Ques. regarding weight gain w/ lifting
 

Good morning! I 've heard countless times that women cannot put on a large amt of muscle mass b/c we do not have enough testorone in our bodies. Well let me tell you that I have put on at least 20 lbs over the last 2 yrs and that's the same time that I started lifting weights. I feel like I haven't lost any fat, I've just build muscle underneath it. Has anyone else had this experience? I know the experts say to loose fat you must weight train and gain muscle but I have lost anything. I am really frustated and want to stop lifting and just do cardio. Any advise?

How much cardio are you doing? Also, what is your diet like? I know that I get really hungry after my workouts, and if I ate what I wanted, I don't think I would have lost anything at all. ;)

What is your basic week's schedule like as far as exercise? That will give us more of an idea of what you could change in order to lose more fat. :)

I'd be really surprised if you put on 20 lbs of muscle in 2 years, thats quite a bit for a guy in his prime let alone a woman. Did your inches go down any? Are you doing cardio as well? How many calories/day do you eat typically?

You might want to evaluate what you eat and your cardio routine. Feel free to provide some more insight.

Have you ever had your body fat percentage checked? Tracking your BF is the only way to tell if the pounds you've added are fat or muscle.

I'd be surprised if you build twenty pounds of pure muscle over the past two years, but undoubtedly lifting weights added some muscle. If you didn't lose any fat at the same time, the scale would definitely go the wrong way - up. :p

In my opinion, there are three equally important components to fat loss: weights (which you're doing :) ), cardio, which is your prime calorie burner, and nutrition. I agree with the others -- don't stop lifting, but maybe take a look at cardio and what you're eating. Do you do cardio now? Do you count calories?

Keep lifting AND dieting. If you decide that you are too muscular when you hit your ideal weight you can always stop lifting and watch the muscle disappear.

As others mentioned putting on 20# of muscle is very difficult, but losing it is easy. I am a really big guy, and I am not sure if i could put on 20# of muscle (my lean bodymass is ~215# at 6'4" tall). 235# of lean bodymass would make me bigger than Arnold Schwarzenegger in his prime.

My diet is ver clean. I eat between 1200-1700 cal per day. I NEVER eat fast foods, anything fried, nothing refined or white flour, rice or sugar. I am at a complete loss as to this weight gain. I have also had my thyriod checked and it was fine. I have not lost any inches. I used to be a size 4 now I am a size 10 pushing a 12! I am so frustrated and upset b/c I workout at least 5 days a week doing at least 1hr of cardio and also doing 20-45min of weights. I don't know what I am doing wrong. All I want to do is loose 10-15lbs. I don't look toned at all b/c of all the fat over the muscles.

Keep reducing your calories until you start losing weight. I need to stay under 2,000 Cal to consistently drop weight; maybe you need to be closer to 1,000?

When I started lifting I dropped 30# without even dieting, because of the metabolic boost from working out. I have had to diet pretty seriously to go from 355# to 288#, however.

I am 5'11" and I try to eat around 1500 calories. If you're shorter than that, you probably don't want to eat 1700 calories a day. You probably want to try to stay around 1200. Maybe that will help.

I was also going to suggest having your thyroid checked, but you already did that. Hmmm. . . I don't really have any other advice.

Our bodies are very adept at adapting to our diet and exercise programs. I would suggest changing the macros in your diet and your workout program. Do some step aeorbics or power walking outside to change how your muscles are being worked. I DO NOT recommend dropping below your current caloric range b/c going too low puts our bodies into starvation mode and causes us to cling onto extra fat. This might sound ridiculous to you, but 5 days of cardio at an hour each session migth be too much. You could be expending significanlty more calories than you take in and therefore your body is clinging onto your fat storage. Which, if you've put on a lot of muslce mass in the past 2 years is very possible as muscle requires more calories to maintain than fat. You might want to knock those session down to about 30 to 45 minutes of steady state twice a week, 1 hr. of steady state once a week and another day of 20 minutes of interval training. It would be a wonderful idea to also split thsoe up. Do weights and cardio on sepearte days or do cardio in the am and weights in the pm. I hope this makes sense and is helpful.

Originally Posted by :
I DO NOT recommend dropping below your current caloric range b/c going too low puts our bodies into starvation mode and causes us to cling onto extra fat.

Not likely. I am not even sure if overweight people will go into "starvation mode" if they stop eating all together. I know I don't exhibit any symptoms of it at 1,000 Cal/day.

Originally Posted by RobertW:
Not likely. I am not even sure if overweight people will go into "starvation mode" if they stop eating all together. I know I don't exhibit any symptoms of it at 1,000 Cal/day.

Robert, I have to disagree.. Overweight people can be extremely malnurished.. Obviously it doesn't appear that way to the eye.. but it is about getting enough nutrients and raw material.

When people refer to starvation mode they are usually saying that your body won't drop any fat but will cling to it because you're starving. I am getting very good nutrients sometimes at only 1000 calories a day. You can easily get all your nutrients at 1200 calories a day, you just have to toy with your foods in FitDay until you get the right balance of everything. One thing you might want to try is distributing your calories differently throughout the week. Take the amount of calories you need to lose the amount of weight you want (3500 calorie deficit for 1 lb, 7000 for 2 lbs), divide them up over the week so that you average out to your goal but don't necessarily get the same amount every day. This will keep your metabolism guessing and hopefully lead to dropped lbs.

