It’s Not All About the Weight: How to Overcome the Wall
Earlier today I posted my weekly update to my Stats page, which contains my weight progress.
On October 17 I hit my low of 265.5 pounds, and since then I’ve been steadily climbing back up. I’ve been through this before, but it isn’t any less discouraging. If you’re like me, you’re thinking, “What the heck?! I’ve been eating normal portions most of the time. A lot more than I used to! Plus I’m exercising regularly!”
I had to remind myself not to despair. What’s going on is that my regular walk/micro-bursts are causing me to build muscle. Muscle is denser than fat, so a square inch of muscle weighs about 20% more than a square inch of fat. What really drove it home for me was when I pulled on my jeans and realized that the smallest setting on my belt is no longer tight enough to adequately keep my pants up!
When you hit this wall and you start increasing in weight, keep these things in mind:
- You’re actively building muscle, and more muscle means more calories burned.
- This is a temporary trend. Soon, your calorie consumption will catch up with your efforts and your weight will start decreasing again.
- You’re making small savings deposits. My other blog is on personal finance, and starting out a fitness program feels a lot like starting out a savings program. At first, you can only save a few bucks here and there, but as you continue that amount grows. Compound interest kicks and and soon you’re looking back with amazement on how far you’ve come.
- Don’t rely on just one measurement to track progress. This is the biggie. Weight alone is not adequate to measure progress. This is a good reminder for myself that I need to start measuring my hip-to-waist ratio.
