MikesFitnesscom Helps Everyone Get In Shape



Q: If one undereats to lose weight wont the weight come back once the person goes back to his habitual eating patterns I think one should go on a diet only if its a diet that can be kept for a life time,otherwise he or she will gain back the lost weight.

A: Not really. Suppose a woman maintains her 140 pound weight by eating 2000 calories per day. She goes on a diet, preferably combined with a workout program and perhaps cardio and loses 10 pounds in half a year or so. Because she lost weight gradually and maintained her muscle mass and metabolism, when she goes back to her old 2000-calorie diet, then she will simply maintain her new 130 pound weight. If she managed to gain muscle while losing those 10 pounds (something certainly possible for a beginner) then she can even afford to eat slightly more than her old 2000 calories and still not gain weight. So a well-planned weight loss can certainly be maintained for life (or at least for many years -- old age will almost inevitably slow down metabolism and bring on extra weight) even once the person stops the diet and returns to his/her old eating habits.

The reason why most people who try to diet gain their weight back is because they go about dieting the wrong way. They typically go on overly restrictive diets (a sure way to kill your metabolism and lose muscle), often overdo the cardio (further destroying muscles), and rarely engage in weight-lifting (which could've helped them preserve their precious muscle mass and boost metabolism while losing weight). As the result, they lose a lot of muscle along with fat and their metabolism is in the dumps by the time they quit dieting. So when they return to their old eating habits, the same calories that used to maintain the old weight now cause them to gain weight (mostly in the form of fat, unless they weight-train).

Q: If I no longer have any soreness from weight training despite increasing my weights does this mean im not working had enough or progressing

A: No, this is perfectly normal. Soreness is greatest when you are just starting out with weights or after you return to weightlifting from a long break. If you exercise a particular muscle group with frequency (one or more times per week), the post-workout soreness in that muscle group will diminish or disappear completely. As long as you are increasing weights lifted, as you've said, soreness is just an annoyance and if you can avoid it, then all the better!

DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) varies greatly from muscle group to muscle group and also from person to person. DOMS in calves (after calf raises), quads (upper thighs, after exercises like squats), and lower back (after deadlifts) can be truly devastating if it's your first time doing the exercise in a long time or if you forgot to stretch the muscle well before AND especially after. I've had periods of 2-3 days when I could literally barely walk and couldn't bend down to tie my shoes at all because of DOMS! Some people on the other hand barely get DOMS no matter what and can still progress in their training perfectly well.

So don't read too much into DOMS, as long as you're making progress. Stretch well, especially after the exercise and in the following days (those stretches can hurt a bit if DOMS kicked in already, but do your best).

One time it may be wise to pay attention to DOMS is if it appears truly excessive or long and you're not making any progress in the gym. That's one of the symptoms of overtraining, which is the condition when you're simply stressing your body in the gym (and/or possibly outside) too much and it cannot repair the damage before the next gym session.

Overtraining is not easy to spot. Many people take the lack of progress as the sign that they are not training hard enough and start pushing themselves even more which of course leads to even worse overtraining. If you have any combination of the following, along with lack of or very slow progress, consider taking a week or two off the gym and come back with a lighter program: excessive DOMS, lack of strength, insomnia, lack of appetite, irritability, sicknesses, injuries (even small ones), lack of motivation, depression. Any of these can be an indication of overtraining and several of them at once should definitely not be ignored.





MikesFitnesscom Helps Everyone Get In Shape