Temporary Weight Gain Explained

I want to address the two main reasons I hear from people that they see a temporary rise on the scale.  First, cheating and eating off plan.  Second, starting a new exercise plan.  In this blog post, I am going to cover what happens when you cheat and eat off plan.  Next post I will cover #2.

Cheating and Eating Off Plan

The "magic" of Take Shape for Life is we are in a fat burning state.  We are using fat as our primary energy source, instead of glycogen.  What happens when we cheat & eat carbohydrate foods?

You see the scale bump up a few pounds....feel extra hungry...feel irritable...feel tired.  What happened?  You went out of fat burning!  Not to worry though...depending on how much carbohydrate rich food you ate, you should be back in fat burning within a few days, maybe a week.

Normally your body uses glycogen for energy, then fat. We are eating a lower carb diet which causes our bodies not to store glycogen. Once glycogen stores are gone, we use fat for energy. Fat is a richer, denser form of energy which is part of the reason we see increased energy when in fat burning. A big part of the reason people see such dramatic loss when they first start TSFL is because their body is burning all of it's glycogen stores. Glycogen holds onto water, so when it's burned, it releases water and causes a loss of water weight.

However, the reverse is true. If you eat carbohydrate rich foods, you rebuild your glycogen & the water comes back too.  1 gram of glycogen has 2.7 grams of water with it, so consuming extra glycogen can increase your weight by 3-5 lbs.  Your body has to use it's glycogen again and once all the glycogen is gone the accompanying water will be gone as well. And you will be back in fat burning!