Does Lifting Weights Make You Gain Weight I Best Way To Exercise For Weight Loss

This board's fell over like 5 times already, so I propped it up on some things. Hopefully it's not gonna fall again. But what is going on, YouTube? Welcome back to the channel and/or welcome to the channel. In this video today, we are going to be talking about what happens and what to do and what is going on when you start lifting or start exercising and stop losing. You like that? Started lifting, stopped losing. I thought that was pretty clever. I'd love, I'd love some feedback on that. Um, but So we're going to cover all things here. If you've recently started, whether it's lifting weights or just working out in general, what's going on if you're not losing weight? Maybe you were losing weight but then you started lifting weights and you stopped. And then maybe you were not losing weight but now you started lifting weights because somebody told you to start lifting weights for fat loss and now the scale is going up. What the hell is going on? I want to cover everything in this video. I want to calm your nerves and I want to educate you on what is going on so you know what to do moving forward. All right, so let's start off with the first topic, and that is going to be newbies. And when I mean newbies, I mean people who are newer to exercising, newer to lifting weights in particular. Um, because what happens is when you're— when you start lifting weights, let's say you're coming more from like a cardio background, a HIIT cardio background, where you're doing like maybe some different like HIIT workout YouTube videos. Maybe you're doing things like, uh, even things like Orangetheory and so on and so forth. That's, that's more cardio-based, and you dive into more of a weightlifting strength training program, what happens is there's something called glucose and glycogen in your body. This glycogen, what it does, it's basically fuel for your muscles. It's fuel— drop my marker— it's fuel for your muscles, right? So when you start lifting weights, your muscles need that fuel, right? So your body is automatically going to store more glycogen Because that's what your muscles need in order to perform the workouts and recover from the workouts. This isn't— it's not a bad thing. It's just science, right? The thing with glycogen is it binds to and stores water weight. If your body is storing more glycogen because you are now lifting weights temporarily in the short term, your body is going to store extra glycogen, extra water weight because it's saying, hey, you know, this is a new thing to me. Lifting these weights and doing this strength training program is a new thing to me. So let me make sure I can hold some glycogen in my muscle cells to make sure I have fuel for when this comes around again. Because, you know, remember, all of this is a fight or flight response. And if you're starting to lift weights, your body is saying, I need to make sure I'm prepared. I'm ready for this. The weight training is not going to kill me basically, right? Not to that extent, but you understand what I'm saying. So your body stores more glycogen. This is going to lead to some short-term Short-term weight, either weight gain or weight stall, and it's very, very, very, very, very, very common. It is not something that you should be worrying about. Okay, and it's actually a good thing because again, this extra glycogen storage is going to help your muscles and help your workouts, which we're going to talk about why muscles are important for weight loss later on. But they are going to help fuel your workouts, and again, it's very, very common. I want to show you a picture. Of one of my online coaching clients. Her name is Maricela. She's absolutely a beast and she's amazing. But this happened to her, like to the T, this happened to her. When we first started, she wasn't losing a lot of weight, which was kind of odd to her because every other diet that she'd done in the past, she would always lose weight very rapidly in the first couple weeks. But what we did was we set her calorie count to a sustainable count, which we'll talk about later, and we started to implement 3 times a week strength training. What happened was, and this probably can relate to you, her weight was not going down the first 1, 2, 3 weeks, but my clients take measurements of themselves every 2 weeks. They take measurements of their glutes, of their waist, and of their thighs. Alright, so what happened was we saw that after 2 weeks, her measurements were trending down. I think she was down either half an inch to an inch, but her weight was not moving yet. And I say yet because after about the 4-week mark, that's when she saw a big dropdown in her weight and she's been able to maintain that big dropdown forever now. And also, as you can tell by her progress pictures, she looked completely different. So just because the scale isn't going down, but your inches are going down, that's a good thing. That's exactly what you want. And it's because of this short-term, this short-term glycogen storage where your body is going to hold onto a bit more water weight than normal. But again, as long as you stick with the program and stick with the plan, you are going to see the results you're looking for. And also you're gonna change your body because remember, it's not always just about the scale, right? So that is normal if that is happening