2 weeks out from NPC Bikini show...no weight loss

[kristyam89]

hi there,

so I will start off by saying I KNOW i shouldnt let the scale be my measure of progress. it's all about body composition/inches lost/clothes fitting etc. And normally I would agree...BUT I am at the tail end of my contest prep for an NPC Bikini show. This will be my 3rd show so I have a little bit of experience and kind of know how my body reacts.

So during my last two show preps, I got down to a show day weight of around 115 or so (I am 5'4' by the way). My last show was about 5 months ago. After that show, I gained about 10 pounds back and really hit the gym hard to try and make some quick gains in a few months. I have since been prepping for my show for the last 10 weeks or so, and really started hitting hard about 5 weeks ago with the cardio and carb cycling etc. THE WEIRD THING IS IVE HARDLY LOST ANY WEIGHT AT ALL!! I started my prep weighing about 125, and today, 10 weeks later, I am 123. My diet is pretty strict, I weigh everything perfectly, I was doing 1 hour of weight training and 45 minutes of cardio (mixed it up between steady state and HIIT) 5 days a week. The past 4 weeks I've added in a second cardio session 5 days a week, so I am training pretty hard, and eating very strictly (I have been hitting around 1,300 - 1,400 calories a day, macros are at about 45%P/30%C/25%F, I will eat more fat than carbs on my rest days though).

I know that muscle weighs more than fat, but to me regardless of that the math just doesnt add up. With the calories I burn vs what I eat I should be loosing weight. I have been drinking way more BCAAs this time around to try and preserve muscle while I am cutting, could it be that because of that I've actually been able to hold on to more muscle than usual?? I am thinking I just have a new stage weight of about 120 now, I def feel like I look more muscular than I ever have, but its still has me so perplexed as to how I can be working so hard but am not seeing that reflected in the scale at all.

Any thoughts on what could be going on with my body? it just really seems to be holding on to as much as possible so matter how hard I work! lol I don't get it!

[chamelious]

Couple of things.

Its pretty unlikely/borderline impossible you gained 8lbs of muscle in 5 months given your assumed training age and gender.

If you're not losing any weight you're not at a deficit, whatever the numbers are.

Carb cycling is unnecessary.

BCAA's are very unnecessary and a large waste of cash.
If you look better, who cares

[DieselsMom]

You may also want to check your supplements for how many calories your consuming with those extras they can add up especially if you have increased them.

But I agree with Chamelious if you look better than don't worry about it - use measurements and pictures instead of the scale to measure your progress.

[WillBrink]

Have you actually tracked body comp changes using some fairly accurate method such as calipers? If not, impossible to really know what's going. Two, your cals seem low even at your height/weight for someone who is active and wants to retain FFM for comps and health.

[kristyam89]

Have you actually tracked body comp changes using some fairly accurate method such as calipers? If not, impossible to really know what's going. Two, your cals seem low even at your height/weight for someone who is active and wants to retain FFM for comps and health.

My scale has a body fat % calculation (although I know its not that accurate) but when I started prep I was about 23%, now I am 19%. But like someone mentioned earlier, Im perplexed because I dont think its possible that I gained THAT much muscle in a short amount of time. Its strange. Do you think the calorie amount is what is killing me (AKA too low so forcing body into panic mode and holding fat more)?

[kristyam89]

Couple of things.

Its pretty unlikely/borderline impossible you gained 8lbs of muscle in 5 months given your assumed training age and gender.

If you're not losing any weight you're not at a deficit, whatever the numbers are.

Carb cycling is unnecessary.

BCAA's are very unnecessary and a large waste of cash.
If you look better, who cares

Totally hear you I highly doubt I packed on that much muscle, maybe 1 or 2 pounds if Im lucky lol

Between 2 hours of cardio a day, 1 weight training session, 1300-1400 calories a day (tracked pretty meticulously) I dont see how I cant be in a deficit. I really push myself in my cardio sessions too. so strange, the math doesnt add up. im going to take a look at my food and supplements, see if there is something I am missing. thank you for your input!

[kristyam89]

You may also want to check your supplements for how many calories your consuming with those extras they can add up especially if you have increased them.

But I agree with Chamelious if you look better than don't worry about it - use measurements and pictures instead of the scale to measure your progress.

