Am I gaining muscle weight?

darthfoolish
darthfoolish Posts: 6 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
A bit of background first.

I am a 6'2" 40 year old male, and I have been on a journey now for about 15 months, and have been pretty successful up to now.

I started at 30st (420lbs), and I am now at 22st 5lbs (313lbs). I know I still have a long way to go, but I am still very motivated.

All attempts up to now I have given up after losing a stone or two, but this time with the momentum of nearly 8 stone behind me, I can't (and don't want to) give up.

So, about 6 weeks ago, I decided I would start the couch to 5k running program.

It was a real struggle at first, and I am still doing week one runs, as week two runs were causing me issues.

(I was getting hip pain doing week 2 runs, which is insane, as it is only an extra minute of running)

I expected running would greatly accelerate my weight loss, since I am not eating any more than I was before.

However, I have been averaging a pound a week, and no more than 2.

Before running, I was probably averaging closer to 2lbs a week, with 4lb losses not unheard of.

So, with this pitiful amount of running (effectively 24 minutes of jogging per week), could I be gaining muscle mass, explaining the lower weight loss?

Also, at the top end of healthy BMI for my height, my weight would be 13st 13lbs (195lbs).

This seems insane to me, as I think I remember being pretty happy at 18st in my early 20s, maybe geeling a little overweight

Is BMI really a good metric?

Replies

  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    No, the running isn't adding muscle.

    Make sure you're well hydrated, as it could just be a bit of water retention masking the loss. Do you weigh everything with scales?
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    What were you doing for exercise before you start c25k? New exercise for a long time sedentary person can cause minor muscle gains, even in a calorie deficit. But, at your weight, you likely had a lot of muscle already. It takes muscle to carry the extra weight around.

    More likely, it's your body retaining water for muscle repair if the exercise is new.

    Either way, it should work itself out. Just keep going.

    Great job on progress so far!
  • darthfoolish
    darthfoolish Posts: 6 Member
    Yeah, should have mentioned before the running I was walking, doing roughly 25 minutes a day during my lunch break, weather permitting.

    I'm still doing the walking, I'm doing the running before work.

    I do weigh my food, well at least things like potatoes and lentils

    To be fair though, I am probably not as rigorous as I should be with calorie counting, but my diet is largely the same week to week, and it's such a drag counting everything.

    If I make any significant changes to my diet, I will closely count that week.
  • sandryc79
    sandryc79 Posts: 250 Member
    At 300+ lbs when I began exercising after being intensely sedentary my weight loss stalled/slowed for about a month. I think it is a combo of muscle gains, storing glycogen and increased appetite. It isn't standard to gain muscle on a calorie deficit (some will say impossible) but it can happen when an obese person goes from sedentary to active and they have poor starting muscle mass.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    darthfoolish wrote: »
    Yeah, should have mentioned before the running I was walking, doing roughly 25 minutes a day during my lunch break, weather permitting.

    I'm still doing the walking, I'm doing the running before work.

    I do weigh my food, well at least things like potatoes and lentils

    To be fair though, I am probably not as rigorous as I should be with calorie counting, but my diet is largely the same week to week, and it's such a drag counting everything.

    If I make any significant changes to my diet, I will closely count that week.

    Sounds like your portion sizes are creeping up if you're not measuring....
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    TavistockToad wrote: »
    darthfoolish wrote: »
    Yeah, should have mentioned before the running I was walking, doing roughly 25 minutes a day during my lunch break, weather permitting.

    I'm still doing the walking, I'm doing the running before work.

    I do weigh my food, well at least things like potatoes and lentils

    To be fair though, I am probably not as rigorous as I should be with calorie counting, but my diet is largely the same week to week, and it's such a drag counting everything.

    If I make any significant changes to my diet, I will closely count that week.

    Sounds like your portion sizes are creeping up if you're not measuring....

    Yes you should go back to measuring everything

    And hold firm

    Exercise induced water retention masking loss at a guess
  • darthfoolish
    darthfoolish Posts: 6 Member
    I would say even before I started walking my leg muscle mass was pretty big. Guess it needed to be to be able to haul the rest of me around! :)
  • sandryc79
    sandryc79 Posts: 250 Member
    darthfoolish wrote: »
    I would say even before I started walking my leg muscle mass was pretty big. Guess it needed to be to be able to haul the rest of me around! :)

    Yeah, mine too...but I have gotten more strength in a lot of other places, particularly my upper body from swimming!

    Your have done a really amazing job. Very inspiring! Keep up the good work and get back to carefully measuring intake and you should see the losses. I stalled for a month followed by a great loss the following month.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,140 Member
    edited May 2015
    first of all congratulations on your loss so far. truly awesome to hear.

    let me take the opportunity to remind you of a couple of things that I'm sure you probably already know deep down inside.

    the main part of your weight loss is going to come from your food not your exercise.

    I can't help but think that relatively vigorous exercise such as jogging will not only result in temporary water gain as your muscles seek to repair themselves; but, that it may actually be the wrong thing to do at your current weight.

    your joints are still particularly vulnerable given the forces that will be exerted on them and weight lifting is much more likely to help you retain muscle mass as compared to jogging.

    walking, walking at an incline, and pool based cardio activities or swimming should be able to provide you with more than enough cardio to help you improve your health and aid in maintaining an appreciable deficit on your way down to a weight where putting exercise pressure on your joints would make more sense.

    and all of these are activities you can do for much longer periods of time to achieve a much higher total caloric burn as compared to jogging.

    Having said all that, I feel that i just plain need to call you out on not wanting to log, and log accurately and carefully while you're at it, because it's tedious.

    I am sure the weight you were at was also tedious to your body and to yourself.

    unless you trully believe that logging had little to do with your success so far... why exactly do you feel that you're now ready to move away from it?

    ETA: I see where you say that your diet is the same day to day. I log by weight, when I can, inlcuding things like protein bars and even McDonald's if I bring it home, or 35 calorie yoplait yogurts. I've found both frequent overages and frequent underages. In commercial factory made products.... as much as 20%...
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,140 Member
    If you always eat similar meals, you can save them, I.e. save a particular breakfast or lunch.

    When you log the saved item next time, your meal will populate with all the entries, and you can will be able to go in and edit the quantities or remove/add one or two items as the case may be.
  • darthfoolish
    darthfoolish Posts: 6 Member
    Thanks for the comments. I will try and log more accurately, and on days when I have potatoes, I think it is time to cut back on them now. I was having 250g with my main meal 3 times a week, going to take it down to 160g.

    Also, don't get me wrong, although I haven't had as large losses as I would have liked since I started running, I haven't had any gains.

    They are the most disheartening weeks, I've not had very many, but enough to be annoying!
  • SergeantSausage
    SergeantSausage Posts: 1,673 Member
    No. Not likely.

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