Muscle Loss 5 pounds in 1 week!!

tiona83
tiona83 Posts: 99 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
O.K. some back ground information first. I'm doing some personal training sessions which include a lot of intervals with cardio and free weights. Which is going well and kicking my butt at the same time. I'm not new to personal trainers/ lifting weights but am new to the Tanita scale they weigh me on. My medical background includes Relapsing Remitting Multiple Sclerosis which can cause neurogenic atrophy (muscle loss) but I don't believe that is the cause (I have no symptoms or signed).

So for the big question. How can I loose 5 pounds of muscle in a week?? I mean come on something else must be up right?? I also felt I had a rather large muscle gain the second week correct me if I'm wrong.

So my figures are as follows

Week 1 …. Week 2 …. Week 3
Weight- 11st 6.6 …. 11st 8.2 …. 11st 4.6
Fat%- 33.2 …. 31.5 …. 33.1
Fat mass - 3st 11.4 …. 3st 9 …. 3st 10.4
FFM- 7st 9.2 …. 7st 13.2 …. 7st 8.2
Muscle mass- 7st 3.8 …. 7st 7.6 …. 7st 2.8
TBW- 5st 6.2 …. 5st 9 …. 5st 5.2
TBW %- 47.4 …. 48.7 …. 47.4
BMR - 1479 …. 1526 …. 1468

And by the way My weigh in at home is on a Sunday morning and I did not have as much fluctuation with body fat/ muscle nor weight. But my scale is probably not as accurate.

Thanks for taking the time to read and respond also any reading information would be appreciated.

Replies

  • shall724
    shall724 Posts: 18 Member
    Honestly, it really makes no sense to me how your BMR would go down so much in one week either. Actually, you can second guess a lot here, and it makes me question the scale. Even if the Tanita scale is really "supposed" to be more accurate. Maybe ask your personal trainer to explain how those numbers would make sense ...(?)
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    First - BIA scales like the one you are using are only accurate up to 5%, presented with a body that is the same hydration level. Usually closer to 10%.
    So if this wasn't the morning after a rest day eating normal sodium levels, not sore from last workout - forget the data, anything less than a month is useless as it's too much noise right now.

    Second - they only really measure resistance to water, and can really only tell the difference between fat mass and non-fat mass (or LBM as usually called) - all the other stats are huge estimates with way less accuracy than the BF part of it, based on any number of other things.

    I would give no weight (get it, weight!) to any of those other stats.

    You didn't lose muscle mass, well, not likely, you'd have to do several things just right, or rather, really wrong, to accomplish that.
    And sadly, neither did you gain muscle mass that fast. A woman eating in surplus and lifting progressively with minimal cardio could hope for maybe 1 lb in 6 - 8 weeks.
    You in a diet - nope.

    Now - you those figures on the LBM going down could be very correct - since that is everything NOT fat, including water volume.
    Hence the need for you to present an equally hydrated body on both measures.

    Oh, the way to really lose some muscle mass.
    Eat very low carb, or go into your workouts really fasted from last meal.
    Go very intense so it's total carb burn.
    Do that day after day for several in a row.
    Eat low calorie in general besides the low carb.

    This will at the least have the body breaking down amino acids to convert to glucose to maintain blood sugar levels since the liver runs low and that's what the body has to do.
    Not eating enough will prevent the muscle those amino acids came from from getting built back up again. Bam, small muscle loss.
    At the worst you'll progressively wipe out your muscle glucose stores too, and then as those get low the really big conversion of amino acids happens not only for blood sugar levels, but also just for the muscles to have something. This should be felt on the last workout as just feeling wiped out and needing to slow down - compared to the other days.
    Doing this in one endurance setting is known as "hitting the wall" or "bonking" - not sure what swimmers call it. Probably drowning.
  • tiona83
    tiona83 Posts: 99 Member
    Thank you Shall and Haybales. Yeah I know the second weight in is a bit of a disaster because I had Chinese the night before so who knows how much salt was in it. I appreciate the insight and thanks for passing on the knowledge and insight. Much appreciated.

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