Gaining skeletal muscle but losing muscle mass?

[Newbie2019]

Would anyone happen to know how I could be gaining skeletal muscle but losing muscle mass?

[Dominique]

What device said this? Over what period of time have these changes allegedly taken place?

[Newbie2019]

I've been using the Renpho scale for about a month now.

[bikerhiker]

If you look at my trend weight, you will see that my skeletal muscle mass had increased for the last 3 days recently and my body fat had dropped down to 13% as the trend line is going lower to reflect this.  I have the Renpho scale and it seemed the latest update is reflecting what I had suspected and confirmed so far that my body fat % had dropped below 20%, but why it took so long to acknowledge this I don't know and I thought I had a broken scale for almost the entire year I owned it.  It's been 6 months since I hit the plateau which my doctor told me not to go further down, but just wait for the lean muscle mass and body fat%.  And the weight and resistance training suggested by my doctor was when I started seeing my body fat% dropped and lean mass rose over a period of 6 months.  In fact 13% is just about right as my belly area is now, not only smaller than even my 30" pants that I bought is getting lose and seeing features on the belly that are indicative of what people would see with people who are in the 13-15%.  Surprisingly enough, my body weight stayed the same which confirmed another suspicion.  That is, when I was pushing heavier weights and doing faster compound movements and upping my protein intake, I am getting stronger doing those weights, faster repetitive movements while keeping my total weight relatively stable.

Basically what I had done to change this is to do what most other people had suggested to reduce body fat% further and raising lean muscle mass up while keeping total weight relatively stable.  Meaning, you are reducing your body fat% while increasing muscle mass at the same time.  And you can only do this with a combination of low intensity cardio exercise plus weight and resistance training (focus on compound core movements) and then wait for like 6 months minimum to see the results.  And now I finally saw the results.  Another key is to up your protein and calcium intake, which means that you will be in a caloric surplus which will help build muscle mass and bone density.  I had been eating a lot of fish and consuming whole milk yogurt, cheese and eggs plus some carbs and healthy fats (olive oil and Omega 3 and 6 from fatty fish).  Seemed to do its magic, but the results are not measured in just a month or two rather in years.  It took me almost a year to see some changes in my body composition.

[Dominique]

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@Newbie2019 wrote:

I've been using the Renpho scale for about a month now.

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Scales that rely on BIA aren’t the most reliable way to assess body composition, and one month is too short a period of time to gain or lose any appreciable amount of muscle. I would therefore take the body composition numbers reported by the scale with a grain of salt.

[Alefredinio]

I thought so

[TammyEngland]

To be honest, this is the first time I've heard about skeletal muscles in five years of gym training and muscle pumping.

[ferneycompletin]

For some reason, it seems to me that it is impossible to do this, because when you do sports, regardless of what exercises you perform, any type of muscle participates in it. Perhaps any drugs that stop the growth of muscle tissue at the molecular level will help in your question, but this sounds very doubtful and dangerous. I read on one site https://behemothlabz.com/product/rad-140-testolone-liquid that in order to develop your muscles, it is important not only to perform various physical exercises, but also follow a proper diet and keep a sleep regime. These important parameters affect the physical and mental state of your body. Good luck man!

[doctorwhy]

The original question is simply asking why he’s losing muscle mass while his muscle percentage goes up, which seems contradictory. Why would anyone “take a drug to stop muscle building at the molecular level”?

[Coomber]

I've noticed that after stopping taking creatine and stopping resistance training for 9 months, but rather having a generally more active life has increased my skeletal muscle but reduced my muscle mass - my muscles are smaller but I have more of them. 

[Mattyyey]

Okay so to answer the op: if you're reading the muscle mass as a percentage but you have been losing weight because you are dropping body fat, then this is certainly possible.

At 65kg I have 56% skeletal muscle but I'm currently rocking at about 14% body fat. I know if I've not eaten correctly in a week that my body fat can drop down to 12%. When this happens, my skeletal muscle ratio will go up because my actual body weight won't change that much, I've just lost a tiny bit of fat but in a percentage you will see the difference.

Think of it like this: 50% muscle 50% fat = 100%. Then fat becomes 40%. Inorder for the percentage to be 100% it has to become 60% muscle if your body weight stays the same.

If you're going to use fancy scales, look at things that aren't a percentage. Bone mass 2.8kg muscle mass 53.1kg fat free body weight 55.9kg. these numbers I just pulled from my scales and they are not percentage-based. Yes I do keep an eye on my body fat but primarily because I don't want it to drop below 10%.

Also our body weight can fluctuate by 2.4 kg in a single day! So depending what time you take the measurement, whether you've eaten or been to the toilet can make a huge difference. Not forgetting that our body needs to have quite a lot of water as well. 

You should not really be measuring yourself everyday. Two to three times a week max, But even then you're likely to get obsessed with the numbers. Why don't you try just measuring yourself once a week at the same time/day? This will give you much more consistent results.

[MrBosco]

I also have a Renpho scale and I've learned to take the numbers it gives me with a huge grain of salt.  A change in muscle mass, observed repeatedly over a number of weeks, while overall weight remains steady, probably does provide useful information.  However as an experiment I once weighed myself, drank a pint and a half of water and weighed myself again.  All the numbers changed - body fat percentage and muscle mass included.  It's certainly not an accurate device in any sense.

I've taken to weighing myself every morning, first thing after using the bathroom, but then averaging the numbers I'm interested in over the course of the week.  I compare weekly averages to judge progress (I'm trying to lose weight at a specific rate at present) and pretty much ignore the readings on any given day so as to take account of variations due to stored body water weight.