Friday, October 30, 2009

Oh no Not A Gain, indeed it is fat man.

As expected from my mid week sneak preview at the scale I am up this week, the scale said 331.0 which is up 3 pounds from last Friday and I have a couple theory's as to why because I am doing what I have always done. I eat 1700 calories per day and I do 50 minutes of cardio 4 times per week along with weight lifting 3 times per week which according to the calculator on the sidebar of this blog is between 975 and 1140 calories burned per workout depending on the day and that is much higher than what I had been doing so I do believe that I will have to look at my intake vs burned calories a bit closer, that's theory number one. Another possibility is that since the Arc trainer is a total body workout and I do use my core, shoulders, chest and arms along with my legs that I am retaining water a bit more because of the extra muscle movement, I am not sore but that does not mean that my muscles are not stressed to the point where retention is taking place, so there is theory number two. Lastly I am under some stress this week because I am having my gallbladder removed next week along with some other non health related stress and I don't think that alone it would be a problem but maybe a combination of the stress, the extra exercise and the possible retention of fluids all together is enough to cause a gain which may just be retention and not an actual gain.


Those are my initial thoughts on the gain this week because other than having pizza on Saturday and not being hydrated over the weekend I have done nothing differently this week besides adding the arc trainer in place of the treadmill and it is much different of a workout between the two. I have in fact gone to the gym every day this week besides Wednesday which is an off day for me, I have eaten within my calorie range of 1700 and I have stayed hydrated every day other than Saturday and part of Sunday so I have done my part, but enough about the weigh in.

Thursday at the gym something interesting happened to me, as I was walking to the towel rack to get a paper towel to wipe down the bike I had been riding I have to walk past a mirrored wall and I caught an image of a fella and thought "if I could get to that point I would feel good" and then I quickly averted my eyes because I did not want to get caught taking a peek at some guy and then as fast as that all happened I took a double take and it was my own reflection in the mirror that i was looking at! so i quickly think about how they just might have a fun house mirror in that corner just to mess with people and I walk to a different mirror and woah, it really was me that I was looking at and for the first time in this whole weight loss ordeal I saw myself as just a big fella instead of a fat guy. I honestly did not recognize myself in the reflection and when I realized that my initial thought was "if I could only get to that point I would feel good" I know that I had to have smiled because it was one of those gotcha moments for me.

Over all I feel that I have done week this week in spite of the gain, I am going to keep the intensity of my workouts where they are because I believe that there should be a natural progression in what I am doing physically as I lose more weight and get stronger so the intake is where the change will have to be. My plan is to up my calories by one whey protein shake which is 240 calories and will bring me to 1940 calories per day, so basically stick to what I have been doing with the added shake after my workout at no cost to my 1700 base calories and see how that works for a couple weeks and go from there.

Thats all I got for now, thanks for following along and I am off to the gym to look at myself in the mirrors for a while, I guess I will work out while I am there too but hey I am a multi tasker what can I say!

Keep on keepin on and all that.

As Ever
Me

3 comments:

  1. I think you're on the right track with varying your calories with the intensity of your workouts. You just have to find the right combination that works for you. Keep up the great workouts!

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  2. Wow, that is some revelation with your reflection! Amazing. You must be so happy.
    I would say, yes, all the working out is definitely making your body retain fluid. Just keep at it. You will feel so good.
    Good luck and all the best!

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  3. Have you considered the fact that muscle weighs more than fat and that with all that working out, you're building muscle?

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