Getting Ill When Starting Work Out Regime

Only fat is stored in fat... you have organs that keep your body clean. If they are not functioning properly, you will know VERY quickly.

Sounds like you are pushing your body too hard. Mentally you can take it, physically you cannot. That is alright. When you feel yourself starting to get sick, take a 5 or 10 minute break. Grab some water, walk around, and relax a tad.

A few weeks into this, I got Walking Pneumonia! It probably didn't have much to do with my working out, but who knows! It put a real bummer on my workouts for WEEKS! Yikes!

It might be that you are detoxing since you are probably eating healthier. Not so much that your fat is releasing toxins, but that your body is adjusting to your new diet and routine. Doesn't hurt to take some extra vitamins if you think you need them.

Unless you have impaired liver function, you don't suddenly start detoxing because you start eating healthy. You detox every day, all day. That is the function of your liver. The whole concept of needing to "detox" is myth.

No, I haven't had that issue.

The people I see getting ill regularly on MFP are typically the ones who undereat and exercise like crazy. For example, sticking to 1200 calories religiously and then burning off 400+ in exercise daily when they have a relatively small amount of weight to lose (say fewer than 50 lbs.). Eventually, those people get sick because they are undereating.

Viruses are not "stored" in fat. Some toxins are sequestered in fat in a process called bioaccumulation. In humans it should not be a major concern as you lose fat because the process of bioaccumulation does not suddenly release this to the organs, it gets eliminated. In other tissues, bioaccumulation also exists - in the 80's when we made silicone implants by injection I saw inter-lumbar drift and nodules of pure silicone - not so nice.

It is incorrect to say only fat is stored in fat. Fat is a an organ with lots of function including storage and production of certain hormones.

Bioaccumulation is a reason one should NOT eat their dogs in a polar expedition (there is a great book on this...) the fat and liver of carnivores stores vitamin A at levels that are toxic to humans. Don't eat wolf liver or bear liver either.

Warning: Referenced Peer-reviewed article:

In general, the toxins sequestered in tissue are not an issue during weight loss except for some research on organochlorines which might have higher concentrations in the blood plasma and in the remaining fat. This might also be an issue as it has been suggested that this has an impact on metabolism... It could be a reason for stalls. And no, "detoxing" will not remove this. This just takes time.

Here is the article: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez/11961215?dopt=Abstract&holding=f1000,f1000m,isrctn

edit: typo

Has anyone else experienced this? I have heard that fat can store things, especially toxins, so it is quite common for people to get ill frequently when you are at the beginning of gettting fit, since you are starting to burn fat and all the nasties are getting released.

Well this is happening to me atm, and I have to say, it is quite frustraing! It's like I just start to get a good momentum and then, bam! I am sick again! It is usually just like a sore throat/common cold, etc type symptoms.

Has this happened for anyone else?

so you're just getting a sore throat? a Cough? maybe you just need a drink of water. I use chewing gum when I exercise, helps keep my throat lubricated.