Bulk and cut: reading your weight when you train
If you train, you see especially large jumps on the scale, because glycogen, water in your muscles and supplements such as creatine shift the daily reading. Whether a bulk or cut is going to plan is therefore shown by the weekly rate of your trend weight over several weeks. Together with your calorie intake, it also reveals your actual maintenance calories (TDEE).
Water, training and creatine
Why the scale shows more after a workout, on creatine or after a salty meal, and how to tell water from fat.
Body fat and body composition
What the scale cannot tell you about fat and muscle, and what BMI and body fat percentage mean.
Maintenance calories, surplus and deficit
Estimate your maintenance calories from your trend and choose a surplus or deficit that fits your goal.
Reading and testing the trend
Trend methods, weight charts and experiments: how to check a change in training or diet in your trend.
Matching calculators
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Key terms
Explained briefly in the glossary, each in one to three sentences.
- Water retention
- Glycogen
- Body fat percentage
- Body recomposition
- TDEE (total daily energy expenditure)
- Energy balance
- Trend weight
Steer your bulk and cut by the trend
Trendcurve shows trend weight and weekly rate for gaining, losing and maintaining. Markers record a creatine start, a diet change or a training block; Pro adds calorie budget and body measurements.