Gained Body Fat While on Calorie Deficit
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myisha00
Posts: 12 Member
I’ve female 5’9 and trying to lose weight and tone. I’ve been using MyFitnessPal to calculate my calories for about a month now and I take in 1300 calories a day. I recent bought a scale to track my weight loss and BMI and all has been going well except this morning I somehow gained a pound of body fat and loss muscle according to my scale. I weightlift 3 times a week and do cardio 5 times. How is it possible that I gained weight? My Macros are 30 carbs, 40 protein, 30 fat. Am I doing something wrong?
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Replies
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Weight fluctuates. Its completely normal. Scales that tell you your body composition aren't the most accurate, you can expect some changes with that too.21
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You didn't if your in a calorie deficit your weight fluctuates day to day depending on so many variables eg what you are the night before, time of the month, exercise5
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Hormones, new activity, bowel movements (or lack of), not enough water, sodium can all affect scale weight. At @Teabythesea_ stated BIA scales can be incorrect quite often so don't put much into the readings. If you are consuming 1300 cal and working out like you are you can lose muscle since you are in a pretty significant deficit, but again I wouldn't trust the scale for any more than tracking weight. Are you using a trend app as well? Looks like there are only a few data points on the current trend so I would recommend weighing daily and following the trend that way it may be a more accurate reflection of your progress.7
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Composition scales are not the most accurate. They can track a trend over time however, and that's what i use mine for. If you are weighing everything and tracking accurately with your food then there is no way you gained fat. It's water weight at the most.4
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Inaccurate measuring device most likely, it only measures electrical resistance and then tries to interpret that as body composition and often doesn't make a good or consistent job of it.
Use it in the perspective that it's simply not good quality data. You might get a reasonable trend over time but individual readings should not be used to base decisions on or judge the effectiveness of your diet and exercise.6 -
It takes about 3500 calories in addition to your daily maintenance calories to gain a pound of fat. It is helpful to remember that in the early stages of weight loss when you step on the scale and it goes up. Even if your food log was off some it is unlikely that you ate at least 4k more calories than you realized yesterday.
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Pretty much ignore the BF% on your scale. If you want to trend it long term (3-6 months) it might be useful, but day to day it is useless.6
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Thanks everyone! I was aware that my scale might not be the most accurate at measuring my weight composition but I thought that it would at least remain consistent. Im bit disappointed if that is not true but glad that I did not mess something up. I was doing once a week weigh ins before but read that daily was better to get more insight in my progress. I’m going to try to continue with daily measurements to track the trends. If it drives me too crazy I’ll go back to weekly. My main issue is want to build muscle and lose fat which I’ve heard is difficult to achieve simultaneously. This is kinda why I’m not too concerned with the weight but more concerned with my body fat and muscle mass reading. I wish there was a better way to get a more accurate reading. Maybe I’ll switch using a tape measure or combination of both.5
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Thanks everyone! I was aware that my scale might not be the most accurate at measuring my weight composition but I thought that it would at least remain consistent. Im bit disappointed if that is not true but glad that I did not mess something up. I was doing once a week weigh ins before but read that daily was better to get more insight in my progress. I’m going to try to continue with daily measurements to track the trends. If it drives me too crazy I’ll go back to weekly. My main issue is want to build muscle and lose fat which I’ve heard is difficult to achieve simultaneously. This is kinda why I’m not too concerned with the weight but more concerned with my body fat and muscle mass reading. I wish there was a better way to get a more accurate reading. Maybe I’ll switch using a tape measure or combination of both.
It is possible, but only with recomp (maintenance calories and a progressive lifting routine). Also a very slow process. On a deficit you may have some newbie gains at the most, but would not be significant since you need to be in a surplus (or choose recomp) to gain muscle.8 -
Thanks everyone! I was aware that my scale might not be the most accurate at measuring my weight composition but I thought that it would at least remain consistent. Im bit disappointed if that is not true but glad that I did not mess something up. I was doing once a week weigh ins before but read that daily was better to get more insight in my progress. I’m going to try to continue with daily measurements to track the trends. If it drives me too crazy I’ll go back to weekly. My main issue is want to build muscle and lose fat which I’ve heard is difficult to achieve simultaneously. This is kinda why I’m not too concerned with the weight but more concerned with my body fat and muscle mass reading. I wish there was a better way to get a more accurate reading. Maybe I’ll switch using a tape measure or combination of both.
I tried using a tape. I can't get the same number twice, so am using it once a month only. I weigh daily (and get a BF% daily) because it's easy. Stand on the scale and am done, but mine is wifi so I don't even have to type numbers in.
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You can weigh daily/every other day and use a trending app- there are several options (Happy Scale, Scelta are 2 I’ve tried). These apps are not really useful if you only weigh once a week.0
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Body comp scales are wildly inaccurate.2
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I read a study on those body comp scales and they are tremendously inaccurate. They are basically useless. There are local places (some places) where they have those pods and it's fairly inexpensive to use them and they are accurate.1
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I read a study on those body comp scales and they are tremendously inaccurate. They are basically useless. There are local places (some places) where they have those pods and it's fairly inexpensive to use them and they are accurate.2
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When I had my appraisal at the gym the woman told me that when you under eat your body starts to store fat.. I was given an ideal daily calorie goal based on my body fat %, weight, height etc... It had a fancy name which I can't remember19
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alicemarshall2 wrote: »When I had my appraisal at the gym the woman told me that when you under eat your body starts to store fat.. I was given an ideal daily calorie goal based on my body fat %, weight, height etc... It had a fancy name which I can't remember
This is not true at all, and if she's telling you that then I'd take everything else she says with a grain of salt. There are two ways to get your "ideal" intake for weight loss. You can input your stats into MFP and eat what they tell you to with your exercise calories or you can calculate your TDEE and eat less than that whether or not you exercise for the day. I put "ideal" in quotes because both of those numbers aren't 100% accurate but they're good starting points for determining your calorie needs.
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alicemarshall2 wrote: »When I had my appraisal at the gym the woman told me that when you under eat your body starts to store fat.. I was given an ideal daily calorie goal based on my body fat %, weight, height etc... It had a fancy name which I can't remember
No. That doesn't happen. I'd find a new woman at the gym. That sounds like the old starvation mode myth.
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1077746/starvation-mode-adaptive-thermogenesis-and-weight-loss/p1
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/761810/the-starvation-mode-myth-again/p19 -
alicemarshall2 wrote: »When I had my appraisal at the gym the woman told me that when you under over eat your body starts to store fat.. I was given an ideal daily calorie goal based on my body fat %, weight, height etc... It had a fancy name which I can't remember
FIFY3 -
alicemarshall2 wrote: »When I had my appraisal at the gym the woman told me that when you under eat your body starts to store fat..
Please, please, please tell me you laughed in her face.12 -
Body weight fluctuates naturally up and down, even when you're in a deficit. Scales are not accurate at measuring bodyfat...think about it...how could they be. It's a gimmick.3
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