No clue whether post-T weight gain is mostly muscle or fat... :(

[FtMitch]

So I started T a month ago, I have gained five pounds, and I have NO idea whether it's mostly fat or mostly muscle.  My arms and shoulders have increased in size, and I haven't seen a change in waist size or anything, but I am feeling paranoid thanks to all the talk of the T10 or T15 or whatever.  Obviously there is going to be a little of both if you are eating enough calories to gain muscle, but after spending my whole life following gender norms that say you should never gain a single ounce, fat OR muscle, it's bugging me.  Does this drive anyone else crazy?  I mean, seriously, I wanna know if I am on the road to a beer gut or if I am just gaining muscle from a combo of T and my workouts...

[FTMax]

In my first year I've lost about 20lbs, but I have been making a conscious effort to eat better and get exercise every day. I didn't have any increase in appetite like a lot of guys do, but I have a pretty abusive relationship with food so I knew if I didn't watch what I was eating, I'd probably pack on more weight and use T as an excuse.

I'd suggest taking body pics and measurements ASAP. That'd be a good indicator of what is going on, unless you have a scale that calculates your body fat percentage.

[Deborah]

You should get a set of calipers.  You can pick them up in many health food stores for less than $30.


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[HeyTrace19]

I might suggest you not overthink it...  During my first year on T my face kind of puffed out, and I am sure I gained 5-10 pounds, which I believe was due to water retention.  That did not last, however, and I am still the skinny guy I have always been, still trying to build more muscle!  I exercise daily and eat when I am hungry until I am full.  I have learned to use my body's hunger and satiety cues fairly effectively.  I found that if I listen to my body, it will keep itself at an appropriate weight.  I have an idea of how much I weigh, but I have not owned a scale since 2009!  It is a much better way of life for me.  My doctor monitors my weight so I do not obsess about it on a daily basis!

[FtMitch]

I might suggest you not overthink it...

Now what is the fun in THAT?  Don't you know that the only pleasure I have in life is neurotically obsessing about changes in my body so small that you can't even see them?   

[AeroZeppelin92]

Yea I was going to mention what Trace said, likely to be water retention. The first 6-8 months on T my face was all puffed up as well, and is just now slowly starting to fade out. It also takes a lot longer to build muscle, so it's not likely you put on 5lbs of pure muscle in a month.

Make sure when you're weighing yourself, do it once a week, in the morning as soon as you wake up, preferably not wearing anything. That will give you a better idea of how much you're gaining or losing. Body weight fluctuates throughout the day and even day to day.

[FtMitch]

That makes sense.  Maybe I gained water weight in some place I can't see? My face isn't puffy, and I seem to be the same size, not sure where these five pounds are.  I am pretty skinny, though, so I'm not sure I'd even be able to tell...

[jlaframboise]

I've had quite a journey with weight loss on T. I've shed 20 more pounds since I've been on it adding to the previous weight loss. (I was super heavy), I've recently been doing strength training and only gained a small amount of muscle, even with clean eating. so I agree with others that it's probably water retention, or your weight just fluctuating since starting T. imo, there arent many changes in that area the first month of t.

[Kylo]

Take a tape measure to the areas you think have most fat on them and keep a record over time, weighing yourself at the same time. A rough guide indicating you've gained muscle is an increase in weight but a reduction in width on the tape. Muscle weighs more than fat, so gaining muscle will also look like gaining weight. Areas with more fat on them will show a more dramatic reduction in size on the tape quickly if you're losing fat and not gaining it. I know I can lose about 11lb in a week if I put my mind to it, (not advised for everyone but I have a body type that can gain and lose weight fast with no bad side effects) make dietary changes, etc. so I can vouch for noticing a dramatic difference on the tape when attempting to lose fat and gain muscle.   

Eventually it'll show visually, muscles will be defined as fat reduces. But in the stage where it's hard to tell, keeping a measurement record and being strict with your diet and exercise regimes should show results.

