Oh come ON!

[Neenee Jellybeanie]

So i've gradually pumped up my exercise, and am now going for a long walk (long for me anyway lol, 30 mins minimum) and sometimes doing yoga. I weighed myself yesterday, and I put on 4kgs! I nearly cried! I haven't changed my eating habits, but I did more exercise and put on weight? I've either just gotten my period or am having implantation bleeding, time will tell, so I figure either way some of it is waterweight (I retain fluid like nothing else in both situations), but that wouldn't account for 4kgs worth! Does anyone know what this could be? I know muscle weighs more than fat but I would've thought some fat would've dissapeared as well

[Nadine216]

Frustrating isn't it?? You do EVERYTHING right, but your scale tells you otherwise. My tip ...
measure yourself!!!!! You could be losing cm's instead of kg's. Now that stupid bathroom scale of yours is not going to tell you that. Keep a little book and measure yourself each month. Measure your hips, waist, thighs, calves, upper arms, breast, just under your breasts and neck.

And about water retentions - DRINK MORE WATER. Sounds stupid, but it works. It might take a while for your body to "fall" the water off, but stick with it. The more you drink, the less you will retain.

[bellelass]

Ditto on measuring yourself. Every time I've been hell-bent on losing weight, it goes up for the first few weeks and makes me feel like life is a constant uphill battle. How long your's goes up before it goes down depends on your metabolism/level of exercise/diet. It has everything to do with muscle being denser than fat- so a cm cube of muscle is going to weigh more than a cm cube of fat. Don't get discouraged! Keep it up! Once you're building muscle, it actually helps to burn the fat off even when you're not working out. That's how I've always always found that my body works, so I reckon there's got to be something in the muscle being denser thing.
To help combat water retention, try cutting sodium out of your diet. Sodium causes our bodies to absorb and retain water. Slowly replacing "bad" foods in your diet with "good" food will make it less of a shock to you and more likely to be a lasting change. Once you acquire a taste for fresh, varied, vitamin filled "healthy" sorts of foods, anything else will taste like plastic or salt or a paper bag. I don't know how you eat, of course, but that's what I've found for myself.
Try to focus on your measurements, and also on other aspects of burgeoning better health- I bet your skin looks brighter, or you have more energy, or you have a nice buzz after a workout- those are all good things to focus on. Good luck!

[paradise lost]

Muscle is, by volume, 6 times heavier than fat. 1 cubic cm of muscle is 6 times denser than 1 cubic cm of fat, though 1 cubic cm of muscle is harder to gain than the same volume of fat.

With the bleeding and exercise etc i'd expect it to be the following combination.

1. muscle gain - don't be fooled by the scales, use a tape measure. i gained nearly 4kg training for a half marathon. It seemed insane to me, running 10 miles at a time and getting heavier and heavier.

2. water retention. When you train your muscles retain more water because the glycogen which muscles use to repair themselves, strengthen and grow needs more water to work. So you will retain more water IN your muscles just for that (that was about half of my half marathon gain). In addition hormonally you are probably gaining around 1-2kg of water in your fat cells (which is where hormonal water is stored).

If you look at it like that - 1kg muscle water, 1-2kg of hormonal water retention and 1kg of muscle - there's your 4kg right there. Unless you're doing cardio (i mean raised heartrate, kind of out of breath, sweating cardio) weightloss will be slow and steady and probably a bit up and down too.

If i were you i'd get the tape measure out and measure your upper arms, chest (at the widest part), waist (at the narrowest part), hips (at the widest part) and upper thighs (each one seperately, again, widest part), and then depending on if you're PG or not, do that every week instead and don't sweat the scales anymore. Pay attention to where you are in your cycle when you measure, i am always smallest right after AF and biffest right before. You will see the difference i promise.

If you ARE PG, then you can safely continue to exercise at the level you're doing and even increase when in the 2nd tri if you choose to, with an aquanatal or PG-yoga class being good options to add, though i wouldn't bother measuring anymore since the body does more or less whatever it wants during PG as regards weight be it water or fat .

Bx

[Tracey Habron]

Well, looks like I don't have to say much with regards to measuring vs weighing as the rest of you have done a fine job.

Scales are so inaccurate in some ways. I was so chuffed this week after dropping a kilo after being away for a long weekend and behaving myself and for the first time I was under 84 kilos - almost 83 kilos. The next day I broke my rule of only getting on the scale once a week and got on them again just to see the 83 number and I had gained 1.5 kilos in a day!!

Now, I had not fallen off the wagon and eaten rubbish or downed alcohol - what I did have was some haloumi cheese which is very salty and all I can think of is that my body had water in it from that!!

Not getting on the scale again until next week.

