Gaining weight or muscle?

JessMell16
JessMell16 Posts: 11 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
MFP friends....I need advice. I can't tell if i'm being paranoid or not. I have lost a lot of weight. Over 120 lbs to be exact. So I do have a lot of excess skin that I am trying to tighten with weights and kettlebells. I am doing about 1 hour and 20 min of brisk walking every day. I am doing about 22-36 minutes of kettlebells every day. I am staying withing my calorie and nutrition goals. MFP suggests 1,200 calories for her per day. So I am bouncing between 1,100 - 1,300 calories consumed per day. I drink nothing but water and now protein shakes. At the advice of my neighbor who is a trainer and my friend/coworker, I have begun protein shakes for breakfast and a bedtime snack. Whey protein in the morning and casein protein at night. This helps with my nighttime food cravings. Each day, I am burning between 800 - 1200 calories (depending on whether I have enough time to work out as much as I would like). I can't tell if I'm building muscle or not. But I am consuming more protein (still under the goal according to MFP) because I feel so much more HUNGRY. The numbers on the scale keep climbing each day!!! I am freaking out. I don't get it. I know that muscle weighs more than fat. But I can't imagine that I am putting on that much more muscle to increase my weight every day. This just seems insane to me. I am worried that I am taking in too much protein. I don't know. Any ideas??? :-\

Replies

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  • caimay175
    caimay175 Posts: 42
    With that much of a deficit, you aren't building muscle. It takes calories + heavy weight lifting to build muscle, and nobody ever does it by accident, just like nobody ever becomes an Olympic gymnast by accident.
  • I_Will_End_You
    I_Will_End_You Posts: 4,397 Member
    You are not going to build muscle eating 1100-1300 calories a day. It's impossible.
  • RGv2
    RGv2 Posts: 5,789 Member
    You're not gaining muscle...

    Gaining muscle takes: An on point diet of AT LEAST TDEE (but normally a surplus), hours of progressive overload training, and genes.....for guys. It's exponentially harder for women.

    You might have put on a little bit of noob gain muscle, but if you're diary is right, any weight gain is most likely from water.

    IMHO, you are NOT staying within your calorie goals for MFP. You're burning 800+ calories per day (if accurate) and (if accurate) GROSSING 1200....you had a day where you only grossed 840.

    If you want to see changes in your body composition, you need to fuel yourself properly, eat back at least 1/2 of those cals, and continue the exercise.

    Weight loss isn't linear, sometimes you'll gain as you get closer to your goal weight, or you'll put on water weight from a new/more intense workout, but as you get closer to your goal weight you need to properly fuel your body.
  • AllisonStuefer
    AllisonStuefer Posts: 2 Member
    Agreeing with everyone, especially RGv2 (beat me to it!).

    I would also suggest taking measurements with a tape and ditching the scale.
  • missdibs1
    missdibs1 Posts: 1,092 Member
    I have no idea what your daily consumption is (macro balance etc) I also dont know why you feel it is necessary or effective to exercise so much in one day (newbie mistake)

    Your trainer neighbor I would not let train me

    I suggest you realize you may be gaining fat due to cortisol levels

    or

    you may be dehydrated and retaining water

    IDK

    I dont have enough information to even try to guess

    my advice lift heavy and short term hiits three to five days a week
  • jgcurry3
    jgcurry3 Posts: 172 Member
    First, congrats on the weight loss. Second muscle does not weigh more than fat. Get body composition testing done. Most gyms will have a trainer that will be able to do an accurate caliper test or use a one of the small handheld monitors to get your body fat percentage. Stop looking at the scale as a goal. Also if you want to build muscle you will need to eat more, this might also help with the plateau you have hit in your weight loss. Adjust your goals in MFP to maintain your current weight and do that for about a month. Then adjust it again to lose about one pound/week again for about a month. Alternate back and forth and don't be afraid to go over a little bit. Your body will thank you.
  • ossentia
    ossentia Posts: 96 Member
    How are you determining your exercise calories? That seems like a bunch. Also, are you sure of your calorie counts on the protein shakes?
  • JessMell16
    JessMell16 Posts: 11 Member
    Well I'm fairly certain about the calorie consumption because I use the barcode scanner for almost everything. Anything that I cook, like meats or pastas, etc, I use measuring cups and a food scale. I generally don't add any flavors like cheese, butter, salt, etc. But as for exercise, the time spent and speed is accurate. The actual calories burned is what comes up when I type in the time spent doing it. I actually did increase my food intake when I started going to the gym to lift weights and do kettlebells from home. But I will increase my food intake some more and try TDEE
  • _Zardoz_
    _Zardoz_ Posts: 3,987 Member
    Well I'm fairly certain about the calorie consumption because I use the barcode scanner for almost everything. Anything that I cook, like meats or pastas, etc, I use measuring cups and a food scale. I generally don't add any flavors like cheese, butter, salt, etc. But as for exercise, the time spent and speed is accurate. The actual calories burned is what comes up when I type in the time spent doing it. I actually did increase my food intake when I started going to the gym to lift weights and do kettlebells from home. But I will increase my food intake some more and try TDEE
    Actually I'd say your logging isn't as accurate as it could be there are some questionable entries and times you use cups or spoons when you really need to be weighing items. Just from the past few days ,A quarter of a cup of health mix I bet that weighs different everytime if it contains nuts and seeds that could be quite an error rate. 1 fillet of Salmon how big was that fillet not all fish are the same size, You have a chicken breast on Monday with no Protein so I'm guessing thats an inaccurate database entry. i could go on. Tighten up your logging and find out how much you are really eating then you'll have real accurate data to work from. The link below is very useful good luck



