Losing fat but not weight? Is it possible?
gburgos3000
Posts: 14 Member
So ive been in a caloric deficit for a few weeks now. I’ll have one or two days where I indulge or take a week long diet break but my net average for my weight will almost always be at maintenance (when i do diet breaks) or a deficit. With that said, im a 116lbs 4’9 female who lifts 4-6 days out of the week and does 1-2 hours of cardio every day. My diet is pretty in check outside cheat days and I track my calories pretty accurately with my scale and measuring spoons (currently in a caloric deficit). In regards to what my training looks like, I progressively try to add more weight into my exercises and seem to be getting stronger. I lift slightly heavier than the average female and have been implementing strength training into my routine for a year now. So could it be that being in a caloric deficit i could be losing fat but gaining weight in muscle? Aka body recomposition? Asking because I feel slightly more toned but the scale won’t budge (or if anything the numbers go up). This makes me feel as if me feeling “leaner” & more toned is all in my head and im starting to grow discouraged because as someone who tracks pretty accurately I should be losing fat or weight in a caloric deficit right? Or is it because im simultaneously adding muscle while losing fat? Sorry if this post is a bit all over the place im just very scatter brained.
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Replies
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Can you recomp? Yes but its not very fast.
How many cheat days do you have? Also, its likely you could be having a lot of water retention. How and why are you exercising that much? The will likely inhibit recovery?
Side note, having a cheat day is an easy way to eliminate an entire weeks worth of a deficit. And given you are already in a good range, it's going to be difficult to lose weight because I accuracies can impede progress.10 -
Can you recomp? Yes but its not very fast.
How many cheat days do you have? Also, its likely you could be having a lot of water retention. How and why are you exercising that much? The will likely inhibit recovery?
Side note, having a cheat day is an easy way to eliminate an entire weeks worth of a deficit. And given you are already in a good range, it's going to be difficult to lose weight because I accuracies can impede progress.
I’ll have one or two but like I said my net weekly will still show that im in a deficit. I exercise a lot because I genuinely enjoy being active, especially now that there’s not much to do due to the pandemic.
Yes im aware of that though. Whenever that happens I’ll be at maintenance but even then it confuses me that i’ve been gaining weight outside of water retention, especially now at a caloric deficit.0 -
gburgos3000 wrote: »Can you recomp? Yes but its not very fast.
How many cheat days do you have? Also, its likely you could be having a lot of water retention. How and why are you exercising that much? The will likely inhibit recovery?
Side note, having a cheat day is an easy way to eliminate an entire weeks worth of a deficit. And given you are already in a good range, it's going to be difficult to lose weight because I accuracies can impede progress.
I’ll have one or two but like I said my net weekly will still show that im in a deficit. I exercise a lot because I genuinely enjoy being active, especially now that there’s not much to do due to the pandemic.
Yes im aware of that though. Whenever that happens I’ll be at maintenance but even then it confuses me that i’ve been gaining weight outside of water retention, especially now at a caloric deficit.
How many calories are you eating? Also, there is certainly a possibility your estimated deficit isn't aligned to reality. And its possible you will need to be more meticulous with your tracking. Also, can you open your diary? I can take a look.
And while i can certainly value being active, there is a point where more is not better and it can work against your actual goals. And in my experience, people are better off going hard for an hour or a little more, than several hours a day. I would also ask, what do you want to be your end state goal?
Also, how long you been dieting? Is it two weeks? Or have you been dieting for awhile and its just these last two weeks you haven't lost?2 -
Scale weight is the most frustrating part of managing body weight. Because of water weight fluctuations. Get a trend app or record daily weigh ins in your own spreadsheet and look at the rolling average. I’ve been doing this for years so I should know better than getting psyched out by a higher than expected weigh in, but it still happens. Then I look at the rolling average and it all makes sense again.
Tl;dr - don’t look at isolated data points out of context; look at trends instead.
If your trend over several weeks is flat, you are eating at maintenance. If your trend is increasing, you are eating at a surplus. If your logging doesn’t seem to agree with that, look for errors in CI or CO or both.6 -
Have you changed your workout routine recently, added more volume compared to previous weeks?
I have been recomping since February. It is slow. I have maybe lost an inch in my waist and added a bit to my glutes. Maybe. Overall I look and feel the same.
