I was reading a good discussion in the forums the other day about someone working hard in one of the programs and over time having gained weight. The discussion that followed was a great explaination of the difference between fat & muscle.
Essentially, with a good fitness and nutrition program you can expect to both trim down and gain weight! The explaination is simple. Muscle is more dense than fat; therefore, 5lbs of muscle takes up less space than 5lbs of fat. And the added benefit of replacing fat with muscle is that muscle burns more calories than fat. So, more muscle means your metabolism rate is kicking along at a higher rate and burning more calories.
I started Power 90 at 210lbs in August of 2005, moved right into P90X and in a little more than 6 months I had hit my high school weight of 155lbs. For some reason hitting that weight meant something to me at the time - it had something to do with turning 40 and hitting it and being in better shape than when I was in high school!
I have casually set a goal since then to add weight and keep my body fat % low. This has been a pretty good challenge. It is easy to increase your caloric intake but it is more difficult to do that and maintain the low body fat.
I am currently at 190lbs and approx 11-12% body fat. Insanity is helping me rip off some of the excess fat.
My new goal is to reach 210lbs with about 10% body fat (or less but I think I can more easily maintain that with a fairly normal daily routine...but who knows until I get there!)
Here is the reason why....I have my picture before I started this whole process when I weighed 210lbs (the one in the orange shirt or as it has been affectionately referred to as "The Great Pumpkin"). I would really love to have a picture of me having come full circle and weigh in at 210lbs - but this time it would be lean muscle and a lot less fat.
