Congratulations on a great month!

I like to look at it this way. How would you like to lose 11 lbs fast? Cut off your head. It weighs about 11lbs. You want fat loss, not weight loss. Body composition is king!

On another note, did you know that VO2Max, muscle mass and leanness are the three top indicators for longevity? http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24561114

And please don’t tell the folks on the fitness and exercise forum that you can lose fat and gain muscle at the same time. They can’t wrap their minds around the concept. Again, congrats and well done!

I can relate to you all! I'm new to crossfit (only 3 months in) and I am the heaviest I've been in 10 years. I'm truly struggling with the weight gain. Although some of it is muscle...I also have a good amount of fat to lose. How do I not allow my weight to derail me from my crossfit goals? I know that in order to become good at the WODs I need to fuel my workouts properly. However, that's hard to do when I'm constantly worried about my weight! I don't want to be on some ridiculous diet plan either. Been there and done that...lol. Any tips or advice you all could give me would be greatly appreciated! I'm tired of being the "strong fat chick", I want to be a strong fit chick. Please Help! Rant over!

abaldi0506 wrote: »

Since I'm fairly new to crossfit (started Dec 2014) and have always had to watch what I eat to lose/maintain my weight - I'm finding it challenging to be OK with gaining weight. I go to a weight loss center once a month to do a Inbody analysis, which tells me my total body water, dry lean mass, body fat mass, skeletal muscle mass, body fat mass, BMI & body fat %. So, last night I went and I've gained just under 4lbs this past month. However, my total body water was up almost 3lbs and my skeletal muscle mass was up 2.3lbs and my body fat % was down .7%. So, I know those are ALL good numbers. But psychologically it's hard to be OK with that (atleast for me). Do I keep eating, daily crossfit like I'm doing or should I cut back??? I know I'm stressing over nothing - so you can tell me that too.

Thanks!

I am in the same boat as you, seeing the numbers go up on the scale was a real mindf*ck and it honestly still is. I can't imagine that these feelings will ever go away so it must be managed like diabetes or some other lifelong medical condition. I recently went to a dietitian and has a body comp analysis done and it made me feel a bit better better and helped me to readjust my expectations. Perhaps the regular analysis you do can help you readjust your expectations.

Regarding your diet; it sounds like you have that on track. I did paleo for a year (recently got off of it) and while I ultimately did not find it to be sustainable I do think that the emphasis on "real" food is key to a healthy lifestyle for anyone.

Regarding your exercise; don't underestimate the importance of rest as a part of weight loss. Believe me, I know the compulsion is to keep hitting the gym over and over at the first sign of weight gain but your body needs regular rest beyond just sleep.

Overall, I hope you can learn to accept the fact that your weight is not the ultimate arbiter of your fitness level...though I say that as someone who has yet to truly accept that for himself.

Latashab30 wrote: »

I can relate to you all! I'm new to crossfit (only 3 months in) and I am the heaviest I've been in 10 years. I'm truly struggling with the weight gain. Although some of it is muscle...I also have a good amount of fat to lose. How do I not allow my weight to derail me from my crossfit goals? I know that in order to become good at the WODs I need to fuel my workouts properly. However, that's hard to do when I'm constantly worried about my weight! I don't want to be on some ridiculous diet plan either. Been there and done that...lol. Any tips or advice you all could give me would be greatly appreciated! I'm tired of being the "strong fat chick", I want to be a strong fit chick. Please Help! Rant over!

Have your coaches do some measurements for you. Neck, biceps, chest, belly at the navel, hips, thighs. Then redo them every month or so.

Even if you don't see the scale moving as much as you want, those numbers will likely change for the better. It's a good way to introduce a measure of sanity and stop relying on ONE number to judge yourself.

And as a general rule, Crossfit and ridiculous diet plans don't last long. Crossfit is too damned hard.

Thank you all for your kind words and advise. A special thank you to abaldi0506. For some reason I related very well to your response and I'm so glad that someone understands my desire to not do paleo or any other extremely restrictive eating plan. Nothing against any of you who do Paleo...but I found it to not only be non-sustainable, but also just not realistic to how I live my everyday life. Bostonwolf, I've also just recently joined Eat To Perform. So far it like it. It definitely was an eye opener for me. I had no idea that I was under-eating like I was. In the last couple of weeks, I've felt so much better just from eating more food. So we'll see how that goes.

Again, thank you all for you kind words. I'm so glad that I stumbled upon this group and I hope I didn't offend anyone with anything that I said as that wasn't my intention.

AllanMisner wrote: »

Congratulations on a great month!

I like to look at it this way. How would you like to lose 11 lbs fast? Cut off your head. It weighs about 11lbs. You want fat loss, not weight loss. Body composition is king!

On another note, did you know that VO2Max, muscle mass and leanness are the three top indicators for longevity? http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24561114

And please don’t tell the folks on the fitness and exercise forum that you can lose fat and gain muscle at the same time. They can’t wrap their minds around the concept. Again, congrats and well done!

I did gain muscle and fat at the same time. 10% in about a year. On ETP & Crossfit.

kelly_e_montana wrote: »

AllanMisner wrote: »

Congratulations on a great month!

I like to look at it this way. How would you like to lose 11 lbs fast? Cut off your head. It weighs about 11lbs. You want fat loss, not weight loss. Body composition is king!

On another note, did you know that VO2Max, muscle mass and leanness are the three top indicators for longevity? http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24561114

And please don’t tell the folks on the fitness and exercise forum that you can lose fat and gain muscle at the same time. They can’t wrap their minds around the concept. Again, congrats and well done!

I did gain muscle and fat at the same time. 10% in about a year. On ETP & Crossfit.

I was being cheeky. I’ve be berated for advising people that they can do both. There is a large contingent of posters on exercise and fitness forum that think you can only gain muscle on a surplus. I know better. I’ve done it.