First Week: Gained Weight!

[tflavin]

Hello Everyone!

I have been on the BFL program for one week and have actually gained 3-4 pounds! I haven't missed a single workout and I follow the diet to the letter. I was expecting to see the scale reward me with a 5 pound drop, so you can imagine my surprise when I saw it go in the other direction!

I'm thinking the muscle I've gained might have balanced out the fat I lost. I weigh around 155 (5'7'' male) so I honestly don't have all that much fat to lose...maybe 15lbs or so. I used to eat very little...maybe once a day...but not well. Also, I drank 5-6 beers a day (now nothing)...I figured that alone would have been enough to drop a few pounds.

I'm wondering if anyone else had a similar experience. It's hard for me to believe that the diet and exercise I've taken on could actually make me fatter. Surely something else is going on here. Either way though, I'm sticking out the 12 weeks, as I promised myself I would.

Thanks for your input,

Tim

[browneyes]

Tim,
I have done this diet a few times and I did gain weight the first time that I did it. This time, I just finished my first week and I didnt gain any weight, but I didnt loose any, my number is exactly the same. I've found that by the 2nd or 3rd week I start to see some weight come off as far as the number on the scale. Thats just my personal experience, I have no idea why this happens, but some of the more experienced people may know whats going on.

[Rhone]

It's good to see you're committed to sticking it out.

First of all, as your weight fluctuates throughout the day, it's good to keep your weighing conditions consistent. Generally, first thing in the morning after using the bathroom and before eating/drinking anything is the best time to weigh yourself. Also, I recommend taking your weekly weights on the morning of your free day, so the weights you're comparing won't be affected by the water weight gained during the free day.

Now, if you're already following that advice, then my best guess is that, based on you saying you previously ate very little, your metabolism was probably significantly slowed down and your water weight was probably close to minimum. So, I'm guessing your week of eating decently on BFL probably nudged your water weight up a bit and probably allowed you to regain some muscle mass you may have lost while you weren't eating enough.

As your metabolism catches up, you should start to see your weight come back down. Believe it or not, indulging by eating plenty on your free day should help by kicking the metabolism up a bit.

[Rhone]

Oh, also I highly recommend measuring your progress in multiple ways... I measure my waist and use calipers to measure body fat %, in addition to weighing. It's helpful because sometimes one measurement might not show progress, but you see progress in another measurement.

[tflavin]

Thanks to everyone for the input. I will take your advice and stick with it. Hopefully my gym has equipment for measuring fat ratio. I'll give that a try and see if it makes a difference.

I was hesitant to eat as much as I wanted on my free day. I felt like I was backtracking a week of hard work. Maybe I'll give that a shot this time around.

Thanks again!

T

[FirePenguin]

I have nothing intelligent to add because Rhone explained it all beautifully, but I did want to let you know that I experienced the same thing under the same conditions and it does go away. I think my issue was not eating enough before the program. Once your body gets used to it it balances out, like Rhone detailed. You're not alone!

[donalson]

i'll add... if your body has been in a state of dehydration you could have finaly hydrated your body properly... a gallon of water is about 7lbs... I have a scale that does BF% as well as my water %... i can see it go up and down though out the day, usualy lowest early in the morning which corisponds to my lowest weight of the day

but anyway like these guys said track as much stuff as you can stand to... i've got mayo tape that i measure way to many parts of my body with (plug in numbers to get a BF%) along with the scale that measures BF% and calipers... in the past i've experianced gains in weight... but thanks to the other things i knew i was making progress baised on loosing inches and body fat...

good luck and keep with it
mark

[Liam]

Your scale shouldn't be an indicator early on in your success. You are changing your body composition and adding muscle.

It takes a few weeks for you to also balance out your water retention with your new habits.

Keep it up.

I also gained weight my first week. You should almost expect it.

[NineBall]

dont worry about gaining. everyones body reacts diffrently. just keep working out as planned, do your best. this will be my second time doing the BFL challenge and i plan to do it without a gympass or equipment.

dont worry about yourself right now. take measurements and weigh yourself time to time. also i recomend taking a picture of yourself every day. so you see how far you have come

[Hamoth]

Originally Posted by Liam

Your scale shouldn't be an indicator early on in your success. You are changing your body composition and adding muscle.

It takes a few weeks for you to also balance out your water retention with your new habits.

Keep it up.

I also gained weight my first week. You should almost expect it.

Muscle only weighs 1.6 X that of fat.
However don't let that discourage you...even exhcaning a lb of muscle for a lb of fat takes your caloric threshold (IE Energy density) much much higher.

After my first challenge, I weigh the same - howeve the difference in my health is beyond my ability to describe.

[Liam]

right on.
my mistake.
good to know that it's only 1.6x

[JuniorPowerlifter]

As already mentioned, your weight varies throughout the day. You will obviously be at your lightest in the morning. The optimal time to weigh in would be upon waking, after using the bathroom, wearing little to no clothing and weighing in just before eating breakfast.

After just beginning or even a long lay off from the gym, your body super compensates to the new stresses affecting it.

Similar to how you'll probably be very sore, your body will begin storing more water and nutrients for recovery purposes (since you're asking more of your body).

It isn't uncommon to gain upwards of 10lbs or more within the first month. It is during this time that you will most likely make progress in less time. Very little to none of this weight gain will be fat. That said, it won't all be muscle. With each pound of muscle, you're bound to accumulate at least that from sources such as water, increased glycogen (glycogen super compensation) and nutrients. *Keep in mind, this is all subject to your current nutrition.

Don't get discouraged as you should appear more muscular / firm as well as being leaner. At this stage of the game, use the mirror as your judge, not the scale.

[bodybuilder]

Originally Posted by tflavin

Hello Everyone!

I have been on the BFL program for one week and have actually gained 3-4 pounds! I haven't missed a single workout and I follow the diet to the letter. I was expecting to see the scale reward me with a 5 pound drop, so you can imagine my surprise when I saw it go in the other direction!

I'm thinking the muscle I've gained might have balanced out the fat I lost. I weigh around 155 (5'7'' male) so I honestly don't have all that much fat to lose...maybe 15lbs or so. I used to eat very little...maybe once a day...but not well. Also, I drank 5-6 beers a day (now nothing)...I figured that alone would have been enough to drop a few pounds.

I'm wondering if anyone else had a similar experience. It's hard for me to believe that the diet and exercise I've taken on could actually make me fatter. Surely something else is going on here. Either way though, I'm sticking out the 12 weeks, as I promised myself I would.

Thanks for your input,

Tim

measue your body fat % once a week using skin fold calipers. if your body fat is going down each week then you can be certain the weight you are gaining is muscle. if not then you need to establish what you are doing wrong

[JoelMarion]

Did you take girth measurements? Scale weight can be a very poor indicator of progress at times.

If you're not doing so already, guage your progress by taking a waist measurement weekly. If it's going down, you're losing fat...regardless of how the scale is feeling that day.

-Joel