Riddle Me This...

So i apologize for the length i'm sure this is going to have, but i'm trying to get the whole story so you guys can help me :)

So i just graduated college in May, and had played multiple varsity sports, had injuries and had my weight balloon up to 214lbs (5/16/09). I was determined after graduation to get to a healthy weight. oh for background i'm 22, and 5 ft 9.5 inches.

I got to about 180lbs pretty easily with spreading out meals to 6x a day and working out 5days/week 2x/day for 30 mins each. Then i started to struggle for over a month I joined CC at about 177 lbs. i was counting calories, joined a gym near me and couldn't get anything moving. Well this past week was the dreading mother nature visit, and i was having such severe headaches and cravings that i decided to let my body have a break. So i was still eating healthily and was having higher calorie meals 3x a day.

I sustained an injury last week (concussion and bruised ribs) and was not allowed to work out. So now i'm getting all worried.

I was on my period, eating crappy, and now i couldn't workout. i decided no way was i touching that scale. I got on the scale this morning and nearly died. I though i was going to be back up int he 180s, but much to my surprise i have DROPPED 4 lbs since then. 173 lbs, What the hell is going on?!

I mean **** if i can eat crappy and not workout and lose weight why wouldn't i (jk)! I'm hoping to start working out again this week and i really want to continue losing. What is going on with my body etc.

Sometimes, when you've got your body used to a certain routine, x amount of cals with x workout plan etc, then body stops responding and you hit the infamous plateau!

Shaking things up a bit does the trick sometimes. Maybe you weren't eating enough before? Or maybe you just adjusted to your workout and should think about mixing it up when you can work out again.

Anyway, well done, it must be great to see that loss! Hope you recover soon :)

That happens to me all the time.  I honestly think it has more to do with water weight than anything else.  When you work out every day, your body has a tendency to hold onto more water.  When you give it a break, it will often let go of all the water it's been holding.  It's not that you weren't losing fat while you were working out.  It's that on the scale, the loss of that fat is maked by the water weight gain.  This is why I take the numbers on the scale with a grain of salt.  I trust the measuring tape a lot more.

i have also found that once you loose the first week of, what i call fake weight, and start loosing the real weight, there tends to be a delay in results.

so all your heard eork from before might be paying off now, and all your over eating and non exercise might pay off later!!

or, as the previous poster noted, just mixing things up for your body can work wonders. look at the body like a kid with a new toy. for a while it throws all its attention on it, and puts in lots of effort to play with the toy. after a while though, no effort to play is shown, and its totally disinterested.

best way is trial and error, you'l soon discover what works well for you

That's happened to me, when I got my wisdom teeth out. I sat on my bum all day long because I was unable to work out without passing out. But then I lost the most weight of all after a week out of the gym.

I think what it is is rest. Stress of the mind causes weight gain, maybe stress of the body does too. Rest also builds muscle (you can't work out continuously and expect to gain muscle--rest is what kickstarts the results of your workouts), which could be why.