Posted on 09/01/2006 7:18:13 AM PDT by JackDanielsOldNo7
I need to ask a question about excercising and weightlifting.
I have been hitting the treadmill for about two months. I have just started light workouts involving lifting weights trying to tone up. I lost about 110 pounds and I want to keep it off.
I have not changed my diet. I am very careful about what I eat.
My question is why am I gaining weight? It is not very much and I could stand to gain a couple of pounds anyway.
Remember, fewer reps (up to 10) x3 with heavier weights is better than multiple reps (10~20) x3 with lighter weights.
Hitting the treadmill for two months! Damn! Can't argue with the results but I'd hate to punch one!
Seriously, I have found now that the only way I can lose pounds is to convert my money to British currency.
Thank God I caught that problem when I did. The bad news is I regained the #110. The good news is that my middle leg grew back.
I ride a bike 4 days a week for an hour and a half per and work out with weights and would be happy to tell you what works for me.
If you've accurately described it, then yes...muscle mass. But heavy workouts can increase appetite, so keep an eye on that. It helps to differentiate if you keep track of a waist measurement in addition to weight.
Are you pregnant?
As everyone else said, you are probably gaining muscle. The good thing about that is the body has to work harder to maintain the muscle mass, thus the more muscle you have the more calories you burn even while sitting still. If you are gaining weight, but not inches, it is muscle. If you find you are getting more muscular than you want to be, try using lighter weights and do more repetitions. That will tone the muscle, but not make it bigger. If you are gaining weight and inches, you better check your diet. You might be eating more calories than you are burning.
Don't stare at yourself too long in the mirror while grunting and posing, and don't wear speedos.
...forget all these other comments you've read. Exercise hard, eat properly, die anyway. Eat, drink (JD Old No. 7 good start), and be merry...life is good!
Muscle weighs more than fat. If you don't want to gain pounds due to increased muscle mass, avoid the weights and just do cardio, or stick to high reps at low weight, which will tone moreso than adding bulk. Congrats on the weight loss ... impressive.
Are you logged in? If
you are not logged in, Java's
fat clean-up routines
can't dispose of fat
even if the fat isn't
referenced anywhere.
I lost weight over a year period. I am very close to being a vegetarian. No red meat fried foods. I eat lots of veggies chicken and fish. I have kept it off for over a year now. I do the treadmill 3 or 4 times a week walking jogging. 30 minutes at a time. Then I do a little weight lifting.
if you lose weight too fast your body thinks it is starving and will try even harder to store fat. you said you have been on the treadmill for 2 months but I hope you have not lost 110lbs in two months that could be unhealthy.
but congradulations on your weight loss, keep up the good work
Dieting Causes a Starvation Response
One of the resulting problems of people looking for quick fixes and ignoring the timeless advice of eat less and exercise more is a phenomenon called weight cycling or yo-yo dieting. You see, the body goes through an adaptive process when it is exposed to chronic long term dieting without exercise. This process is called the starvation response, and its how our ancestors adapted to chronic food shortages. In short, our body has a built in mechanism of lowering our metabolic rate (the amount of calories we burn daily) to cope with starvation.
For example, prior to chronic dieting your body may have had a daily calorie need of 2000 calories per day to maintain your weight. However, after a few weeks on a severely reduced calorie starvation diet without regular exercise, your metabolic rate naturally falls. When you return to regular eating again (as most cannot follow a starvation type diet for too long) you may now have a daily metabolic rate of 1850 calories per day or a 150 calorie per day loss. This now translates into a weight gain of one pound every 24 days (3600 calories in excess = 1 pound weight gain) if you eat the way you ate prior to dieting.
I've had varying and conflicting advice on the muscle vs. fat thing. Some people have told me that muscle does not weigh more than fat...rather, the weight gain comes from the new muscle tissue retaining water. I don't know whether any of that is true. But I do know that when I started lifting, I did gain a few pounds, but they did come off in a couple of weeks. And as you add heavier weights to your regimen, the weight gain will happen again. But as I said, the gain is generally a temporary thing. I would not give up lifting, however, just because of a modest and temporary weight gain. It's really a very healthy thing to do for a whole variety of health reasons.
Yeah...those UK pickpockets........
Maybe JD has a fast growing family of naked mole rats in the loose flaps of skin from all that weight they took off with the treadmill work . . . |
Lots of good advise on this blog. For a great source of information about eating healthy and exercise, here is a good link (of course, the site is sponsored by a nutrition product, but the info is great):
http://www.bodyforlife.com/
Muscle weighs more than fat. Keep up the good work.
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