I'm getting frustrated. I'm keeping my calories around 1650 and my water at over 3 liters. I have increased my walking from 10 minutes to 20 minutes, as wells as doubled my time for my adominals and using the 6lbs medicine ball (for my arms). Could I be finally building muscles?
I ask because I gained 5lbs this past Monday and have had differculty losing the 5lbs. Am I expecting too much from my exercising?

Lessara,

You cannot have gained 5 pounds of muscle from a few weeks of walking. Go to "My first lifting programme and some other links" below in my sig. There's a link to an article there that tells how much weight you can expect to gain and how much fat you can expect to lose from exercise (specifically, weight training).

The only thing I can think of is that you may have some inflammation in your muscles which would hold some water, and it should settle down shortly. Or you may have been eating more salt lately. In either case, water, and nothing to worry about.

I know its water that's why I think I built some muscle, I tend to hold lots of water. But my salt level has been great (1600 grams) for a week (I use Fitday) and the only thing that has changed is that I increased my exercising. Maybe I did gain muscle of 1.5 lbs but I gained 3.5 lbs of water too. I think...

How long have you been walking?

I walked 10 minutes the first two weeks and 15 minutes the third week, 20 minutes this past week and now. I've been going to the gym since Sept 13th.
So I've been walking almost 5 weeks.

Okay, well, if you were doing strength training for 8 weeks, you could have gained one or two pounds of muscle, but you'd also have likely lost 3 or 4 pounds of fat, so you'd have a net loss, not a net gain. http://www.trulyhuge.com/strengthtrainingforwomen.htm

My money is on pure water weight.

How often a week do you need to do Strength Training?

Three or four days a week, for no more than an hour at a time.

Hang in there, Kassie. As Built knows, I've been working out for over two months now. Gained 3 pounds or so right away, and have yet to lose it. I can SEE muscle building under the fat, though, so I'm waiting (she's also been helping me with some other techniques to build muscle and rev up my metabolism; I'm just waiting for 'em to kick in).

I hope it goes faster for you, but in any case, be patient.

my advice is to make your tape measure your best friend. my weightloss has been slow the last few months compared to the first year, but my clothing is steadily getting bigger.

Don't look at the scale for a while. I weigh 145 and I'm wearing a 7/8 and I'm only 5'2!

You're doing GREAT, and the exercise will certainly do the trick for you!

Hi Kassie!

Goodness I know that can be frustrating. Exercise, especially when new, can cause your weight to bounce a bit and I agree with Built that it is largely water weight. And yet, over the long haul, I have found that exercise really pays off for me. Helps forgive a myriad of sins!

I read something recently that I believe is correct and that is that even the absolute most buff woman (like Jane Fonda) will gain only 3-4 pounds that can be attributed to muscle. Folks like me experience much less muscle weight gain. So that is something that gets exaggerated, that we "gain" weight from muscle. When exercising, we very naturally stress our muscles and they do tend to retain water while repairing. But for long term weight loss and keeping it off, exercise is the best thing we can do! Hang in there, that water will woosh off if you keep up what you are doing!

Orchid

Thank you all! I'm not giving up! I love the gym and wouldn't stop anyways, it just that I have to see my doctor in 18 weeks and he wants results shown in my weight (I have lost 27lbs in 8 weeks) and my blood work. Right now I would "pass" but I mistakenly thought I could "Wow" him. My expectation is making me frustrated I see. I need to to stop those lines of thought!

I had a call from my doctor and I told him of my frustration and he reminded me of something. I'm 296 today and I used to, three years ago, weigh 350. He had done a year ago a muscle density test and I have 1.27<something> which means my muscles weigh alittle over 27% more than other peoples muscles. He said its partly heretity but it also being so heavy for so long. I asked is this "desity" lightens up when I lose, he said not for a little while, after you lose the weight it might and it might not at all!
I figure this is why I wore a size 14 at 160 (in 1983). I'm 5'-8" by the way.
What this all means, if I do develope muscle it will be heavier than most, I told, Built, what you told me about 1.5 per month (I think) and he said I would be more like 2lbs. He's thrilled but I'm not so much. Because I'm big, a tape measure doesn't show differences in my weight unless I loss like 50lbs! (That's how much I lost to go down an Inch). Yes I know the smaller I get the easier it will be, but for now the scale is the only way I can "see" changes. But don't worry. I'll just stick with this and deal with my frustrations not quit.

Aw shucks, you mean my 10 lb gain isn't pure muscle? But seriously, I've been lifting pretty seriously for 8 weeks, and within the first three weeks gained 10 lbs which has remained. But I sure do feel better.
Helped my daughter move this past weekend and felt great. I was taking less breaks than my son-in-laws wanted to.
So I'll keep it up for the health and sense of well being no matter what the scale says. But the gain sure was sudden and seems to be lasting.
Built - I couldn't find the "link to an article there that tells how much weight you can expect to gain and how much fat you can expect to lose from exercise (specifically, weight training). "