I want to know the truth. I want someone to tell me what the real story is. Is muscle heavier than fat...or is that a wives tale? Also, do you actually gain weight before you lose it? Does your body really think you're going to starve since you're not filling up on french fries and Oreo cookies or is this also a fun tale that we tell ourselves when we have a bad week? And how could I possible burn more calories in one day than I consume? I burn maybe 200-300 calories doing a 2 mile walk workout. What about the other 1200 calories or so that i eat in a day...how am I working those off? Do I have to workout for 3 hours straight? I don't have that kind of time...my kids won't let me. Trust me...after a half hour I have children under my legs building lego empires in order to get me to stop and put Nick Jr back on. What am I supposed to do? And what about drinking water? YOU are supposed to drink 8 glasses of water a day, but then you suffer water weight gain. WHAT?!?!?!
All I know is that I didn't let this get me down yet. I did my exercise tonight. Starting tomorrow, I'm back to the daunting task of logging in on sparkpeople.com and following my nutritionists chart that she so carefully planned out for me. Next week, big things people! I've got my chart which has brought me success before. I've got the tools. Now....if I could just breathe.
Muscle DOESN'T weigh more than fat. Muscle is more dense than fat. So, one pound of fat and one pound of muscle are just that...one pound. BUT, one pound of muscle takes up WAY less space than one pound of fat. So, a 150lbs person with tons of muscle looks much thinner than a 150lb person with no muscle.
ReplyDeleteThere is no reason to gain before you lose. And yes, there is a point where your body will think you are starving. I've had it happen while dieting. I hit a plateau...and didn't get off it until I UPPED my calories. It's a balance between eating enough to not starve and not eating so much that you gain.
On the burn: Most women can't lose weight through exercise alone..but men can (jerks!). I don't exercise because of the calorie burn. I exercise because it helps shape my body. AND, I actually try to eat back all of what I burn now. When you are burning like 200-300 calories in a session, you don't need to eat it back so much. But for me, with marathon training, I HAVE to eat back what I burn or I am a wreck. So, while I have at times burned 3200 calories (18.8 mile run), I try to eat as much of it back as possible. Weight loss is really like 90% what you eat, 10% exercise. But exercise is very important to weight maintenance, something like 90% of people that keep weight off exercise an average of 1 hour a day. It's good to get in the habit now. And you wouldn't want to work off that 1200 you eat a day by any stretch. 1200 should really be the net. Your body needs at least 1200 calories to maintain itself. So you don't want a deficit bigger than that. If you do, you would likely stall out because you aren't taking in enough
Drinking water won't make you heavier. Not drinking it will, though. When you get dehydrated from not taking in enough water, your body starts to store the water you have, rather than continually flushing it out. So, you GAIN weight from dehydration first (granted, eventually, when you are sooooo dehydrated you will lose. But that's only happened to me after extremely long runs). For me, I can go up by 3lbs or so just because I didn't properly hydrate. Your body holds on to water when you don't drink enough...you want it to flush out.
AND, that's what's taken me a year to learn! hahaha. This process is just that, a learning process. You've gotta learn how to eat so that once the weight is lost, you don't just start eating whatever and gain it back. I hope that info helps...
Aubrie