1 kilo of fat is the same as 1 kilo of muscle - however, if you asked the butcher to put 1 kilo of fat onthe scale next to 1 kilo of muscle, you will see that the kilo of muscle is a lot smaller than the kilo of fat.

Fat therefore weighs less than muscle per cubic centimetre. I have had clients that go on my exercise programs and gain a bit of weight but drop a dress size.

In reality, we all want to be smaller and the weight should be inconsequential. Do you want to be a size 12 60 kilo person or a size 10 65 kilo person.....I know what I want to be.

An easy measuring tip.

Take a piece of string, tie it around your waist, cut through the knot and you hae a piece of string that goes around your waist perfectly. Every two weeks put it around you waist and see how much the string grows as you shrink.

If you are pg, then you canuse the string to see how much bigger you grow!! lol!!

Just hang in there - most of us are on the same path as you are!

[Trillian]

Baby Socks, I think you have gained weight because you are BF and with all the extra exercise, your body has gone into 'fight or flight' mode to preserve your breastmilk. Some women need a certain % of body fat stores to be able to make sufficient BM for their baby - you may be one of these women. I bet you've heard heaps of BF women complain they just can't shift the last few kgs? These women must need it to keep their milk supply kwim? So it could be a combination of a few things for you.

[Ginger]

baby socks- i've been exercising and eating healthy for 3 weeks now as part of the nybc and i weighed myself the other day and my weight is exactly the same as when i started. i was so disappointed that i went and ate red rooster. i really think that bfing has a lot to do with it. i'm just planning on eating lots of healthy stuff (i get sooo hungry) and hopefully the weight will slowly shift and maybe i'll lose even more once i stop bfing. i'd love to lose more weight but atm bfing my baby is my number one priority iykwim? it is extremely frustrating though, especially when people keep telling me how bfing makes you so skinny, it just doesn't seem to work like that for me.

[Neenee Jellybeanie]

Thankyou all so much for your replies, i feel much better now! Even though i didn't exercise yesterday or today because its been so HOT! I'm not pregnant, so it must be water retention. I suspect some of it is muscle too, my calves are firm and not jiggly anymore, go me!

I don't think its because of the BFing, i have LOTS of fat stores to use up before my body gets worried lol. I want to lose about 25kgs and even if I do that, I still won't be thin lol, but my goal isn't thinness, its normalness - I just want my body to be how its meant to be and if I live healthily, my body should catch up with my lifestyle eventually!

Thanks for your replies everyone! *hugs*

[paradise lost]

my goal isn't thinness, its normalness - I just want my body to be how its meant to be and if I live healthily, my body should catch up with my lifestyle eventually!

OMG your attitude ROCKS hun! I spend time talking to so many people online who are crazy obsessed with achieving a look which is basically only possible if they abuse their bodies.

I wish you luck and lots and lots of fun on your journey!

Loves

Bx

[Lucy]

my goal isn't thinness, its normalness

Good plan.

They say that for your "normal" weight, take your height in cms (ie 163cm) less 100 = your "normal" weight in kgs. (ie 63kg)

If I am at this for myself, I will not be a size 8. But I feel it will be healthy and normal for me.

Does that make sense?

And I agree with all the other girls re water retention and hormones.........

(She says, getting weighed tomorrow....I am half looking forward to it and half dreading it........I have been cycling for an hour a day for 10 days as well as I have AF currently........so it could be a disaster weight in, LOL!)

[Neenee Jellybeanie]

I know people always say this, but I really think my build is bigger than my BMI would indicate. Back in the day when I was thin, I was still past the healthy weight range for my height, yet I was a size 10. Having said that, the weight I am at right now is certainly not right either lol! I've got a looooong way to go. Bubs keeps waking up crying several times a night, so I am constantly exhausted, which is making me overeat! I need the energy to just survive the days! But exercizing is back on track, and I've lost fat (don't know about weight though). My jeans are bigger and my mum said she could tell, as well. We had a nice discussion about backfat LOL (since aparently that's where the fat has come off).

[Tracey Habron]

Babysocks, I am 83 kilos and 159cm. BMI doesn't work for me - at this height and weight I am obese according to the BMI charts....I teach exercise and am only size 14.....so it doesn't work for everyone.

The BMI charts would classify Arnold Schwarzenegger as obese when he was Mr Universe....lol....

[{sarah}]

My sister is under the care of a nutritionist due to some health issues. At her first appointment he put her on his funky scales that say fat content, muscle weight, bone weight etc and came out with something quite shocking. Her bones alone weighed something like 45kg and for her height to have the right BMI she is supposed to be 55kg total. Now considering she has all of her organs as well as water & fat to add to her 45kg of bones, there is no way she could be 55kg and be healthy. BMI just doesn't work for everyone.