Weight loss plateau - Am I building muscle
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sjacobs106
Posts: 6 Member
I have been eating less that my allotted calories daily and running on the treadmill about 4 times a week for an hour at a time. My treadmill says that I am burning about 700 calories each time a run. At this rate I would expect the weight to be falling off. I have lost 17 pounds and my waist size has gone down by two inches. However, now I seem to have plateaued. Am I building muscle which is causing my lack of additional weight loss? HELP !!!! what can I do differently.
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If you are just running and eating at a deficit you will not gAin muscle. What is your diet like?0
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This is my usual day with some small variation
Breakfast - one cup multi grain cheerios and a cup of coffee
Lunch - vegetables with tuna on low calorie bread or turkey on low calorie bread
Dinner - chicken with vegetables
Snacks - carrots, peppers, apples, Luna bar (when starving)
Lots of water0 -
I have been eating less that my allotted calories daily and running on the treadmill about 4 times a week for an hour at a time. My treadmill says that I am burning about 700 calories each time a run. At this rate I would expect the weight to be falling off. I have lost 17 pounds and my waist size has gone down by two inches. However, now I seem to have plateaued. Am I building muscle which is causing my lack of additional weight loss? HELP !!!! what can I do differently.
Treadmill is probably lying to you. Dont use them. Run in the road. Treadmills do some of the work for you.
If you eat at a calorie deficit, you lose weight. No such thing as a plateau.
You dont gain muscle from running anyway.0 -
How many cals per day? My kids could eat more than that, so if that's truly what you are eating you should be losing.0
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1000 - 1250 a day0
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1000 - 1250 a day
Then you should be losing quite rapidly. You might want to see your doctor. You do know that as a male, you should be eating at least double that? Are you trying to kill your metabolism completely?0 -
not that I think this is the case given how low the numbers are (which I agree- TO LOW FOR A MALE)-
people forget as they lose weight- the target number also goes down- so if you were losing at 2000- and you drop 15 lbs- you're 2000 will become maintenance- and you'll have to drop to like 1700.
something people forget- it's a moving target and it's not a fixed point.
I don't think this is the case for this guy- but it's something to think about for anyone else who pops in here to get some info.0 -
How long has it been since you've seen a drop on the scale?0
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Good News - as of this morning I am at 198.6. Looks like I must have been building muscle from running.
Thanks everyone.0 -
You can't build muscle from running though...0
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You can't build muscle from running though...
He's also not building any significant amount of muscle on 1000-1200 calories. He's more likely to be losing muscle than gaining it at those levels.0 -
Good News - as of this morning I am at 198.6. Looks like I must have been building muscle from running.
Thanks everyone.
This is why people lose it on the forums sometimes. You let somebody know that they can't build muscle with what they are doing, and they come back with a post like this, and then thanking people for advice you didn't take.
Pretty much the opposite. You are eating way too little calories, and your body is eating your muscles. That's probably what makes you think you have a lot more to lose at that weight, because you are losing a lot more muscle than fat. I believe it only take something like 620 calories to burn a pound of muscle, and 3500 to burn a pound of fat.0 -
also your BMR is around 2,000 so you should at least be eating that.0
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Good News - as of this morning I am at 198.6. Looks like I must have been building muscle from running.
Thanks everyone.
No, you are not building muscle running four days a week and eating 1200 calories a day.
To give you a point of reference, I am 5-10 about 172 and I am eating 2100 calories a day, and lifting four times a week, and that is a cut for me and I am definitely not building muscle.
Running and eating in a calorie deficit does not equate to building muscle.
if you want to build muscle you would need to be eating in a calorie surplus and lifting weights.
think of it this way, you cannot build a house and tear it down at the same time; you need a calorie surplus to build new muscle; you need a calorie deficit to reduce weight and lose body fat, so the two processes are diametrically opposed to one another...0 -
Good News - as of this morning I am at 198.6. Looks like I must have been building muscle from running.
Thanks everyone.
I feel like you don't understand how building muscle really works. herrrmmmm0 -
at 1200 calories on a male that weight 200lbs, he is soon, if not already, in starvation mode and his body will simply retain every calorie it can due to being so far under what he needs to survive, especially when you add in the calorie expenditure from running.
"i am building muscle from running". i second the misunderstanding on how building muscle works...0 -
at 1200 calories on a male that weight 200lbs, he is soon, if not already, in starvation mode and his body will simply retain every calorie it can due to being so far under what he needs to survive, especially when you add in the calorie expenditure from running.
"i am building muscle from running". i second the misunderstanding on how building muscle works...
OP is not in starvation mode if he is consuming 1200 calories a day that is not possible.
Yes, OP is confused about muscle building.0 -
OP is not in starvation mode if he is consuming 1200 calories a day that is not possible.
with a bmr of 2000 calories for his ht and wt and and adder of 500 calories/day for the exericse, he is consuming half the calories of what the body requires. 2500 to 1200. so i would disagree with your belief that "that is not possible".
http://caloriecount.about.com/forums/weight-loss/truth-starvation-mode0 -
OP is not in starvation mode if he is consuming 1200 calories a day that is not possible.
with a bmr of 2000 calories for his ht and wt and and adder of 500 calories/day for the exericse, he is consuming half the calories of what the body requires. 2500 to 1200. so i would disagree with your belief that "that is not possible".
http://caloriecount.about.com/forums/weight-loss/truth-starvation-mode
disagree all you want..you are still wrong...0 -
So based on this back and forth, I truly don't understand what I need to do in order to continue to drop the pounds. According to MFP, if I want to drop 1.5 pounds per week I should be eating about 1500 calories a day. If I exercise I get to eat more calories.
I am honestly eating about 1250 calories a day and running 4 times a week. While at times I am hungry, drinking water gets me to meal time and snack time. This has worked for me so far as I have lost about 18 pounds in two months. Pounds of what I don't know (fat or muscle) and 2.5 inches on my waist !!!
Would eating more calories cause me to actually burn more?
At 5' 8" and 198 pounds I still have about 20 pounds I want to drop. Suggestions?0
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