Help me. Gaining more fat than muscle.

Thank you for everyone responses. I think my BMI is low due to my disproportionate of bone mass. My story is I was once very overweight, close to 200 pounds. (It’s been a very long journey) but as I got closer to my goal weight, I wanted to lose the last couple of pounds so I went on an extreme calorie deficit eating at about 1150 calories, Monday through Sunday (for about two months.) My weight was going down and I was happy. However, It wasn’t until I paid for the reading and found it was really my muscle reducing, I had actually only lost about a pound of fat. My body basically went into starvation mode and eat away the muscle. So I have about 10 pounds I need to gain back (in muscle)
but like everyone is saying I don’t think Bulking is the correct way to go. I’m just going to add on extra unnecessary fat. I think I have decided I will stick with a 6 week comprehensive strength training routine 6 days a week eating at maintance,( I have a fit bit watch- so I will change my calories on a daily to meet my maintance calories.

Also I have learned through my nutrition class that BMI does not take account for bone mass in the body. So for instance “an athlete” who has lots of muscle mass. Generally If they have their reading done it will put them as having an overweight in BMI. However, they are most likely not if they workout, and it reads as having a having a lower bf %.

The best way to determine physical health is by looking at bf%. Just stating what it says in my nutrition textbook/ and what my professor said.

sardelsa wrote: »

PAV8888 wrote: »

sardelsa wrote: »

PAV8888 wrote: »

All these symptoms with a single lb of weight change? Wow!

Are you measuring at the same point in your monthly cycle? Women tend to retain more or less water at various times of the month.

Are you using a weight trend app?

And... maybe bulking is not a great idea for right now assuming you're already above a BMI of 20 or so.

BMI actually has nothing to do with bulking, it is more about bodyfat % unless that is what you meant. Typically it is recommended for women to start bulking at 20% bodyfat or less. Keep in mind the scale she used may not even be accurate so OP could be quite lower than it said.

Sometimes people recovering from EDs have issues when they first start regaining weight. I know nothing about the OP except that they appeared to be uncomfortable with single1lb gain during a deliberate bulk.

BMI of 20 is considered to be the low end of normal for most non-asian, not height challenged women and is a frequent minimum milestone to be considered weight restored when recovering. Body fat % is really hard to determine. So I used a BMI of 20 as a quick stand-in for the low end of normal weight.

My point being that unless there exists a health reason for the bulk (in which case it should continue till, at the very least, the person is weight restored), the mind-set seems a bit stressed for a vanity goal bulk.

Everything else you mention is, of course, true and correct. We're just looking at it from different perspectives, I think.

ETA: I also consider very unlikely (though I suppose that out of a large enough sample there will exist AT LEAST ONE person who is EXACTLY there!) that a person with a BMI of 20 will also be over-fat!

In any case, given the stress this is causing, unless there is a reason to be WANTING the increase in weight... lifting at maintenance and re-comping seems to be the most palatable strategy!

I do agree that bulking is not a good idea for OP and we don't know her history. But I will correct my original statement that BMI has nothing to do with it since you reminded me it does if someone is underweight, especially in more extreme cases, regardless of their bodyfat, it is typically recommended to gain (I say typically since there are exceptions I'm sure). And I have been in a situation where my BMI was 20 but had a very high bodyfat percentage so it is possible!