Loving Insanity but gaining weight???

Maybe you should start measuring yourself instead of just relying on the numbers... I feel your pain though... That darn scale is the devil!

how many pounds per week do you have set up to lose. Judging by your goal you expectations might not be realistic. If you're looking to lose 20 pounds maybe set up to lose .5 per week. Cardio burns a lot of calories and you could be consuming too few calories. And if you set up to lose 1-2lbs per week it's probably time to re-calculate your goals. The smaller you get the less calories you will burn during exercise. If you are set to lose 2lb per week, change to 1. And so on.


Say MFP has you on a 1200 daily calories goal and you burn 500. That leaves you with a NET of only 700 calories for the day which is too low.

Please go into the link in my Signature "Links in MFP you want to read..." There is a link call 700 calories a day and not losing.

I don't know if this is why but when someone is "relatively" light and want to lose some weight and instead they aren't losing and are maybe gaining a big reason is usually not enough calories. I know this sounds really odd but going too low in calories can have a bad effect on weight loss. Your body needs so many calories just to breathe and function.

And dieting and cardio exercise cause lean muscle mass loss along with fat loss. The less fat your body is holding onto the more chance it will dig into lean muscle mass and burn off that for fuel. Rather than burn off more fat your body will slow the metabolism (burning muscle mass) and your weight loss will stall. You can even gain.

And you can't 'tone' muscle. You can either get it bigger and/or stronger OR smaller and/or weaker. So when you do tons of cardio and you're losing inches yes you are burning fat but your muscles are getting smaller because you are burning that too.

Heavy weight lifiting will build some muscle, (you won't bulk up begin female) increase your metabolism and you will burn more fat during rest, normal activity and even sleeping. And it's very, very, very hard to gain enough muscle to cause a rise on the scale - and you have to be doing some serious heavy weight lifting. It's next to impossible for women to gain muscle so it's not because of muscle.

If you are a male (my guess is no) then you shouldn't drop below 1500 NET calories.

You might already know all of this. I type ramble as bad as I talk ramble.

I enjoyed your 'ramble' I think that may be why I'm at a weight loss stall.. I'm going to go and reset my goals now, hopefully that's the answer. Thanks!

I enjoyed your 'ramble' I think that may be why I'm at a weight loss stall.. I'm going to go and reset my goals now, hopefully that's the answer. Thanks!

Thanks. I hope it works. I've seen it a lot here. I had to set up .5 per week from the start and that has been my average. I've been losing in .2-.4 increments weekly. It's slow but it's still coming off. My weight to lose was those "last 10 pounds". Those are the hardest and I've gotten 7 1/2 off so far. But I'm shifting my focus to heavy weight lifting so I have to push the scale aside - that's the hard part.

Lowering your goal will give you more to eat. When I went from a calorie deficiency to maintenance I dropped 2 more pounds in 2 weeks

I just started Insanity yesterday, but have a friend who has been doing it almost the 60 days. While she hasn't lost that many lbs, the inches she has lost is AMAZING!!

Also, a lot of people think that muscle weights more than fat, which is incorrect. Actually fat and muscle weight the same but muscles are denser so that is why you may stay the same weight but lose inches, thus becoming smaller. I thought the same for years, but there are plenty of articles that can be viewed on the internet to support that my facts are indeed correct :-) Just always like to help people out with this "bad myth"! So all in all, measurements tell the real truth, even though we all go by the evil scale ;-)

Best of luck in your fitness journey!!

Keep us posted how things go :-)

Before I started Insanity, my weight loss goal was 1 pound per week, which gave me 1280 calories per day. I knew that I would need to up my intake so I change my goal to .5 pound per week, which has me at 1500 calories now. I lost 0 pounds after my first week but have lost 3 pounds after the 2nd week (I'm on my 3rd week now). I make sure that I get in enough protein and faithfully drink either a glass of chocolate milk or a scoop of protein powder (contains 20g of protein) no more than 15 minutes after I've completed my workout. I think that's making the difference. I actually expected a gain after the first week because my body isn't used to working out like that, so I was pleased that I was able to stay even. Maybe look at your food and what you're eating.

I originally used the Slim in 6 videos to lose weight, they worked great! I ended up losing almost 50 lbs. Then the workouts got boring and I needed more of a challenge. I first did the insanity workout last summer. Got discouraged because I gained weight during it. Gained even more after stopping working out at all! I know, big surprise lol!
Decided three weeks ago to start the Insanity workout again and once again, I have gained weight! I know I have read here that measurements count, not so much the weight, but NOTHING fits me anymore either! Everything is too tight, I feel tired all the time, and only halfway through week 3 I have to take a break from the workouts. I have thought of going back to the slim in 6, but after insanity everything else is so mundane. Any suggestions?

When I started Insanity, I put on 5 lbs.! Held onto it for about 2 weeks, and then it dropped off. Maybe my body was in shock from it, lol! Don't worry too much. Good luck!

I've started Insanity, expecting to lose weight fast, but I actually went from 150 to 158 in less than a week. I didn't even know that was possible? I'll admit my diet wasn't the best, but it's no different than before I started insanity, and I always maintained a constant 150 lbs. anyone have an explanation? Thanks

This article might help you.

http://www.dailyspark.com/blog.asp?post=why_the_scale_goes_up_when_you_start_a_new_workout_plan

I too have the Insanity challenge but keep in mind you have put on muscle which weighs more than fat. Also keep in mind that you need to consume your calorie difference because the burn on Insanity is up to 1000 calories per interval.

ugh *headslap*

its probably just water retention. remember when you work out you damage your muscles and fluid forms around the tissue as inflammation..there are tons of other factors too. we all vary from day to day with our weight. it could be near that time of the month. you wont gain muscle, cant. and you certainly wont put on 5 lbs of muscle in a few days, weeks even months. and ya, muscle doesnt weigh more than fat..a lb is a lb.

I gained 10 lbs doing insanity, and I was coming off of p90x3 so I'm pretty sure I lost a little muscle durning the process. I was careful to eat enough calories and kept my diet clean. The weight came off when I finished the program and went back to shorter, less strenuous workouts. The workouts were a lot of fun, and I made tremendous gains in endurance, but in the end it was just to much stress on my body. I'm the type to gain weight when I get too stressed out- you may be the same way.