Working out=gaining

sody78 wrote: »

Hi
I work out regularly 5/6 days a week mostly with kettlebells using Simple and sinister. This seems to have reduced b fat. I stopped tracking Cals and just followed guidelines like in easing protein intake and reducing carbs. Now I have started using double kettlebells my scale weight has increased? I know I'm building muscle as I have taken before and after pics. Question how do I get my scale weight down as I want to look a little leaner??
Thanks

Eating less and higher reps with less weight

You get the scale weight down by eating in a deficit. You eat in a deficit by logging calories, otherwise you have no clue what your intake is (whether you choose to believe that or not). If you're gaining weight, you're eating more calories than your body is burning. Some of the weight could be muscle, who knows, but I guarantee some of it is fat. That is, if this increase in weight happened over time and is not simply water weight.

Gaining muscle while losing fat just doesn't happen - you have to pick one. Either you're eating in a deficit and losing fat and a little muscle (while lifting to retain as much muscle mass as possible), or you're eating in a surplus and gaining both fat and a little muscle. Muscle mass doesn't pack on as quickly as people like to think.

I can't stand when I hear people, women in particular, talking about eating 1200 calories a day, but their weight hasn't gone down because they are gaining muscle. No, no they are not. Nor are they eating 1200 calories a day if they aren't losing weight.

you can't build muscle as fast as you can lose fat. muscle can be built at a maximum rate of about 0.5lbs per week in a YOUNG MALE BEGINNER. And this is assuming he is in a caloric surplus (so would be gaining weight overall). whereas, you can lose fat at a safe rate of 1-2lbs per week. so muscle gain is not cancelling out your fat loss.

if you are trying to reduce bodyfat, the scale should be moving down. you are not building muscle that fast. sorry, i've been there. it's easy to tell yourself that.

but your story reads "I stopped logging calories because I couldn't be bothered and suddenly stopped losing weight. Is this because of muscle gain?"

yes but the body can only synthesize muscle at a certain rate, regardless of how many calories are in 1lb of it. also, it takes more than 600 calories to synthesize new tissue that didn't exist before.

so if you are set up to lose 1lb a week of fat you are probably only synthesizing 0.25-0.5lbs of muscle under ideal conditions. your overall rate of loss would still be -0.5-0.75lbs

If you can't be bothered to weigh and measure your food, don't be surprised if things aren't working out like you want.