joined zumba last year/ 25# heavier this year HELP!!!

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  • JoRocka
    JoRocka Posts: 17,525 Member
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    BRKelsall wrote: »
    Water weight? Muscle? Eating way too many calories?

    zumba isn't going to get you hardly any muscle- much less 20 pounds of it.
  • jasmine_noel
    jasmine_noel Posts: 62 Member
    edited January 2015
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    Sounds like your doctor was fairly unhelpful. I think you need some personal support, and I doubt that you're going to find someone with a similar experience who also has the same same situation as you here on mfp. As others have said, it's likely you gained 5-7 pounds of 'water weight' (glycogen stores) upon starting up a new exercise program. The other 15 lbs? Who knows?? It is a drastic and frustrating amount of weight to gain - I wouldn't blame Zumba, so I think you (with the help of a doctor or nutritionist, maybe?) need to look at the combination of your food intake, stress and hormones.
  • candicelvt123
    candicelvt123 Posts: 17
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    LeanButNotMean44 wrote: »
    deksgrl wrote: »
    Women don't gain 20# of muscle in 8 weeks. A woman bodybuilder who is trying to gain muscle can't do that in a year.
    ^^^This + highly unlikely to gain much (if any) muscle from Zumba.

    I never said it was muscle .....read the post before you pass judgment
  • candicelvt123
    candicelvt123 Posts: 17
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    Owell.....all in all, here I am. If I have the support from these blogs this should help me be accountable
  • cinderelly843
    cinderelly843 Posts: 2
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    It could just be additional water weight mixed with some new muscle!
    I'm extremely sensitive to sodium and will literally go up and down 5lbs every other day from the water weight. Some weeks are worse than others.
    I also tend to gain weight when I'm not doing the right kind of cardio (everyone is different). I have to run/jog in order to lose lbs or just maintain my weight. Maybe try jogging--see if it helps!
  • cinderelly843
    cinderelly843 Posts: 2
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    jasmine_noel wrote: »
    Sounds like your doctor was fairly unhelpful. I think you need some personal support, and I doubt that you're going to find someone with a similar experience who also has the same same situation as you here on mfp. As others have said, it's likely you gained 5-7 pounds of 'water weight' (glycogen stores) upon starting up a new exercise program. The other 15 lbs? Who knows?? It is a drastic and frustrating amount of weight to gain - I wouldn't blame Zumba, so I think you (with the help of a doctor or nutritionist, maybe?) need to look at the combination of your food intake, stress and hormones.

    ....I completely agree with this.
  • twrobbel
    twrobbel Posts: 132 Member
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    I completely understand your frustration- I have been there. For me, there was a medical explanation, but I took the "your results are fine" from the doctor as the answer for the longest time. But before I go into those details, let me first start off by saying that everything that the previous posters wrote are accurate and are 100% true for everyone. For almost every person, adjusting those factors makes all the difference in the world- which is why it is the first suggstion brought up, and many people swear by it. So even though every single one of those factors can still be contributing (even a tiny bit), but maybe there are other reasons also. For me, I measured everything. Then I read a post about weighing everything instead, and that was what helped me "fine tune" my weight loss- it really did help and make a difference. There are many reasons why it does make a difference, I just can't remember those reasons now- and they weren't all the obvious reasons either.

    Ok- now lets get on to the medical part. Have you started any medications or has the formula or brand changed? Do you know what your doctor tested you for? Do you have the actual numbers? What were your thyroid numbers- did they test both T3 & T4? Did they run your hormones, especially if peri-menopause? Did they test your vitamin levels- like D? Did the test you for Celiacs? Did you test your RMR/BMR?

    Its critical that you know what your doctor has/has not tested you for and the actual numbers. Once you have those results, then you need to do your research. For example, the thyroid. Not all doctors agree on what the numbers for a "normal range" are, what one doctor thinks is low and treats, another thinks is normal (maybe the low end of normal. but still normal). One doctor will treat symptoms, another will only treat the numbers. Even day to day your numbers can change- I have Hashimoto Thyroiditis and the hallmark of that is the numbers fluctuate all the time, which is why it took so long to catch even though I had symptoms long before they were able to catch it in my bloodwork. My doctor says that happens to other things besides the thyroid, as our blood levels change all the time. Even the type of synthroid medication used to regulate the thyroid can make a difference for some people. This is a good example of why you need to do your research, so you can ask the right questions. Also for me, I have Chronic Low Vitamin D (another autoimmune disorder). When my numbers are not in the normal range, I am unable to lose weight and can gain (though it has to be severely low before the gain happens). I know other vitamin levels in the body can have an effect- just don't know which ones off the top of my head.

    As for your RMR/BMR, if you research your blood work results and it truly is in the normal range (and not borderline), and you have taken every step to weigh your food and track every lick, taste and bite, then you need to have your RMR/BMR tested. This will surprise many people- but not everyone has the same RMR/BMR. So the recommendations you get on how many calories to eat is pretty accurate for a heavy majority of people, but not everyone. I am an example of that. My doctor said that I have a very low RMR/BMR rate. He said he has a few people who can't eat more then 1000 calories a day or they will gain weight, he has one that can't eat more then 500 calories a day. I was shocked, as this goes against everything you read and are told about. So, to prove it to me, he had me tested. He was right, I did have an extremly low rate (I am not alone, I met someone else on here that also has been tested very low by her doctor). He put me on a 1000 calorie diet with working out daily, and even with that- I can still struggle (which is why weighing my food can make a difference). I am still trying to fine tune it and find my majic number for losing weight at a reasonable rate while eating as many calories as I can.

