Losing muscle and gaining weight?

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george3660
george3660 Posts: 1 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
Afternoon everyone,

I want to try and get some advice on what could be the problem here. Firstly I am basing all this on one of those body composition machines most gyms use.

Before the New Years I went to the gym on and off for a few weeks while eating lots of rubbish because of christmas time etc... and actually noticed a small improvement in terms of weight loss and muscle gain.

Since the New Years I’ve been going to the gym around 5-6 days a week and each day consists of 15 mins of cardio and a cycle of abs, shoulders, arms etc... and while my diet still isn’t amazing I have definitely cut down on junk food and takeaways etc... and upped the exercise.

Yet I did my fitness body composition today and apparently I’ve gained around 2KG in weight and lost quite a bit of muscle while my friend who has the same kind of diet and goes the same time as me has gained a lot of muscle and lost quite a bit of weight.

I’m wondering what the hell im doing wrong!? I know those machines aren’t incredibly accurate but my friend has shown positive results while all my results have been negative. My H20 is around the same but the rest is all negative.

Any help or tips? It’s so frustrating!

Replies

  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
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    The machine at the gym has a margin of error of +/- 5-8% or more. Just stop using it.

    The companies who sell those machines are making bank off of creating unnecessary anxiety. Same goes for the gyms and trainers who live and die by their readings.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
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    There's a wide range of "body composition machines", some (mostly four sensor models) can give a reasonable trend if used with some thought and care over an extended period of time - but still with the odd weird and wonderful reading (mostly due to hydration changes).
    That thought and care would include same time of day, possibly same day of the week, not after a workout (not even after a hard workout yesterday), same eating/drinking schedule, not after a salty meal the previous day.....

    But some (mostly 2 sensor models), either just hands or just feet) are really only good for hysterical laughter.

    What you can't just do is use one randomly or sporadically use that kind of device and expect useful data. Don't base decisions on bad quality data.

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