We know that the odds of sticking to a New Year’s goal are pretty slim. But rather than saying that the odds aren’t in your favor, I thought it’d be helpful to proactively share some of the common reasons people quit or don’t get the results they seek instead. This way, you can ensure quicker results, more long-term consistency, better health, and a better year! The following are THE main reasons why people get discouraged on their new journey, and how to overcome those things.
It’s Normal to Gain Weight When Starting A New Exercise Program
Don’t freak out when that scale goes up at first!
This one gets a lot of people. They start working their butt off (literally) and the scale goes up, sometimes quickly. It can be scary and wonder if that’s even a good option for achieving weight goals.
But it’s actually completely natural. Here’s why:
When someone starts a new exercise program, they often experience muscle soreness. The more intense and “unfamiliar” the program, the more intense the muscle soreness. This soreness is most prevalent 24 to 48 hours after each workout. In the first few weeks of a new program, soreness is the body trying to “protect and defend” the effected or targeted tissue. Exercise physiologists refer to this as delayed-onset muscle soreness, or DOMS.
This type of soreness is thought to be caused by tissue breakdown or microscopic tears in muscle tissue. When this happens, the body protects the tissue. The muscle becomes inflamed and slightly swollen due to fluid retention. This temporary retention of fluid can result in a 3- to 4-pound weight gain within a few weeks of a new program. Keep in mind that muscle soreness is not necessarily a reflection of how hard you worked. In fact, some people feel no signs of muscle soreness, yet will experience the muscle protection mechanisms of water retention and slight swelling.
Chalene Johnson
Be encouraged that this is a sign that your movement is doing something, and it is just a temporary increase on the scale that will pay off.
To help move this process along, it is important to increase your water consumption. This will tell your muscles that there isn’t a shortage and they don’t have to hold onto the extra water. (Make sure that your water is filtered or spring, not chlorinated or fluoridated.)
As soon as your body gets more water intake, you may notice the pounds start going back to where you were when you started and then coming off after consistency.
How much water? Most sources say one ounce for every pound of body weight, so a 150 person would need 150 ounces of water daily. But you know me—there’s no one standard amount of anything that works for every person. This would vary depending on someone’s caffeine intake, current health, blood sugars, etc. But it’s a good place to start aiming towards.
(To facilitate proper intestinal health and digestion of foods, seek to drink most water in between meals rather than with meals. Drinking a good amount of water before a meal also helps decrease appetite to avoid overeating.)
To further expedite and help this process of muscle building, increase your consumption of antioxidants. My favorite way to do this is by drinking 4 ounces of NingXia Red every workout day. This liquid antioxidant supplement helps the body’s response to exercise-induced inflammation. It contains wolfberries which speed up muscle repair while also providing polysaccharides that improve energy and reduce muscle soreness. NingXia Red also contains citrus vitality oils which support the natural detoxification and electrolyte processes of the liver and kidneys.
(Click here to learn more about NingXia Red.)
During this transition time, keep your eyes off the scale and onto how you feel. Watch your daily energy increase as well as your sleep and mood improve!
If Your Weight Still Doesn’t Improve After A Few Weeks, It’s Time to Look At Your Food
One important caution is that often when we start expending more energy, we start eating more food. Be careful not to increase calories as it’s generally safe to say that we’re already consuming enough nowadays.
It’s common for some people to make a few “compromises” in their food intake when exercising, but this not only defeats the purpose of exercise for improving weight but it increases inflammation.
Avoid refined sugars and refined carbs. Don’t go with artificial “zero-calorie” sweeteners like aspartame or sucralose either. These are linked to weight gain, seizures, brain tumors, and bowel disease. Focus on getting good-quality protein, good fats, and healthy carbs from real, natural foods.
AVOID SOY. Soy-based diet products have a detrimental effect on the thyroid, and the thyroid is responsible for metabolism. It also increases estrogen which encourages the body to store more fat. So what could help with a temporary weight loss would only cause more continuing and more difficult weight gain than before starting.
Caution for Those With Adrenal Fatigue
We’re seeing a problem for some people with intensive exercise. We live in an age where many people are already producing too much cortisol (aka death hormone) and adrenaline due to all the stress. The body sees intensive exercise as stress (physiological). That’s just a reality. Stress releases cortisol.
Generally the body is meant to recover quickly and beneficially from it. Some handle it fine but some don’t. Those who are chronically stressed and/or tend to be more Type A personality can often increase inflammation and weight gain by doing intense exercises that cause a lot of sweating.
If you have any of these symptoms of adrenal fatigue, your exercise regimen will need to be chosen carefully:
Difficulty getting up in the morning
High levels of fatigue each day
Inability to handle stress
Cravings for salty foods
Higher energy levels in the evenings
Overuse of stimulants like caffeine
A weak immune system
I am seeing many of these people dealing with more systemic inflammation (due to the cortisol) and difficulty losing weight which becomes even more difficult when doing an intensive exercise program. There is some research showing that high-intensity exercise can worsen adrenal fatigue and inflammation in some of these people.
Know your body and how you feel after exercise. Exercise/movement is crucial but for some people, that means gentle exercise like walking, slow Pilates, posing/stretching, some weight lifting, etc. (Swimming is not recommended if it’s a chlorinated pool as this poses increased health risks in other areas of health.)
Click here for some ways to support and improve adrenal health.
I hope that helps you achieve your weight goals! It’s important to always remember that it’s not the outward appearance that’s important but the health from the inside out, as well as being a good steward of our body, His temple.
Blessings of good health,
~Sara Jo Poff