I'm stuck, stalled, even gaining a bit. I feel a bit trimmer though. I just started strength training last week and everybody says muscle weighs more (or is more dense) than fat, but I don't want to delude myself.

Does anyone know how much muscle really weighs and whether it can be amassed in as little as 4 strength training sessions?

I don't know how much muscle weighs, but if you get your body fat % done then you'd know for sure... If your BF% went down, and you stayed the same weight, then it's muscle...

PS- great job already- 42 lbs! keep it up!

Well, it's a lot more dense than fat. Here's a pic of five pounds of fat beside five pounds of muscle.

1 pound of muscle = 1 pound of fat, but as the picture shows, muscle takes up a lot less space. If you just started lifting last week, your muscles may be holding more water to repair themselves from the new exertions you placed on them. Just keep plugging away, you're doing great!

Heidi, like the girls said, it's best to combine weighing yourself with other ways of gauging your success. The best one is your fat%, but an accurate reading is hard to get if you don't have access to great equipment. Calipers aren't always accurate, unfortunately. The calculators I've found online have never jived at all with the measurements taken by my doctors. If you can get an accurate reading, though, that will really help! In the meantime, pay attention to your measurements (something you can do easily at home) and to the ways your clothes fit. For instance, I've only lost 2 pounds in the last three weeks, but my clothes are a lot looser. I've had to retire some of my clothes because they are falling off or look horrible because they are so baggy. I haven't been exercising as much as I should, but my body must be working on shifting things around because my clothes are fitting differently.

Try to take everything in consideration and keep it in perspective!!! Be gentle with yourself and be proud of all the working out you are doing!!! My trainer told me that one hour of strength training will rev up my metabolism so that for the rest of the day, while doing almost nothing, my body will burn as much fat as it would during an hour long aerobics class! So even though you may not be burning as much fat during your strength training, you are burning it afterwards. You are also building muscle that will keep your metabolism revved. Great work!

I would suggest that you start taking body measurements with a tape measure (the one a seamstress uses) in addition to or instead of relying on the scale. Measure your calves, thighs, waist, hips, bust and arms. Since you are starting a weight training program, the scale may start slipping upwards due to the increased muscle mass. But as long as the measurements keep going down, you are on the right track.

Hi,
Thanks for all of your support. It wasn't that I was getting discouraged about the weight loss, just that it didn't make sense to see the scale inching upwards while my body felt smaller. My measurements show quite a lot of change since July, but the strangeness of scale vs. body has been in the last two weeks. I'll keep plugging away, as you all suggested. This program is rife with plateaus but this is the first time I've felt a physical disconnect from the number on the scale. Guess that's really a good thing!

Thanks again for your encouragement!