Exercise causing a stall?

"Chris in Tampa" wrote in message ...
Is this even possible?

No diet change, what so ever. The only thing that changed was starting to
exercise 3 times a week, 30-60 minutes hard cardio then about 1 hour of
resistance (weight) training.

Totally normal. Start concentrating on inches lost rather than pounds
for a while. While a pound of fat weighs the same as a pound of
muscle, the muscle is more dense (compact). You're body fat % will
drop, muscle % increase so the scale might not change much but your
appearance will as well as how your clothes will fit.

Lee

Any ideas?


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On 26 May 2004, Lee wrote:

"Chris in Tampa" wrote in message ...
Is this even possible?

No diet change, what so ever. The only thing that changed was starting to
exercise 3 times a week, 30-60 minutes hard cardio then about 1 hour of
resistance (weight) training.

Totally normal. Start concentrating on inches lost rather than pounds
for a while. While a pound of fat weighs the same as a pound of
muscle, the muscle is more dense (compact). You're body fat % will
drop, muscle % increase so the scale might not change much but your
appearance will as well as how your clothes will fit.


Yeah, muscle is better than fat, but I've always had a problem with the
idea that a poster is replacing significant amounts of body fat with
muscle, where significant is more than a couple of lbs.

I could be totally wrong on this, but it's my understanding that it takes
rather a long time (months, I thought)to put on more than a couple of lbs
of muscle. This may be higher for men and lower for women, but overall,
the idea that one sometimes sees here that a poster has dropped some 10 or
more lbs but hasn't registered it on the scale because of muscle gain
seems improbable to me.

Am I wrong about this? Rudy? Anyone?

Martha


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Begin where you are - but don't end there.

"Martha Gallagher" wrote in message
...
On 26 May 2004, Lee wrote:

"Chris in Tampa" wrote in message
...
Is this even possible?

No diet change, what so ever. The only thing that changed was
starting to
exercise 3 times a week, 30-60 minutes hard cardio then about 1 hour
of
resistance (weight) training.

Totally normal. Start concentrating on inches lost rather than pounds
for a while. While a pound of fat weighs the same as a pound of
muscle, the muscle is more dense (compact). You're body fat % will
drop, muscle % increase so the scale might not change much but your
appearance will as well as how your clothes will fit.


Yeah, muscle is better than fat, but I've always had a problem with the
idea that a poster is replacing significant amounts of body fat with
muscle, where significant is more than a couple of lbs.

I could be totally wrong on this, but it's my understanding that it takes
rather a long time (months, I thought)to put on more than a couple of lbs
of muscle. This may be higher for men and lower for women, but overall,
the idea that one sometimes sees here that a poster has dropped some 10 or
more lbs but hasn't registered it on the scale because of muscle gain
seems improbable to me.

Am I wrong about this? Rudy? Anyone?


You are correct. It is wishful thinking to believe that someone is gaining
much muscle while on a hypocaloric diet. This is where the term WFFID comes
into play.

Martha Gallagher wrote in message ...
On 26 May 2004, Lee wrote:

"Chris in Tampa" wrote in message ...
Is this even possible?

No diet change, what so ever. The only thing that changed was starting to
exercise 3 times a week, 30-60 minutes hard cardio then about 1 hour of
resistance (weight) training.

Totally normal. Start concentrating on inches lost rather than pounds
for a while. While a pound of fat weighs the same as a pound of
muscle, the muscle is more dense (compact). You're body fat % will
drop, muscle % increase so the scale might not change much but your
appearance will as well as how your clothes will fit.


Yeah, muscle is better than fat, but I've always had a problem with the
idea that a poster is replacing significant amounts of body fat with
muscle, where significant is more than a couple of lbs.

I could be totally wrong on this, but it's my understanding that it takes
rather a long time (months, I thought)to put on more than a couple of lbs
of muscle. This may be higher for men and lower for women, but overall,
the idea that one sometimes sees here that a poster has dropped some 10 or
more lbs but hasn't registered it on the scale because of muscle gain
seems improbable to me.

Am I wrong about this? Rudy? Anyone?

You know, I'm not sure. I recently (about 5 weeks ago, or so)
increased my weight training program, and I'm seeing big changes
already, yet the scale is budging much. I actually saw changes within
a week or two of starting. I see muscles that were buried under fat
before. Whether that's because the fat cells are shrinking, making the
muscles more visible/closer to the surface, or because the muscles
really are increasing in size (weight) so are more obvious...I don't
know. And, clothing is looser, as well. Additionally, on my
handy-dandy "hand-held "body fat analyzer", fat % is definitely down -
like 4 percentage points. Like I said, weight has been stable. All
this leads me to believe that I've increased muscle mass/weight,
decreased fat weight.

Lee

Martha

Martha Gallagher wrote:
Lee wrote:

Totally normal. Start concentrating on inches lost rather than pounds
for a while. While a pound of fat weighs the same as a pound of
muscle, the muscle is more dense (compact).

Yeah, muscle is better than fat, but I've always had a problem with the
idea that a poster is replacing significant amounts of body fat with
muscle, where significant is more than a couple of lbs.

Your concern is well founded. Early in an exercise plan muscle is
NOT gained like rapid magic. Early in an exercise plan WATER is
retained like rapid magic.

I could be totally wrong on this, but it's my understanding that it takes
rather a long time (months, I thought)to put on more than a couple of lbs
of muscle. This may be higher for men and lower for women, but overall,
the idea that one sometimes sees here that a poster has dropped some 10 or
more lbs but hasn't registered it on the scale because of muscle gain
seems improbable to me.

Exactly. Folks who have been on low calorie plans in the past might
start with a lean deficit from having burned muscle rather than fat,
and since low carb supplies plenty of protein that deficit can be
regained quickly, but when it comes to muscle growth "quickly" has a
time scale of months not weeks.

Early exercise plan = temporary water retention. Muscles hoard
water until they adjust to the new higher workload.