I just answered an email from my mom, who has finally decided to start the gym. (And thankfully my teenage sister who's quite overweight is joining her)
Her email was a panicked one regarding 2 pounds she has gained since joining. I don't know if theres any newbies around here but since this is always a concern it seems when people start out, I thought I'd post my reply to her....
Tammy

#1) Your eating has increased. Lots of people go "Oh, I've worked out, now its ok if I eat this <peanut buster parfait><big mac meal><extra large pizza><insert your poison here>" It's easy to let that happen almost without being concious of it. Look up the calories on these foods and you realize that in order to burn the calories in a peanut buster parfat, you'd need to walk for like 6 hours. Or run for 2 straight. (Just pulling examples from no where these aren't exact numbers.) Worse thing is these are empty calories, meaning, the nutritional value of a 1000 calories worth of ice cream, is not worth 1000 calories worth of veggies and oatmeal and light cottage cheese.

#2) (and this is a good thing) You have gained, 2 pounds of muscle!!! Why is this good? Because each pound of muscle burns 50 cals AT REST a day. That means what? YOU ARE RAISING YOUR METABOLISM NATURALLY. No, you won't keep gaining, but you will keep gaining muscle while your losing fat. The scale is an extremely inacurate way of monitoring fat loss while you are lifting weights. Use whats called 'pants-o-meter' (how your pants fit) or a tape measure.
You'd be better off to only scale weigh once a month, and tape measure once a week or so.

I know how this feels, the amount of muscle I am gaining makes the scales go all over the place! According to my gym, I gained 2.2 kg of muscle and lost a total of 7kg fat (so that was weight loss of 5kg) in pounds, that means that I gained 4.4 pounds of muscle and other lean body mass in that time. I've probably gained even more since then!

Also remind your Mum and sister to measure their progress in INCHES as well - muscle being MUCH denser than our fat friend (maybe someone can dig out that pic of fat vs. muscle for you to send to them)

Good for them for making a positive change in their lives!

I did. lol

I guess I have been fortunate, my weight may fluctuate from one day to another or may stay the same for a week, but generally week after week I have been losing. I can feel my muscle getting stronger and firmer and I measure myself all the time and the inches keep coming off even where I am the most muscular, my legs.

Now if I can only lose 3 more lbs to get out of the 300's, I'll be happy.

Hang on, aren't you 299 now Nelie, according to your sig?

Equitammy - sometimes my brain switches off, don't mind me!!

NELIE - You down to the 2's, wahoo how great is that. I am so happy for you, doing the happy dance at the office. You are my motivation to get up and go.

While I don't have the progress that Nelie has been showing, I can get off of the couch without so much as a heaveho, I just stand up, and I can carry loads much more easily as well as am standing taller, my posture is definately improving.

The inches are going faster than the pounds, but I don't care, I just feel so much better.

She is!!! Go, Nelie, go! When you update your siggy, it applies to all posts, including those made in the past.

Apple eater - I posted that before I weighed so yes I am now in the 2's.

Liza, there are a lot of changes you'll notice and say "hey this is much easier" and then you'll notice the inches falling off.

hooray!!

I re-joined the YMCA today--had a membership elsewhere which expired. Does anyone have a good website to recommend for whole body workouts? I use free weights, medicine ball, Resistaball and bands; feel it's time to spice things up.

Thanks for any info you can provide--
ELana

Elana, the best info has already been posted, we have a sticky on getting started

http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/showthread.php?t=28891

Quite a few websites to look through there stumptuous is the best to read first