Weight From Muscle?

arabianhorselover · July 2015

I guess I'm wondering how much muscle weight I could possibly have. I number of months ago I reached my goal weight. I decided to increase my calories by 100 per day in an attempt to maintain. Since then I have put on a few pounds. It didn't take me long to see that I was gaining, and to go back to my original calorie goal. Well, the extra has not gone away even though I used to lose on this amount of calories. I have been working out all along, and my pants do seem tighter in the thighs, but my clothes still fit. There have been times when I have overeaten, but this still seems strange.

Even though I have been exercising, there are a lot of days when I don't get enough protein, and I do eat a lot of "junk" food, so I don't see how I could have actually put on much muscle.

yopeeps025 · July 2015

Are you using progressive overload?

arabianhorselover · July 2015

Well, I do Stronglifts, plus other stuff. Haven't been increasing the weights much, lately. It seems every time I get to a point where I could do that, I have to miss a day. Then I'm not at that point anymore.

AsISmile · July 2015

Have you measured your body? That could be a good indicator to see if you are gaining fat or muscle.

mich19025 · July 2015

Did you see how long the gain stayed there for? If your body is used to eating at a lower amount then it is going to suppress a bit. Eating more food is going to equal more water weight and glycogen. For example. I have been on 1400 cals for a longggg time. Had stopped losing weight. Gradually added 100 cals on per week and i'm now at 1700. Did i gain 'scale' weight? I sure did but after a couple of weeks it has went back down. I think this is what causes folk to stay on the diet train too long. They think they are gaining all this fat when they try and move to maintenance. Ask yourself if you are eating 3500 calories over your maintenance level as that's what it would take to gain a pound of fat.

gemmamummy · July 2015

How long did you eat at the extra 100 kcals for? Sometimes your body will retain water, giving you a few extra lbs and a bloated look. It takes a while to subside. I've just upped cals by 300 a day and initially I jumped 4lbs up and looked blobby. Fastfoward 3 weeks and its calming down and the weight is slowly decreasing. Sometimes you have to ride out the extra bloat for a bit and not drop calories down at the first sign of weight gain.

arabianhorselover · July 2015

It is so hard to know what's going on. I kind of stopped measuring once I lost the weight. I don't think I stayed at the extra 100 for too long. I just figure I must have gained a few pounds over the holidays, etc. There have been a lot of times when I ate things I couldn't really count.

tpt1950 · July 2015

["and I do eat a lot of "junk" food, so I don't see how I could have actually put on much muscle.]

dmt4641 · July 2015

If you stopped measuring, overate over the holidays, and eat a lot of junk food, it sounds like you need to tighten up your tracking a bit. You may just be overeating more than you think and have gained a bit of weight back.

arabianhorselover · July 2015

I have overeaten at times. I track everything that I am able to track, but there are times I eat something that I have no way of tracking, like at a party, for instance.

ndj1979 · July 2015

if you just started adding in 100calories a day to get back to maintenance the "gain" you have seen is more than likely glycogen replenishing itself, which typically leads to be a five pound weight "gain". However, it is not fat or muscle it is just water weight.

as an FYI - carbs would be more important than protein on a bulk.

also, if does not matter if you eat "junk" food or regular food, what matters for adding muscle is progressive overload + consistent calorie surplus.

Weight From Muscle?

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