Scale Frustration

I started working out much more intensely starting in January when my boyfriend and I moved in together and joined a gym. We work out together about 4 or 5 times a week, and usually lift weights 2 of those days, leaving the other 3 for rock climbing and jogging. I've noticed that I actually have arm muscles now and have some upper body strength; the weight lifting has improved my rock climbing abilities considerably, even though I actually climb about half as often as I used to.

However, I noticed that although I was in much better shape and still eating pretty healthy foods, I wasn't losing any weight. I have a friend in a similar situation who has been losing weight and doing great on her diet, but when she started working out more than she had been, she started gaining weight! She and I were both clearly in much better shape; what was happening?

Well, of course almost everyone knows that muscle weighs more than fat, so sometimes when you start to work out, especially with something like weight lifting where you are specifically targeting and working towards muscle growth, you may actually gain a little weight. This can be frustrating when the only way you have to measure your progress is the scale.

One thing I would recommend for those who want to continue to measure progress is body measurements. You need a tape measure to do this, but it can provide very useful information and can be pretty encouraging! This website shows the most important places to measure to gauge progress. For example, here are my own measurements comparing August, a week after I began my diet, with today.



A few inches can make a big difference! Try measuring yourself at least once a month to accurately measure progress. It can be encouraging even when the scale isn't!