How much muscle did I lose while on 300mg of Test

[Alistair_]

Trying to understand exactly all the metrics these newer digital scales measure to see how much muscle I lost. I had to have emergency surgery about a month ago and was in the hospital for 5 days / 4 nights. The first 3 days I was on IV’s only with no food. After returning home and waiting 3 days, I weighted myself on my digital scale and was down from 180.4 pounds to 172 pounds. 13% BF down to 12.1% body fat. 149 pounds muscle mass to 143.6 pounds. Do I take the muscle mass loss at face value, meaning I actually lost 5.4 pounds of muscle?

For accuracy I always weight myself first thing in the morning before breakfast and after emptying my bladder. My skeletal muscle percentage was almost the same, 56.2% vs 56.8% after surgery. What exactly does the skeletal muscle metric capture? I know skeletal muscle is what I have built in the gym. Does this metric mean I really didn’t lose that much muscle? I’m a bit confused.

 

[Mathb33]

These metrics digital scale are absolute garbage. You’ll never know how much exact muscle tissue you lost unless you paid for a dexa scan prior to the surgery and one after when you wanted to compare. And even then it’s not 100% accurate. Why would you want to know how much you lost? Just go back at the gym and get back to your lifestyle and the muscle memory will kick in and you should retrieve any muscle lost within 6-10 weeks maximum.

 

[Alistair_]

These metrics digital scale are absolute garbage. You’ll never know how much exact muscle tissue you lost unless you paid for a dexa scan prior to the surgery and one after when you wanted to compare. And even then it’s not 100% accurate. Why would you want to know how much you lost? Just go back at the gym and get back to your lifestyle and the muscle memory will kick in and you should retrieve any muscle lost within 6-10 weeks maximum.

The scale I have is not nearly as accurate as DEXA or even In-Body, however it should give a consistent reading enough to gauge progress or in this case regression. I want to know how much I lost just for my own information. If I didn’t lose much then it really shows how much 300mg of testosterone a week can protect my muscle mass even in a starvation scenario. This kind of information is useful to me when I go on my next cut after lean bulking phase.

 

[Nac]

Digital scales are notoriously untrustworthy due mainly to water fluctuations in the body. No way you lost 5lbs of muscle tissue in a week, especially on 300mg test. Nope. I mean think about it, at that rate of loss you'd wither away to nothing in a month. On 300mg test. Plus you're eating food.

And I'm not sure why you're thinking your weight loss here could be muscle anyway.

 

[Sparta12]

Trying to understand exactly all the metrics these newer digital scales measure to see how much muscle I lost. I had to have emergency surgery about a month ago and was in the hospital for 5 days / 4 nights. The first 3 days I was on IV’s only with no food. After returning home and waiting 3 days, I weighted myself on my digital scale and was down from 180.4 pounds to 172 pounds. 13% BF down to 12.1% body fat. 149 pounds muscle mass to 143.6 pounds. Do I take the muscle mass loss at face value, meaning I actually lost 5.4 pounds of muscle?

For accuracy I always weight myself first thing in the morning before breakfast and after emptying my bladder. My skeletal muscle percentage was almost the same, 56.2% vs 56.8% after surgery. What exactly does the skeletal muscle metric capture? I know skeletal muscle is what I have built in the gym. Does this metric mean I really didn’t lose that much muscle? I’m a bit confused.

I would not worry about all that, you would have lost a lot of glycogen, probably a bit of fat, bit of muscle. No way it was 5.4 pounds of pure muscle. You will be back to normal within 2 weeks. Do not focus on this, just eat and train.

 

[Alistair_]

I would not worry about all that, you would have lost a lot of glycogen, probably a bit of fat, bit of muscle. No way it was 5.4 pounds of pure muscle. You will be back to normal within 2 weeks. Do not focus on this, just eat and train.

Yes, I agree with both of you that there is no use in crying over spilled milk and I’m really not obsessing over it. My weight is already back up four pounds and that’s with cleaning eating and watching my calories. I had lost a lot of glycogen. 3 days of no food will do that. Unfortunately it will be at least 6 weeks before I can even begin training again.

 

[cheftepesh1]

I would use the mirror to judge this better. Unless you can get a detailed before and after test.

 

[Screwtape]

Some of that weight will be muscle glycogen and water, so you'll bounce back fast with normal eating.

 

[brofessorx]

300mg of test is going to put you well into Supra physiological levels. You didn’t lose any muscle, you just lost water, and size due to reduced inflammation in the muscles.
Probably even dropped some body fat as well from not eating and just laying there.

 

[Romac]

What Mathb33 said, and also LBM does not equal muscle, it equals "non-fat" weight, which includes water. Loading back up on carbs will make your non-fat weight go up, as you retain more water. My prediction is that by the end of the weekend or sooner you'll have all that weight back. I just got done with a cut and started a Test/tren bulk cycle, upping my carbs, my fats, and my protein.. The first week I gained 10lbs, by the end of the first month I gained 20lbs. It shows up as LBM, but it's mostly all water from the gear, but also from the carb loading.

 

[Screwtape]

Each gram of muscle glycogen hold 3 to 4 grams of water, so those carbs are going to blow you up pretty quick.

 

[Alistair_]

Thanks for the replies. I’m not able to train yet but getting there and my shoulders, chest and arms all fill out my shirts the same way they did pre-surgery, so no dramatic changes. I can’t wait to get back in the gym but it will be baby steps. My lower intestine had gotten pinched up in some scar tissue from a mesh I had put in for umbilical hernia surgery last September.