True, I never really tracked the calories of my supplements...didnt even really think of it as calories either. Im going to add it all up and see what the damage is that might be part of it! thank you for the input!

[WillBrink]

My scale has a body fat % calculation (although I know its not that accurate) but when I started prep I was about 23%, now I am 19%. But like someone mentioned earlier, Im perplexed because I dont think its possible that I gained THAT much muscle in a short amount of time. Its strange. Do you think the calorie amount is what is killing me (AKA too low so forcing body into panic mode and holding fat more)?

Your scale uses BIA method which is essentially useless in "free living" people vs well controlled lab settings. Note I mentioned calipers specifically. El cheapo calipers such as Accumeasure can give a good approximation of changing body comp.

How did you calculate the cals? There's good formulas in the FAQs here and online stuff too. End of the day, weight is the least important metric, especially for a physique competitor, so if objective body comp measures, strength in the gym, how clothes fit, what the mirror says all come up win, ignore BW and put it down to one of lifes mysteries and drive on.

Of interest may also be:

Protein Intakes For Female Physique Athletes

http://www.brinkzone.com/bodybuildin...ique-athletes/

[sy2502]

My scale has a body fat % calculation (although I know its not that accurate) but when I started prep I was about 23%, now I am 19%.

LOL on competition day my scale told me I was 26% body fat. Yes, it's that much off.

[kristyam89]

LOL on competition day my scale told me I was 26% body fat. Yes, it's that much off.

That makes me feel so much better lmao !! i thought that scale was funky!

[VO2Maxima]

True, I never really tracked the calories of my supplements...didnt even really think of it as calories either. Im going to add it all up and see what the damage is that might be part of it! thank you for the input!

BCAAs are 6kcal/gram. Also worth reading, concerning BCAAs: https://blog.priceplow.com/supplemen...agon-schoefeld
Note: I am not blaming BCAAs for you not losing weight. It is just one possible factor out of many.

[PricePlow]

BCAAs are 6kcal/gram. Also worth reading, concerning BCAAs: https://blog.priceplow.com/supplemen...agon-schoefeld
Note: I am not blaming BCAAs for you not losing weight. It is just one possible factor out of many.

Absolutely this, and thanks for sharing the link VO2Maxima.

Depending on how many BCAAs you're getting, it could be adding more calories than you think. 20 calories, no big deal, but if you're throwing do 100 calories over the course of the day, that starts to become significant for a careful dieter.

[sy2502]

BCAAs are 6kcal/gram. Also worth reading, concerning BCAAs: https://blog.priceplow.com/supplemen...agon-schoefeld
Note: I am not blaming BCAAs for you not losing weight. It is just one possible factor out of many.

I wish they'd get their chit together and come to a final conclusion on this. If you research online you find everything and the opposite of everything. They help. They don't help. They let you retain muscle while dieting. No they don't. Yes they do. They help you lose weight. They make you gain weight.

Seriously smart scientists, get it together.

[VO2Maxima]

I wish they'd get their chit together and come to a final conclusion on this. If you research online you find everything and the opposite of everything. They help. They don't help. They let you retain muscle while dieting. No they don't. Yes they do. They help you lose weight. They make you gain weight.

Seriously smart scientists, get it together.

Unfortunately, coming to a "final conclusion" isn't that easy...research doesn't work that way. The Scivation study was talked about forever on the main supp forum, but as you probably know, it takes forever to complete the study, interpret the results, get past review boards and get published, etc. That was the study that said that BCAAs caused fat loss, so anything you read recently about BCAAs causing fat loss likely came from that study. However, as stated in the article, Aragon noticed that the results were way misinterpreted...BCAAs caused a preservation of both muscle AND fat (how it got past the review boards in its current state is another question altogether). Anything you read online that was written based on the original study but not Aragon, Schoenfeld, and Dieter's comments will not take that into account, since most of the articles probably read the abstract and maybe the conclusion and likely did not see the problems with the study. And I believe we're still waiting to see the original author's comments on those comments.

I don't think I've read anything that says they don't help you retain muscle when dieting. The question is whether they help more than intact proteins...that I don't know.
I also don't think I've seen anything that says they help you lose weight. They shouldn't really make you gain weight either unless you're using a ton of them, since they have 6kcal/gram. They may, however, act as an anti-catabolic for both muscle and fat and slow weight loss...we'll see what happens with this study.