Muscle gain??

Last week I really started getting into the habit of Pilates (30 minutes each, 3 days a week). I also swam, mowed the lawn (reel mower), did massive amounts of yard work and played tennis.

My BMR is 2039 and I ate a daily average of 1457 calories. I figure that with the activities I was doing my average burn would be around 2200 and I feel I should have definitely lost at least a pound (I average about 1.77 per week).

Buutttttt....I lost 0.2 pounds. Not my TTOM, nothing really different minus the pilates. I pushed myself as hard as always and tried to keep my activities varied. So...what happened?!

I don't know if I should be eating more, less or if the Pilates maybe works more on the muscles than on weight loss. Did I possibly just gain muscle this week?

I'm trying not to let that 0.2 get me down because I still FEEL good and I lost an inch on my waist and hips but this is kinda crazy. I was really wanting to hit the 15 lbs lost goal this week and it didn't happen.

Should I continue what I'm doing and wait it out for another week?

Yes, definitely keep it up (if you like what you are doing, that is). That isn't long enough to tell what's going on. You may be retaining water in your muscles because of the increase in activity or just generally because of something you ate. Whether we like it or not, this game isn't about speed and our bodies respond in their own time. Be patient.

Ok thank you :) I thought I should hold off and just keep going but sometimes you can't tell if you're doing something wrong even when it's glaring right at you!

Yep, there are a million reasons why you might not have lost weight (water retention is my typical culprit).  Higher sodium, a bigger meal the day before, sickness, lower water consumption, travel - all of them mess me up!  Don't let the small loss get you down - it will eventually catch back up with you!

I'm 99% sure that it's not muscle gain, unless you're also doing resistance training.  Pilates is not going to build muscle.  Even with heavy weight lifting, if you're eating at a deficit, you're not going to build more than a couple pounds of muscle over your first few months - and that's only if you're new to lifting.  That said, if you enjoy pilates and it gets you to be more active, by all means keep it up.

Edited for spelling

Original Post by awestendorf:

Yep, there are a million reasons why you might now have lost weight (water retention is my typical culprit).  Higher sodium, a bigger meal the day before, sickness, lower water consumption, travel - all of them mess me up!  Don't let the small loss get you down - it will eventually catch back up with you!

I'm 99% sure that it's not muscle gain, unless you're also doing resistance training.  Pilates is not going to build muscle.  Even with heavy weight lifting, if you're eating at a deficit, you're not going to build more than a couple pounds of muscle over your first few months - and that's only if you're new to lifting.  That said, if you enjoy pilates and it gets you to be more active, by all means keep it up.

^^This.