Thread: Losing fat not muscle

The following measurements were taken using a DEXA scan. I am 18 year old with a RMR of 1,700 calories who is trying to body build. I lift 6 times a week. I finished my 3 month bulk and started cutting a month ago. After my bulk, my numbers were as follows: totals pounds - 168.8, fat pounds - 34.2, lean pounds - 129.0. Meaning my body fat was 20.3%. During my bulk I ate 3300 calories a day. For the past month, I have been cutting with the following macro splits (protein 200, carbs 200, fat 80) for a total of 2,300 calories. After hopping on the DEXA scan again my numbers showed that I lost 4 pounds of muscle and only .1 pounds of fat. I have no idea what I’m doing wrong. Please help

Originally Posted by Gringer

You cut back 1000 calories everyday in the space of a month. No wonder you lost more muscle than fat. Your strenght must have dipped a fair bit. You cut way too fast.

yea I’m an idiot. What should I do to fix it

Originally Posted by xsquid99

DEXA numbers aren't that accurate, I've seen wildy different DEXA scan results just 1 week apart without any dietary, weight, or training routine changes.

3 months of "bulking" is also not an appreciable amount of time to build any muscle, even if you were doing everything right (which is rare and almost impossible) the absolute best you would have hoped to see is 6 lbs of muscle gain in that amount of time, but more than likely its around 2-3 lbs at best.

Listen to Adam's advice above, keep going for a few years because thats how long it takes to see real results.

After my 3.5 month bulk I had gained 11 pounds of lean muscle. The reason I wanted to cut was because my body fat percentage was 20% and I started to get unhappy with how much fat I had.

Originally Posted by AdamWW

LOL no, you did not gain ‘11 pounds of lean muscle’

Not even steroids would do that.

Came here to say this. ^^^^^