Weight stall or gaining muscle

[HomersGone]

I weighted 81 KG in June 2018, i decided it was just too much for me as my average weight for the past 15 years has been 74 KG. I slashed my calorie intake to 1000calories lost weight then in August i started taking a healthier approach while tarcking everything and exercising/walking, i was at 74KG. FF to today, my TDEE is 2000 with a BF of 20% measured using the US NAVY method, i have been eating on daily avarage 1350 calories yet by the end of the month i only lost 2KG. I have been compound lifting for 2 weeks 4 times a week, i see some improvements in body shape but still have a lot of fat around the belly. Question is, is this a weight plateau, water retention or muscle gain?

[Dominique]

First of all, congrats for losing 7 kg! That’s 8.6% of your starting weight. If you started in early June, that’s 0.58 kg per week, implying a calculated daily deficit of 640 calories. When you say you "only" lost 2 kg in August, that’s 0.5 kg per week, not that far away from the pace you’ve seen over the entire period. It’s certainly in line with your estimated deficit of 2000 - 1350 = 650 calories.

As to your ending question, my bet would be on the expected metabolic adaptation that kicks in after dieting for some time. The law of diminishing returns applies: you may have been losing 1 pound per week with a 500 calories deficit at the beginning of your weight loss, but after 2-3 months, you may need a deficit of 550-600 to achieve the same loss.

Not that I want to rain on your parade, but it’s unlikely you would build an appreciable amount of muscle in only three months while eating only 2/3 of your energy requirements (for optimal muscle gain, you need to be in a caloric surplus).

As to fat around the belly, well, that’s were we guys tend to store it, and it’s usually the place where it comes off last. Did you have a visible six-pack during the 15 years when you were 74 kg?

Here are visual indications of various body fat levels for men (source😞

I don’t know what’s the US NAVY method, but you can see the difference between 18% and 14% (as estimated by the Fitbit Aria scale) for myself in this other post.

[HomersGone]

Thanks for taking the time to reply, I was in nowhere insulating that I gained muscle in 2 weeks time, I may have misworded my thoughts, however, I'm only saying this because the biggest weight lost of the month has been on the first 2 weeks but for the last 2 weeks my weight is exactly where it was 2 fridays agao, it did hit 71.6 but then went up to 72.4 today. When I said muscle it's because my 2 top abs are becoming more visible, that's why I said maybe muscle is building and taking the fats place. I know that the weight will be slowly decreasing from now on as I started at 24% body now I'd say I'm 20%. The US navy formula is based on weight, height, waiste and hip measurements.

[bikerhiker]

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@HomersGone wrote:

Thanks for taking the time to reply, I was in nowhere insulating that I gained muscle in 2 weeks time, I may have misworded my thoughts, however, I'm only saying this because the biggest weight lost of the month has been on the first 2 weeks but for the last 2 weeks my weight is exactly where it was 2 fridays agao, it did hit 71.6 but then went up to 72.4 today. When I said muscle it's because my 2 top abs are becoming more visible, that's why I said maybe muscle is building and taking the fats place. I know that the weight will be slowly decreasing from now on as I started at 24% body now I'd say I'm 20%. The US navy formula is based on weight, height, waiste and hip measurements.

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Don't forget that when you get some muscle growth, you also get some bone growth as well so your true weight should include both increased in muscle mass and bone growth.

Getting flat abs is not the easiest even if you are in the healthy range and when you are not young anymore.  The key is to have a balanced diet that helps keep your metabolism, your bowel and your body working well at your particular age to burn fat as long as you have no constipation issues. But once you hit a plateau, the laws of diminishing returns will apply.  

[Dominique]

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@HomersGone wrote:

the biggest weight lost of the month has been on the first 2 weeks but for the last 2 weeks my weight is exactly where it was 2 fridays agao, it did hit 71.6 but then went up to 72.4 today. 

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Weightloss is seldom fully linear (although there are exceptions, check how @lavabelle has been doing here). Don’t let the tree hide the forest: the big picture is your weight went down from 81 to 74 kg in 12 weeks, not the short-term fluctuations during the first two weeks or the last two weeks.

