Starting tomorrow I will begin to outline the exercise and nutrition that I have accomplished over the last 3 days - I'll pull the info right out of my
Wellness/Fitness Journal. I am already running into a few problems - but overall I am happy with my start.
Today I wanted to finish up on my post from yesterday.
Yesterday I posted about my weight being higher than my start weight and gave one explanation of why that would be. Just because I have begun to monitor my nutrition and increased my exercise activity, I can't expect a few good days to show positive results on the scale.
Fact: Most people may experience a weight gain over the first couple of days, or even weeks, when they begin to take charge of their health and fitness.
Factor #2 -
Metabolism Resetting Your metabolism, from a weight loss perspective, is merely how your body handles energy. How it stores it and how it uses it. When you begin to take charge of your health and fitness the few pounds that you may gain at the beginning will pay many dividends down the road as your metabolism begins to reset itself.
You body weight is made up of two basic components, Lean Body Mass(LBM) and Fat. Your LBM is everything other than fat - muscle, bone, tendons, ligaments, organs and body fluid. Your fat is just that - FAT.
Studies suggest that a pound of Lean Body Mass(LBM) needs about 50-70 calories per day to maintain itself. Fat on the other hand only requires 5-20 calories for maintenance. More LBM means more calories burned on a 24 hour basis.
When you begin to exercise and increase stress to the muscles the muscles respond by storing additional water and nutrients to adapt to this stress. As the muscles continue to be exercised they continue to consume more and more energy - thus increasing your LBM.
When you are in your teens and early twenties, assuming you are not overweight, your metabolism is clicking along just fine. As we begin to age, without doing any weight bearing activities, the body begins to dump LBM and your metabolism begins to decrease. This means fewer and fewer calories are needed to maintain your body weight. Add to this our societies poor eating habits and you have turned yourself into a fat storing machine.
How many people, in there 30's, 40's or 50's, have you heard say that they could eat anything when they were younger and not gain a pound! Now they are complaining of not being able to keep the weight off - even though they feel they are eating less. Their metabolisms are going in reverse - storing energy efficiently(in the fat cells) and burning energy inefficiently(in the muscle cells).
As you begin to exercise you begin to reverse this trend and you begin to reset your metabolism. The scale may show a few extra pounds but it is an indication that you are revving up your metabolism which will continue to serve you well down the road as you also work on your nutritional plan and begin to lose weight.
You are, in effect, turning back the hands of time.
Today I wanted to finish up on my post from yesterday.
Yesterday I posted about my weight being higher than my start weight and gave one explanation of why that would be. Just because I have begun to monitor my nutrition and increased my exercise activity, I can't expect a few good days to show positive results on the scale.
Factor #2 - Metabolism Resetting
Your metabolism, from a weight loss perspective, is merely how your body handles energy. How it stores it and how it uses it. When you begin to take charge of your health and fitness the few pounds that you may gain at the beginning will pay many dividends down the road as your metabolism begins to reset itself.
You body weight is made up of two basic components, Lean Body Mass(LBM) and Fat. Your LBM is everything other than fat - muscle, bone, tendons, ligaments, organs and body fluid. Your fat is just that - FAT.
Studies suggest that a pound of Lean Body Mass(LBM) needs about 50-70 calories per day to maintain itself. Fat on the other hand only requires 5-20 calories for maintenance. More LBM means more calories burned on a 24 hour basis.
When you begin to exercise and increase stress to the muscles the muscles respond by storing additional water and nutrients to adapt to this stress. As the muscles continue to be exercised they continue to consume more and more energy - thus increasing your LBM.
When you are in your teens and early twenties, assuming you are not overweight, your metabolism is clicking along just fine. As we begin to age, without doing any weight bearing activities, the body begins to dump LBM and your metabolism begins to decrease. This means fewer and fewer calories are needed to maintain your body weight. Add to this our societies poor eating habits and you have turned yourself into a fat storing machine.
How many people, in there 30's, 40's or 50's, have you heard say that they could eat anything when they were younger and not gain a pound! Now they are complaining of not being able to keep the weight off - even though they feel they are eating less. Their metabolisms are going in reverse - storing energy efficiently(in the fat cells) and burning energy inefficiently(in the muscle cells).
As you begin to exercise you begin to reverse this trend and you begin to reset your metabolism. The scale may show a few extra pounds but it is an indication that you are revving up your metabolism which will continue to serve you well down the road as you also work on your nutritional plan and begin to lose weight.
You are, in effect, turning back the hands of time.