Hello all,
I'm a newbie to traineo but from what I've experienced in the last couple of days this place is an amazing forum for like minded individuals and I hope to learn as much as I can from everyone. I'm currently in the process of trying to shed a few (more like 20odd) unwanted pounds from my frame. I workout 6 days a week and my schedule is as follows:

Mon, Wed, Fri: I lift weights for about 35-45mins with 10 mins of cardio
Tue, Thur, Sat: I box for 1 hour continuously.

My caloric intake is about 1700-1800 a day. Now, according to my calculations my basal metabolic rate is around 2200calories. If my math is right, with my workout schedule and my diet I should be losing around 1.5-2lbs a week or thereabouts. I hopped on the scale today only to find I gained 2lbs instead?! As you can imagine, I'm totally confused and rather disheartened. Now I know a lot of you in the community are about as qualified as PhD's in nutrition and health, so any sage advice and/ or encouragement will be taken with arms wide open.
Cheers,
K

I'm not as qualified as many others on traineo to diagnose, but if weight training is part of your fitness routine you should keep in mind that muscle mass weighs more than fat. The scale is merely one tool to help you gauge your progress, but don't solely rely on it for your overall health. Being healthy is more important than your weight alone.

If you are concerned your doctor can help you with understanding your BMI and other health factors. Your doctor can give you a truer picture of your health.

You math may be correct, but everyone's body is different. If your goal is to lose weight, you might need to increase your cardio and decrease your weight training routine.

Good luck, Kanishka!

there are two very likely possibilities:

1. you could be building muscle

2. the circumstances in which you weighed yourself could have been different. you could have used a different scale, worn something different, eaten a meal, etc. out body weight fluctuates through about a five-pound range every single day.

To add to this, not only are you likely to be building muscle, but you are also likely drinking and retaining more water. Your routine sounds impressive, but a week is too little time in which to evaluate it; keep at this for at least a month.

By the way, how much are you sleeping? I've found that the more I get a good night's sleep, the more that I seem to lose from the same amount of activity.

Ron

@Paul: Thanks for the input mate. I thought 1 hour of boxing would be enough cardio, but i'll give some more running a shot too. I too agree that being healthy is the main goal overall, so I'll try my best to keep at it.

@Pseudo: I guess it COULD be muscle, but I get the feeling that I've already got all the muscle my genetics has afforded me, its more the excess fat that I'm trying to lose. I agree there's a fluctuation in weight during the day, but I tried to negate this by wearing a similar outfit, weighing myself around the same time of day and on the same scale. But you're right, it could just be that I initially weighed myself on a lighter than normal day.

@Ron: Perhaps a week is slightly eager on my part, but if anything I thought I'd maintain my weight, not gain! =/ I am TRYING as hard as I can to get a good 8 hours of sleep in. But my schedule doesn't allow for it too often. I hear sleep is very key in rebuilding torn muscle tissues, so I'm going to try and maintain between 6-8hrs.

Thanks for the prompt feedback guys, I really appreciate it!
Cheers,
K

You could do a body mass composition test. The results will tell you your body fat percentage and your lean body mass, which I think is muscle. This way, you will know exactly how much of your weight is lean and how much is fat.
My personal trainer did this test for me. It is pretty simple. A harmless and painless current is passed through your dominant arm and leg. That's about it. Then the machine will give you the results. It is fast and painless. I did not feel a single thing.
Hope this helps.

Actually, a pound of muscle weighs the same as a pound of fat. The same volumetric amount will weigh different, but that is because muscle is denser than fat... not that it weighs more.

True about the scale though, it only tells one small part of the story.

While this is a good idea, keep in mind that they're not always terribly accurate. Even your hydration levels can throw this off, and often it's not terribly useful for consistency's sake even (it tends to fluctuate too much or never, ever change, in our experience.) Bioimpediance is one of the least reliable bodyfat measuring techniques out there... so take it with a grain of salt if you see it acting all funny or never changing.

But knowing your approx. fat and lean (which is everything but fat... bone, muscle, blood, etc) can be super helpful as it will keep you from believing the scale is out to get you.

