If I had a nickle everytime a Weight Watcher member posted this question I could take early retirement. First of all, you need to look at some of the reasons this could be happening:
1. Do you journal your food? If you don’t…now is the time to start. When you start exercising it is very common to either under eat or over eat calories. Without a good food journal you don’t know which you might be doing. Exercising naturally makes you hungry because your muscles are screaming for nutrients to repair themselves. People either take this cue as, “I can eat a little more today because I exercised,” or “I don’t want to undo the good work I did when I exercised.” Fueling your body is a fine line so make sure you track what you eat and stay at an appropriate amount of calories for your needs. Most women need to eat between 1400 – 1800 calories a day depending on their activity level.
2. You might be retaining water. When you first start exercising, espeically weight training, your muscles develop microscopic tears. This is how the muscle builds, by breaking down and rebuilding itself. In order for this to happen, your muscles will flood itself with water to expedite things. For new exercisers, you will tear your muscles more than a seasoned exerciser because your muscles are not used to the exertion. It often takes at least three to six weeks to see the scale move in the right direction, but be patient as exercise is always a good idea.
3. Your gaining muscle faster than you are burning fat. Boy, the body loves it’s fat. Sometimes it feels like all conditions have to be perfect in order for the body to give any up. That’s true to an extent. Very often your body can build muscle faster than it can burn fat and in the meantime you see the scale slowly ticking up or not moving at all. This is why having other means of success can be vital to your mental state! Take measurements and use that as a gauge of how well your body is responding. Get out old clothes and use them as an indicator of how many inches you may be losing. You’ll be happier if you have other means of success other than the scale.
For monthly cardio and strength training calendars, feel free to visit my online personal training website to get detailed and tailored programs designed specifically for your needs.