For me at least, if the scale is staying the same but there are visible changes that happen faster, usually due to water weight from changing up my workout routine. I can usually tell if I am in a deficit when that happens since recomp is so slow. After about a month the weight loss starts and the scale follows. Not sure if that might be the case with you,2 -
[gburgos3000 wrote: »Can you recomp? Yes but its not very fast.
How many cheat days do you have? Also, its likely you could be having a lot of water retention. How and why are you exercising that much? The will likely inhibit recovery?
Side note, having a cheat day is an easy way to eliminate an entire weeks worth of a deficit. And given you are already in a good range, it's going to be difficult to lose weight because I accuracies can impede progress.
I’ll have one or two but like I said my net weekly will still show that im in a deficit. I exercise a lot because I genuinely enjoy being active, especially now that there’s not much to do due to the pandemic.
Yes im aware of that though. Whenever that happens I’ll be at maintenance but even then it confuses me that i’ve been gaining weight outside of water retention, especially now at a caloric deficit.
How many calories are you eating? Also, there is certainly a possibility your estimated deficit isn't aligned to reality. And its possible you will need to be more meticulous with your tracking. Also, can you open your diary? I can take a look.
And while i can certainly value being active, there is a point where more is not better and it can work against your actual goals. And in my experience, people are better off going hard for an hour or a little more, than several hours a day. I would also ask, what do you want to be your end state goal?
Also, how long you been dieting? Is it two weeks? Or have you been dieting for awhile and its just these last two weeks you haven't lost?
I eat around 1,200-1,400 day to day. Most time i’ll eat 1,200, while others ill eat more since my hunger isnt always linear. On cheat days i’ll eat around 2,500-3,000 which im aware is a good amount but when I look at my net it doesn’t completely offset it because of my high level of activity. My maintenance is 1,750ish. Hang on I have to figure out how to do that through my phone haha. I suppose you’re right about the activity part though, i guess part of me doesn’t feel comfortable laying off my activity since I can work up quite an appetite and the extra calories need to be put to use.
Ive been dieting for 3-4 weeks already. Before that i was eating at maintenance for two months and bulked for a bit before that. I know its too soon to measure progress but I would have thought i’d shed at least a pound by now.0 -
That is a heavy exercise routine. Is that something you plan to do forever? Work out what it looks like is 2-3 hours per day?
I’m a big believer in setting yourself up with a heathy plan that you can realistically continue with for long term.
You talked about bulking before, so I’m assuming you’re not new to strength training. Unless you’ve been away from it from sometime, I wouldn’t expect you to get a lot of water retention from working out. So I wouldn’t attribute the lack of weight loss to that.
You’re very small, I can see, but if you’re working out that hard, and burning a lot of calories, why don’t you eat more day to day. Maybe then you won’t feel the need for “cheat days”.
If you’re like me cheat days can get out of control, and I’ve actually ended the day thinking I might have forgotten to log something. It’s easy to do.
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What resistance training programme are you running? I ask this because for most of us unless we are very experienced lifters or qualified lifting coaches ( or working with a qualified coach) it’s preferable to follow an established programme,focussing on progressive overload. Reason I say this is because you haven’t mentioned much detail about the programme you are following and it’s less likely you will be recomping if your programming isn’t decent. Recomping is really slow. Think months to years.2
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Also I can’t work out from your post whether your weight is steady or you are losing? You refer to being in a deficit but it’s not clear to me if you have lost anything.
Recomping is eating at maintenance calories while following a lifting regime. I have done this for several years. It is very slow but there are definite changes to my body.2 -
I have been measuring and weighing in. I have not lost any weight in a couple weeks but I have lost a couple inches. I feel leaner and some of my clothes feel different.
Maybe start doing before and after pictures and/or measurements? That way you have more to go by than just the scale.1 -
If your weight isn't going down, you're not in a deficit. If its not going up or down you are in maintenance. If you are gaining weight while eating at a deficit (and that trend continues), you are not actually at a deficit. Which means you're eating more than you think or burning less than you think or both. There is no such thing as a cheat day. Your body always knows what you eat even if you don't track.
If you are maintaining your weight, progressively lifting heavier, seeing changes in inches but not weight... you are recomping. Which is awesome.4 -
Muscle ?0
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1200 cals and so much exercise??? That doesn't sound healthy2
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I’m struggling with this too. It’s hard to lower fat levels0
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