Gaining muscle/weight

cortneytodd4348
cortneytodd4348 Posts: 3 Member
edited November 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
Hey everyone! I've been of MFP since February but never have I posted. Until now! I need encouragement/help. I started at 215. Got down to 198 in April but since I've started weight lifting 3 months ago as well as cardio I've gained almost 6lbs back! 203.5 now and it's driving me crazy! The guys at the gym I go to say it's muscle mass but then how come I've gained and keep gaining?! I know muscle weighs less than fat but it also burns fat at a higher rate. My measurements have gone down chest: 40-36 waist: 36-32 hips:48-44 and thighs:26-27. I'm eating 1500 calories and its high protien avg 70 high carbs avg 110 Im sry for the long post but I'm going mad trying to understand this! Pls help!

Replies

  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 26,653 Member
    Chances are you aren't gaining muscle mass ... chances are, some of it is simply water weight.

    A number of different things make a person retain water, and more exercise than usual is one of those things.

    Also, have to ask, are you weighing all your food?
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,808 Member
    edited August 2017
    You are gaining because you are in an energy surplus over the last 3 months, eating too much in other words.
    Opening your food diary might help reveal any logging inaccuracy.

    Muscle at rest burns cals at treble the rate of fat - but we are talking in the region of 6 cals per pound per day compared to 2 cals per pound per day. An irrelevance.
    In other typical broscience in taking a grain of truth and twisting it to absurd degrees.

    Good news about the measurements though.
  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,932 Member
    sijomial wrote: »
    You are gaining because you are in an energy surplus over the last 3 months, eating too much in other words.
    Opening your food diary might help reveal any logging inaccuracy.

    Muscle at rest burns cals at treble the rate of fat - but we are talking in the region of 6 cals per pound per day compared to 2 cals per pound per day. An irrelevance.
    In other typical broscience in taking a grain of truth and twisting it to absurd degrees.

    Good news about the measurements though.

    This^! If you want to lose weight, tighten down on your weighing and measuring and check your deficit. You've likely gained a little muscle mass but as a woman, that would be around a pound per month at best. The measurements tell you you've reduced some fat, and water and gained a little mass.
  • cortneytodd4348
    cortneytodd4348 Posts: 3 Member
    Hey everyone! Yes i measure my food i have an digital kitchen scale and i always read the label on serving sizes.
  • misnomer1
    misnomer1 Posts: 646 Member
    edited August 2017
    cortneytodd4348 wrote: »
    Hey everyone! Yes i measure my food i have an digital kitchen scale and i always read the label on serving sizes.

    Can't be gaining fat+lean body weight at 1500kcal. Has to be water if the logging and weighing is tight.
  • xvolution
    xvolution Posts: 721 Member
    A good portion of it is probably water weight. Muscles hold onto more water when they need to grow/repair.
  • Graelwyn75
    Graelwyn75 Posts: 4,404 Member
    I would imagine it is your muscles holding onto water to repair themselves. I am experiencing the same thing and am very tight on my weighing and food logging. It can be frustrating I will admit. I am not here to lose weight but nevertheless when you are pushing yourself hard in workouts and seee the scale go up ... yeah. I am not even new to working out either. Three years ago I was at peak fitness and trained almost daily. Seems my muscles have forgotten, lol as I retain water each time I train currently.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    my guess would be newbie gains + water retention + possibly consuming more calories then you think you are = what is going on ..

    do you use accurate MFP database entries? Do you log everything that you eat?
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,808 Member
    edited August 2017
    cortneytodd4348 wrote: »
    Hey everyone! Yes i measure my food i have an digital kitchen scale and i always read the label on serving sizes.

    So give it another 3 months and see what happens. If you carry on gaining you know that your numbers are giving you a surplus not a deficit.

    BTW - I've been here quite a while and it's been exceedingly rare that someone who is gaining weight on an improbably low calorie count actually has a diary that confirms the claim of accuracy.
    That's not saying you are a "secret eater" but there's loads of mistakes people make and people can help you remedy. Up to you which is more important, diary privacy or potentially spotting the problem.

