If your close to your goal wieght, eating on a deficit and doing wieght training chances are your weight will go up not down sadly.

I'f you still had a lot of weight to lost to your goal it might be possible to lose weight while gaining muscle, however its really very hard when your just a few pounts of away because as we know muscle wieghs more than fat.

when you've got alot to lose it is possible to lose 2lb of fat and trade it for 1lb of muscle but that gets harder and harder the closer we get as we have less and less fat to trade in.

I'm in a similar position to you, less than 10lb's from my goal wieght and i was losing wieght nicely, however when i decided i wanted to look more toned rather than being skinny fat, i found the scales have pretty much stopped moving and im expecting them to start gonig up agan.

Why is "losing wieght" so important?? after all its just a number on a scale, personally i don't care if i weight 800lb's as long as i look like i weight 110lbs... hehe

Personally i know its hard to get on the scales day after day and not see them go down i try and comfort myself with the fact that im gaining muscle and that "really" i don't expect to lose weight.

but it is hard ... because while the scales are gonig down you can see your progress on a daily or weekly basis gaining muscle is harder to track and so sometimes i think its harder to keep motvated, especially when your biggest guide till now the scales is moving in a direction we don't really like.

Congratulations to you!

Sometimes I think, I will get to my goal weight and then will tone my body out? Bleh I dont know lol.

I heard "HIIT" makes you burn fat yet gain/keep muscle?

the gaining muscle / losing weight ratio is a hard and weird one.

It's very difficult to lose wieght and gain muscle at the same time as the are total opposites of each other.

what doing weight or/and HIIT do while on a deficit is they slow the burn on your muscles .... think about your body as a bag of marbles. Blue = muscle Red = Fat.

On a basic diet or dieting while doing regualar cardio every time you lose weight you lose 1 red marble and one blue marble, eventually you'll get down to your goal weight but you will have lost alot of both.

Doing wieghts or HIIT helps you lose the red marbles while trying to maintain the blue marbles so what happens is you lose 3 red to every blue marble and if yr really lucky you can manage to lose no muscle.. perhaps even gain it on those days you where abit naughtie and slipped over your calories.

But not only that the bluemarbles (the muscles)  become better stronger nicer quality and more toned as they become tighter and gain a much better appearance which is why you lose dress sizes even though your wieght might not have gone down.

And as the previous posted said .. muscles eat more calories than fat does so gaining muscle actually helps you lose weight faster.

Yeah that seems like so hard.

It makes you want to lose like an EXTRA 10 pounds and then when you reach that goal, gain 10 pounds in just muscle, you know?

BLEH.

I remember when I did body pump when I had a gym membership. I was losing and gaining muscle. I was toned and lost weight; those were the days :[

Why in the world does it matter? Seriously. I simply can't wrap my head around this all-too-prevalent mindset. Why do you care what the scale says?

I have been lifting weights for 18 years. For most of that time I did not own a scale. I was a size 4: that was how I measured. When the doctor weighed me every year, my weight was the same: 129. Now it is 111. I don't care. I was going for an hourglass shape and managed that at a size 0. It was my appearance that I cared about, not the scale. And I lifted weights the entire time I was losing because it was very important to me that I maintain my toned physique.

If you do not exercise and continue to lose weight, you will continue to lose muscle. That will only make you look larger than you would appear otherwise—because muscle is denser than fat—and it will make the process of gaining muscle that much more laborious and drawn out.

Why do the numbers matter?

What is HIIT?

High-intensity interval training

I guess because it just does. I dont want to be too musclular just because I dont like that look. I think that if a girl is toooo skinny like boney its gross, or if they got too much muscle its gross. I look for something in between. If I could find a way to be 115, and be toned I would be very happy. I dont know if there is such thing though.

I have a question then for you, petite powerhouse

How did you get to a size 0, 111 pounds and still be toned and looking amazing and feeling amazing because I would like that :]

How did you do it?

I am 111 and toned, not super muscular. No women can even be super muscular without the aid of steroids. I look like a normal women with a lot of muscle tone. I don't like that big-muscle look, either. I have women come up to me every day and ask me how to get the arms, abs and legs I have, and I don't think that would happen if I were overly muscle bound.

Seriously, I have been regularly lifting weights and doing cardio for 18 years, from the age of 17 to now, and I lift pretty heavy weights. I am stronger than any woman I know. But I'm still not muscle bound because that is not a look that women naturally attain. In addition, as you lose weight the muscle tone reveals itself more as the fat disappears, but the body is smaller overall, so even your muscles look smaller than before: smaller, but more defined.

Hope I'm not butting in but from what I see & have read you guys have two totally different body compositions.

It's kind of like comparing Madonna to Britney Spears. I'm not sure if you guys get what I'm trying to say. It's not insulting by any means. Just like me, I will NEVER be skinny. I'm not made that way. If I weighed 80 lbs, (gross), I'd still have hips & ass they would just be hanging off my bones. Lol.

The best thing you can do for yourself especially when you are young is to learn to accept/love your body. If I could only have back all the years I spent thinking if I just ate less and worked out more I'd suddenly have Carmen Electra's bod. We are a product of genetics, so exercise and diet is only going to enhance what youve already got.

