Many people join the gym every year, but most of them are not constant: after the initial enthusiasm of the first months, many people leave the gym after a few weeks, in particular because they notice an increase in weight, accompanied by during the first workouts by an increase in volume. In short, it is as if suddenly we were almost magnified!
Why does an initial weight gain occur in the gym? And what is the ideal workout to train and lose weight?

THE CAUSES OF GYM WEIGHT INCREASE

Many people go to the gym with the purpose of improving physical fitness and reducing the risks of being sedentary. To improve physical fitness, you need to work on the muscles, increasing the lean mass.
We all know the little lesson that muscle weighs more than fat for the same volume but is less bulky for the same weight, right? A pound of muscle is almost a quarter of the volume of a pound of fat.

Well, initially our body increases its muscle mass, which in order to grow it needs water and nourishment, glycogen on everything, but this does not mean that the fat mass disappears overnight.

On the one hand, the body loads itself with water to support the new muscle mass, on the other hand it will burn fat mass little by little. But this step doesn’t have the speed of a fair trade.
The body will get rid of the fat little by little.
This is why the first few times we seem to have increased: we have muscles that swell and our beautiful inches of flab. After a couple of months we will already have less flab, and therefore we will dry out.
We will always have a possible variation in weight, but we will be reduced and we will look more muscular and defined. We can see it with clothes or with a centimeter.

THE PROBLEM OF PATIENCE!

As in everything we engage in, what dominates us is the time factor.
We are in a hurry to see the results, also to understand whether or not we are doing the right thing. This body that initially swells, and the needle of the balance that rises, are not quite the signs of encouragement that we expected.
At this point, many people leave the gym. They don’t last more than a month or two!

But the number one rule to remember is that our body is not the remote controlled car we all know: it is instead a very complex machine, and it doesn’t work the same for everyone.

There are those who define themselves after two months, those who get rid of excess fat even after three or four months.
From this point of view, women are the most complicated clients for an instructor.
They are afraid of becoming closets, and show little patience, with a tendency to despair and give up quickly when they see a heavier body despite efforts.
But from a general health perspective, it would be much better to persevere: I know people even thinner than me who lift bulky weights.
In short, the risk of becoming a “big woman” is more irrational.
As we improve our strength and metabolism (thanks to the increase in lean mass) the body will get rid of the excess fat. What workout to do? A mix of aerobic (step, treadmill, exercise bike) and anaerobic (tools, weights) training is considered ideal for a toned and shapely body.

STRESS AND DIET

I know people who train every day for 3 hours straight, perhaps following two or three courses in the gym. Yet they do not lose the fat that ails them so much . How is it possible?
There are two things that can row against better fitness (I’m talking about the ones we can control) aside from patience. Diet and overtraining stress.

Training for hours and every day is not better than training every other day, indeed, it is worse: the body is constantly stressed, the recovery phase goes to bless you, the body feels threatened by this hyperactivity and the metabolism is lowered. .

Stress is one of the most powerful triggers for your metabolism.
For this it is necessary to allow yourself the right rest, take care of sleep but above all not be exhausted by physical activity.

Another major source of stress is diet : how can we increase lean mass if we eat little? Metabolism slows down, lean mass is not formed properly, and the body holds onto its fat stores tightly.
If we want to lose weight by going to the gym, in addition to having to be very patient, we must focus on a normocaloric and balanced diet, but not restrictive! Thus the metabolism will rise, and the slight caloric deficit caused by physical activity. combined with the increase in lean mass that will raise our metabolism will do the rest!