Why aren’t you losing weight? Part 1
Everyone wants to “Lose weight now!”, but sometimes you don’t. Why not?
You just started out your new program. You are excited to get results. You follow all of the instructions to the letter. You workout, eat right, get plenty of sleep...and you gain weight! What happened?
Should you throw in the towel? Sit on the couch with a bag of chips and binge watch NetFlix? No, do not give up yet.
There are a series of questions you may want to ask yourself. Such as the most obvious two:
1. Did I actually eat right?
In my role as a personal trainer, it’s not uncommon for me to ask someone how they did with their nutrition to hear that it was a “Great week! Except…”
Then follows a list of exceptions that truly calls into question the greatness of the week. People seriously underestimate the junk they eat and overestimate how well they did. If this is where you are falling short, stop reading and work on this first. Make your week great again.
2. Did I actually train right?
There’s going through the motions and then there’s putting forth a serious effort to work hard and make progress from workout to workout. Like #1, if you are falling short here, then do not worry about the rest of the questions.
Let’s assume, number 1 and 2 are in order. What else?
3. Are you new to training?
4. Are you drinking more water?
5. Are you eating more carbohydrates?
6. Are you eating more protein?
7. What other life stressors are you experiencing?
8. Are you on any medications that cause you to retain water?
9. For women, what phase of your menstrual cycle are you currently in?
3. If you are new to resistance training, your muscles will be responding rapidly to the new stimuli. This is a phenomenon known as “newbie gains”. Trust me, it is a good thing, enjoy it while it lasts. Your body is building muscle tissue and increasing strength. Women, before freaking out about “getting bulky”, please read this post.
It is simply not something you need to worry about. Don’t believe me? Then look at the amount of space equal amounts of fat and muscle take up. Ask yourself, which one is bulky?
A picture is worth a thousand words, right? But why do you want increased muscle and strength? Only because the extra muscle improves your metabolism and the extra strength makes everyday life that much easier!
4. Often, a new exercise regime and focus on eating right involves an increase in fluids. Combine an increase in fluids with the new stimulus of weight training and there will likely be some weight gain. Why? Because approximately 50% of your body weight is from water.
5. Closely related to #4, if you are taking in more carbohydrates as part of your diet and you are now weight training, you are likely going to experience an increase in scale weight. As you train, you deplete the glycogen (stored carbohydrates) in the muscle cell. However, when you eat after a workout, your body replaces those stored carbohydrates. Not only that, but glycogen attracts water.
For every gram of stored glycogen, it attracts 3 to 4 grams of water. While it may bother you, the scale has a good chance of going up because you are now storing more carbs and water in your muscle cells. However, this is a good thing. A hydrated cell is a healthy cell. Furthermore, this type of water retention will not make you look “bloated” or “puffy” because it is not under the skin, it is deep down in the muscle tissue.
6. Again, this is closely related to #4. Often, people embarking on a new fitness journey will be more conscious of their protein intake. They’ve likely heard that protein is an important building block of bones, muscles, cartilage, skin, and blood. Further, your body also uses protein to make enzymes, hormones, and other body chemicals. Sounds important! And it is.
If you were low in protein intake before and now you are working out and consuming more protein; what do you think may happen? If you said, your muscles might grow you are correct. This does not mean you will look like the Hulk overnight. It does mean that you may notice the scale registering the same or even a bit heavier as you build muscle tissue and it attracts water as mentioned in #5 above.
7. If you are experiencing prolonged stress, you may be retaining water due to the increased cortisol levels.
8. Certain medications may cause water retention (not intended to be an exhaustive list) [1,2]:
Drugs that contain estrogen such as birth control pills or hormone replacement therapy (HRT).
Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) such as ibuprofen, aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen.
Beta-blockers used to treat abnormal heart rhythms and prevent tachycardias.
High blood pressure medication
Antidepressants
9. For women, your menstrual cycle can cause or exacerbate existing water retention.
So, you see, there are various reasons why you may weigh more now than you did previously. Unfortunately, the time that is mostly likely to happen is the time you are least prepared for it mentally. What do I mean?
When you’ve been training and eating right for awhile, you’ve likely come to respect and understand the fluctuations in body weight that are a natural part of life. However, when you first start out you often will not have that understanding yet and you are also mentally very excited and hoping to see the scale move downward. Thus, if the scale stays the same or moves upward it can be very disheartening if you are not aware of could be happening.
That said, the human body is amazingly complex. I cannot pretend to have all of the answers nor is the list of questions above exhaustive. However, I do hope it shows that there may indeed be a rationale reason for the scale having increased. Stay tuned for part 2.
Reference
1. https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/187978.php
2. https://www.webmd.com/diet/why-am-i-retaining-water#2-5