    BTW2 - my logging was out by about 200 cals a day.
  • cortneytodd4348
    cortneytodd4348 Posts: 3 Member
    Hey there! It's likely I'm not counting accurately on MFP I've just been using whatever has been entered and not necessarily entries with the green check next to it. I hadn't realized that my journal was set to private. It's public now if y'all have time to take a look!
  • MegaMooseEsq
    MegaMooseEsq Posts: 3,118 Member
    cortneytodd4348 wrote: »
    Hey there! It's likely I'm not counting accurately on MFP I've just been using whatever has been entered and not necessarily entries with the green check next to it. I hadn't realized that my journal was set to private. It's public now if y'all have time to take a look!

    When you first start off and have a decent bit to lose, it's okay to be a bit loosey goosey with your logging, but once you hit a wall, like you have, it's good to start tightening things up. There are great tips in the "most helpful posts" sticky. Good luck!
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,808 Member
    Had a quick look at your diary.
    Ditch any entries using cups or spoons, they are a measure of volume not weight and it's the weight of an item that determines the calories.

    I wouldn't be too concerned with packaged items as although they can be individually variable on average it's close enough. Food companies don't tend to give away free food!

    Not many drinks being logged? Are you logging every drink with calories? All snacks?

    Some of the generic or unmeasured items seem to be suspiciously low in calories (such as the burrito or fried catfish).

    I think investing the time to gather a complete month of accurate data will put you in a really good position to know what's going on.
    You seem to have the exercise part nailed down, doing the same on the food side will get you where you want to be.

  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 26,653 Member
    cortneytodd4348 wrote: »
    Hey there! It's likely I'm not counting accurately on MFP I've just been using whatever has been entered and not necessarily entries with the green check next to it. I hadn't realized that my journal was set to private. It's public now if y'all have time to take a look!

    In addition to what the others have said, things like "fish sandwich" at 150 cal seems a bit low. My bread is nearly 150 cal/slice. 2 slices of bread and some tuna would put me up near 400 cal.

    Now I'm not sure what exactly you ate, but it might be worth breaking it down and checking it.
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
    Yup. If the calories seem too good to be true on generic entries, then they probably are. Even if that sandwich was in 50 cal a slice bread,50 calories of fish is a tiny amount. Add any mayo etc and you can see where it's tripping you up.

    I would say if you are eating in places without calorie counts try to minimise it until you have a better idea what the calories look like when you break down an item. So for the burrito,knowing roughly how many calories are in a tortilla dn the meat and any beans/rice/veggies.

    I guesstimate a fair amount because i don't often eat in chain restaurants but I'm good enough at eyeballing those things now and all my other logging is accurate that there's no impact on my weight loss.
  • xvolution
    xvolution Posts: 721 Member
    edited August 2017
    cortneytodd4348 wrote: »
    Hey there! It's likely I'm not counting accurately on MFP I've just been using whatever has been entered and not necessarily entries with the green check next to it. I hadn't realized that my journal was set to private. It's public now if y'all have time to take a look!

    Not all the green checked entries are correct either, and they can't be edited to fix any wrong values, so not going with the green checked entry everytime isn't necessarily a bad thing.
  • me0231
    me0231 Posts: 218 Member
    I've also experienced a stall, after a slight gain when I started lifting. I've read about other people with similar issues as well. It seems there's something about heavy lifting that can mess with the scale. I was in a deficit for 3 months without much exercise and weight loss was much more predictable. Like you though I'm down in measurements and I can start seeing muscle definition despite the scale, so I wouldn't worry too much. Definitely tighten up the logging though, that never hurts.

    I'm on a diet break of two weeks at maintenance now and I'm very curious if I start losing on the scale again next week, but overall I'm happy. Clothes fitting better is never a bad thing :smile:
  • Psychgrrl
    Psychgrrl Posts: 3,177 Member
    cortneytodd4348 wrote: »
    Hey there! It's likely I'm not counting accurately on MFP I've just been using whatever has been entered and not necessarily entries with the green check next to it. I hadn't realized that my journal was set to private. It's public now if y'all have time to take a look!

    The other thing to watch out for is (manufactured) change their ingredients or serving sizes and the database doesn't always reflect that. Always double check the entries against the label--even the ones you entered yourself.
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