Update: muscle or fat

I posted earlier and attached a picture of 10 pounds in 1 month. I’m not sure if I gained muscle mass or fat and wanted to get an outside opinion since I’m the worst judge.

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Replies

  • Redordeadhead
    Redordeadhead Posts: 1,188 Member
    You already had multiple replies in that thread to say you cannot have gained 10lbs of muscle in 1 month and some of it is probably water weight. It's not just muscle or fat, you also have to consider water retention.
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,888 Member
    edited July 2021
    Muscle can only be a small part of it, building muscle is not that quick.
    My money is on mostly water retention in the muscles for muscle repair and extra glycogen, and hopefully a bit of muscle too.

    If I were you, I'd keep on training for another month or two while monitoring progress to determine if your strategy is working.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    It's definitely not 10lbs of muscle. Without knowing anything about your training, your training status and your age your maximum rate of muscle gain can't be guessed but it's certainly not that fast!

    Unless you ate in a massive calorie surplus it's not 10lbs of fat either. Do you have any idea of what your calorie balance was over that time period?
  • lukasgorny
    lukasgorny Posts: 7 Member
    It’s 2000 calories a day if I want to maintain my weight in my fitness pal. I eat around 2100 calories a day. I’m 37. Hope that information is helpful.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    lukasgorny wrote: »
    It’s 2000 calories a day if I want to maintain my weight in my fitness pal. I eat around 2100 calories a day. I’m 37. Hope that information is helpful.

    Well it rules out 10lbs of fat so definitely helpful information.
    When you get a pretty wild fluctuation out of line with calories then water retention from one or more causes is the main suspect. Trust the process.
  • lukasgorny
    lukasgorny Posts: 7 Member
    Thank you. How long does it usually take for water to stay and am I likely to gain more water weight?