Dr. McDougall's Health & Medical Center
It is currently Sat May 18, 2013 1:47 pm

All times are UTC - 8 hours [ DST ]




Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 4 posts ] 
Author Message
 Post subject: Muscle gain offsetting losses?
PostPosted: Tue Nov 15, 2011 1:26 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Fri Aug 06, 2010 5:37 am
Posts: 24
I started walking everyday at the beginning of October. At the end of October I weighed myself and I had lost 10lbs. I was 238 at the beginning of October and at the end I was 228. I have continued the walking and the MWL plan, but I weighed myself recently and I have not lost a single pound. Yet my pants and other garments clearly indicate that I am losing weight. I can also see the loss.

So my question is could I have gained enough muscle mass to offset any fat loss I may have had? Or is something else going on? Thanks.

_________________
"I would call you a genius, but I am in the room." - The Doctor


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Muscle gain offsetting losses?
PostPosted: Wed Nov 16, 2011 8:27 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Mon Aug 24, 2009 12:39 pm
Posts: 1281
Location: California
onceagain wrote:
I started walking everyday at the beginning of October. At the end of October I weighed myself and I had lost 10lbs. I was 238 at the beginning of October and at the end I was 228. I have continued the walking and the MWL plan, but I weighed myself recently and I have not lost a single pound. Yet my pants and other garments clearly indicate that I am losing weight. I can also see the loss.

So my question is could I have gained enough muscle mass to offset any fat loss I may have had? Or is something else going on? Thanks.


Onceagain,

In Octover you lost 10 lbs. We are 2 weeks into November and still maintaining the same schedule, no change in diet, your weight has stabilized - am I reading that correctly?

If you are still experiencing the same calorie deficit, and not knowing how much closer to your ideal weight you are, weight loss can slow down the closer we get.

Small off-target additions to the diet can stall progress as well.

And if none of that is true, then you may well be experiencing a natural plateau according to the scale. You notice your clothes fitting differently, which can be evidence of body composition shifts. And if you watch, it may be that in the next week you'll see another downward drop. Our bodies seem to have their own schedules about these things!

Unless you are monitoring body composition - percentage of bodyfat - it's hard to say exactly what is happening in your body composition shifts. Yet muscle is hard to build and takes time. If you were really inactive before starting to exercise, you would experience the most gains early on as the exercise would be challenging. Then it may slow. But it is hard to build more than 2 -3 lbs of muscle a month and that's with some pretty intense resistance training.

Give it time, be consistent, and congratulations on these changes!

Lani

_________________
Plant-based Blueprint
Fit Quickies: The Book!
Facebook

The Plant-Based Fitness Expert Blog
Certified Plant-based Nutrition, Cornell University
Ask Fitness Expert Lani Muelrath, M.A.


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Muscle gain offsetting losses?
PostPosted: Thu Nov 17, 2011 6:55 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Fri Aug 06, 2010 5:37 am
Posts: 24
Thanks Lani,

Yeah before October I did not exercise at all. My target weight is at least 164.

There are clothes that I can wear now with the scale reading 228 that I couldn't in the past with it reading much lower weights. Which is why I was rather curious about muscle vs. fat.

Thanks for the information it did help. I think I will just hold off weighing myself for a while.

_________________
"I would call you a genius, but I am in the room." - The Doctor


Top
 Profile  
 
 Post subject: Re: Muscle gain offsetting losses?
PostPosted: Wed Nov 23, 2011 10:32 pm 
Offline
User avatar

Joined: Thu Oct 13, 2011 7:21 pm
Posts: 1380
Location: San Francisco Bay Area, California
Great question and answer and just in time for me too!

This last week I am boxing up clothes like crazy for Goodwill. These old clothes were just are hanging on me ---YET....the scale is constant every day the same weight!

Also, I can completely see where I am loosing day to day...but the scale sticks at THE SAME weight!

Now I know it's fluctuation in composition possibly, because I have been completely compliant all week and got the exercise in too!

_________________
I control what I put in my mouth, that makes all the difference in my health and attitude. Life is good!
Image
Image


Top
 Profile  
 
Display posts from previous:  Sort by  
Post new topic Reply to topic  [ 4 posts ] 

All times are UTC - 8 hours [ DST ]


Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 0 guests


You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum

Search for:
Jump to:  
Powered by phpBB © 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007 phpBB Group