Dealing with Disappointment

My second weekly weight in was yesterday and I had some very unexpected results. This entire week I've been working on eating better and I've done an hour of some form of exercise PLUS trying to be more active in general at work and home. Despite all of this exhausting effort I still managed to GAIN weight. The scale said I weigh 241. How is this possible??


I won't lie; I cried. A lot. I was so disappointed. I worked my ASS off this past week! Luckily, James was here and helped talk me down a little. We came up with a few theories:

1. I'm not eating enough calories.

I know this sounds a little ridiculous because losing weight is about eating less, but I've learned that if you don't eat at least what you're burning off then your body goes into "survival mode" and starts storing all the fat that you eat. Stupid bodies. I don't feel like this is the case, but it's a possibility.

2. I'm building muscle as fast as I'm losing fat.


This theory makes a little more sense. I've noticed that I build muscle very quickly. Zumba has several toning elements and poling is all about strength, so I may have lost several pounds of fat and just replaced it with muscle. And, because muscle is more dense than fat, I gained weight.

3. I'm exercising too much or not enough.


The first part of this theory goes hand in hand with theory #1, and I very much hope that I'm getting enough exercise. I don't know how much more I could handle. :-/

4. There's an underlying medical issue.


While I sincerely hope this is not the case, it's worth taking a look at. A few years ago I was diagnosed as insulin resistant which is borderline diabetic. Since I lost so much weight after the diagnosis was made I figured that problem would have gone away, but I suppose there's a possibility that it hasn't.

5. I'm retaining water.


I have low blood pressure so I'm allowed, and encouraged, to eat more salt than is normally recommended. The excess salt intake could have caused my body to retain more water than usual. Once we got home from Zumba Saturday morning I got back on the scale and it read 239. So, yeah...I guess I could be retaining water.

Despite my disappointment with the number on the scale I'm still very proud of myself for sticking with my program. This is only a minor setback. I'm not done yet. I just have to get up, dust myself off, and keep on moving...