Need advice/ woman on weights

nursesenechal862

Hi my name is Shelley. I am a school nurse. I an new to resistance/heavy weight lifting. Since beginning, I have gained weight. It's very discouraging, although I feel stronger than ever. I am tracking my food and watching what I eat. I do yoga and lift weights twice a week. Any advice?

jordiblu

what are you eating - sometimes people think they are eating healthy but there is hidden sugar and other chemicals . stick to whole foods (nothing packaged or processed) like vegetables, fruit, avocados chicken eggs etc. keep it simple and clean and youll drop weight fast. cut out dairy and sugar is the key

adoette

If your comment is that you've been gaining weight since you started lifting weights, the reason is very simple.

As you lift, you damage your muscles (part of the process and normal). Your body floods the area with fluid, partly to better transport glucose, protein, vitamins, etc in and out to speed the healing, and partly to act as a protective 'blisters' to keep outside trauma from affecting the damaged muscle fibers as they heal.

After about 3 weeks the water weight should drop off as the muscles are fully healed. You'll get additional ups and downs in water weight gain and loss over time as you continue lifting, but never like that first big gain and plateau.

As far as the poster above me, they've given you their best advice, I'm sure, but it's bro-science through and through. There is absolutely no reason to cut dairy or any other food (meat, gluten, etc) out of your diet unless you have a food sensitivity to it. Sugar is also not the devil and you don't need to cut it out of your life unless you have trouble moderating your intake.

As far as healthy, whole foods, and eating clean goes, if you drop your food in the mud, don't put it in your mouth. Tada! Eating clean.

Food is food. Do your best to meet your macros, do your best to get your micronutrients (don't be afraid to add a multivitamin if needed, it's why they make them), and otherwise don't freak out too bad. In order for your weight loss to be a lasting change in your life, your diet (daily food intake) needs to be something you can sustain for the rest of your life in order for the weight loss to be sustained as well. Learn how to eat healthy amounts of the foods you already love and eat and make some healthier choices where possible.

diannethegeek

1. If it's been less than 3 weeks or so, don't sweat it! Normal fluctuations happen and unfortunately sometimes we stall for a week or two even when we're doing everything right. Give your body some time to catch up with the changes you're making.

2. If you aren't already, be sure that you're logging everything. Sometimes people forget about things like veggies, drinks, cooking oils, and condiments. For some people these can add up to enough to halt your weight loss progress.

3. Consider buying a food scale if you don't already have one. They're about $10-$20 dollars in the US and easily found at places like Amazon, Target, and Walmart. Measuring cups and spoons are great, but they do come with some degree of inaccuracy. A food scale will be more accurate, and for some people it makes a big difference.

4. Logging accurately also means choosing accurate entries in the database. There are a lot of user-entered entries that are off. Double-check that you're using good entries and/or using the recipe builder instead of someone else's homemade entries.

5. Recalculate your goals if you haven't lately. As you lose weight your body requires fewer calories to run. Be sure you update your goals every ten pounds or so.

6. If you're eating back your exercise calories and you're relying on gym machine readouts or MFP's estimates, it might be best to eat back just 50-75% of those. Certain activities tend to be overestimated. If you're using an HRM or activity tracker, it might be a good idea to look into their accuracy and be sure that yours is calibrated properly.

7. If you're taking any cheat days that go over your calorie limits, it might be best to cut them out for a few weeks and see what happens. Some people go way over their calorie needs without realizing it when they don't track.

8. If you weigh yourself frequently, consider using a program like trendweight to even out the fluctuations. You could be losing weight but just don't see it because of the daily ups and downs.

9. Some people just burn fewer calories than the calculators predict. If you continue to have problems after 4-6 weeks, then it might be worth a trip to the doctor or a registered dietitian who can give you more specific advice.

arditarose

If you're truly in a calorie deficit while lifting heavy, you should be seeing a downward trend on the scale over the course of a few weeks. Yes, you may stall a bit as muscles are retaining water to help repair, but you shouldn't be consistently gaining if you're in a deficit.

Over what period of time have you been lifting? Were you losing weight prior to starting? How much weight have you "gained" and at what rate?

nursesenechal862

I was at 175 and now I'm at 187. I thinks it's been about 3-4 weeks. I eat clean whole foods. I use this app as my food diary. I haven't been able to predict the calorie output for my weight lifting. I think this is likely messing up my measurements. I do drink a beer or glass of wine with dinner at the end of the evening. I recently started Vega in the morning in a smoothie. It's a protein powder.

nursesenechal862

My goal is 160

Kendramoore2013

Hi I am Kendra. Pineapple is very good for losing and so is grapefruit. I hope this helpzs. Feel free to add me for support.. good luck

nursesenechal862 wrote: »

Hi my name is Shelley. I am a school nurse. I an new to resistance/heavy weight lifting. Since beginning, I have gained weight. It's very discouraging, although I feel stronger than ever. I am tracking my food and watching what I eat. I do yoga and lift weights twice a week. Any advice?