myth? whats going on?

fghijkl

Right i recently decided to hit the gym, so i've literally gone from no exercise to the going to the gym 3 times a week, spend an hour in gym each time.(mainly threadmill, bike thingy and row thingy - i know many people are probably cringing right now:p)

I'm female, 5'2(and a half) and my weight generally fluctuates between 10st 2 to 10st 3. Now i've only been going to the gym for 3 weeks, first week i lost 1lb which was great(down to 10st 1), 2nd week i managed to jump to 10st 5(almost 10st 6) 5lbs in a week!! i've never been this heavy in my life . Now i should state that it was never my intention to do this to lose weight, it was purely to get fitter/healthier, but weighed myself again this week and i'm still 10st 5, my diet hasn't changed (again wasn't trying to lose weight, if anything i've been consuming less calories), i try to eat as healthy as i can, and i've been cutting out sweets/biscuits for the last 3 weeks. I'm slightly concerned that exercising is making me gain weight?! i really can't afford to get any heavier! so upon googling apparently "you can gain weight before you lose it" "getting muscle" blah blah...which i honestly think is a load of crap, but somethings going wrong . I'm wondering now if i should just pack it in, i want to get fitter but not at the expense of gaining loads of weight Surely if my diet is the same but i'm getting excercise i should at least stay at the same weight?? help!

mrpink6789

Dont give up, keep at it! I doubt its a lot of muscle you are putting on judging by what you are currently doing, the rower will tone you a bit however. How often do you do on each and are you fairly knackered afterwards?

Also you should post your typical diet up as people will tell you straight away if its good or bad!

Doctor_Socks

Post up your full diet and we can try and steer you in the right direction. Don't give up on your workout yet anyways!

corkcomp

were only taking a few LB here and 3 week timeframe.. there is no way the gym is causing you to gain weight based on your workout (assuming your not eating more!) three times a week is also less than most folks do so I wouldnt worry - keep it up and dont weight yourself for a couple of weeks.. is it possible that the festive season parties might be contributing to the (very slight) gain?

fghijkl

umm 40 minutes treadmill, 20mins bike thing, only about 5/10 mins on rower (i'm the weakest in the world so i try to avoid it )

Yes absolutely wrecked to the point where i'm in pain (stitches, leg pain) like i said i'm so unfit so any exercise is a shock to the system!

my diet hasn't changed at all though that's the thing, like i know it could be better but i generally eat pretty much the same thing week to week and my weight has been pretty stable for the last 6months, apart from now...seems a bit coincidental . I can go weeks without eating bread(don't particularly like it and i haven't had any in the last 3 weeks), i do eat rice/pasta i know thats bad but i haven't eaten any more than usual the last 3 weeks, i do eat a lot of chicken because i'm not too fond of beef/pork/lamb....

is it possible that the festive season parties might be contributing to the (very slight) gain?

lol i wish i could say it was, but i haven't been out in ages

were only taking a few LB here and 3 week timeframe

i know but i'm one of those unfortunate women who have very toned/slender arms/legs but all my weight goes straight to my tummy...an extra 3lbs on my tummy is not good!

thanks for the replys

mrpink6789

ok well we need to work out your calories needed to lose weight. use the formula below to work out your maintenance calories

Age Women
10-18 (bw (kg) * 12.2) + 746
19-30 (bw (kg) * 14.7) + 496
31-60 (bw (kg) * 8.7) + 829

e.g for me, a 72kg 26 yo female its (72*14.7) +496 = 1554

2) Then calculate your lifestyle daily energy needs:

Activity level
mostly seated or standing RMR * 1.4
regular walking or equivalent RMR * 1.7
generally physically active RMR * 2.0

If you are having difficulty just let us know your age and we can work it out. Once you have done this log on to www.fitday.com (its free) and enter in the food you eat on a day to day basis, this will tell you how many calories you are consuming and we can start from there.

Khannie

You sound like someone who should ignore the scales and use a measuring tape.

Are you drinking enough water? Are you female and it's near your period maybe?

When you say you fluctuate between 10st 2 and 10st 3 I have to say that's really not true. You fluctuate by more than that in a day. Have a pint of water and you're a pound heavier. Have a big pee and you've lost it. Weight in itself isn't a problem. Mostly people are concerned with fat, but focus on weight. The two are not necessarily related.

If you're eating well and exercising regularly, that's a good thing. Keep it up. If you are heavier it's almost certainly water weight and not fat (you'd need to try really *really* hard to gain 4 pounds of fat in a week...so if you haven't changed your diet drastically, you haven't added fat). Losing fat is a medium term endeavour. Stick with it and good luck!

SpookyBastard

fghijkl wrote: »

Now i should state that it was never my intention to do this to lose weight, it was purely to get fitter/healthier, but weighed myself again this week and i'm still 10st 5..... I'm wondering now if i should just pack it in, i want to get fitter but not at the expense of gaining loads of weight

As Khannie said, ignore the scales. It's really not about how much you weigh. People get obsessed with how many kilos they weigh and not how they look. You want to look better physically then you want to loose body fat. So how much you weigh is irrelevant. As long as your diet is good and you're exercising you should loose body fat and look slimmer and more toned. If the slimmer and toned looking you is a few pounds heavier what difference does that make.

If you're going to a gym then get them to asses your body fat and work on loosing those inches. You can get great results if you just keep it up and ignore the scales