Muscle Weight

mrsbastone
mrsbastone Posts: 83 Member
edited November 9 in Fitness and Exercise
I've recently reached a very frustrating plateau in my weight loss, despite a lot of exercising and tracking my calories. Some of my friends and family are saying.. you could just be gaining muscle. I agree that muscle weighs more than fat etc. etc. I am strength training so I know I am gaining muscle. However, realistically how much muscle weight can you put on in a week? Could it really counteract the 2lb loss a week I was getting before the plateau?

Replies

  • addisondisease
    addisondisease Posts: 664 Member
    I've recently reached a very frustrating plateau in my weight loss, despite a lot of exercising and tracking my calories. Some of my friends and family are saying.. you could just be gaining muscle. I agree that muscle weighs more than fat etc. etc. I am strength training so I know I am gaining muscle. However, realistically how much muscle weight can you put on in a week? Could it really counteract the 2lb loss a week I was getting before the plateau?

    Muscle doesn't weigh more than fat. Elephants don't weigh more than feathers. Muscle is more dense than fat, Check your facts

    If you are cutting calories gaining muscle will be EXTREMELY hard. Even if you were using steroids, the muscle gain on a calorie deficit is tiny.

    Give it some time. If you are lifting smart and heavy doing squats, dead-lifts, bench, you should up your calorie intake.
  • addisondisease
    addisondisease Posts: 664 Member
    if you've only been weight lifting for a week or two its probably just water weight. With weight lifting you should focus more on body composition than actual weight.
  • kdiamond
    kdiamond Posts: 3,329 Member
    It takes a girl 4-6 weeks minimum to see some real muscle. I agree with the OP, you are most likely retaining water due to change in routine/lifting.

    Keep lifting. Try to lift weights you struggle doing 6-8 reps with...low weight and high reps will make you spin your wheels if your goal is to build muscle.
  • shamr0ck
    shamr0ck Posts: 296 Member
    I lift heavy, with a trainer, 5 days a week. I use DEXA scans to monitor my body composition. In 6 months of heavy training, i've only gained 5 pounds of muscle. It's HARD to gain muscle, especially when you're restricting calories.
  • MinnieInMaine
    MinnieInMaine Posts: 6,400 Member
    Agree with the respones so far! Any time you add/change/increase your activity, especially when you're feeling that soreness in your muscles, that means you've done some minor damage (not a bad thing, this is how we get stronger) which also means those tissues are going to be retaining water as part of the natural healing process.

    Also wanted to add, it's really not a plateau if you've only been doing these changes for a week. The body does need time to adjust - these things don't happen over night like we'd want them to. Anytime you change up your diet or exercise, don't expect to see an immediate result on the scale as the body needs 2 to 3 weeks to adapt.

    Keep doing what you're doing - eat right, exercise, drink water - and it'll happen!
  • osuzorba
    osuzorba Posts: 35 Member
    Be sure you are carefully tracking your food intake and not over tracking your exercise. Most people over estimate their exercise and under estimate their food intake. Get a food scale and weigh everything you can. Weight watchers also divides all activity points in half to counteract the over estimation issue and to ensure you get some benefit from it.

    Adding muscle weight is a very slow hard process, normal people don't add anywhere near two pounds of lean muscle a week.
  • mrsbastone
    mrsbastone Posts: 83 Member
    Thanks! I thought it was highly unlikely that one would gain two pounds of muscle in short amount of time. People just say that to make ya feel better I guess. I am not doing any hard core training either. At my gym I am doing a few "powerflex" classes that are pretty challenging. I have been doing it for like 12 weeks or so and I am increasing my weights. In the next month or so I plan on hiring a trainer to help me get that last 20 off.
  • memmie01
    memmie01 Posts: 4 Member
    What weighs more.....1 pound of muscle or 1 pound of fat? Think about it....:laugh: try Carb Cycling. It will reset your metabolism. It is working for me!
  • maryjay51
    maryjay51 Posts: 742
    a trainer oughta do the trick.. i swear by a trainer and have had one for nearly two years now .. i am currently on my third trainer.all have been great . this one concentrates on functional training. im dead to the world after a good hard core half hour of that type of workout. switching up the type of workout and perhaps making some changes in your diet might change things

    our body is amazing when it comes to adjusting. if we are trying to lose weight it takes a good three or four weeks for it to adjust to the new workouts and food..thats where we typically lose the weight..once it adjusts then thats when you start seeing plateaus or smaller amounts of weight loss. changing is a good thing ..

    good luck with the trainer. let us know how it goes!!
  • mrsbastone
    mrsbastone Posts: 83 Member
    for the record. I realize I worded my original post poorly. I know a pound is a pound is a pound no matter what the substance. In my head I was thinking a cup of muscle would weigh more than a cup of fat. it is density. However, my point was how much muscle weight could one gain in a week. Thanks for the posts confirming what I thought.. not much :o)
  • nutandbutter
    nutandbutter Posts: 447
    a trainer oughta do the trick.. i swear by a trainer and have had one for nearly two years now .. i am currently on my third trainer.all have been great . this one concentrates on functional training. im dead to the world after a good hard core half hour of that type of workout. switching up the type of workout and perhaps making some changes in your diet might change things

    our body is amazing when it comes to adjusting. if we are trying to lose weight it takes a good three or four weeks for it to adjust to the new workouts and food..thats where we typically lose the weight..once it adjusts then thats when you start seeing plateaus or smaller amounts of weight loss. changing is a good thing ..

    good luck with the trainer. let us know how it goes!!

    A good trainer could be very helpful, unfortunately that can be very hard to find. At my gym, there's only 1 trainer who's good out of the 5-6 there. OP, start lifting heavy if you want to change your body composition. Do compound lifts (squat, deadlift, rows, pullup/lat pulldown, bench, overhead press).
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