.) There is no such thing as toning a muscle. It's just a word that means to build muscle and/or to appear leaner by losing fat.

    4.) You are likely not eating enough for the activity level you described if you're all of a sudden ravenous after working out every day of the week. Also, other factors could contribute to the scale not moving. It could be water retention even. Weight loss isn't linear and sometimes you don't see any results for a bit, then out of the blue you drop a few pounds. Just be consistent and the results will come. Just don't stop out of discouragement.

    Good luck!
  • FARMERCHIC13
    FARMERCHIC13 Posts: 7 Member
    Thanks everyone for your helpful insight. Let me add that yes I do eat back the calories that I work off so that I'm netting around 1200, not gross. The netting 1200 calories came from My Fitness Pal with the original weight loss goal of 1.5-2.0 lbs a week, but I'm thinking that since I have become much more active since starting, maybe it's time to reconsider the calorie intake. And not fret about 1 week. It is probably just the water retention from the extra workouts, I drink a lot of water everyday). I just didn't want to continue on the wrong path.
  • SezxyStef
    SezxyStef Posts: 15,267 Member
    You won't gain muscle mass while at a deficit. However, since you were over your 1200 limit, you could have gained muscle, but I doubt it. And if so, its only muscle underneath the layer of fat.

    A more important question is, why are you only eating 1200 calories? And you better be eating back those exercise calories.

    If not, there is your answer. You ramped it up on 1200 calories and are constantly hungry. How do you expect to fuel your body when you eat 1200 and burn 400? That means you had 800 calories for the day.


    Logic.

    illogical

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