I don't understand what's going on...all I want is to gain muscle mass.
Anyway, before I started to gain muscle, I wanted to get rid of the weight I gained in college (10 lbs) and I did by eating at least 5 small meals everyday, drinking lots of water, and doing HIIT cardio. Once I got to 140 lbs (I'm 5'8) I couldn't get any lower no matter how hard I tried even though I still had a little fat on my stomach. So then I started doing really intense workouts. During the hours after the workout I'd eat tons of protein and carbs, and at all other times I'd constantly eat tons of protein and fat. And I was eating A LOT, like twice what I was eating when I was losing weight. But it's been a week since I started and...
I LOST weight! Before when i was eating little and doing cardio, I couldn't lose more weight...and know that I'm doing weight-lifting and no cardio and eating tons of stuff, I lose weight??? How is that possible? I mean I know you can't expect to make any big gains after 2 intense workouts but how can you LOSE weight?
I'm really confused and if anyone has any insight I'd really appreciate hearing it.
Last edited by mod-anon; 05-05-2007 at 08:31 PM.
Reason: inappropriate language
It could be partially due to calorie restriction when you were dieting. You just hit a plateau. Unless something changes, you don't get any further. I know it seems counterintuitive, but varying you calories (sometimes way high) actually helps keep the thyroid from getting sluggish and keeps metabolism burning hot. I'm a little surprised you lost weight *while* eating a week of high cal foods, but everybody is different. If you reign the diet in again and allow for a day or two a week with higher calorie intake - maybe not crazy nuts high - it'll help you avoid the plateau again.
How much weight did you lose?
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Keep your body lean, your blood clean and your mind sharp. -Rollins
I only lost 1 lb. but that seems crazy to me considering I was eating so much more and doing no cardio. I'm not sure what you mean by plateau. A plateau for losing fat or for gaining muscle? It can't be the latter because I'm kind of scrawny and I've never lifted weights consistently for a long period of time.
Could the workouts somehow be making me lose muscle (which would account for the lost weight)? I'm doing this routine I read about that supposedly expands your ribcage (if you're still a teenager and your sternum hasn't yet hardened). First you do 15 reps of squats, taking a deep breath between each rep and holding it during the rep (they're called breathing squats I think) for the first 8 reps, then taking 2 deep breaths between reps for the remaining 7. Immediately after you have to do the exact same thing with pull-overs, and at the bottom of the rep you're supposed to try to touch the floor with the dumbell by arching your upper back as much as possible (I guess that's what stretches the ribcage). You do 2 sets of the squats and pull-overs. I don't know how all those squats and breaths will help expand your ribcage but that's what I read you should do.
Another peculiar thing that happened is that a few days after the first workout I measured my chest while it was normal and when I took a deep breath, and both measurements were at least an inch bigger than before the workout! But a few days later I measured again and it was back to normal...I guess I could have measured wrong when I thought I grew but I don't think so. After the 2nd workout my ribcage still stayed the same.