Did weight training for a while, before I switched to aerobics. What I got was a sort of curve: At first, the weight increased, though my clothing size didn't--the gain in muscle mass. Then the weight started going down slowly, since muscle mass uses more energy. Then it balanced out and stayed steady--my appetite having matched my new weight, which I think was approximately ten pounds lighter.

Original Post by odie03:

We are a product of genetics, so exercise and diet is only going to enhance what youve already got.

I agree. Actually, that is actually exactly why I started lifting weights in the first place. At 17 I was hypercritical of myself. I even spent four months eating next to nothing, and misguided teen that I was, I didn't realize that I wasn't overweight to begin with. But one day I sat myself down and told myself to knock it off. I told myself I'd never be a 5' 10" runway model. And besides, I didn't want to eat like one. So I started lifting weights and doing cardio. Instead of obsessing about being thin, I got into being strong and healthy.

The only reason I lost 18 lbs. recently is because I finally decided I wanted to see if I could lose the little bit of extra weight in my thighs. I wanted to even out my body on the top and bottom. If it hadn't worked, though, that would have been OK. I accepted my body a long time ago.

I just don't understand why anyone would stop working out while losing weight. For one thing, you lose muscle when you do that, and muscle is essential to a long, healthy life. Working out is essential, not cosmetic. After the age of 25, you lose 5 lbs. of muscle mass every decade. You also lose bone mass when you don't lift weights to replace what you lose naturally as you age. There are all manner of consequences to this.

Accept your body, but as I say, exercise is not purely cosmetic. It is vital to true health and fitness. And that includes weight/resistance training.

And, well, if you do start lifting after losing weight? You will probably gain weight in the beginning, anyway, so why not work out the whole time?

Do you people have any idea how difficult it is for women to gain just a few lbs of muscle?? You need a weight routine to be a healthy adult. No amount of cardio or HIIT or anything else can be used to get around that. If you've been dieting without a weight routine, you probably already lost a lot of muscle which is flat out BAD.

Weight training is the second best way to get rid of FAT (which is what we want, right?), your diet being the #1 way. HIIT is third to weight training.

I mean if you want to be one of those skinny-fat people who is at a healthy weight but still looks saggy, skip the weights.

Yeah, that's kind of where I'm at in my life right now. With 40 only a few years away I want to be the hottest Mom in town. Lol.

I have the healthiest approach to life, diet and exercise right now that I think Ive ever had. I'm so serious about my work outs, and a little less concerned about the diet. (Don't get me worng with the vacation now only 2 weeks away I'm on a mission to see that scale move.) He he! But when I get back, considering I'm a very normal weight now, I only intend to focus on the work outs.

There are alot of ppl at 5'2" dying to be 105, although there are also alot of ppl my height, (5'2"), dying to be my weight, (120). I just want to look and feel good.

I also just want to add real quick. Body composition is so very different per individual. 120 on someone my same height could look a lil chubby, on someone else it can look damn good. I wouldn't focus on the scale so much anymore.

Original Post by odie03:

Yeah, that's kind of where I'm at in my life right now. With 40 only a few years away I want to be the hottest Mom in town. Lol.

I have the healthiest approach to life, diet and exercise right now that I think Ive ever had. I'm so serious about my work outs, and a little less concerned about the diet. (Don't get me worng with the vacation now only 2 weeks away I'm on a mission to see that scale move.) He he! But when I get back, considering I'm a very normal weight now, I only intend to focus on the work outs.

There are alot of ppl at 5'2" dying to be 105, although there are also alot of ppl my height, (5'2"), dying to be my weight, (120). I just want to look and feel good.

I also just want to add real quick. Body composition is so very different per individual. 120 on someone my same height could look a lil chubby, on someone else it can look damn good. I wouldn't focus on the scale so much anymore.

You're absolutely right about the scale and body composition. The scale should not guide your every move because the numbers register differently on every body.

I'm also with you on diet. I don't eat completely clean and never will. Part of the fun of life is food, and while I love healthy food, I love the stuff that isn't so good for you, either. And if you work out and take care of the body you have, there's more leeway when it comes to food.

yes, I used to be on eof those skinny fat ppl. It's ugly. I agree with the other statement too, exercise is essential to life and not just for vanity. Nobody is knocking you if you want to lose weight but when you are already in the normal range the best thing you can do is exercise.

WELL.

I would be working out more, and doing weight lifting and cardio IF i had a gym membership. I CANNOT afford to be buying NEW weights every other week or every 3 weeks or whatever. I have two 5 pound weights at home and a pilates video and the park down the street. I work in an auto body shop at school from 7am-4pm <-- lots of walking. I get home shower, eat and do some homework or whatever and then hit the sack. I am still recovering from my kidney infection so hopefully by tuesday I will be able to go running and do pilates again without dieing. BUT the fact is I cant lift weights because I cant afford it.

I mean what do you do then?

There are plenty ways you can go about your body.

Scales. Measurements. Sizes. Body fat percent, or hip to waist ratio. Who is to say what is the wrong or right way?

Ask Krista at Stumptuous! She has a lot of great weights at home ideas