Thread: Is it possible that I'm building muscle as fast as I'm losing fat?

I'm 5'8, about 93.4kg, 29 year old Male.

I've done little to no exercise for about 2 years, but started doing intense 30 minute calisthenics exercises, + more focused stuff with a pair of dumbbells (8kg) about 3 weeks ago. I've done this 5 or 6 days each week.

I've gone from skipping breakfast and having stuff like cheesy pasta and large meals in the evening, to the following diet;
Drinking nothing but water (With the exception of a sugar-free coffee in the morning)
45g porridge oats made with semi-skimmed milk for breakfast
Salad or mixed grilled veg + lean protein i.e chicken breast or fish (usually haddock or salmon) for lunch.
And then something similar in the evening.

I've calculated it to be around 1200-1400 calories, although I may be out by a little bit.

Unfortunately, I work a desk job so for literally 7 hours of the day I'm sat down. I do my 30 minutes of weight training/calisthenics on my lunch break as I work from home.

I lost roughly 5-6lbs in the first 2 weeks, which although less than I expected, is at least reasonable.

This week, I haven't lost or gained anything. My weight has fluctuated between 93.4kg and 93.7kg.

I'm working my arse off during those 30 minutes, and my calorie intake has massively decreased, so I'm utterly confused as to why the weight loss hasn't continued?

Is it possible that as I'm a beginner, I've gained as much muscle weight as I've lost in fat? My arms, shoulders and thighs have definitely gained strength and size as I do stupid amounts of squats/pushups for my fitness level. I usually work until failure.

Any advice, really really appreciated as I'm getting a bit frustrated.

Attached front/side/back profile images.

give it another week, also you should eat a bit more than 1200-1400 calories

Originally Posted by faithbrah

give it another week, also you should eat a bit more than 1200-1400 calories

Thanks for the reply.

A lot of people have said I should be eating more, but given my job I can't imagine I'm burning that many calories just being sat down? I feel full after each meal so don't feel I NEED to eat more. And honestly, if it's going to slow down the rate at which I lose weight even more, it's not something I want to do.

Originally Posted by Craig36091

Thanks for the reply.

A lot of people have said I should be eating more, but given my job I can't imagine I'm burning that many calories just being sat down? I feel full after each meal so don't feel I NEED to eat more. And honestly, if it's going to slow down the rate at which I lose weight even more, it's not something I want to do.

You wouldn't want to risk losing muscle would you?

This might already be happening since muscle gives up it's mass more cheaply than fat does - so the numbers on the scale are more impressive but the end result will be more like skinny fat than what you really want.

Originally Posted by SuffolkPunch

You wouldn't want to risk losing muscle would you?

This might already be happening since muscle gives up it's mass more cheaply than fat does - so the numbers on the scale are more impressive but the end result will be more like skinny fat than what you really want.

Is this still likely to happen even if I'm eating more protein?

Originally Posted by Craig36091

Is this still likely to happen even if I'm eating more protein?

If you try to lose more than 1% of your bodyweight per week for a sustained period then yes it can happen.

BTW, why did you delete your other thread? It's a bit annoying if a perfectly good answer disappears and then the same question is asked again...

I'm gonna tell you what you need to hear, not what you need to hear. Reality is that 1200 cals is too low of a deficit if you wanna preserve the low amount of muscle you do have. It doesn't matter if you have a desk job. I work in front of a computer for almost 10 hours a day, currently cutting at around 1800-2000, and I've been losing around .5lb to 1lb a week. Every body is different obviously, but I suggest you try to lose max 2 pounds a week, with most of your cals coming from protein. Yup, it's gonna be a slow process, but once you reach your goal you're gonna look a lot better than crash dieting. If you keep dieting like you are you're gonna end up skinny fat