One recommendation I adhere to is not to lose weight for more than three months straight, and not to lose more than 10% of your starting weight in one uninterrupted stretch of weightloss. You’ve reached one boundary and are close to the other one, which is why I would suggest you switch to maintenance and stay there for a while (or longer, if you’re happy with your current weight). If you wish to lose more, you can resume your weightloss after a few months. This should put you in a better position, metabolically speaking.

[HomersGone]

Yep I know that after 3 month I should have a diet break for 2 weeks while eating at maintenance. Good news is the scale moved down a bit to 71.6 this morning and I thing it's because I usually have my last meal at 6pm and the last 2 days I had late meals so that explains the scale not moving in the morning as the digestion wasnt done yet. Only 2 kgs to go for my goal weight and bulking will start thanks for the advices 🙂

[maoumaou]

Thought I was the only one having this problem 🤣 .. I lost 10 kg a month for 700 calories a day and 1 hour of exercising mainly in.cycling and little cardio, but after that I’m stuck in 72 kg and its been a month, (btw I adjust my diet to 1000 then half-hour cardio) still my belly is still so fat and my legs! I felt like I didn’t lost any weight and sometimes it makes me so discouraged.

[HomersGone]

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@maoumaou wrote:

Thought I was the only one having this problem 🤣 .. I lost 10 kg a month for 700 calories a day and 1 hour of exercising mainly in.cycling and little cardio, but after that I’m stuck in 72 kg and its been a month, (btw I adjust my diet to 1000 then half-hour cardio) still my belly is still so fat and my legs! I felt like I didn’t lost any weight and sometimes it makes me so discouraged.

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What??700 calories a day??? That's dangerously low you might have slowed your metabolism you should eat at your maintenance tdee for 2 weeks then resume deficit to 20-25% of your tdee otherwise you will experience sleepiness hair loss fatigue and so many other things

[maoumaou]

I was desperate at that time lol and I know it’s dangerous that’s why I’m consuming 1000 calories a day now. Btw my metabolism sucks ever since  so it’s no big deal. I think the side effects on me was me being too cranky 🤣

[Dominique]

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@HomersGone wrote:

Yep I know that after 3 month I should have a diet break for 2 weeks while eating at maintenance.

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2 weeks is too short IMO after 3 months / 10% loss to have a meaningful impact on your metabolism. It would be more like 2-3 months at maintenance.

[Edmedow]

Yeah, I also work out thoroughly at the gym to be healthier in the future.

[Nemikon]

You need to change the notification settings on the iPhone. When you set it up, you will receive notifications from Instagram. I recently had a similar bug. For some reason, Instagram itself disabled notifications in my Fitbit. Moreover, I recently acquired followers, likes, and views from this service -- megafamous.com, to launch my business account. So just turn on the notification in the settings, and everything should be fine. To do this, just Google, and I think you can find a tutorial video that will teach you how to do it. I hope my post will help you.

[Nemikon]

You need to change the notification settings on the iPhone. When you set it up, you will receive notifications from Instagram. I recently had a similar bug. For some reason, Instagram itself disabled notifications in my Fitbit. Moreover, I recently acquired followers, likes, and views from this service -- megafamous.com, to launch my business account. So just turn on the notification in the settings, and everything should be fine. To do this, just Google, and I think you can find a tutorial video that will teach you how to do it. I hope my post will help you.

[mollyareb]

This can be anything: weight gain, water retention, or muscle growth. But losing 2kg in a week is a pretty good result, congratulations. You don't have to worry. This result is very good. I wanted to lose so much weight, but I couldn't. The testosterone boosters on https://www.healthcanal.com/sexual-health/best-testosterone-boosters helped me get back in shape. It didn't help me lose weight, but it did help me get rid of body fat and boost muscle energy. I think that would be the best and healthiest result. If you want a beautiful body, I recommend doing it. And by the way, such a fun fact that I found out recently is that the kg that we have to have for life are the ones that we had at the age of 20 because the bones got stronger at the age of 20. So take this into account.