Overweight BECAUSE of fitness program?!

Akimajuktuq

I'm sure my body fat percentage has decreased from where I started in January; but in October, I was fit and 130-135 lbs. Now, I'm fit... but 10 lbs heavier. I'm not a body-builder and have no desire to be. I'm not using the scale as my *only* measure of success, I just want my "old" fit body back, not the new version.

But... but... Your old body had 7 more inches on it!

Yeah, you'd think that observation would be profound… but the almighty scale wins the day… (Hint: ditch the scale and keep taking measurements instead)

What negatives are there to being smaller and stronger? Rather than flabbier and weaker with a lower number on the scale….

OP: how is it that you were happier the way you were before when your measurements were bigger? Re-read the thread and then maybe you will see why people think you are trolling. Weighing more but being smaller IS A VERY DESIRABLE THING. Because it means you are STRONGER, and healthier usually.

lizzardsm

Here's the thing... sounds like you are doing good work on the fitness front but I'll tell you what... you haven't put on 4 pounds of muscle in 6 weeks. Newbies to the lifting/exercise gain may be able to put on - at most, and this is with serious effort - 1 lb of muscle a month. People who have been working out or fit before that are probably lucky to put on a 1/2 lb of muscle a month. And again... these stats are for people who train daily, constantly adjust for adaption, and scarf down a huge amount of protein and a caloric excess of 4-500 calories a day.

Now I am not saying you have gained 4 lbs of fat in 6 weeks either... probably a considerable amount of it is water weight or just natural fluctuation in your body weight (i.e. being female... I feel your pain). I worry though when people say things like "muscle weighs more than fat" and "I know it's just muscle" because it is much harder to put on muscle than this sort of folk wisdom would imply. Truth is... if you exercise more you are also - unless you completely ignore your body's needs and wants - going to be eating more and unless you are training an enormous amount or really pushing yourself, you are likely to gain weight during an exercise program! So your original title is not totally off point.

This all goes to say that your expectations and goals when you exercise might need to be re-evaluated. You acknowledged that your HR & blood pressure are vastly improved and that you feel tighter and more toned... this is all awesome news and these are the sorts of things that training will do for you. I say keep it up! These gains vastly outweigh (no pun intended) any moderate fluctuation in your weight.

One final point... everyone is correct in saying that BMI is crap. Two reasons for this - (1) it does not account for fitness or health in any way... just raw body weight. According to BMI charts, I am 'overweight'... I spend 14+ hours a week training (for a goal... not just because I'm crazy) and have less than 17% body fat. (2) the BMI charts were not designed to diagnose people as being overweight... as you can read on the Wiki page (and is discussed in numerous documentaries on the weight loss industry) - "'BMI' provides a simple numeric measure of a person's thickness or thinness, allowing health professionals to discuss overweight and underweight problems more objectively with their patients. However, BMI has become controversial because many people, including physicians, have come to rely on its apparent numerical authority for medical diagnosis, but that was never the BMI's purpose; it is meant to be used as a simple means of classifying sedentary (physically inactive) individuals, or rather, populations, with an average body composition." So basically BMI may be useful if you are sedentary... but not so much if you are active.

^^^This.

I'm also going to interject that BMI is probably a reasonable indicator for the average person. Not the person who's at a very low BF% with a ton of muscle, the body builder, or the professional athlete - but it's likely to be a decent indicator of health for the "average joe/josephina" who is either sedentary or works out on a regular basis (without the expressed purpose of competition/powerlifting/etc).

In your case though, you exercise quite a bit. If you are actually eating in a caloric deficit, you are likely carrying a lot of water weight and glycogen. It's really unlikely to be added muscle. Eventually those things will even out and the scale weight will drop. If you aren't carefully monitoring your food intake (weighing your food for accuracy, logging every bite), you may just be eating more and actually gaining. Doesn't sound like it since you're shrinking.

But for goodness sake, start using bodyfat% as an indicator of progress!! http://www.fat2fittools.com/tools/

wilsoje74

What is your diet like?

Roadie2000

Any idea how I calculate this?

You can set up your goals through myfitnesspal. Click "My Home" then click "Goals". Then all you have to do is enter your information and it should do all of the calculations for you. In the end it will give you a calorie goal to aim for. You can enter the calories you burn from exercise too, the more you exercise the more you can eat.

ashleyrb927

I travel 4 days/week for work; so I'm really careful about my diet. I eat a lot of vegetables, lean meats and seafood, and no processed food (that I know of -- I try to go to "farm to table" restaurants when I'm on the road to be sure). I have a few cookies here and there, a glass of wine a couple times/week. My typical caloric intake is around 1300-1400/day and has been this way since I graduated college 8 years ago.

ashleyrb927

OP, when you get older, you're going to feel like a giant derp for worrying about building a little muscle when you were 29, and even more so if you gain a bit of weight as I have. Any idea what a formerly skinny a** with no muscle looks like when you're 42? Since I don't have any pics of mine, imagine if you filled two plastic grocery bags with jello and hung them out the back of your waistband side by side. The jello just sags and flops around. Sexy cheeks, eh?

