Week 22 Weigh-in: New Exercise Plan

My weight is up this week because of a new exercise plan. 

I weighed this morning first thing after leaving the bathroom and it was a gain from last week, I decided to do my workout for the day which was a high intensity interval training. After the exercise, I bathe and weighed again and it was an increase on the scale. I wish to address this in my post today.

I had been discouraged over and over about this issue in my journey towards losing weight. I mean, starting a new exercise plan with great expectations of a cooperation from the scale only for you to sight a bad gain at the first weigh in, urgh...

Imagine a hard time at the gym for a whole week only to be faced with a weight gain can be the most discouraging factor for anyone just starting out. There are lots of reasons that could be responsible for this and all are allowed except overeating.

According to Denis Faye, M.S. (Beachbody.com) this does not happen to everyone but when and if it does to you then know that it is temporary, give it some time and it will pass.

He further explains that, The most likely reason your scale crept up is inflammation. When you work out, it causes little tears in your muscle fibers. This is called microtrauma and it’s why you feel sore after a workout. On the upside, your body heals these little tears, making the fibers tougher than they originally were. That’s how you become stronger and fitter. It’s part of a process called adaptation.

To make these repairs, your body uses its standard healing process, including the inflammation phase—something that’s become a dirty word in our modern world. When you incur injury, including microtrauma, your body releases various substances generally known as inflammatory mediators that swarm the area and perform triage, bringing in healing white blood cells and opening up blood vessels to flush out debris and toxins. There’s so much going on that the area swells up, or inflames.

The fluid required for inflammatory response obviously weighs something—and that might show up on the scale. When inflammation is allowed to occur in a healthy way, it’s temporary.

Of course, keeping your diet healthy and allowing for adequate rest and recovery will help speed the body to less inflammatory phases of healing, but the main key is to keep calm and carry on. If you’re new to fitness—or perhaps just new to a particular kind of fitness—there’s going to be a lot of adaptation going on and therefore a noticeable level of inflammation. It should subside in a couple weeks.

Another less-likely reason you’re gaining weight is that you’re building muscle faster than you’re shedding fat. The general consensus in the fitness community is that the most weight someone new to fitness will gain in muscle is about 2 pounds a month, but that’s not a hard-and-fast number.

On more than one occasion, I’ve assisted women who are frustrated because they felt their new exercise regime was making their thighs fat. Indeed, their legs were getting bigger, but only because increased muscle under adipose tissue was pushing out the fat and making it appear to increase. Again, the trick here is patience. Once that fat burns off—which it does if you keep at it—thick legs will give way to a toned, sexy pair of gams.

But, I also know that there is a great tendency to overeat when a new exercise program starts. I had personally thought I am doing so much so I need to fuel my body and then I overeat and this will automatically cause a weight gain, this call for concern according to Charlene Johnson (author of Charlean Extreme, Turbo Fire etc) and Sparkpeople Blogger.

She writes that, if you experience a significant weight gain (exceeding 5 pounds) that does not begin to decrease rapidly after the second week, guess what it is? I'll give you one hint... you put it in your mouth and chew it. You know it! Your food (or calorie-laden beverages). News flash, friends… exercise doesn't make you gain weight. Consuming more food than you burn makes you gain weight!

So if after two weeks you are not losing weight and have gained weight that's not coming off, it's time to take a close and honest look at your food intake.

The way out in my experience is to track everything. As you are excited to track your workouts, be super excited to track your meals and snacks i.e. track all BLT (Bites, Licks, and Tastes). It is good not deceive oneself because you cannot even get away with it, the body will normally say the correct facts of whatever is going on in your body.

So, when next you are adventurous with your exercise regimen and of course in the right tune with your diet, expect a temporary weight gain and when you delve properly into the routine, you can boast of a consistent weight loss.

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I weighed in at 166.6lbs this morning (a gain of 1.8lbs) and I feel it's a good gain for TOM and a new exercise plan. I am not and will never excuse a bad weigh in but I have learnt too never to spank myself out of motivation to try more. I was not here some years back and tomorrow will be better.