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I've been on high protein/low carb diet since last September using running and rowing for exercise. At the end of May I had succeeding in shifting 5 stone (32kg). I have monitored the weight loss using Tanita BC1000 body analysis scales and their Healthy Edge software. The weight loss has comprised of just under 43kg of fat loss, 9kg of muscle gain and the difference of 2kg is listed as other which is mainly water gain.
All this I have found acceptable and well within the norms. However after reaching the 5st mark I was off work for a week. The diet wasn't as strict but still on the good side though less protein and more carbs. I still rowed and ran as normal throughout the week. At the end of the week on my weigh in I had somehow managed to gain a full 5kg. Not believing the scales I tried the normal bathroom scales and yes a big weight gain. I cleaned the contact surfaces and changed the batteries on the body analysis scales and it still confirmed the weight gain. On checking the readings I had gained over 4.5kg of muscle in a week and the rest in water.
Initial thoughts were that the software had screwed up but the readings for my wife, who uses the scales too, were consistent with no large changes. The scales for me are still showing the large muscle gain now.
The only big change I did have over the week off work was lots more sleep. Normally average around 6-7 hours a night but that week I struggled out of bed and was getting more like 10 hours of sleep. Is it possible to gain so much muscle weight so quickly as I thought 1-2lb week was a maximum possible or is it just a case of proper rest allowing my muscles to repair themselves properly?
I have no interest in gaining muscle to get bigger but understand that in exercising I will gain some as a result. My goal is to get my fat percentage down to around 14%.
4.5kg of muscle is about 10kg.....of muscle in a week.
No (edit) posted too early.
No chance, that was supposed to read..
Dehydra
No. Don't put your faith in scales. Just measure your waist and take photos.
That is what I thought but the weight is still there showing as muscle. My clothes are looser around the waist line too which would confirm that it isn't fat gain.
I know the body analysis scales aren't infalliable as alcohol the night before will show less water and more fat.
Gah! Excuse the above rambling. For some reason my tablet screen just went nuts and was selecting stuff I wasn't tapping on, opening STW adverts, randomly deleting text and moving the cursor...
On my phone now...
10lbs of muscle would be impossible. Bit weird though if up to now they have worked reasonably consistently and are showing believable results for your wife.
You didn't have breast enlargement in your week off did you?
Tanita BC1000 body analysis scales and their Healthy Edge software.
They're a load of complete crock. I had a set and could make my body fat % change by 5% by just drinking a pint of water and re-weighing myself.
They don't and can't measure your composition. What they actually measure is the conductivity of your body and they attempt (very crudely) to infer body fat from this. The reason you have to tell them your sex and body type when you set them up is because it can't measure body fat, so instead has a set of look up tables for 'average people of that type e.g. fit male, fat female' and then uses that to guess your body fat based on what you've told it, your weight and the conductivity measurement. It's basically snake oil dressed up as high tech health equipment.
That's mostly water retention, as you've relaxed your diet over a while. When you suddenly change to eat salty foods, in particular, it's not uncommon to end up as much as 10lbs heavier pretty much overnight. Body fat scales won't really register this accurately because the water levels mean they're generally really unreliable. Go back to eating your normal healthy diet and you'll drop the water fairly quickly. You'll know this happens if it feels like you're peeing more than usual!
I think if you gained 10lb muscle you'd know about it, your scales must be off.
The diet has been back to normal for the last week. Fat loss 0.6kg, muscle gain 0.1kg and water loss 0.1kg.
asdfhjkl, the salt intake was no higher than normal. I made the effort to cut out additional salts from diet when I started and resulted in a quick reduction in my diastolic blood pressure which has been slowly reduced since to 120/74. I don't add any salts to my food which I prepare all myself, only my bread has salt as part of the ingredients but but have less than 250g of bread a week or around 3g of salt. One High5 Zero tablets per week in my water bottle whilst running so no increase there.
