Scale wont budge.
gburgos3000
Posts: 14 Member
So i’ve been in a caloric deficit for a while. I have taken some breaks here and there (longest was 3 weeks) and have tried refeeds but the scale wont budge as of late and I don’t want to go into a bigger deficit as im afraid i won’t get sufficient nutrients in.
I lift weights 5-6 days a week, do LISS (Low Intensity Cardio) around 3 times per week and 1 HIIT training session if I have time. I generally eat pretty healthy but I do have 1 or 2 days where I often splurge at the end of the day due to my extreme hunger from restricting for so long. Im a 4’9 20 year old female weighing 107.2 lbs.
Any advice? I was thinking the reason the scale hasn’t been budging is because ive been building muscle (which apparently weighs more than fat) but I feel as if my fat is still there and just not budging. I just want to lean out and lose 5 more lbs without killing my muscles.
I lift weights 5-6 days a week, do LISS (Low Intensity Cardio) around 3 times per week and 1 HIIT training session if I have time. I generally eat pretty healthy but I do have 1 or 2 days where I often splurge at the end of the day due to my extreme hunger from restricting for so long. Im a 4’9 20 year old female weighing 107.2 lbs.
Any advice? I was thinking the reason the scale hasn’t been budging is because ive been building muscle (which apparently weighs more than fat) but I feel as if my fat is still there and just not budging. I just want to lean out and lose 5 more lbs without killing my muscles.
2
Replies
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How many calories are you actually eating and how are you measuring them? I suspect that the answer to that question is at the crux of your problem.
You’re quite right to be mindful of your nutritional needs but as an under average height female your deficit is going to be really, really small as a result. This means that your logging is going to have to be very accurate and your deficit could very easily be wiped out by your bi-weekly ‘splurges’, unfortunately.
Do you use a kitchen scale and weigh all your food?
(It’s pretty unlikely, as a woman, that you can build sufficient muscle to influence the scale, by the way, unless you’ve been intensively trying to do so for a very long time.)7 -
BarbaraHelen2013 wrote: »How many calories are you actually eating and how are you measuring them? I suspect that the answer to that question is at the crux of your problem.
You’re quite right to be mindful of your nutritional needs but as an under average height female your deficit is going to be really, really small as a result. This means that your logging is going to have to be very accurate and your deficit could very easily be wiped out by your bi-weekly ‘splurges’, unfortunately.
Do you use a kitchen scale and weigh all your food?
(It’s pretty unlikely, as a woman, that you can build sufficient muscle to influence the scale, by the way, unless you’ve been intensively trying to do so for a very long time.)
Ive been consuming around 1250 cals a day but with the cardio and lifting i do my daily net is usually around 1000. On days i splurge I usually hit 2000 but my weekly net will be around 1300. I weigh my food pretty accurately but maybe it’s just the splurges. They’re super hard to resist though, especially on my TOTM.
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The reason you're splurging is because you're cutting too drastically. Try a little snack once a day, it can be two blocks of chocolate and you won't feel the need to binge. That's what I do.7
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OP you aren’t in a deficit.
Most likely the low days are offset by the high days.
Most common advice here is weigh and log everything. Check database entries for accuracy. Aim to load half a pound a week. Put on your patient pants, it’ll take a while. And remember that water weight fluctuations can mask fat loss.7 -
Muscle doesn’t weigh more than fat, 1lb of muscle is the same as 1lb of fat, but if you were to have it on scales in front of you then you would have more fat than muscle. Also looking at your height and weight, you are in the healthy weight range. Have you tried measuring yourself? Waist, arms, thighs etc. As you may find that is changing rather than the scales.5
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You are already at a normal weight for your height per BMI. Any weight loss will likely (and should be) slow and may get masked by water or hormone driven fluctuations.
I would suggest if you’re not happy with your appearance at present, rather than continue trying to lose, look into recomposition. (There are several good threads on this in the Maintenance section).7 -
Muscle doesn’t weigh more than fat, 1lb of muscle is the same as 1lb of fat, but if you were to have it on scales in front of you then you would have more fat than muscle. Also looking at your height and weight, you are in the healthy weight range. Have you tried measuring yourself? Waist, arms, thighs etc. As you may find that is changing rather than the scales.
When people say “muscle weighs more than fat” what they mean is that muscle weighs more than fat AT THE SAME VOLUME.
For example, if I say that a cubic inch of muscle weighs more than I cubit inch of fat, I am 100% accurate.
I am pretty sure that anyone who can work a computer and visit these boards understands that a pound of x and a pound of y always weighs the same.
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Check out this thread, showing why a food scale is such a powerful tool for weight loss.
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10634517/you-dont-use-a-food-scale/p11
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