Thanks for the perspective (and the visual)! *smile* I didn't mean to negate your comment earlier. I've always worked out -- with weights and cardio -- and eaten right. I've never been skinny, but I've always been satisfied. It's hard to appreciate the 7" lost since January and the muscle gained when all I can think of is the 1.5" more to go (to get back to where I was in October) and "Oh, crap. What happens when I finish this program?" I've got a lot more time ahead of me!

wilsoje74

I travel 4 days/week for work; so I'm really careful about my diet. I eat a lot of vegetables, lean meats and seafood, and no processed food (that I know of -- I try to go to "farm to table" restaurants when I'm on the road to be sure). I have a few cookies here and there, a glass of wine a couple times/week. My typical caloric intake is around 1300-1400/day and has been this way since I graduated college 8 years ago.

It it truly is 1400 then you should beosing weight as that is a deficit, and you definately won't be gaining any muscle. I would track carefully to make sure.

Roadie2000

I travel 4 days/week for work; so I'm really careful about my diet. I eat a lot of vegetables, lean meats and seafood, and no processed food (that I know of -- I try to go to "farm to table" restaurants when I'm on the road to be sure). I have a few cookies here and there, a glass of wine a couple times/week. My typical caloric intake is around 1300-1400/day and has been this way since I graduated college 8 years ago.

Sounds like your diet is okay, but do you log your calories on here? If you do, maybe you could make it public so people could help you better. If you don't I would just question how you know what your intake is.

ashleyrb927

I travel 4 days/week for work; so I'm really careful about my diet. I eat a lot of vegetables, lean meats and seafood, and no processed food (that I know of -- I try to go to "farm to table" restaurants when I'm on the road to be sure). I have a few cookies here and there, a glass of wine a couple times/week. My typical caloric intake is around 1300-1400/day and has been this way since I graduated college 8 years ago.

It it truly is 1400 then you should beosing weight as that is a deficit, and you definately won't be gaining any muscle. I would track carefully to make sure.

Exactly! That's what's frustrating me so much. When I noticed the scale creeping up, I've been monitoring extra closely. For the last two weeks, I've logged every bite I've had, and the scale still went up .5 lbs. I'm not trying to be a brat -- it just literally wasn't making sense to me.

ashleyrb927

Here's the thing... sounds like you are doing good work on the fitness front but I'll tell you what... you haven't put on 4 pounds of muscle in 6 weeks. Newbies to the lifting/exercise gain may be able to put on - at most, and this is with serious effort - 1 lb of muscle a month. People who have been working out or fit before that are probably lucky to put on a 1/2 lb of muscle a month. And again... these stats are for people who train daily, constantly adjust for adaption, and scarf down a huge amount of protein and a caloric excess of 4-500 calories a day.

Now I am not saying you have gained 4 lbs of fat in 6 weeks either... probably a considerable amount of it is water weight or just natural fluctuation in your body weight (i.e. being female... I feel your pain). I worry though when people say things like "muscle weighs more than fat" and "I know it's just muscle" because it is much harder to put on muscle than this sort of folk wisdom would imply. Truth is... if you exercise more you are also - unless you completely ignore your body's needs and wants - going to be eating more and unless you are training an enormous amount or really pushing yourself, you are likely to gain weight during an exercise program! So your original title is not totally off point.

This all goes to say that your expectations and goals when you exercise might need to be re-evaluated. You acknowledged that your HR & blood pressure are vastly improved and that you feel tighter and more toned... this is all awesome news and these are the sorts of things that training will do for you. I say keep it up! These gains vastly outweigh (no pun intended) any moderate fluctuation in your weight.

One final point... everyone is correct in saying that BMI is crap. Two reasons for this - (1) it does not account for fitness or health in any way... just raw body weight. According to BMI charts, I am 'overweight'... I spend 14+ hours a week training (for a goal... not just because I'm crazy) and have less than 17% body fat. (2) the BMI charts were not designed to diagnose people as being overweight... as you can read on the Wiki page (and is discussed in numerous documentaries on the weight loss industry) - "'BMI' provides a simple numeric measure of a person's thickness or thinness, allowing health professionals to discuss overweight and underweight problems more objectively with their patients. However, BMI has become controversial because many people, including physicians, have come to rely on its apparent numerical authority for medical diagnosis, but that was never the BMI's purpose; it is meant to be used as a simple means of classifying sedentary (physically inactive) individuals, or rather, populations, with an average body composition." So basically BMI may be useful if you are sedentary... but not so much if you are active.