    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1234699-logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide
  • Unknown
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  • JessMell16
    JessMell16 Posts: 11 Member
    I meant in response to the TDEE method. It says I need to consume at least 1800 calories. The calories burned I am not positive of. That it just what pops up when I type in the time spent doing it. Which I don't take too seriously. Which is why I am trying to work out more. I want to be certain that I am burning enough. I sit at a desk all day for work. So if I'm not working, I'm trying to work out. The reason why I restricted my calorie consumption was because I was afraid that I wasn't burning enough with my desk job. That is why I have avoided the TDEE method for this long. I figured that it must be working since I lost that much weight. But then I had all the skin and was advised to try more weights to build muscle. I did that and found I was super hungry and was consistently told that I need more protein and told to try protein shakes. It was fine for about 3 weeks. But in the last week I have gained like 3 lbs. I suddenly gained weight faster than it took me to lose it. I know that it can fluctuate. Which is why I did not let myself worry until today. I didn't post this topic to ask for quick fix suggestions. I just wanted to know if I was suddenly doing something wrong. I only noticed the weight gain since I have started training more with weights, which I don't really log in, and since I started taking in more protein. The smaller stuff like the trail mix, I totally agree with. I don't know how they figure in the calorie total. I just scanned the barcode and ate a small amount, like suggested. It was just a snack to fill me up. Not a meal. But the chicken breast thing. That's where I have trouble with logging. My phone app doesn't allow me to see anything but the calories for foods that I type in and find in the database. Which is why I try to scan everything instead of search the database. I don't take every entry to be accurate. I just use it as a guideline. My only question really was whether or not I was making a mistake with trying protein shake for breakfast and before bed.
  • ajhoward426
    ajhoward426 Posts: 2 Member
    Is it possible you are confusing your TDEE with your BMR? Your BMR takes the calories you need to survive based on your lifestyle (the desk job + body stats). Then your TDEE factors in your activity level (workout 2, 4, everyday, etc). If you are using the TDEE number as your calories to hit, you SHOULD NOT be logging your exercise on top of it. While I think it's fine to keep a journal of your exercise routine, if you are adding activity calories back in you will most likely always run a surplus, not a deficit. Am I way off here?
  • Unknown
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  • JessMell16
    JessMell16 Posts: 11 Member
    Is it possible you are confusing your TDEE with your BMR? Your BMR takes the calories you need to survive based on your lifestyle (the desk job + body stats). Then your TDEE factors in your activity level (workout 2, 4, everyday, etc). If you are using the TDEE number as your calories to hit, you SHOULD NOT be logging your exercise on top of it. While I think it's fine to keep a journal of your exercise routine, if you are adding activity calories back in you will most likely always run a surplus, not a deficit. Am I way off here?
  • JessMell16
    JessMell16 Posts: 11 Member
    I was confusing TDEE with BMR. That is my mistake. Thank you! :) Before I saw your response, my friend explained it to me. I suppose I didn't really read the details enough to understand it. Thanks for your responses everyone. I've got it from here.
  • JessMell16
    JessMell16 Posts: 11 Member
    BFDeal - lol I didn't take the calories burned seriously. I don't log everything I do for exercise and I don't trust that by walking/jogging for a certain length of time, I have effectively burned the number of calories that MFP says I did. It was just a guideline I use to know that I'm burning more than 600 calories a day. I feel like my desk job keeps me too immobile for too long. Most of my exercise (what is actually logged) is done during my work breaks and then an evening walk.
  • sunflowerhippi
    sunflowerhippi Posts: 1,099 Member
    Each day, I am burning between 800 - 1200 calories

    I believe that you believe you're burning 800-1200 calories a day. I'm a 5'11" 250lb male and I don't get numbers like this unless I run for an entire hour. I even doubt the accuracy of that when I do.

    Agree and disagree with this. I am 155lb female but when I run my HR is around 170-190 so a 1 hour long run burns pretty many calories. But to the OP get a HRM if you can MFP's burns are known to be way off which does not help. Heart Rate monitor would solver for getting correct number for your burned calories.

    Also I just scanned a barcode today, but when I weighed the food my "1 serving" was in reality 1.46 servings for a pre-pressed fresh sausage so it took 200 calories and made it 300 so scanning does not mean correct in any way shape or form. I am guessing that you need to weigh everything for a while and that will help a lot of your problems with your intake.
  • albayin
    albayin Posts: 2,524 Member
    I was wondering what kind of exercise you do to burn 800-1200 daily...I wish I could have that much energy to burn that much~ I'd have to run half marathon to get that much burn...
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Each day, I am burning between 800 - 1200 calories

    I think this is a pretty vast overstatement of calorie burn. I have to ride in the neighborhood of 35 miles at about 15 - 16 MPH to get a 1200 calorie burn...and I'm a 5'10" male @ 180 Lbs.

    I also agree with fatdoob that your logging is suspect. I believe that you believe that you are doing everything right, but I also believe that you are not. Tighten it up and figure out where you really are.

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