Tuesday, July 1, 2008

This Past Month

I recently spoke about plateaus in weight loss. Right now I seem to be traversing quite a long plateau. For the past month I have not lost any weight at all. From day to day I will fluctuate up or down a pound or two but this is mostly water weight.

One possible source for this stagnation is exercise. Until recently I did not exercise much at all. Honestly, only about once a week or two did I even go out for a walk. I find the humidity and heat here in Houston to be absurd. But my brother-in-law has an exercise machine in the garage I decided to try.

The machine is a running machine where your feet never leave the pads so that there is no impact on your legs. I have been using this thing about three times a week for twenty minutes or so each time. It took some getting used to and I did go through some serious pains getting used to exercising (muscle soreness).

It was my original impression that if I increase the amount of calories I burned in a day and I ate roughly the same amount that the weight would just fall off. But this doesn't seem to be the case. Muscle weighs more than fat and I can imagine that I am building up my leg muscles, I can certainly feel it.

I appear to be a little slimmer compared to when I started, which is the goal. Somehow it just doesn't feel as satisfying as seeing the weight drop on the scale. This is the longest plateau I have dealt with, but I think the end is in sight. By consuming less than what I need to maintain this weight I will eventually lose again. More than likely my body needs to reach a new state of equilibrium now that I have changed my calorie expenditure.

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