Question about gaining weight and getting bigger.

K

kelley111

Cathlete
Hi, I mostly do Firm workouts with a few Cathe thrown in. Every once in a while I'll decide to do mainly Cathe and everytime after about a week I start gaining weight and getting bigger. I therefore stop Cathe and go back to the Firm.

My question is this. Do you think I'm building muscle with Cathe which is making me bigger and that I just need to tough it out? Will I eventually start getting smaller. I do have some body fat to lose and I'm wondering if I should just stick with my Cathe rotation for at least 4 weeks and see if the fat will start going away. I'm in my second week of a rotation and I'm really enjoying it except for my legs seem to be getting bigger which always happens. If I lay off Cathe for about a week, the legs will get smaller again. Are my muscles just pumped because I lift so much heavier with Cathe?
 
It is very possible that you are gaining water weight and/or muscle. Whenever you challenge your muscles beyond what you're used to doing, they retain water. Making sure you get enough fluids is important (unless of course, you're already drinking 1-2 gallons per day!).

What are your fitness goals? If you just want to stay trim, alternating types of workouts (Cathe/Firm) may work for you. If you want to lose bodyfat, then maybe staying with a longer Cathe rotation might work - you'll be gaining more muscle which will give a little boost your metabolism, therefore helping with fat burning. If you want to gain muscle, I would definitely stay with the Cathe workouts. Why don't you just try a 4 week Cathe rotation and see what happens? If it doesn't work for you then that's ok, go back to what you were doing or try another new rotation. I've tried lots of rotations in the past, and some have worked and some didn't. I now have a better idea of how my body responds to certain workouts.

Good luck and happy workouts!
 
Kotocam has given you some excellent advice. As for how long to stick with a rotation and "toughing it out" really depends on what your goals are. In order to get the best results in fat loss, you should try sticking it out for at least 12 weeks for the fat to really go away. UNLESS you are doing a very intense strength training workout. In which case, 3 to 4 weeks is good.

Cathe & a few of the other more educated people here have responded to the "bulky legs" question a couple of times & if memory serves what has been said is that after about a month, the bulkiness will deminish as your muscles settle in to being used to the added weight training. In essence, yes your muscles are just more pumped with fluid which will go away with time.

Hope that helps a little.
 
Hi Kelly,
Kotocam and Deborah has great advice for you. I just wanted to chime in to let you know I printed out an article on the value of water, called: Why Drink Water? I know you drink water already. :D I just thought the article was a reminder of how water works with weight loss and helps the body metabolize and function better. All this is a big help in building muscles. :D
When the experts say drink lots of water, the article explains why. :9

Hope this is some info that will help.
 
Thanks for the replies. They were very helpful. I actually do not think I drink enough water as I've never been a big drinker. Starting today I'll really try focus on my water intake.

I am looking to lose body fat, so I'll stick with the rotation I'm on for another 3 weeks as I'll be going on vacation at that time, and see if the "bulking" goes away. I actually did measure this morning and while the tape measure moved in the right direction for the waist, yay, it did move the wrong direction in the hips and legs. I'm only 5' and my legs are already big. This is always my biggest problem when starting a Cathe rotation is the legs getting bigger. I'm going to try to stick with the rotation and see if they start going back down because I really believe it is probably fluid build up from lifting heavier.

Thanks for the help and I'll keep everyone informed. I'm not seeing much results with the Firm anymore, so I'm going to keep at this rotation.
 
Well, I'm certainly no authority on this but everytime I start lifting with heavy weights again, I ALWAYS get thicker-looking for about 3 weeks. After that, the fat melts off like CRAZY! I think you're right to try it for about a month. I've had this discussion with several co-workers and they all have the same experiences. Once you get to the point that the fat starts burning off, those results are FUN to watch! Let us know!
Kathryn
 
How much weight are you using? You might want to try lowering your weights on the lower body portions of Cathe weight work. I think you can get a good lower body workout by paying attention to form, putting your "mind in the muscle," and using lighter weights.
 
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