to you, if you just started working out and you are not losing weight and even possibly gaining weight. But that's why you should be taking measurements and progress pictures as well. Because like I just told you with my online coaching client, Maricela, we were taking her measurements and progress pictures. So when that time came up, We knew her measurements were down and her progress pictures looked different. So we could tell she was losing body fat and seeing progress. So that's why you can't rely on just the scale. But if that is happening to you, that is completely normal. Chill out. It's all good. I promise. Now, number 2, and this goes for somebody who's new to lifting, not new to lifting, whatever. I wrote sprained ankle here. So if you've ever sprained your ankle, you probably know what I'm about to talk about here. If you're not, I'll explain it. When you sprain your ankle, what happens? Your ankle gets very swollen. It gets very swelled up, right? There's a lot of inflammation going to your ankle because your ankle, you know, your body is saying, hey, something happened down here. I need to send some inflammation down there to make sure we can start the recovery process, right? It gets very, very swollen. And then what happens? Your body can then push nutrients and push blood and push all these things to your swollen ankle because it needs to repair. That's what the process is, right? It's just a, just a normal function of spraining your ankle, swelling it up, and then eventually it's going to go away in 3 or 4 days. It's going to go away right now. When you work out, when you lift weights, this same thing happens because when you exercise, when you lift weights, when you strength train, you are literally tearing your muscle fibers apart. I know it sounds weird, but you are literally tearing. You're making micro tears inside of your muscle cells. You're tearing your muscle fibers apart. Your body says— in the same way your body says, hey, I have a sprained ankle, I need to send some inflammation down there to start the healing and recovery process— your body says the same thing to your muscle cells. So if you get done an intense leg workout or a heavy upper body day or any kind of strength training workout, when you create these tears in your muscles, they need to be repaired. If they're not repaired, you're not going to see any change in your body, which is, by the way, why Exercise is half of it, and recovery from your exercise is the other half of it. And this is why you shouldn't be working out 6, 7 days a week, because your body needs time to recover. But that's a different topic for a different day. Let me get back on track. When your body does this, when you create these micro tears, your body is going to send inflammation to your muscles in order to have your body say, okay, I need to push more nutrients and more blood flow and more water and more everything to help your body recover From the workouts. Again, this is a normal function and a necessary function if you want to grow stronger, more defined muscles, right? Because this is the process of, you know, if you want a more defined shoulder muscle or a more defined leg muscle, this is the process your body goes through. It's, it's, it's necessary. But along this process comes inflammation, and with inflammation comes water weight. So in the short term, when you're, when you're very, very sore and, you know, when you get done a heavy strength training workout, which by the way, That's why if you hop on the scale the next day and your weight spiked up and you know you had a very like heavy, hard strength training workout the day before, the scale is going to go up. And that's why, because of this inflammation process. I talk about that in my YouTube video here. I'll link it here above. I talk about that in my video of like why the scale spiked up. I give you, I think, 7 reasons why the scale spiked up, in which none of them are because you gained body fat. It's the same thing here. You're just going to be retaining some extra water weight for a short period of time because your body has It has to, you know, send inflammation to your muscles in order to repair them, in order to grow stronger, more defined muscles in the long term. Remember this, we're worth, uh, these 2 things thus far have been long-term focus. We're not focusing on very short-term weight. We're focusing on long-term results. And it's the same thing here. So that is the second reason. Now the third reason I wrote Hulk here, which don't, don't be afraid. I don't mean like getting huge and massive, but when you strength train, you're going to build some lean muscle mass, especially if you are newer to strength training and/or just newer to following like a real properly designed program. I don't mean things like Beachbody. I don't mean things like Orange Theory. If you are getting on like a properly designed program, when you get on that program, especially if you're new, you are going to build some lean muscle mass. And that's a— I'm very jealous of you because that's the best time of your journey that you're going to build lean muscle mass. You know, your body is very sensitive to this and sensitive to this progressive overload, which is again, just basically the way your body builds muscle. So your body's gonna build some muscle. But what happens is, you know, if you, you know, if and when you strength