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Weight – why?…
So, this last year I've put on a stone, and I've got a few ideas why… But they're oposite!
Firstly, let me just say I don't put weight on easily (before now), although I am only 20 and in the words of my mum "I'm a growing girl" (eurgh lol). I'm only 5"3 so you think a stone would show up loads, and my mum says I've put on weight but I just can't believe its a whole stone… With my BMI now being about 24.5 :S I'm still the same dress size, although I used to be a little UK10 and now I'm a bigger one, and I've gone up 2 cup sizes.So, why? Well, I now do more exercise than EVER before – I've taken up dancing and poling, and because of pole I do more strength exercises (push ups, etc), so is it muscle? I've literally gone from NO exercise, to a "moderate" amount – being able to actually *shock* run up staires without getting out of breath.
However, I am now the fabled creature of university student, and if you've ever met my species you'll know students tend to put on a lot of weight (esp. in their first year)… I drink a lot more alcohol, and eat a lot more (although its normally more healthy than I used to eat, since fresh is cheaper).
So, which seems more likely? Obviously if its fat, I should aim to loose it, but if its muscle its ok and I'll just carry on. Like I said, I've never put on so much weight before, but I've never been so active or eaten so much, so I don't know anything about these things….
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32 Replies
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Yup it's muscle – that's good 🙂 weight gain doesn't always have to = unhealthy/fat, there's lots of different factors too. I'm only 5'0 and I used to be about 7/7.5st but now I'm around 8.5st and I've never been as 'slim' or toned as I am now so I'm not bothered that I am that weight. I tend to forget about looking at the scales anyway because I know I am eating healthy and exercising right 🙂
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My thought would be this: Have you actually gone up a dress size, or needed to buy new pants? Because, if no, then it's totally muscle, and you should feel proud!
I rarely, if ever, look at a scale, because I know they can kind of lie to you. You aren't necessarily healthier because you weigh less! You DO need fat on your body to be healthy!
And I am also a university student! Congrats on embarking on yet more education! I have heard that we tend to put on more weight, but if you're poling and dancing and stuff, you're counteracting all that sitting in class…as well as helping your brain to work better!
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I can't say anything for sure. Just keep in mind that your are still yung, and your body is still changing.
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Have you by chance started taking birth control? This is a huge factor for many.
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I second what Chemmie said!
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Haha! Its strange you should say that chem, I've just come off the pill! I know I might put on weight/take it off, but I've only been off about 2 weeks after being on it years, so I doubt its that.
The only new clothes I've had to buy is bras but to be honest, I haven't brought a new one in ages so that might be it…Happier now 🙂 I guess I was just worried because I do eat a lot more than I used to, and I didn't want all my exercise to be in vein! Thanks for all the advice ladies 🙂 Feeling so much more confident! Yay!
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Throw out your damned scale! It lies!!! The best advice I have ever gotten is to judge your weight by your health. There is a BIG difference between healthy and skinny. If you feel healthy and you don’t need to special order Moo-Moos from the Big ‘N Tall store you are probably ok.
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Cocoa0 what great advice and very funny too!
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I wish there was a "like" button for Cocoa's comment about the moo-moos LOL
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Your BMI is borderline normal weight to overweight. Did you calculate your body fat %? That'll be more accurate to evaluate if it's muscle or fat.
http://www.bmi-calculator.net/body-fat-calculator/
Also a lot of women lose metabolism in their 20s so it's normal. Since you've gone up a bigger dress size and 2 bra sizes, more likely it's body fat than muscle. Since you're eating a lot more, you're compensating more lost cals from exercising. That's good considering you're replacing lost cals but also moderate your portions and watch your cals/fat/sodium intake.
Sometimes it depends on what type of exercise you're doing. For some, it's poling, for others it's cardio like running and treadmill. For me, it's vinyasa yoga. I never really lost weight with poling.
Here, instead of stone, they call it the "freshman 15". Again, normal! 🙂 Love your body no matter what!
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Cocoa0 has the right idea!
Heathalynne – BMI is an inaccurate way of determining weight and health. It wasn't created with such a measurement in mind, nor was it created by someone who was any kind of health practitioner at all! If you want a great example…my husband is "Underweight" according to BMI, and yet he is in great shape. I, of course, am "overweight" on the BMI, and I have never, ever been in this good a shape in my life. I feel wonderful.
But I liked your sentiment at the end: Love your body no matter what. https://www.studioveena.com/img/smilies/icon_heart1.gif
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Hey Ladies, I wanted to jump in here too! Cocoa0 is right! You dont need the scale!
Take this into consideration…. your muscle mass accounts for approximately 40% of your total body weight! So think about how much muscle you have as a poler!
Since I started pole almost 3 years ago Ive put on 30 lbs but actually buy smaller clothes now. So the total weight that scale says is NOT the number to focus on.
Its all about how YOU feel. In the pole community we are breaking society's view of pole being related to strippers, so lets break the society view of what healthy is. It doesnt mean that if you are skinny you are healthy, most skinny people who dont work out have a higher body fat content than those that do work out!
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NPR (national public radio) is a pretty unbiased news source, and they had a great article about the BMI a while back and i think it's REALLY great reading. i highly recommend it =)
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106268439
BMI makes no sense as a measure of physical fitness. i don't own a scale and never have, but as i get more physically fit and more in tune with my body, i have put a lot more faith in my ability to understand what my body needs. being healthy is a process that changes over time. sure, putting on freshman 15 can suck. drinking a lot is not great for you– moderation of EVERYTHING is key. but, you know that! it's great that you're working out and feeling better about your physical abilities. maybe, as you see yourself improving, you will be more motivated to work harder and be a little healthier. pole was one of the reasons why i stopped smoking a few years ago, after being addicted for over 10 years at almost a pack a day.
i feel great and that is more important than my dress size, weight, BMI, or any other number that society or scientists choose to label me with.
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Amy, I'm already married but…can I have your babies? 😉
This is exactly how I feel about it. I struggle often with the numbers society puts on me (particularly, the ones attached to clothing!) but it's been a long process of sloughing them off, and allowing myself to just…be myself! Even if I do still struggle, I know I'm getting there, and I'm far happier for it.
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Definitely do NOT go by bmi as a measure!! It doesn't take into account ethnic variations or muscle mass or anything like that! As an example, I think most of our rugby players (I live in NZ so it's a typical example!) would be classified as overweight to obese based purely on bmi – and have you seen how sleek and strong those guys are??
Personally, I lost a pile of a weight about 10 years back (c.20kgs) and I've managed to put about 10 of that back on in the past 3-4 years – part of it is what I call Happy Jub (the stuff you put on when you're in a happy stable relationship and the associated eating out etc) but part of that has got to be because of pole and strength work because I probs wouldn't have even gone back up a whole dress size even with the 10kgs and I'm still well below the country average dress size (I don't know the equivalent of NZ sizes to other country sizes so putting down numbers here doesn't mean much but I'm about an NZ 10), despite being borderline "overweight" according to bmi!!
It's so important to make sure you tailor your eating to the exercise you do and it's just as important to not undereat as it is to not overeat. If you're a student, you may have subsidised access to uni gym trainers (I know that's what it was like when I was at uni anyway) so it might be worth going and having a chat to them and see if they'll do a body fat percentage test for you – the 2 I've had done before are either with the tanita scales that measure it based on lower body or the skin fold test, which is using calipers to measure particular areas and calculate the figure. This is a much better way of getting an idea of how much is lean muscle and how much is body fat.
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