Last night, the managing director of the office sent out an announcement about the Wall Street Journal accolades to the entire office, so I’ve been getting bombarded with congratulations e-mails from everyone I know and even a few that I don’t. This paper is a huge deal and I’m so glad that I got to work on it! We finalized the edits on it today, and it will hopefully be published next week. I’m not necessarily thrilled with the final product – we had a “professional” writer work on it, and I think his edits actually make the piece less punchy and harder to read than the draft we wrote – but it’s still really exciting.
However, the big news for me today is that I was finally able to weigh myself, for the first time in a few weeks (sad, isn’t it, that my weight is bigger news for me than the WSJ, but I’m counting the WSJ as yesterday’s news). Anyway, my weight is up. Way up. It’s really frustrating. I’ve definitely had some off days, but I thought I would actually be a little below where I was at my last weigh in (which was a little high). I’m basically at where I was in November, after only one month of eating healthy, instead of the 4 months I’ve been at this. Calorie counting and DailyPlate has become a lifestyle for me, and it’s really frustrating that it doesn’t seem to be paying off.
One thing I’m wondering is how running is affecting all this. According to a thread on the forums at Runners’ World, a lot of people gain weight when they’re running and training. However, the consensus seems to be that running makes you hungrier, so you eat more and negate the calories you burn. And that makes perfect sense. But what I’m wondering is… if I’m counting calories and watching every bite I put in my mouth, will running still cause weight gain? I know that weight is generally calories in needs to be lower than calories out, but that just doesn’t seem to be working for me lately. Anyone have any experiences to share?
How do your clothes fit? If the same or better, the weight gain might just be added muscle since it sounds like you are doing some strength training as well.
From experience…
October – December, 2007
– Weight: 168 pounds (+/- 3)
– Caloric intake: 1800 – 2200 calories of just about anything (mostly beer and cheese)
– Excercise: 5 – 12 miles per week + 2 days 60 min elliptical easy (just to read a book)
January 1 – Present, 2008
– Weight: 172 pounds (+/- 3lbs)
– Caloric intake: 1500 – 2000 (3 beer and/or wine per week allowance, vegetarian for Jan-midFeb, thoughtfully vegan for 1 month)
– Excercise: 12 – 25 miles per week + 1 day easy cardio + 2 days strength training
Yup, I’m feeling like the only person on earth that can up mileage significantly, eat only steamed veggies and fruit for a month, and meticulously craft thoughtful healthy schedules surrounding a “skinny” lifestyle (example: putting an hour daily in my already demanding corporate schedule to guarantee a de-stress walk – usually whilst on a conference call, just plug in the headset on the cell and hoof it while being a corporate good-citizen)and never ever lose a pound. In fact, my pants are tighter than they were when I started all this.
How frustrating. Are you eating enough? I know that if you are a little low on calories and working out hard, your body thinks it is starving and hangs on to every pound it can. You might want to add a 200 calorie snack. Also, how is your salt intake? Too much and you could just have water weight.
Since I am actively trying to lose weight, I have been frustrated recently since I started posting gains at my weekly Weight Watchers meetings. I gained for two weeks, lost a pound, then gained again. All told in four weeks I gained 7 pounds, which may not sound like a lot, but when I was so close to my goal it was a big setback. And the whole time I was running 22-25 miles per week for my half marathon training, plus eating what I normally do which has helped me lose 60 lbs (or so) over the past 18 months. I was angry, confused, and frustrated, to put it mildly!
I came to the conclusion that my training schedule this time around (this will be my second half marathon) was causing me to pack on pounds in the form of good, hard muscle; my schedule includes speed work a couple of days per week and thus I have been doing short, intense track-based (or treadmill-based) interval workouts. I have to think about my recent weight gain in positive terms, like “I’m creating new muscle” and “I will be able to run faster with my new muscle.” And…well, it seems to be working. I have shifted gears to faster paces on my longer runs, and then this morning I weighed myself and I’ve lost 4 pounds since last Tuesday’s WW weigh-in. So maybe I will resume moving in the right direction again.
I know this is late – just catching up… But, I could have wrote what you did (except the WSJ news, which is awesome!). I experience this a LOT. In fact, I was just telling JavaMom this morning that the weekend after my Half marathon and 36 mile ride, I had gained 4 lbs. CRAZY! I think it’s finding the balance. I mean, you have to fuel for long runs, so to me – you’re just burning off what you fueled with, then you’re hungry after that and running does make me hungrier.
So, for 3 wks I’ve been writing my weight and I’ve also been recording measurements, and that way I can see if it’s more muscle gain or fat gain. So far, so good. I’ve lost about 4 inches and 5 lbs in 3 wks. I wish I had some answers for you, but I too understand your frustration. I am too!