Muscle Gain v No Weight loss

rcarter15

Hi,

I'm a fat tall man who has recently started the whole gym program to try and lose weight, but something isn't working so looking for some help please.

Stat: 21 stone 8lbs (or 138 Kg) 6' 6'' in height, 46'' waist

Now I started the gym 5 weeks ago, going 3 to 4 times a week and doing a mix of cardio and weights. (30 min walk, upper body weights of 3 x 15 reps)

My general fitness has improved a lot (when i started I struggled for a 30 minute walk on the running machine, now easily completing it with an incline set. Weights have increased etc etc)

Problem is I am not losing any weight! Which the entire reason for going.

I had thought that after 5 weeks I would have seen some weight difference. I am happy with the fitness level, I am much fitter that I was when I started, but I really want to see some weight loss.

I worked out my MBR which suggests that I need 3500 calories a day to maintain my weight, and less than 2900 to start losing it and I changed my my diet drastically over the last 5 weeks (for the better, previously I was drinking 1 or 2 bottles of coke a day and eating chocolate like mad, now its very occasional)

Also started diet whey powder for muscle growth etc.

So I'm stumped as to where I am going wrong, calorie intake is down, sugar intake is down, gym training 3 or 4 times a week yet still no weight loss.

Is it possible that my gym training is keeping my weight up? (the old muscle weighs more than fat argument?)

Was seriously considering something like Nupo now to try and shed some weight (the 700 calorie liquid only week diet) but it seems a massive drop and unhealthy amount of daily calories.

thanks for any help anyone can give.

Richard

Alf Veedersane

Congratulations on making such big changes.

You need to stop focussing on the scales though. Do your clothes feel better on you, for a start?

You've made all these changes to become healthier. Don't do something like Nupo.

rcarter15

I've noticed that clothes are tighter on the arms and legs, can definitely feel a change there - but ideally its the gut and upper areas (moobs lol) that need to disappear.

As to the diet drinks, I know they are a terrible idea but the thought of dropping 6 to 10lb in week is pretty enticing. Still I'll not be doing it, if only because of the 60 euro cost for a week! that pays for an entire month at my gym lol

fits

well done on making a start, sounds like you have huge benefits in terms of fitness already.
Any weight loss is going to be 80% from diet. That calorie allowance seems really huge to me. And you are right the diet drinks are a terrible idea. You're not going to get where you want to be in the space of a few weeks. It takes time, and the changes need to be enjoyable to be sustainable. Maybe post up your typical diet here to get some feedback on it?

Roquentin

You should take up long distance cycling as well. really eats into the stores.

silverharp

are you still eating foods like pasta, bread, cereals? imo you need to cut these type of food out entirely at the start and you will see a drop in wieght.

blatantrereg

Yes muscle weighs more than fat, so if you are stronger and the same weight then you have probably lost fat and replaced it with muscle.
Also if you are using creatine that causes fluid retention that can add a few kg to your normal body weight.
Agree with not using the diet drinks. Personally I wouldn't remove carbohydrate foods; just avoid processed ones and keep an eye on portion sizes.

JJayoo

Do you weigh yourself first thing in the morning?

Tiddlypeeps

How are you calculating your BMR? 3,500 sounds quite high. If you are sticking to only taking in 80% of your BMR you should be losing weight, regardless of if you get all of those calories in pure sugar or anything else. So only 2 things are likely to be going wrong if you are not losing weight, either you are measuring the calories you eat wrong and are taking in more than you think or the BMR you calculated is wrong.

BMR is very difficult to calculate accurately, so you might need a bit of trial and error to get it right. Maybe try dropping it by 10% for a few weeks and see how you get on. If you still aren't losing then drop it by a further 10%. Also keep in mind that this will constantly change as you lose weight too.

Dropping straight off to 700 calories at your size is a terrible idea. You will lose weight initially, but after a few days your metabolism will start to slow down which will only make it harder to lose weight after that and will make you put it back on very quickly if you go back to old habits for any time. That's why it's recommended that you only drop to 80% of your BMR.

Best of luck and congratulations on the huge changes you have made.

Edit: Also you should avoid using scales, they are a terrible method of tracking progress. The bigger you are the more discrepancy there is likely to be day to day due to water levels and other stuff. You can lose a couple of pounds and have it not show up on the scales simply because didn't sweat as much that day as the previous time you weight yourself. That kind of thing can seriously hamper motivation. If you can you should play around with learning how to measure your body fat %, there are a bunch of different ways to do it using either a measuring tape or a callipers if you can get one. Just search on Google and you'll find a bunch of different methods of finding it. If you calculated your BMR you probably have a method of measuring it already.

rcarter15

I calculated the BMR from the sticky:

Age Men
31-60 (bw (kg) * 11.6) + 879

e.g for me, a 138kg 34 male its (138*11.6) +879 = 2479


2) Then calculate your lifestyle daily energy needs:

Activity level
mostly seated or standing RMR * 1.4
regular walking or equivalent RMR * 1.7
generally physically active RMR * 2.0

again for me its 2479 * 1.4 = 3470


So that gives me 3470 a day for maintenance!

