Lost 2 pounds in 3 days, body fat is the same

backupguy
backupguy Posts: 8
edited December 2014 in Health and Weight Loss
Hi guys, I am really struggling mentally with my goals. In the past week I've lost 3-4 pounds but the body fat hasn't really moved, by 0.1% at most, does this mean I am losing muscle?

I have been clean eating for about the past week now, and I am not getting enough calories, yesterday I ate less than 1700 calories.

I had the following to eat

Protein shake before a 1.5 mile run
Breakfast - 2 servings of porridge with 200ml skimmed milk and 1 apple
Lunch (during work) - Flame grilled Chicken breast, a peanut 9 bar and 1 apple
Dinner - 2 chicken breasts with lemon juice and black pepper, 2 sweet potatoes (baked)
Protein shake at about 8:30pm

There are times when I am hungry during my shift at work, is there something I can get that would be quick to snack on, to stop my body from burning muscle? anything else I could be doing? Thanks

Replies

  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
    First, that looks like more than 1700 calories. Breakfast 470 (approximate as I don't have the weights) 370 shakes/ 3 chicken breasts 450/ 2 sweet potatoes (6 ounces average) 300/ another apple 70, the bar 289. I'm getting about 1950, (Did you add anything to those potatoes?)based on averages. Weigh and measure your food.
    Secondly, make sure you're getting enough protein and ideally strength train, to retain muscle mass.
    Lastly, where are you getting these body fat measurements?
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,420 MFP Moderator
    It 7 days it's impossible to know how much was fat vs muscle vs water. While you will always lose muscle during weight loss, you can minimize the loss by having a smaller deficit, eating high protein and doing resistance training.

    BTW, if you are using a scale or a hand held bioimpedance machine, they tend to be very inaccurate.
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
    Your weight can fluctuate by 3-4 lbs in a week with no fat loss at all. If you are running every day and you are eating less than 2000 calories, then I expect you are losing weight, but it will be several weeks before you see significant results.
  • shortnsassy1981
    shortnsassy1981 Posts: 154 Member
    You don't seem to be eating any fat at all. Healthy fats combined with protein will help keep you satiated.
  • Holly_Roman_Empire
    Holly_Roman_Empire Posts: 4,440 Member
    So did you lose 2 pounds in 3 days or 3-4 pounds in a week? It could just mean you took a big dump one morning. Try weighing yourself less if this is going to mess with your head this much.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    body fat measurements are never accurate so you can't check them like that

    you're not giving it enough time - weight loss is not linear

    you really should be weighing your food
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    I would guess you are putting far too much faith in your bodyfat measurements! If you are using BIA scales then do a little experiment, measure your BF% before and after drinking a pint of water.
    I had some quite high end BIA scales (4 point sensors) which actually tracked my changing BF reasonably well over a period of months as a general trend but would have wild fluctuations in the short term, 3% in a day for example.

    If this is your first week then you have probably lost a lot of water weight.
    Assuming you want to preserve muscle mass then a small deficit, adequate protein and resistance/strength training is the way to go.

    Clean eating - I won't even go there! :neutral_face:
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    what are you using to measure body fat?

    clean eating does not matter for fat loss.

    two pounds can be water weight or a big dump….

  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    It's hard to lose that much fat in two days. I've lost over 5 pounds since Friday, but that's entirely water from my new routine and post-Thanksgiving.

    The best ways to keep from losing muscle is to a. eat in a decent calorie deficit (you only have 9 pounds left to lose, so you shouldn't be aiming for more than half a pound per week), and b. lift heavy.
  • WatchJoshLift
    WatchJoshLift Posts: 520 Member
    backupguy wrote: »
    Hi guys, I am really struggling mentally with my goals. In the past week I've lost 3-4 pounds but the body fat hasn't really moved, by 0.1% at most, does this mean I am losing muscle?

    I have been clean eating for about the past week now, and I am not getting enough calories, yesterday I ate less than 1700 calories.

    I had the following to eat

    Protein shake before a 1.5 mile run
    Breakfast - 2 servings of porridge with 200ml skimmed milk and 1 apple
    Lunch (during work) - Flame grilled Chicken breast, a peanut 9 bar and 1 apple
    Dinner - 2 chicken breasts with lemon juice and black pepper, 2 sweet potatoes (baked)
    Protein shake at about 8:30pm

    There are times when I am hungry during my shift at work, is there something I can get that would be quick to snack on, to stop my body from burning muscle? anything else I could be doing? Thanks

    I would think it's mostly water.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    First, unless you had your body fat measured professionally (with the water immersion technique) twice in a week, your number won't be accurate, because nothing else is.

    Second, that sounds to me like more than 1700 calories. Do you weigh everything? Because two sweet potatoes could go from 250 to 500 calories easily.. and a chicken breast can easily be 200+ calories...

    Third, when you lose that much weight in a few days, it's water weight. It doesn't mean you didn't lose fat the days before, but your fat cells fill with water as you burn the fat then you shed those (and that's when you lose weight)... so it would take more than a couple days to see a difference in fat % anyway.

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