If you're a few pounds over your ideal weight after the holidays...

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Christian Finn's Facts About Fitness
http://www.thefactsaboutfitness.com/

Good news if you're a few pounds over your ideal weight after the holidays...
If you've indulged in one too many mince pies over the holidays, the chances are that you're now a few pounds — maybe more — above your ideal weight. However, if you're dreading the thought of stepping on the scales after the holidays are over, the good news is that not all of the weight you've gained is fat.

Ideal weight
Many people have an ideal weight they like to maintain. However, it's possible to gain several pounds in weight without gaining fat. That's because your body is made up of several different types of tissue, including muscle, bone, skin and fat. When you consume more calories than you burn, the body stores the extra energy, but not always in the form of fat.

Although excess carbohydrate calories can be converted into fat, your body also stores carbohydrate in the form of glycogen (pronounced gly-ka-jun). Glycogen is stored in your liver and your muscles. In total, your body can hold 400-500 grams of glycogen (the equivalent of 1600-2000 calories). Of course, this does vary from person to person. The more muscle you have, the more glycogen you can store.

When you lose weight on a low-carbohydrate diet, much of the weight lost in the first week or so comes from stored carbohydrate and water. That's because glycogen also stores between three and four times its own weight in water. Conversely, when you overfeed on carbohydrate calories, much of the weight you gain will also be in the form of glycogen and water.

A good example of this comes from a team of Swedish researchers. They took a group of five healthy volunteers, and fed them a low-carbohydrate diet for four days. This was followed by a similar period of high-carbohydrate eating.

Following the high-carbohydrate diet, the glycogen and water content of the muscles was shown to increase.

• The average increase in thigh size was 2.5%.

• The average increase in calf size was 4%.

The bottom line is that if you've been eating more carbohydrate than normal, you'll probably move a few pounds above your ideal weight. However, much of this extra weight will be in the form of glycogen and water, rather than fat.

Reference
Nygren, A.T., Karlsson, M., Norman, B., & Kaijser, L. (2001). Effect of glycogen loading on skeletal muscle cross-sectional area and T2 relaxation time. Acta Physiologica Scandinavica, 173, 385-390