Hey! I'm a newbie and need help!!!

**soma85** · 07-01-2010 10:37 AM

Hey there!
Well, exactly a month ago, I started to go to the gym, what I want to achieve is to grow and tone my muscle and well lose some fat, so far is good... but yesterday, my trainer had to take some new measurements, to see my progress and I'm VERY confused now.. I'll explain it:

My height : 5 feet 5 inches.

weight when I started was : 115 lbs.
current weight (after a month) : 112 lbs.

Which sucks because I wanna gain muscle.. and as much as I know, I'm supposed to gain some weight not lose it.
So I asked my trainer why I was losing weight instead of gaining... he said 'oh this is normal, at first you'll burn fat while you're working on your muscles, then you will gain some weight'... I believed him.
Right after that he procceded to measure every part of me, and well yeah I lost few inches on my chest, my arms, and even my thighs and legs, now they look super skinny and I don't quite like it to be honest.
He then gave this little device that was, according to him, to measure my fat percentage and my 'muscle mass percentage' (???) I think that machine calld OMRION or something like it. According to that device I have now 18^ of fat (last month I was 19% so I lost some fat yay!) and my 'muscle mass' is uhmm 20% (last month was 18%) .
Unsure of the results, I started to chexk every singlefitness forum,chart you name it, and everywhere I read that you're supposed to have 42% of muscle, some others said that is impossible to find out the exact percentage of muscle... I think my trainer is confused, he might be thinking the BMI (means fat percentage) and the actual fat percentage (is muscle mass or BMI) I'm saying this 'cause that device is in english and he only speaks spanish ( I'm in Peru though) ... so what do you think ? is this right? Am I supposed to lose weight first (fat) while gaining muscle, even though my measurement numbers are going down??? I don't get it... HELP PLEASE!!!

**sourpuss** · 07-01-2010 10:40 AM

I think he's right. Muscle percentage doesn't really matter, what matters is that you're burning fat and building strength. Your body fat is really good where it's at so your body will most likely begin building more muscle now that you've worked some fat off.
Keep doing what you're doing, you're on the right track.
Well done!