I guess one of my biggest issues with believing it's muscle is that to add 2 lbs of muscle in little over a week you have to eat a tremendous amount of food. Instead, I'm on a calorie deficient diet which is the puzzling part. Oh well, I suppose body fat percentage is the best way to go about this. Has anyone had any luck with those at home scales with the BF% readouts? Are they reliable? More importantly, are they consistent and can they show a general trend?
Cheers,
K

True, it's likely not muscle.

It's likely water retention, food still in your system, etc.

Really, a week means nothing. All the numbers you use to tell you you'll loose X amount in a week all mean average. You'll lose an average of 1 pound a week on a 500 calorie /day deficit. You'll need to be at it MUCH longer to get results that can't just be attributed to water and simple fluctuation anyway.

Also, make sure you rest. Fat is burned when you sleep, muscle is built when you rest. So be sure you rest enough to allow your body to reward you for your hard work.


And my scale has only been successful for showing a trend up to a point. Once I was into a decent bf% range, it totally was off by about 5%.

It's good to start, but if you don't have someone to help with a caliper test, try http://www.mybodycomp.com It's not the most accurate (usually better than bioimpedance) but it was fairly close to my caliper measurements and most importantly, it's consistent and will show a trend.

Just don't always believe the number. If you're not getting the DEXA xray thing or hydrostatic weighing, you're not getting a hugely accurate reading. The only truly accurate measure of bf% is autopsy, and really that's of no help so... they're all inaccurate to a degree...

I must agree with Ms Hammersmith. I have ben a personal trainer and strength & conditioning specialist for 16+ years, and the scale is always the cause of the most stress for clients. While a pound of fat and a pound of muscle do, by nature, weigh exactly the same, it is the composition and appearance that are important. (A pound of diamonds looks much better than a pound of lard - but to the scale they're no different!)

That said, you need to shift your thinking. When you say you want to lose weight, I'm sure what you mean is that you'd like to be carrying less fat. Losing fat takes commitment and work; losing weight is easy. (Really - just take off your shoes; congrats - you just lost three pounds!) Seriously, though; you'll have a better sense of the success of your efforts by observing how you fit into your clothes, rather than what the scale reads.

Another point to consider is that your metabolic rate calculations may be off. If you are committing to that much activity each week, your daily requirements for energy - food - will be quite a bit higher than 1800 calories a day. Increasing the amount of lean muscle you carry is limited by genetics, as you say - but it is only limited to an extent. Training hard and consuming enough good food to support new muscle tissue growth and support will allow you to maximize your genetic capability.

I have written a few articles regarding Nutrition, Fat Loss, and Enhancing Metabolism; I invite you to read them on my website at www.asaptraining.net - you'll find them in the 'Authored Articles.' In the meantime - great answers, everyone - be well!

Phew! All these great insights! Thanks everyone, I really appreciate all of you taking the time to give me your take on the situation. I'll keep at it, continue working out hard and perhaps increase my caloric intake slightly. I'll keep you guys posted.
Cheers,
K

...That you remember. Zzzt!

I had better luck with healthy eating choice switches (eat this, not that) rather than calorie deficit diets, in conjunction with weight lifting.

For a good amount of time, I actually over-trained. Is this advice anecdotal? That you should train major muscle groups only once a week to allow for full healing? In any case, that's what I follow and it works for me -- I'm still doing 5-day splits on the Max OT program.

I shot from ~155 lbs to ~180 lbs in the first two years, but dropped from 29% to 18%-21% body fat.

Scales are evil. BMI calcs are evil. Do a body fat calc (3-point fat caliper , bio-impedance, or Aoife's suggestion) once or twice a month instead, and take photos / look in the mirror.

ETA: I forgot, I played around with the U.S. Army's body fat calculations the past few days using my new Myotape and it was off by 2%. However, tape measure is cheap and Myotape is only $5-$15 inclusive of shipping -- plus you really only need to care about changes in your BF measurement or trends, not the absolute number. All other methods can vary as well (bio-impedance varies acc to time of day and hydration levels, fat caliper varies by who does it and their skill/consistency, etc.)