[awseomepants]

Hi I'm new her but I've been dieting and exercising for about 3 months now. I have lost only 5 pounds but have actually lost a lot if you go through measurements. In fact I am no longer considered obese and am barley overweight, that is how much i have lost. I know the reason I am not losing any weight is because I am putting on a lot of muscle mass. But my question is will that stop, I would really rather not end up looking like a body builder. And it doesn't matter what kind of exercises I'm doing. Also my diet is helping because I have no been able to exercise due to a back injury for 3 days and have lost 5 more pounds. I'm just wondering if anybody has been where i am and wondering what eventually happened.

[sacha]

I really hate to break this to you but you really can't attribute this to putting on massive amount of muscle mass. You're very likely dealing with water retention that occurs when lifting. It takes women a good 10 years+ anabolic steroids to look like a bodybuilder. I've been at it naturally (no drugs) for 8 years and still look "fit", that's all. Women don't make more than a few pounds of lean muscle per year (a bit more when first starting out).

Your complaint is very common for women who first start working out and don't understand the amount of time/effort/drugs required to look like a 'body builder', it's a confusion with water retention. So yes, it will stop soon enough

[Unna]

So you are complaining about adding muscle and looking muscular? Oh man, I wish I had this problem! Some people have those great genes that cause their muscles to respond right away to exercise. I'm always jealous - I still have grandma arms that wave, despite my efforts.

I wouldn't stop exercising. I think losing weight in general will make you appear less muscular - you mentioned at the end of your post that your diet is helping.

[sontaikle]

I'm making the assumption that you're a woman. If you're a man disregard this advice.

Honestly unless you're eating 5000 calories a day and lifting hundreds and hundreds of pounds you're not going to look like a body builder. Even then you'd probably have a hard time getting to that point as it's very difficult for women to bulk up.

You might be retaining water, or your body may not have let go of the weight yet. When I was losing I sometimes lost inches first and then lost weight later on. Give it time.