HELP, I am gaining weight

[Tania]

Hi, can somebody help to motivate and give a reason why …..

I’ve started the 6-week exercise challenge on Monday, 7 November 2005, with the intention of loosing a little quicker. This is my first exercise since I found out I was pregnant with my second son in December 2003.

My exercise program is as follows: Monday, Wednesday, and Friday – 3km walk (quite a few steep hills), Tuesday and Thursday – squash (30 minutes). And then I also try to do at least 100 sit-ups each morning.

Now, since Monday, I’ve gained 4 ½ pounds (±2kg), which is what I have lost the last 4 weeks – this cannot be normal. I am very depressed and down after weighing myself this morning, I am not suppose to gain weight, when I actually should be loosing …

I have measured myself last week Wednesday and will probably only know tomorrow whether I’ve lost any inches.
And if I haven’t lost an inch ….. well, I don’t know what I’ll do then …..

[Yoly1001]

Re: HELP, I am gaining weight

ok take a deep breath, this is totally normal. Your body over a period of time excercising will eventually gain muscle mass. But when you initially start working out after a long period of no excercise your body has no idea what is going on, it thinks you are being chased by a bear, worse your being chased by a bear while there is a shortage of food (because your eating less carbs). So your body is going to try to hold on to the fat in order to keep stored energy for future dispersion. Also your body will retain water when first working out this is why it is so important to drink a ton of water, so that your body is not in short supply and hold on to the water as well. Keep on working out and drinking your water and you will lose the fat and begin gaining muscle (which weighs more then fat anyway). You may not see a difference in the scale any time soon but the inches will start flying off.

Another thing, you may not want to weigh yourself for a while. I know what your thinking, "what! how can I go without weighing myself" but it is the best recommendation I could give you. I was a total scale slave and then my friend Sarah and I started a challence called ICES, the "S", stands for "no scale". It was really hard at first not to jump on twice a day but somehow with her support I managed it, and after the first week I found myself doing things right for rights sake, not because of what the scale said. Now I haven't weighed myself in almost a month and I won't weigh myself until sometime in december and I am totally cool with that. I get a big surprise at the end of the year, like a Christmas present and I am wearing clothes that I used my senior year, everyone happy.

Hey, you should come on over and join us in our challenge, we are in the Challenge Forum, under ICES (no excuses) or something like that.

Hope that helped.

[BodyRebuilder]

Re: HELP, I am gaining weight

Yoly hit the nail on the head. Ditch the scale!

Your weight is going to fluctuate while your body goes through all the changes associated with changing your diet, excercising, etc...The true measure of how your doing is in the mirror, how your clothes fit, and how you measure!

No need to discourage yourself with a scale when all it is reflecting is how you weigh for one distinct point in the day.

AJ