Q: Hi Mike my name is Monique. I have lost 2 stone and reached my goal weight of 9st but recently i started Kickboxing and was doing this twice a week with no other cardio. I was doing this for a month before a stopped. When i weighed myself i had put on 11lbs. I know this is probably muscle as its a lot to put on in a month, i know muscle weighs more than fat but it is supposed to be leaner but my clothes are tighter on me which has now got me confused as to wether it is muscle or fat. Either way i want to lose it and get back to the weight i worked so hard to be. Please help me i don't know where to start

A: If you gained 11 pounds in just 1 month it's very unlike that it's mostly muscle. Our bodies just can't build that muscle that fast and that's esepcially true for women. More than likely much of it is fat, some of it is water weight and maybe 2-3 pounds are actual muscle at the most. So that explains why your clothes feel tighter.

Now the question is why you gained this weight. Kickboxing in itself is a perfectly healthy activity and will boost metabolism, burn calories, and build some (not much) muscle. So the reason you gained weight must lie in your diet change. I can't tell you for sure what happened without knowing a lot more detail about your diet both before and after you started kickboxing, but my first guess is as follows... While you were losing your two stone of weight you were eating very little which leads to rapid weight loss but also very low metabolism. After you reached your goal weight you started eating normally (much more than before) and your depressed metabolism could not burn all those calories, even with the help of kickboxing. Note also that physical activities like kickboxing increase your appetite making it easier to overeat. Good news is that soon, if you continue to be physically active (kickboxing) and eat healthy, your metabolism with revive and you won't gain new weight.

Again, this is just my guess at what happened -- if you post back with a lot more detail about your diet, both before and after, I will be able to tell you more. In the meanwhile make sure to read my Diet article to learn how to put together a healthy metabolism-boosting diet for yourself.