I heard that 1 inch on/off the waist measurement is equivalent to about 7lbs of fat gain or loss. If other areas are getting bigger but your waist isn't, good chance you're gaining the muscle.

[sam1234]

I tend to agree with Trace as well. When I look at pictures of myself right after I started T, I look like I have a moon face and my body looks bloated. That went away though. If you are eating healthy and not pigging out of junk, your body should adjust.

sam1234

[dentistsandthedark]

Your waist is a good measure of body fat. If your pants fit the same around the waist but  you're gaining weight it's more than likely muscle.

[Arch]

Before T, I started working on weight loss and was making great progress. On T, I rapidly picked up muscle all over my body--sometimes in places I hadn't even thought about, such as my abdomen--but continued to experience a net loss at the scale. Muscle does weigh more than fat, so keep that in mind.

TMI moment. I can't exercise now because of injuries that have plagued me for a couple of years now. But at one of my pre-op GYN visits, the doctor was telling me that I must have been working out obsessively to pick up so much muscle in my belly. He kept telling me to relax so that he could feel things. I actually WAS relaxed because I had worked very hard on that. It's just that I have all this muscle tissue there; even uncontracted muscle tissue is a significant barrier.

What if I'd really been working out?! Yikes. And I don't even look particularly muscular in the belly region.

[Clever]

I gained 15 pounds in my first six months on T, from 130 to 145. I felt like hell and looked awful. I hadn't changed what I ate. But I had to do something.

I started the 21-day fix, and now I'm on round two. I don't do the workouts because I hate exercising, but just by following the eating plan I've lost five pounds and I can actually see my disgusting fat redistributing at last.

It's probably too extreme for most people, but it honestly took me bringing my caloric intake down to around 1200 calories a day to even budge the fat and to stop the weight gain. Hopefully I won't have to do it forever.

At this point, muscle gain isn't important. Not looking like a pudgy girl is much more crucial for me now.

[palexander]

my guess would be it's most likely fat. like the others mentioned, water retention is one of the downsides... my face got bigger, but once i hit 10 months, my jaw line started to sharpen up.


one month


ten months


over one year

to be honest, i don't have many pictures during that time because i felt so insecure... i was at my biggest and i've lost weight since, but it's still a struggle. i'm going through a time where i'm a lot more hungry again and it's difficult not to eat when you're hungry. i think as long as you continue to work out and are consistent with it, you'll be good to go

[FtMitch]

It's a little different for me as I usually have to work to gain weight.  I was so thin that I looked like a stick figure. I purposely worked to gain almost ten pounds right before starting T because I was almost 5'8" and 119 pounds.  So it was REALLY weird for me to have randomly gained 5 pounds, especially because I have been lifting weights and doing light cardio 4 days a week and doing just cardio 2 other days.  But I weighed myself again, and part of it must have been time of day and what I'd eaten, because it was actually only 3 pounds, which I would assume is a combo of water weight and muscle.  It just weirded me out because I don't ever gain weight even when I don't exercise, much less when I exercise.  In fact, when I exercise I usually have to eat around 1,800-2,000 calories a day to keep up my weight and about 2,300 to gain weight.  So it just freaked me out to see the scale had gone up without my noticing, especially with so many people talking about T and weight gain.

[Daydreamer]

Same here. I think I started T at 152, and a doctor trip about two weeks ago said I'm at 164. Twelve pounds seems like nothing for me, since I'm accustom to gaining way more--packing on 40 pounds since 2013. I know I have quite a bit of muscle, but my ravenous appetite makes me wonder how much of it is fat and how much is muscle.

[Wolf Man]

My guess would be muscle seeing as there is no real change in your size. Your general musculature is going to be affected simply by having more testosterone now.

Personally I'm a big guy and have always been on the heavy side, but my weight is dead consistent. Once I started T I went from 240 to 260 in just a couple months. That's quite the change, but if anything I had gone down a pant size and my shirts were filling in at the shoulders. That's it. I had muscle in some way since I would work out pre-T, but I'm no beast.