Squat Rack Curler

Eat less. If you're not losing weight, fat loss will be negligable.

Tiddlypeeps

rcarter15 wrote: »

I calculated the BMR from the sticky:

Age Men
31-60 (bw (kg) * 11.6) + 879

e.g for me, a 138kg 34 male its (138*11.6) +879 = 2479


2) Then calculate your lifestyle daily energy needs:

Activity level
mostly seated or standing RMR * 1.4
regular walking or equivalent RMR * 1.7
generally physically active RMR * 2.0

again for me its 2479 * 1.4 = 3470


So that gives me 3470 a day for maintenance!

I couldn't find that in any of the stickys, do you have a link handy?

I'm not sure what the other numbers mean, I can't figure out which one represents your height. But I definitely think there is something going wrong with that equation, because using other calculators I worked out that you would need to be over 9ft to come out with over 3000 calories at your weight at either end of the age spectrum you mentioned.

I used these ones:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/tools/bmr-calculator
http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/

conzy

It sounds like your calories are too high. When you have a relatively high starting weight like 21 stone it will skew some of the BMR calculators as they assume you are reasonably lean.

You should probably be eating closer to 2500 cals a day to be losing weight. You need to monitor your weight loss on a fortnightly basis and adjust calories

Congrats on making all the changes!

rubadub

rcarter15 wrote: »

Is it possible that my gym training is keeping my weight up? (the old muscle weighs more than fat argument?)

I remained about 12 stone for around a year, building muscle and losing fat at around the same rate. I dropped a lot of fat, had people asking me what my secret was and warning me about losing too much weight, while I had actually lost none.

Muscle is denser than fat, so takes up less volume, also the muscle is "in the right places", I had to put about 5 new notches in my belt over the course of that year.

Brian

Make sure you are getting enough sleep!

rcarter15

thanks for the advice, the sticky link is http: //www. boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055963342 post 12 from g'em.

rcarter15

thanks for the advice, the sticky link is http: //www. boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2055963342 post 12 from g'em.

Using the other links provided I get the 2500 calories which sounds better, and is equal to Step 1 of the above process. But then G'em post says to multiply it by 1.4 for a low level of activity, which brings me up to the 3470 calories.

Think I will stick with the 2500 calorie limit and hit 80% of that, so under 2000 calories a day intake.

Although the marketing gimmicks got me and I gave in and purchased some Grenade Weight loss tablets to assist, doubt they are any good but anything is worth a shot to help lol

Tiddlypeeps

Grenade are pretty much just caffeine supplements. There is a good bit of research that shows caffeine can help boost your metabolism and it should help you push yourself a bit harder at the gym. Especially on days you are feeling sluggish from not getting your usual amount of calories.

Just be careful taking them, if I remember correctly they recommend taking 4 a day and they have over 100mg of caffeine per pill, so you should probably start off with just one and work your way up to the recommended dose. Some people don't react well to high levels of caffeine, they can get jitters, panic attacks, anxiety, migraines etc so it's probably best to test your tolerance slowly.

Best of luck

rcarter15

lol thanks, I pretty much lived on caffeine when I was at Uni (so many years ago) - strangely enough I was also very thin back then! fingers crossed.

fits

Why not start at 2500 and see how that works and work from there. You're a big guy and if you starve yourself you could feck up your metabolism or end up binging. Also if I were you id throw those tablets in the bin.

ford2600

rcarter15 wrote: »

lol thanks, I pretty much lived on caffeine when I was at Uni (so many years ago) - strangely enough I was also very thin back then! fingers crossed.

OP well done on weight loss and getting active.

I'm going to contradict the advise given here and the advice that's typically given here for people like you trying to lose weight, or more accurately body fat.

First of myself and probably many people posting here are lean, athletic and always have been; what works for me or them may not necessarily work for you. Whatever macro breakdown makes up my diet, I don't gain weight. I'm versatile whether main energy comes from fat or carbs others are not so lucky.

You are an individual, get to know your body and what works for you.

I never found the gym a good bet long term, maybe you are different. Whatever you do for exercise, enjoy it and sets yourself goals, yearly monthly whatever. Very hard to maintain training without a goal in mind.

Throw away your scales. Improve your body composition, you'll know by looking when you are in better shape. Ideally you want to gain muscle and lose fat.

Learn what real hunger is; not an every 2hr blood sugar dip.

Enjoy food and eating. If you don't cook, learn to. Take control of what you put into your body. Educate yourself on real food. Eat real whole food, i.e. eat clean.

Learn what macro breakdown suits you best. Your body doesn't want to be fat, find out what macro mix will allow your body to correct itself. I can run on high fat or high carb, lots of people can't maybe you are not so lucky.

Reduce the stress in your life. What stress you can't reduce learn coping skills.
A stressed body, especially when eating/digesting food is recipe for diaster. adrenaline/cortisol etc are great to having pumping in your system when your about to go sparring/training but not so at dinner time. Improve your social network, make new friends(threw a new activity maybe), have a laugh every day, GET ENOUGH SLEEP.

Give yourself a break, you've made the first step; it's a journey not a race. Tell yourself you've done well and take the next step.