Cynic-al, the wife says my shoulders and thighs look bigger but looking at 10 oz steaks I can't see where I'm hiding 15 of them!
I think I'll give it a few weeks and see how the readings changes.
What footflaps said ^^
..and the proof is in the unrealistic gain in a week.
AFAIK the scales work out roughly your water level and then work out your fat and muscle levels from that reading. As everyone else has said I don't believe anything they tell me. Also if they are scales then the reading is based purely on your legs as the current goes up one leg and down the other.
Would be better off investing in caliper readings or a proper body composition scan
eat a lot more natural fats! fatty meats, butters, cheese and lots of eggs.
if you cut carbs and Don't increase fats you will suffer hunger and energy loss, more natural animal fats and you should see better gains muscle/performance wise quite quickly 🙂
Will you be changing your user name?
I read up a lot on these body analysis scales before I bought them and knew how they worked along with their short comings. The key was consistency of the readings and your own routines prior to using them i.e. no alcohol the night before, empty bladder and so on which we have stuck to. This is echoed in DCRainmakers own findings when testing these scales and other tests compared to a DEXA body scan which were rated at +/- 3% difference which was close enough for my requirements. As I don't have the resources for a regular lab test I needed something that could be accurate enough to track progress rather than completely hit and miss guess work.
The mirror and tape measure confirm weight loss along with a large collection of clothes that are too big now and the many extra holes punched in belts. Muscle gain although noticeable isn't so much big body building muscles but rather what I had is now much more solid and defined with still a long way to go.
Lawmanmx, have increased my fats mainly through nuts and not trimming the fats to minimum on the meats. I have a lot of eggs for proteins but cut out the yolks to 1 in every 5 eggs due to the high cholesterol. I don't have dairy fats too much and use them as a treat in small quantities.
5thElefant, hopefully soon I can drop the X's
congratulations on losing all that weight !
use the scales as, err, scales and use your brain to tell you the rest
er, isn't easier to just look in a mirror? 10kg of muscle isn't going to be invisible!
Lawmanmx, have increased my fats mainly through nuts and not trimming the fats to minimum on the meats. I have a lot of eggs for proteins but cut out the yolks to 1 in every 5 eggs due to the high cholesterol. I don't have dairy fats too much and use them as a treat in small quantities.
Craig, NEVER take the yolks out of your eggs mate! the fats in the yolk is massively important to you AND please don't believe the crap that bad cholesterol comes from natural animal fats.
Bad cholesterol decreases as soon as you cut CARBS/SUGARS and Good cholesterol goes Up when you eat more natural animal fats! best butters/cheeses/fatty meats and the like 🙂
also its a fact that you cannot digest anywhere as much protein from your meats IF the fat is cut off it!
I eat NO carbs and 70% fats in my diet and im muscular as f*** for any 50yr old 🙂
best o luck which ever route you take 😉
You will have an amount of muscle which is your genetic make up, if you diet and you run you will lose some of this as well as fat, if you then stop burning so many calories this muscle will reappear very quickly. Then again those fat analysis scales are not very accurate, ours say i'm 22% fat and i have a six pack and i am very muscular/vascular, estimate i'm less than 14%.
You just need a 50 pence cloth tape measure to measure muscle gain / fat loss.
Are you on steds?
I was going to say on the juice lol.
No steroids thanks. As I said I have no interest in gaining muscle but know I will gain some from the exercise.
Well done for loosing so much weight. I've just started the journey and I'm 13kg down so far.
As for the scales, use them as you are, consistency is key, they won't provide an accurate composition, but they will tell you the changes that are taking place which is what you need to know I guess.
As for the 10lbs. Highly improbable. So if it's stayed consistent before and after probably an error in the weight in the run up to the gain. But I wouldn't assume you've gained the muscle but I wouldn't really be worried about it!
At the end of the day providing you are happy it's doesn't really matter what they say ( though really good for tracking progress)