You gained a pound strength-training. What happened?

When you begin weight training, you gain muscle and lose body fat at roughly the same rate, so initially you may not see a difference in your weight -- or you may even be surprised to find that your weight may go up a bit -- even though your body really is changing.

Don't be afraid: Gaining muscle is a good thing, it burns more calories than fat does, which will boost your metabolism and help you continue to lose weight and stay slim.

Rather than measuring your success by the number on the scale (which 99.9 percent of us do -- myself included at times), a better gauge is to go by how your clothes fit. After a few weeks, you'll probably find that they're looser than before -- even if you haven't lost much actual weight -- because even though you're replacing fat with muscle, muscle is more compact taking up about 25 percent less space, pound for pound.

So don't let the scale fool you, instead let your jeans be your guide and keep on lifting weights.