^^^This.

I'm also going to interject that BMI is probably a reasonable indicator for the average person. Not the person who's at a very low BF% with a ton of muscle, the body builder, or the professional athlete - but it's likely to be a decent indicator of health for the "average joe/josephina" who is either sedentary or works out on a regular basis (without the expressed purpose of competition/powerlifting/etc).

In your case though, you exercise quite a bit. If you are actually eating in a caloric deficit, you are likely carrying a lot of water weight and glycogen. It's really unlikely to be added muscle. Eventually those things will even out and the scale weight will drop. If you aren't carefully monitoring your food intake (weighing your food for accuracy, logging every bite), you may just be eating more and actually gaining. Doesn't sound like it since you're shrinking.

But for goodness sake, start using bodyfat% as an indicator of progress!! http://www.fat2fittools.com/tools/

You ROCK! Thanks for the link. My body fat is 26%, which makes me feel a LOT better. Everyone says to "track body fat," but I've only seen it done with calipers from gym class in high school.

ashleyrb927

I'm sure my body fat percentage has decreased from where I started in January; but in October, I was fit and 130-135 lbs. Now, I'm fit... but 10 lbs heavier. I'm not a body-builder and have no desire to be. I'm not using the scale as my *only* measure of success, I just want my "old" fit body back, not the new version.

But... but... Your old body had 7 more inches on it!

Yeah, you'd think that observation would be profound… but the almighty scale wins the day… (Hint: ditch the scale and keep taking measurements instead)

What negatives are there to being smaller and stronger? Rather than flabbier and weaker with a lower number on the scale….

OP: how is it that you were happier the way you were before when your measurements were bigger? Re-read the thread and then maybe you will see why people think you are trolling. Weighing more but being smaller IS A VERY DESIRABLE THING. Because it means you are STRONGER, and healthier usually.

I wasn't happier when my measurements were bigger. I was happier in October when I was a (little) smaller and weighed (significantly) less. I've always been athletic, so I was never flabby.

The 7" weight loss from January is definitely awesome, but most of it is the junk food holiday crap weight that usually isn't there in the first place!

So I guess it's less disappointment over what the scale says and more confusion over why the scale says it. If I'm losing inches and (according to comments on here) can't be gaining much -- if any -- muscle, am I carrying around almost 10 lbs of water?

Annie_01

I'm sure my body fat percentage has decreased from where I started in January; but in October, I was fit and 130-135 lbs. Now, I'm fit... but 10 lbs heavier. I'm not a body-builder and have no desire to be. I'm not using the scale as my *only* measure of success, I just want my "old" fit body back, not the new version.

But... but... Your old body had 7 more inches on it!

But... but... it didn't! In October, each thigh was a 1/2" smaller, and my waist was 1/2" smaller. So I'm 1 1/2" bigger but 10 lbs. heavier now than I was less than 5 months ago.

Am I really the ONLY one on here that finds that frustrating?

Why would we be frustrated because you have gained weight?

I mean...I wish you luck and everything but the only weight that might possibly frustrate me is my own.

ashleyrb927

I'm sure my body fat percentage has decreased from where I started in January; but in October, I was fit and 130-135 lbs. Now, I'm fit... but 10 lbs heavier. I'm not a body-builder and have no desire to be. I'm not using the scale as my *only* measure of success, I just want my "old" fit body back, not the new version.

But... but... Your old body had 7 more inches on it!

But... but... it didn't! In October, each thigh was a 1/2" smaller, and my waist was 1/2" smaller. So I'm 1 1/2" bigger but 10 lbs. heavier now than I was less than 5 months ago.

Am I really the ONLY one on here that finds that frustrating?

Why would we be frustrated because you have gained weight?

I mean...I wish you luck and everything but the only weight that might possibly frustrate me is my own.

C'mon. Seriously? Clearly, I meant "Am I the ONLY one who [would find that] frustrating?" I wasn't soliciting empathy.

I don't really post on boards, and this thread has reminded me why. For all of the helpful and encouraging advice I've gotten, there are still folks who take time out of their day to purposely be sarcastic and rude. Why would you go out of your way to be mean to someone? Who benefits from that?

DrMAvDPhD

No amount or type of exercise is enough to gain muscle without a caloric excess. If you are unhappy with the scale weight but happy with the physical changes that are accompanying this routine you have two logical choices:

1. Keep on doing exactly what you are doing. No one but you sees the stupid scale number anyways.
2. Keep doing the workout but eat less (drop your calories by ~10-15% from what you are eating now). If you really truly want to lose weight, you need to accurately track everything you eat and use a food scale instead of estimating portion sizes.