Started a lot of exercise last week
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Started a lot of exercise last week
| Mon, 12-13-2004 - 9:35am |
and then weighed myself and gained a pound - is this normal? I have been following a low carb diet faithfully this week, walking 1 hour a day and doing weight lifting/cardio for an hour. I have been so good and gained a pound! What could it be? It is very frustrating to finally feel in control and then not have the results show!



it is very frusting i know but its a good gain that gain will end up in the loss of inches ;)(dont forget that muscle weighs more then fat)
keep up the awesome work and you will have results to show
Heidi
Chiming in to add my agreement- probably gained muscle
Muscle burns more calories than fat, so this will show a loss in the long run, and you're stronger to boot.
Oh, and taking measurements is a good indicator and can make you feel really good as those numbers get lower and lower.
I am so in awe of you! You're my exercise hero!
Sussie_Q
Most likely that is what has happened.
I work out quite a bit, and I have the same issue at times. Also consider that when you are working out at a pretty decent rate your muscles hang on to water. Drink up! It flushes it out, and really helps rev up your body.
I don't want to burst your bubble, but it's pretty unlikely that you gained a pound of muscle in a week. Women just don't build muscle mass that quickly. I'm a pretty muscular girl, and the first month I started working out again, I still lost 10 pounds. (By the way, the way to really maximize your strength training is to work your muscles to the point of exhaustion. If you're doing a set of 12 repetitions, the weight should be heavy enough that the last two reps are really, really hard. If you're breezing through your reps, you need to increase the weight.)
On the plus side, it's also not very likely that you gained a pound of fat in a week. The number on the scale could be the result of water gain (due to fluctuations in your menstrual cycle), it could be because you weighed yourself at a different time of day, or you could have an inaccurate scale.
Don't despair. You're only a week into this! If you're going to let the number on the scale be the sole determinant of how you feel about your weight loss, ignore it for now. You will be able to tell when you're losing weight and building muscle by the way your clothes fit. In the meantime, keep exercising, watch what you eat, and be proud of what you're accomplishing!