Also remember that stress isn't going to help you any so take a deep breath and remind yourself you're doing the best you know how. If you journal go back over your journals and see where your downfalls are, if not then maybe try journalling, or keeping track in something like fitday.

Just some thoughts, I'm just learning myself but this has been working for me on trying to take off the final 20 or so lbs I need to shake.

Originally Posted by :
Not likely. I am not even sure if overweight people will go into "starvation mode" if they stop eating all together. I know I don't exhibit any symptoms of it at 1,000 Cal/day.

1,000 calories a day is not sufficient enough for any person, regardless of height and weight. A common misconception is that if I eat X amt. of calories for X amt. of time I can reach my goal and then resume my "normal" eating and caloric range, which will result in regaining fat and then some b/c of the "starvation" mode your body was in. That is when the "symptoms" will show their ugly heads!!!! :o)

The ideal is to eat about 500 to 700 calories under what your body needs to maintain to lose weight in a steady and healthy pattern. After your goal is reacheed, you should gradually add back in the calories to maintain. If a proper workout regimen is being followed and you have gained lean muscle mass in a healthy manner, you will have no problem mainting BF with the added calories after your goal is reached. Again, if you go about this w/severe calorie reductions, this is when fat is gained.

My goal would be for everyone to accept themselves and their bodies and eat to live, not live to eat. Workout for health and not for beauty!!! We are all beautiful b/c of who we are and not how we appear!!!

Yogachick, I truly wish you the best of luck in reaching your goals!!! Everyboyd is different and does respond differently, maybe you could conslut an expert as well for help in reaching your final goals!!!

Yes, I think that seeing a nutritionist might help you. Maybe keep a food diary for a week or so before your appointment so that they can see how you've been eating. They should be able to give you some pointers. More than we can. ;)

I agree with sweetpea on maybe your working too hard. I have been stuck with a four pound loss since August but have lost several inches and have gone down several sizes but still stuck even in inch loss for the past few months. I was killing myself with the cardio getting and keeping my heart rate too high. I still do the same amount of time but decreased the intensity and change up types of cardio on a regular basis and have seen another 4 inches gone this past month.( don't know about the scale, I threw them out and am not going to weigh again for several months) I have often wondered if I was lifting too much also, I work out with weights for an hour and then do cardio 30-40 minutes four days a week, but if I don't work out with weights I feel like I'm cheating myself. Just keep working, it will all be worth it.

Great point healthy2b. If you are working out too high during your cardio, you are increasing your indurance and not burning fat. Fat burning occurs when you are working at about 60% of your max. heart rate for a longer period of time. It is however, good to throw in an interval session once or once every other week!!!

hellcat, great point about keeping a journal before seeing the nutritionalist!!!!

Originally Posted by :
If you are working out too high during your cardio, you are increasing your indurance and not burning fat.

I didn't know this. I frequently check my heart rate when I am using the treadmill and elliptical and occasionally it goes over my "zone" (146 - 173). My weight loss has always been slow, I eat clean, between 1000 and 1600 cals a day and work out 5 days a week with cardio every day. I wonder if I have been just building up my endurance?

There always seems to be something I discover that I need to change or that I'm not doing right. One day I will get this weight loss thing understood :mad:.

As for the muscle build, last year I put on 6lb of muscle, lost 12lb of fat and dropped my body fat % by 3%. Not sure if this is the norm or not but that's what my result was for last year.

Edit: should probably add my regime (which I started new in Jan 06) is this:-

Mon - 30 mins elliptical, 45 - 50 mins circuit training w/full body weights
Tue - 1 hour cardio split with 30 mins elliptical, 30 mins treadmill
Wed - repeat of Mon
Thur - repeat of Tue
Frie - repeat of Mon

Lynne - please don't be concerned about working over your 'zone' when you do cardio. The idea of a 'fat-burning zone' is really a myth -- my personal trainer's textbook devoted a whole section to explaining why it isn't true.

You see, we do indeed burn a higher percentage of calories from fat at lower intensities but we burn more total calories at higher intensities. And it's calories in versus calories out that matters in the end. Working at higher intensities does a lot more than just build endurance - you burn a ton of calories (which helps with weight loss) and you're strengthening your cardiorespiratory sysytem.

The best cardio workouts (over the course of a week) are a mix of moderate intensity, high intensity, and cardio intervals (alternating lower and higher intensities).

I think your workout routine sounds fine the way it is - it's a nice mix of cardio and weights. You had great results last year! :D

Thank you Meg, I've been talking with sweetpea81 who has been giving me some excellent advice also a lot of which correlates with yours :).

I was pretty pleased with my results of last year too :D.

Originally Posted by :
You see, we do indeed burn a higher percentage of calories from fat at lower intensities but we burn more total calories at higher intensities. And it's calories in versus calories out that matters in the end. Working at higher intensities does a lot more than just build endurance - you burn a ton of calories (which helps with weight loss) and you're strengthening your cardiorespiratory sysytem.

I by no means meant that the only thing you are doing at a higher intensity is build endurance:o , you are right, you also burn more overall calories. But, as you mentioned, more calories from fat are burned at longer lower intensity (steady state) cardio. It basically boils down to your goals and how far out you are from them. The closer you get to your goal, the more likely it is you'll be more concerned w/burning more fat from calories to get the lean toned look. However, I agree 100% :smug: w/mixed cardio over the course of the week as the best approach. Otherwise our bodies adapt if we keep it the same all the time. :goodvibes


LynnA, you are doing a great job and what works for your body. Keep listening to it girl and you will continue with your progress!!!:carrot: