I grabbed dinner last night with Mike Rickett, an amazing personal trainer from Colorado who has become my mentor since teaching my personal training certification course. I even wrote an article about him being my Yoda. Anyways, I was discussing my current fitness plan to get to 185 pounds by June 1st. I’m a week and a half of schedule already, so I asked him what what to do if I get to 185 before that deadline, should I continue to try and gain weight, start to cut the weight, or maintain.
Mike made an excellent point, and something that I have spent all night considering. Your weight can fluctuate a great deal in a 30 day span (see my 18 lbs gained in only 30 days a few years back), but if you give up on that routine too quickly after the change, your weight will go RIGHT back to where it was. This is because your weight might change, but it will take the rest of your body six months to get caught up. Your skeleton needs to adjust, your arteries, metabolism, heart, lungs, and every vital organ needs to get used to this new “you,” and it’s not an overnight process. Think of it like this: your body is a skeptical s.o.b., and it will take six months for it to finally believe you’re staying at this new weight before it changes.
This is why you often see people who drop a lot of weight get very quickly end up right back where they started just as fast – they gave up their routine after finding “success” and their bodies hadn’t adjusted yet making it easy for the body return to the “norm.” And by “norm,” I just mean what your body is used to…which could be 100 pounds overweight.
I looked back at my fitness routines over the past three years and realized I had been every time I’d successful gain muscle mass I’d lose it all due to travel for work, getting sick, or cheating on my diet. I’d gain 10 pounds, get excited, and then slack and I’d drop right back to where I was because my body hadn’t adjusted yet.
Once I hit my goal weight, I have to reconfigure my workout plan and diet; it doesn’t mean I’m going to stick with the same weights and diet for six months. It means I’m going to keep an eye on my weight more closely, and adjust my routines accordingly. If I start to put on more weight, I’ll cut some calories and increase my cardio exercise. If my weight starts to drop, I’ll aim for heavier weights, longer rests between workout days, and increase the power of resistance on my cardio (while maintaining time). It’s a balancing act that I never realized I needed to play, but I’m ready for it. 185 lbs for me has been a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow for four years, and I’m going to get there.
If you’re planning on changing your weight, make sure to keep pushing even after you’ve hit that landmark or you could go right back to where you were. Winston Churchill once said, “We shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.” Think of your battle with fitness as a war. You can’t surrender, you have to keep pushing, you have to win.
Get there.
-Steve
