Dr Stephen Phinney opposes IF

(Edith) #41

I don’t mean to play devil’s advocate here, but I believe it is not possible to gain two pounds of muscle in 3 to 4 days. It is possible for your lean mass percentage to go up due to your fat mass percentage decreasing.

(Robert C) #42

I agree, depending on age/hormones - 2 pounds of muscle in a month can be difficult.

I think all of these short time between measurements for both fat loss and muscle gain can be very inaccurate.

Bioelectrical Impedance can be way off due to hydration levels and stomach contents.

Higher end measures like the Hydrostatic Weighing (the dunk tank) can also be off because it assumes that everything that is not fat is lean body mass. So if you have several heavier meals prior to measuring you’ll get different measures than if you only had small meals - a few extra cups of coffee inflate your lean body mass too.

I prefer to think in the long term - if I fast I could (and sometimes do) watch big number changes on the scale - but, really I keep in mind that about half a pound lost a day is what I’ll end up with after refeeding. If I work out hard and use the dunk tank testing carefully (always eating the same meals and having the same amount of coffee prior to testing) I found that I could put on a little over a pound of muscle per month (55 year old man with not-the-best hormone numbers).

I sometimes find it disheartening to monitor the short term changes and then extrapolate and end up wondering why I cannot sustain that level.

(back and doublin' down) #43

I weigh once a week on a Tanita scale, just going by my weekly tapes that print out.