Can I have gained 6 lbs of muscle?

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siegal5
siegal5 Posts: 2 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
At the end of November I joined a gym hoping to lose 10 lbs. I'm 5'3 32 yr old female my thinnest weight was 125 but no muscle probably. I went up to 134 and decided to join a gym. They body fat scaled weighed me and I had 30% body fat. I have been going to the gym regularly doing both cardio and strength training and my weight keeps going up. This morning I weighed 140 lbs!! But it said my body fat was 28%. So did I gain fat or muscle? All the excercising make me so hungry and now I need to lose 15 lbs!! Help

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  • Stella3838
    Stella3838 Posts: 439 Member
    edited March 2017
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    How are you tracking your food? You can workout all you'd like, but if you're eating more than you burn, you'll gain weight. I'd recommend a food scale for solids, cups/spoons for liquids if you aren't using one. Measure everything you eat. And also, most calorie burn estimates are high, so be mindful of that. It took me several weeks of trial and error to find my balance and create the needed calorie deficit.

    ETA: If you are using a step on or hand-held scale to measure body fat, those can notoriously be wrong.
  • StealthHealth
    StealthHealth Posts: 2,417 Member
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    fascha wrote: »
    Not even on steroids could you gain that much muscle. Depending on how long you've been training your muscles could have retained some water from a new workout regiment but I'd say you're probably eating too much from my experience.

    ^^I agree with this.
  • danika2point0
    danika2point0 Posts: 197 Member
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    Same height as you. Stopped tracking calorie intake and got myself from 128 back up to 140 in no time. That was while consistently exercising 5x a week and over 10,000 steps per day. It's all in the Calories In-Calories Out.
  • siegal5
    siegal5 Posts: 2 Member
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    So gaining .5 lbs a week of muscle is a no huh...argh. I guess I was being hopeful
  • 3bambi3
    3bambi3 Posts: 1,650 Member
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    siegal5 wrote: »
    So gaining .5 lbs a week of muscle is a no huh...argh. I guess I was being hopeful

    For a woman under optimal conditions (eating in a surplus with a proper lifting program) the most muscle that can be gained is .5-1lb per month. Building muscle is hard! But don't be discouraged; it sounds like you just need to tighten up your logging to start seeing results on the scale.
  • deputy_randolph
    deputy_randolph Posts: 940 Member
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    I'm 37, 5'3, started at 127, bulked, lifted heavy, competed in 2 powerlifting competitions, gained 10lbs in a year. Building muscle is hard and a long process.

    Based on my experience, I don't think you gained 6 lbs of muscle. When I first started lifting, I was extra hungry, not always logging accurately, and was not eating enough protein to stay satiated.
  • Traveler120
    Traveler120 Posts: 712 Member
    edited March 2017
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    If you used the exact same method of bodyfat measurement and conditions were identical (hydration etc), then here's the best case scenario:
    Before: 134 lbs x 30%bf = 40.2 lbs of fat mass
    Now:140 lbs x 28%bf = 39.2 lbs of fat mass

    -So you've lost 1 lb body fat but gained 7 lbs total mass (water+muscle weight).
    -You've also been training for 3 months and average expectation is 0.5-1 lb/month. (so 1.5-3 lbs could be muscle)
    -And if you haven't been training before, chances are you may be on the upper end of the range (newbie gains), so let's be optimistic and assume 3 lbs.
    -That leaves us with 3-4 lbs of water weight, which can be explained by several things. TOM is one. Another is diet. If you were lower carb then vs now, you may have been at a lower weight from water weight loss.

    Now, of course bodyfat measurements are not foolproof. So it's also entirely possible that they could be wrong bf% and understated the original or current % and if so, you've actually gained both fat and muscle, especially if you've been eating more due to increased appetite. That's why you should always take measurements. The measuring tape doesn't lie. Everything else is guess work.
  • bbell1985
    bbell1985 Posts: 4,572 Member
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    siegal5 wrote: »
    So gaining .5 lbs a week of muscle is a no huh...argh. I guess I was being hopeful

    I bulked. I purposely ate in a surplus and trained with high frequency and progressive overload. I put on 14 pounds in 5-6 months. I assumed maybe I gained 3 lbs of muscle total.
  • AliceDark
    AliceDark Posts: 3,886 Member
    edited March 2017
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    siegal5 wrote: »
    So gaining .5 lbs a week of muscle is a no huh...argh. I guess I was being hopeful

    Also keep in mind that nobody gains muscle only. Under the best circumstances, a 1:1 ratio of muscle to fat is considered ideal (meaning that most people probably don't quite get there). So out of those 6 pounds, the best-case scenario is that maybe 3 are muscle, but that depends on your training more than anything. What kind of lifting program are you doing?

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