Op you keep arguing with people so pointlessly. “I’m 41% body fat but that doesn’t mean I’m fat.” “Muscle memory is a real thing I read about.” It doesn’t matter if muscle memory is real; clearly it isn’t a factor in your case since you thought you’d magically regrow old muscle and didn’t. So why belabor the point?

You are still not cutting your calories enough to burn fat and you haven’t been working out long enough to put on muscle and have such a high percentage of fat that you wouldn’t be able to see it even if you did. Drop your calories, ACCURATELY TRACK THEM, if you’re up to 41% BF you can’t eyeball portions accurately, burn fat and then focus on building muscle. Any other side arguments are irrelevant.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:August was 2.5 months ago. Muscle is REALLY hard to build and you are really fat. That is why. Don’t give up now but it is way too soon to expect muscle when your body has a lot of fat to lose first.

+1

at this point if your main goal is to lose fat around your belly you are better off eating in a calorie deficit to focus on losing weight/fat while continuing to lift heavy to maintain the muscle that you have.

OP here - that's my theory too The only thing I thought I had working in my favor is that I was a very elite athlete at one point in my life - so I figured I'd have some muscle memory that would return. I honestly think I need to reduce the calories below 1600.

This is magical thinking. Or worse. Muscle memory is remembering how to ride a bike when you haven't in a long time, not sprout muscle fibers instantaneously like some sort of chia pet.

Op here - oh there is a ton of data to suggest that for those athletes who had muscle regaining the muscle is much easier than for others who have never done it before. Something about the memory in the nuclei - I know it used to come on and off very quickly when I would take a training break.

From Scientific America Quote: Exercise physiologists agree: muscle memory is real. But how are these 'memories' stored? A review has a simple answer: nuclei gained during training persist even when muscle cells shrink due to disuse or start to break down. This means we can 'bank' nuclei in our youth to prevent frailty in old age -

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:August was 2.5 months ago. Muscle is REALLY hard to build and you are really fat. That is why. Don’t give up now but it is way too soon to expect muscle when your body has a lot of fat to lose first.

+1

at this point if your main goal is to lose fat around your belly you are better off eating in a calorie deficit to focus on losing weight/fat while continuing to lift heavy to maintain the muscle that you have.

OP here - that's my theory too The only thing I thought I had working in my favor is that I was a very elite athlete at one point in my life - so I figured I'd have some muscle memory that would return. I honestly think I need to reduce the calories below 1600.

This is magical thinking. Or worse. Muscle memory is remembering how to ride a bike when you haven't in a long time, not sprout muscle fibers instantaneously like some sort of chia pet.

Anonymous wrote:There are a couple of things that go into this.

You cannot build muscle on a calorie deficit. It isn't scientifically possible. The reason why people encourage lifting heavy when someone is looking to "lose weight" it is because for most people, their goal is actually to look better/smaller. Let's say you decided not to work out at all, and only ate 1000 calories a day. Very likely you would see the scale decrease, because you'd be losing fat AND existing muscle. This also means you probably wouldn't look very good even after losing a good chunk of scale weight.

If you lift heavy weights and eat a deficit, you will lose fat and SOME muscle, but much less muscle than you would have without the weight training. As a result, the scale doesn't go down as much, but inches are lost. The result is that you are smaller and look better. This is also why people recommend not paying too much attention to a scale, because a woman who cuts calories and loses a lot of scale weight may be doing more harm than good by losing muscle.

It is EXTREMELY difficult to build muscle, even with the right diet, when you are a woman. It's even harder when you're closer to menopause age. Truthfully, most of us will struggle just to maintain the muscle we have as we get older.

I truthfully don't know why you would be unhappy that you lost inches. YOU LOST INCHES. Isn't that good? Why does it matter that the scale is the same or a widely-known error riddled DEXA scan didn't spout out the numbers you wanted? That's crazy.

You sound like me. i said this back on page 1 I am honestly shocked and surprise that the trainer OP is working with hasn't explained this and was surprised she didn't gain muscle. Also shocked a trainer doesn't understand that gaining pounds of muscle doesn't happen in 14 weeks.

There are a couple of things that go into this.

You cannot build muscle on a calorie deficit. It isn't scientifically possible. The reason why people encourage lifting heavy when someone is looking to "lose weight" it is because for most people, their goal is actually to look better/smaller. Let's say you decided not to work out at all, and only ate 1000 calories a day. Very likely you would see the scale decrease, because you'd be losing fat AND existing muscle. This also means you probably wouldn't look very good even after losing a good chunk of scale weight.

If you lift heavy weights and eat a deficit, you will lose fat and SOME muscle, but much less muscle than you would have without the weight training. As a result, the scale doesn't go down as much, but inches are lost. The result is that you are smaller and look better. This is also why people recommend not paying too much attention to a scale, because a woman who cuts calories and loses a lot of scale weight may be doing more harm than good by losing muscle.

It is EXTREMELY difficult to build muscle, even with the right diet, when you are a woman. It's even harder when you're closer to menopause age. Truthfully, most of us will struggle just to maintain the muscle we have as we get older.

I truthfully don't know why you would be unhappy that you lost inches. YOU LOST INCHES. Isn't that good? Why does it matter that the scale is the same or a widely-known error riddled DEXA scan didn't spout out the numbers you wanted? That's crazy.