train and you lift weights and you build muscle, let's say you build 3 pounds of muscle in a month, and let's say you lose 3 pounds of fat in a month. On the scale, it's not gonna change because 3 pounds and 3 pounds even each other out, right? Like, you won't see any scale change progress If you lose 3 pounds of fat and gain 3 pounds of muscle. But muscle is more dense than fat. Muscle does not weigh more than fat. I don't know where that came from, but muscle does not weigh more than fat. A pound of fat is equal to a pound of muscle. They're both a pound, just like a pound of feathers is the same as a pound of bricks. The composition is different though, right? Because muscle is more dense. It takes up less space on your body. This is why, again, if you are not necessarily losing a ton of weight, but your inches and your measurements are changing and your progress pictures look different, this is why. Because you are gaining muscle and losing body fat. That's why the measurements are going down because you're taking up less space. Your body is literally changing the shape of it. It's changing your muscle to fat ratio. And that's why, again, the scale may not go down, which is okay because the scale is not the end-all be-all. But this is why. And again, just keeping in mind that when you build lean muscle mass, this is actually going to help your weight loss journey that much more because the more lean muscle mass you have on your body, the more oxygen your body has to pump to that lean muscle mass because muscle takes up more, basically more work that your body has to do because it requires more oxygen to get pumped to. So if your body has to pump more oxygen, what does this mean? It has to do more work. What does more work mean? Increased metabolism, more calories burned throughout the day. The more lean muscle mass you have, the more calories you burn throughout the day doing nothing, just because you've added lean muscle mass to your body. So again, in the long term, this is actually very beneficial for your weight loss journey because it's going to help you keep your metabolism high and help you burn more calories throughout the day. So those are the 3 main reasons why you might have started lifting and stopped losing. But the final say is it's all very short-term, just like I showed you with my online coaching client, Maricela. For the first few weeks, she didn't lose a ton, but by week 4, week 5, week 6, she was then losing weight on top of changing the way her body looked. And that's what I want to leave you with. Please do not focus on the short-term. Don't focus on the first 1, 2, 3 weeks. Remember, you're supposed to be in this for the long haul, right? So what is the first 1, 2, or 3 weeks? As long as you don't let your emotions take over, And as long as you don't let the emotions of you not seeing the scale go down, or even possibly seeing the scale go up, which again is totally normal, do not let those emotions take over your actions. Just because that you want to see the scale go down but you're not seeing it go down, don't let that then dictate your actions and say, well, I'm not seeing the scale go down, screw this, I'm just gonna stop working out, I'm just gonna stop eating healthy, I'm gonna stay off my diet, I'm I'm gonna do all the things I'm not supposed to do, right? When you— when this happens, because it will happen, you need to make sure you're number one, aware of why it's happening, which is why I just did this video for you. Number 2, have realistic expectations, which is why I just did this video for you. And number 3, make sure you are aware and knowing that don't let those emotions dictate your actions. Logically think about if I keep doing the things I'm supposed to be doing, strength training, And being in a calorie deficit to lose body fat, you know, hitting your calories. If you keep doing those 2 things, I promise with all my heart, you are going to see progress. I've seen it time and time and time again coaching people, thousands of people throughout my 4+ years of coaching. If you just keep doing what you are supposed to be doing and do not quit, you will see progress. I promise. The biggest thing is when these things happen and you don't see the scale go down and That's when people quit, and that's why people never actually see any real progress, because 1, 2, 3 weeks in, they quit. 1, 2, 3 weeks into anything and you quit, that's not good. I don't care what it is, you need to give things time. So listen, keep strength training, keep eating in a calorie deficit, and I promise, promise, promise you, you will see progress. If you need some workouts, I will link 52 totally free workouts here below in the description. They're literally totally free. They have exercise videos from me, like Please feel free to grab that. It's one of the, I think, one of the best free things anybody ever really gives out, if I'm being kind of humble but honest. So that's number 1. Number 2, if you wanna know how many calories you need to eat to lose weight, I'll put a video here above, which is my free calorie calculator. All right, so any questions, any concerns, please feel free to drop them in the comments below. If you enjoyed the video, please feel free to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to the channel if you want and/or like more content like this, okay? Hope the video helped you guys, and we'll talk soon.