If you do aerobic exercise, could it be that you gain muscle which is why the scale doesn't move sometimes?

Question

I weigh myself every morning. I eat about a 1200 calorie diet. Lately I've been exercising 1 hour a day on the elliptical. Today the scale didn't move, so I'm worried, could it be because of water retention or muscle gain, etc. please help.Thanks :)

Thanks fan and all!

Answer 1

you need to stop weighing yourself daily and start taking bi-weekly body fat readings. when you actually know what your body fat is those ever fluctuating numbers on the scale become meaningless.

don't be a slave to the scale, it has ruined many a life.

Answer 2

No, you won't put on that much muscle to notice a difference on the scale. Even when women do heavy weight training, they only put on like 5 pounds of muscle over months and months. It's true that you should go by measurements more than weight, but your weight gain is not from muscle weight, especially if you're just doing aerobic exercise. YOu should be losing weight from that. If the scale didn't move 1 day, don't worry about it. It could just be that you have some water weight in you or something. Try weighing yourself every other day just to monitor yourself, but only count gains and losses over a week's period.

Answer 3

Your body weight and body fat/muscle composition fluctuates constantly. If you're weighing in at different times throughout the day, you'll see a variety of numbers. Don't read too much into stagnant numbers. That said, another reason why you might not be seeing change recently is because your body has hit a weight where you need to adjust your exercise program because it has reached a threshold at which point it maintains homeostasis. The point is to try and confuse your body with a variety of exercises. Try incorporating light weight high repetition workouts. (lean muscle building, not mass building) Hit the treadmill. Workout different parts of the body on different days.

Answer 4

You will most likely loose inches first and tone up existing muscle, then begin lose weight.

Answer 5

Yes, you will see that muscle ways more than fat.. So my advice to measure yourself and keep measuring yourself once a week.. You'll see the fat disappear!