Is it possible to gain body fat but no/little weight?

[Anonymous]

OK so I've visibly gained a lot of body fat, yet the scale says I've only gone up 4 pounds.

Is it due to all the sugary foods I've been eating? I can't stop over eating for some reason :(

Yes

No

[Catie101]

yes, muscle weighs more than fat so if you are gaining a decent amount of fat and losing muscle than the weight of the muscle you lost could make it seem like you haven't gained as much weight in fat (I hope that made sense!). also yes it likely is from sugar. sugar once it hits your blood stream whether it be from fruit (fructose), or whether it is glucose, sucrose or anything else similar it all goes and turns into blood sugar (now fructose isn't bad so you should getting some natural sugars from fruits); once it all exits your blood stream (whatever is not used for energy, naturally and in the form of exercise) is then stored as fat which in turn breaks down the muscle tissue also and weakening your immune system. now since you are in the 18-24 category I'm assuming you are no longer growing so I think your over eating is just out of habit and not hunger. slowly cut back and replace foods that fill you up more but have less calories. also take into consideration the nutritional value... certain foods break down more slowly in your bloodstream so they are more likely to be used for energy and less likely to be stored as fat such as 100% whole wheat bread is better than a bread where the ingredients list starts with enriched white flour or enriched wheat flour...just as fruit will be better than a chocolate bar!

[raptor]

I only have one problem with this answer. Muscle does not weigh more than fat. Muscle has a higher density than fat.

[Catie101]

but because it is more dense a pound of muscle and a pound of fat put side by side , the muscle is smaller but the same weight so you need less of it to make up for the same amount of weight in turn making it heavier

[raptor]

Yes, if you had samples of muscle and fat both of equal mass, the muscle would be heavier. The problem really boils down to the erroneous statement that "a pound weighs more than a pound"

[sammyangel9991]

Yes. You can lose muscle and gain fat. The scale does not tell you what percent of your weight is water, fat and muscle. You can lose fat and gain muscle too. The mirror is a better way to guage than the scale as well as taking measurements.

[martyfellow]

Yes, sure, if you don't do weight bearing exercise and eat poorly,but not much, you can get fat but maybe not put on weight. Fat is lighter than muscle!

[-Asmo-]

also, you could have lost muscle as you were gaining body fat.

[kmhco]

You could just be bloated...