HOW is this even possible?!?!

Ugh...I am so frusterated. I just started REALLy excersising a lot this past week, at least 2 hours a day, and I am changing my eating habits...and I am so discouraged....I measured myself today, and it seems like I have gotten BIGGER in the last few days, what the heck is going on!?!?! my thigh measurements have gone up an inch or so, and my waist has gone up a bit, and my waist has gone up a bit as well....What is going on? I am getting discouraged already...If making me fatter is all that working out will do for me, i may as well quit right now....I have no idea what to do.....

I am doing 30 minutes a day of belly dancing (soon to be 3 hours once I get into my class tomorrow-once a week, plus the 30 mins a day) 30 minutes of fast dancing, 10 or more minutes of tae-bo(Its all i can manage right now, lol) and cardio, etc....

Whenever you start excercising, especially when you jump into a lot of it at once, you will end up retaining some water. If you are feeling sore that can be a good indicator. I know when I have a higher than usual excercise day (playing paintball every two weeks) I gain the next day. It is good that you are watching your measurements instead of the scale, you will see a difference there. Hang in there, the same thing happened to me and I ended up evening back out and losing weight, it just took some time. :)

Thank you :) you have given me some hope. About how long did it take you to get to where you wanted? as in, getting back to actually losing instead of gaining?

It took me about three weeks, Im sure you will be back 'on track' within a month. Everyones body is different so dont get discouraged if yours doesnt react like mine. One of the things I did was I realised if I pushed the threshold everyday it got worse. If I kept it to pushing the threshold to twice a week I did a lot better. I also made sure to get enough protien otherwise my muscles felt really weak. Just remember the gain that you see is not fat! It is your body building the muscle that you should have and once it gets to where it needs to be it will eat up some of the extra fat. The closer you are to your goal weight the longer it takes. :)

   It couldn't have been put any better eponal ! I started exercising 5 months ago, every day for the exception of one week I have gone to the gym and exercised for two hours in the morning. The first month was crazy I gained four pounds then the next month I lost 8. When you exercise your muscles actually tear. During recovery time your muscle's will heal themselves and that's how they get bigger ;). The water retention is actually water and healing fluids ( this could be really heavy up to 10lbs !!!! depending on how much damage you did )from the tearing of the muscles and the muscles trying to heal. If anything on our outterbody is injured it swells up with healing fluid well its the same for the inner body. Second DRINK DRINK DRINK for every 30 this is  easier said than done but it is important that for every 30 minutes of exercise you do a day you ADD at least an extra 8 oz to your daily water intake. In order to loose water weight you must add some first ;).  Your are doing great! Dont quit exercising it has so many benefits other than losing weight. I hope your belly dancing class goes well it sounds like loads of fun(..If I loose more of my belly I might consider going to one too.)

It's only been a week. Give it time. I advise you only check the scale once a week, not every day. The scale is not a true determination of weight and measuring yourself is probably something you should do monthly, not weekly. You could be building muscle and losing fat. In other words, it may seem like you are gaining weight, when actually you are building muscle and losing fat.

Also, try not to over do it right at first. If you over commit, you'll never be able to stick with your program, you'll burn out. Try starting out three days a week or at the most four. When you've maintained that for six weeks, then switch it up a bit to keep things interesting.

Remember, it's a way of life. If you let the little things discourage you, you'll always be discouraged with something!

Chin up and keep it up! The weight will eventually start melting off with consistant exercise and proper diet. Good luck!

Original Post by aceyleigh:

...I measured myself today, and it seems like I have gotten BIGGER in the last few days, what the heck is going on!?!?! my thigh measurements have gone up an inch or so, and my waist has gone up a bit, and my waist has gone up a bit as well....

So frustrating!  I completely understand...  and some really good advice here too from kayb85 and epona1769.  I didn't start to see results on the scales or with the measuring tapes for the first 5 weeks but a few weeks past that, and I'm getting real results.

My nutritionist, when she takes measurements, always takes things like waist measurements 3 times and then takes the average... maybe something you want to consider.  Also, make sure the thigh measurement is at the BIGGEST point (keep adjusting the tape measure until you find it).  That way, it'll be easier to find it each time.  Perhaps only measure yourself once a week, as there's less likelyhood you'll see inch loss that quickly. 

Hope your body is recovered for next week... keep it up and good luck! 

Thank you so much for all of your advice, I was worried i was doing something wrong, and my body just wouldnt take it, but now I see differently. So thank you :) I appreciate the help. I will try to keep it all in mind.

You're probably eating too little and doing too much.  keep your calories at a 500 cal deficit. 

Hi!

I am a professional belly dancer and thought i'd throw in my two cents.  Belly dancing is usually better for strength than cardio depending on the class.  if you're in an actual belly dance class, as opposed to an aerobics class that incorporates belly dancing, it is gonna do amazing things for toning your body and building muscle.  and most likely, if it's a gooood class, you will have sore muscles you didn't know existed.   stick w/it.  you won't be sorry.  i promise!  it will also do wonders for your self esteem.

I'm in the same boat. After a tough workout, I retain water and swell, especially after a leg workout (my pants are tighter leaving the gym than they are showing up :)

Since I've continued with a good bit of strength training, it never really 'goes away,' but after the initial gain it stays consistent. So I'm still losing weight, just from a higher starting point

Though sometimes when I need a moral boost I'll take off a good 3 days of the workout and my weight will drop 4 lbs...

uh i've got the same kind of problem.

working out 6 days a week for a month. and i've been totally watching what i'm eating, yet my weight's pretty much stayed the same.

you'd think i'd even gain weight because of weights training and muscle development, but no. just absolutely nothing.

i'm so confused!

Just another tidbit to add onto the advice of weigh-in's once a week....you may want to do your measurements once a month.  I log mine once a month, everything from neck on down to each calf. 

Keep your chin up and persevere.  This is all worth it.  Concentrate on how you feel and how your heart is thanking you for all that good exercise.