    So what I recommend you do (besides getting the actual results of your bloodwork), is to for at least 1 month; Weigh all food and prepare every meal yourself (that way you will have 100% control and eliminate any variables), use a properly set up HR monitor for all work out activity (ie: Zumba)- even use a Fitbit (or similar device if your HR monitor does not have that function) to track steps when you are not in Zumba (you may be surprised at how inactive you are), and track everything- every bite, lick and taste (even things like gum, vitamin supplements, cough medicines etc....). I did this and went to my doctor with all of these results charted out, including my daily weight. I even printed out all of the scans for checking into the gym and took pics of every food scale measurement and HR monitor measurement....just so I can prove it in case my doctor did not believe me. Fortunately he did believe me, and did not look at it. But by bringing it in, he knew I was serious and had the data to back up what I was telling him. (At that point, I was eating 1300-1500 calories a day and working out 4 hrs every day and the scale didn't move). The best decision I ever did was to track all of that for a month and bring it in to him and have the conversation- I feel like we are now partners down this journey and he is willing to seriously explore all options because I proved I was serious.

    I know this was long, but I hope that it helps. Please keep me updated as to what you discover- good luck with finding your answer.
  • dawn0293
    dawn0293 Posts: 115 Member
    edited January 2015
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    .

  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
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    OP, if you gained 20 lbs, how many dress/pants sizes did you go up? Do you know how many inches you gained. Muscle, water or fat - 20 lbs is going to make a noticeable difference in how you look. Are you sure the scales you are using are working properly?

    Are you on any medications that could have caused this? You say your doctor said your metabolic panel is fine, but what about everything else. Did he do a full blood panel? Was s/he not concerned with an unexpected weight gain of 20 lbs in 8 weeks. That should be legitimate concern from a medical standpoint.
  • SwankyTomato
    SwankyTomato Posts: 442 Member
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    Honestly, I would be concerned from a medical standpoint as a PP suggested.

    I would recommend you see an endocrinologist and try and find an answer here.

  • candicelvt123
    candicelvt123 Posts: 17
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    No meds, I was trying this diet pill and that diet pill.....idk, I will fix it as best as I can
  • cathy120861
    cathy120861 Posts: 265 Member
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    i just read a super interesting article about why people who exercise a lot often either gain weight, or lose much less than one would expect. the article gave two possible reasons:

    1. people over-estimate the number of calories they burn while exercising. They think they can eat a whole lot more because they have exercised, and end up taking in more calories than they actually use. Be careful with calorie burn estimates, here and anywhere. they are often too high.

    2. people who exercise then move less the rest of the time than they otherwise would. in other words. even though you burn 200 calories exercising, you spend the rest of the day recovering, and burn fewer calories than you would have if you hadnt exercised at all.

    neither one of these would explain such a dramatic weight gain, but they may be useful going forward.
  • SwankyTomato
    SwankyTomato Posts: 442 Member
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    candicelvt123 wrote: »
    No meds, I was trying this diet pill and that diet pill.....idk, I will fix it as best as I can

    Oh that could certainly be your cause. A "diet pill" is still medication.

  • kellycasey5
    kellycasey5 Posts: 486 Member
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    Do you have a heartrate monitor? I remember how disappointed I was when I wore mine to the gym one day. The machines, even with age and weight programmed, grossly overestimated my calorie burn. The only workouts where my calorie burn from heartrate monitor matched how hard I felt I worked were bootcamp class and kickboxing. If the sweat isn't pouring off my ponytail and hitting the floor, I didn't get more than 300 calories burnt. And, it was very easy for me to eat an extra cookie because I went running or go out to dinner or even just eat more per meal because I was hungrier! Try the logging, try a heartrate monitor! Good luck! You will get to the bottom of this and lose weight!
  • DancingMoosie
    DancingMoosie Posts: 8,619 Member
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    I think the only way to get an idea of what is going on is for you to log everything accurately for a while. You do not have an open diary, so there is no way to figure anything out. Putting on 20lb in that short of a time is alarming, but you need more information. If you are logging accurately and still can't figure it out, see a new doctor.
  • brianpperkins
    brianpperkins Posts: 6,124 Member
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    candicelvt123 wrote: »
    After 8 weeks of zumba , 2-3x/week I gained a staggering 20#! My doctor did a metabolic blood panel on me and I'm all normal. I need some answers or guidance.

    If your tests came back good the gain is a combination of water from glycogen replenishment resultant from exercise and fat from being on the wrong side of the calories in, calories out equation. Without a log of what you ate and actually did in the form of exercise over the past few weeks, all anyone here can do is guess to specifics.


    kellycasey5 wrote: »
    Do you have a heartrate monitor? I remember how disappointed I was when I wore mine to the gym one day. The machines, even with age and weight programmed, grossly overestimated my calorie burn. The only workouts where my calorie burn from heartrate monitor matched how hard I felt I worked were bootcamp class and kickboxing. If the sweat isn't pouring off my ponytail and hitting the floor, I didn't get more than 300 calories burnt. And, it was very easy for me to eat an extra cookie because I went running or go out to dinner or even just eat more per meal because I was hungrier! Try the logging, try a heartrate monitor! Good luck! You will get to the bottom of this and lose weight!

    HRMs are inaccurate for bootcamp and kickboxing type workouts. The heart rate stays elevated when the effort level drops ... a HRM cannot differentiate between the two effort levels and calculates inaccurately based on the one thing it really counts, heart beats.
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
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    candicelvt123 wrote: »
    No meds, I was trying this diet pill and that diet pill.....idk, I will fix it as best as I can

    You gained the weight while trying different diet pills?

    Agree with Brianperkins, not enough information.

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