Just started exercising yet I gained weight.. So discouraged.
latina0514
Posts: 27 Member
I have lost 37 lbs without really exercise and I started being faithful to the gym the last week or so and stayed within my calorie allowance yet the scale shows a 2 lb gain. Not sure what I am doing wrong. I focus mostly on cardio at the gym, not a whole lot of weights so I don't think I'm building muscle yet. Is this common? Any advice or encouragement would be appreciated.
Thank you in advance!
Thank you in advance!
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Replies
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Weight is not everything. You may have gained s couple pounds but if you had measured yourself you would see a smaller number. Have you noticed your clothes fitting any tighter or are they actually getting looser? Keep at it, the real results take time.0
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If you're body is not used to exercise, then it could just be adjusting. Your muscles could be holding water. Give it a few weeks. It is incredibly unlikely that you will gain muscle at a calorie deficit doing only cardio. I would definitely add resistance training in sooner rather than later as well.0
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When you start exercising (or change the intensity/type), you will retain water in your muscles (its a 'self defense/repair' mechanism). It can be quite a few pounds. Be patient and keep your diet in check. It will stabilize.0
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This happened to me as well. i started doing a thrice weekly bootcamp workout and went up about 3 lbs. Most people will tell you it is water weight wain from the muscle inflammation and it should go down once the muscles recover. Unfortunately for me it has not gone down. So I bought myself a tape measure to see if I'm losing that way. Just keep at it. Eventually things will balance themselves out and exercise is much more than just about weight loss.0
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Water retention from exercise can happen.
Water retention from eating sodium can happen.
Bodily waste inside of you can happen.
Weight loss is not linear, and some week there are gains. As long as you are in a calorie deficit, weighing your food, and not overestimating your burns, gains will be temporary.0 -
That is VERY common when you start a new routine. Give it a week. Muscles retain water to repair themselves.0
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New exercise = water retained by muscles.
Very common for weight to go up a bit when starting a new exercise regimen, but it's likely water weight, not fat.0 -
Water retention due to your body holding back water to repair muscles. It is common when one starts a new exercise program. Ditch the scale and take your measurements instead.....You cannot build muscle doing only cardio, and definitely cannot build 2lbs of muscle in a week.... Drink lots of water and keep on doing what you are doing....0
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If your diet is accurate as you suggest then it could be water retention due to increased activity. Give yourself at least another 2 weeks of consistent and accurate logging and exercising and the scale will start to move in the right direction. Be patient it will happen!!
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I can fluctuate 8lbs in a day, lol. Give it time. Do what you're doing. Relax. Weight loss isn't linear. Congrats on your weight loss so far!0
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When would you all say that this water weight drops off, everything else being equal? It's been about a month since I started exercising and I still haven't lost the extra 3. At what point do you say, wait, maybe it's not water?0
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missiontofitness wrote: »Water retention from exercise can happen.
Water retention from eating sodium can happen.
Bodily waste inside of you can happen.
Weight loss is not linear, and some week there are gains. As long as you are in a calorie deficit, weighing your food, and not overestimating your burns, gains will be temporary.
^^^^ This. Especially when you have less to lose initially, you'll see fluctuations. When I first start logging/exercising, I lose about 5 or 10lbs like nothing, but from then on it's slow and stagnant. Resistance training will most definitely help you look and feel better and stronger. Don't forget it's good for your bones, too!
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Weight is not everything. You may have gained s couple pounds but if you had measured yourself you would see a smaller number. Have you noticed your clothes fitting any tighter or are they actually getting looser? Keep at it, the real results take time.
EXCELLENT statement....one that I have found true for myself as well. Go more by how your clothes feel than what the scale says.
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Thanks for the responses.. I will start taking measurements and ditch the scale for a while. I feel better know, I'm not giving up I just want to make sure I stay on track.0
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When would you all say that this water weight drops off, everything else being equal? It's been about a month since I started exercising and I still haven't lost the extra 3. At what point do you say, wait, maybe it's not water?
Are you trying to lose or maintain? If you are trying to lose and your weight isn't coming down after a month, I'd say you're probably not eating in a deficit.
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Its completely natural for scales to show a gain with newbie workouts, its just water weight - being active is good for us in so many ways so keep up your new habit
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MelWick524 wrote: »I can fluctuate 8lbs in a day, lol. Give it time. Do what you're doing. Relax. Weight loss isn't linear. Congrats on your weight loss so far!
Thank you!0 -
When would you all say that this water weight drops off, everything else being equal? It's been about a month since I started exercising and I still haven't lost the extra 3. At what point do you say, wait, maybe it's not water?
Are you trying to lose or maintain? If you are trying to lose and your weight isn't coming down after a month, I'd say you're probably not eating in a deficit.
^^ ok just seeing this reply, and agree with above answer, rule of thumb is if no loss in 3 weeks then you are probably eating too much or over estimating the calorie burn of your exercise.0 -
the same thing happened to me in the last week. I took a tape measure though and noticed I lost a few inches in various areas. It really is a good idea to measure rather than look at the scale it seems.0
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When would you all say that this water weight drops off, everything else being equal? It's been about a month since I started exercising and I still haven't lost the extra 3. At what point do you say, wait, maybe it's not water?
Are you trying to lose or maintain? If you are trying to lose and your weight isn't coming down after a month, I'd say you're probably not eating in a deficit.
Trying to lose. Currently MFP has me at 1200. According to my TDEE -500 for 1 lb a week I would be at around 1014, which I hear is no bueno. I just have a feeling that I have a very low metabolism (I'm extremely small boned and have very little muscle).
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ceoverturf wrote: »New exercise = water retained by muscles.
Very common for weight to go up a bit when starting a new exercise regimen, but it's likely water weight, not fat.
Yep. The body hoards water because that is the best environment for it to heal in. Think about blisters. When the skin is broken or damaged in some way, the body will create a blister (pocket of water) for the skin to heal in. It's the same for our muscles; even if you aren't weight training, doing repetitive or high impact moves that upset the body's homeostasis will cause this to happen and you will see a weight gain on the scale.
This happens to me every 3 weeks because that's how often I change my strength training regimen (yes, my body adapts that quickly). I always know that I will see a gain, and I prepare myself for it. But knowledge is power. As long as you realize that your body will do this, and you keep logging faithfully, you will eventually see the fruits of your labor.
Many times this is when people give up, and they prevent themselves from losing any additional weight. And if they stop and do continue to lose weight, they are disappointed with what they end up with.
Stay the course!
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1014 is too low, if you don't have much to lose why not change settings to 1/2lb a week so your deficit is smaller and that way you'll be able to enjoy eating more cals. The more you exercise the more you will boost your metabolism, mine was rubbish but two yrs of consistent working out 6 days a week and my TDEE is now 2300 (and I'm small and ..middle aged)
(for some reason my avatar is no longer showing my photo, I have no clue as to why that is the case)0 -
Do you 'eat' the extra calories given for exercise?0
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pennystaplessnyder wrote: »ceoverturf wrote: »New exercise = water retained by muscles.
Very common for weight to go up a bit when starting a new exercise regimen, but it's likely water weight, not fat.
Yep. The body hoards water because that is the best environment for it to heal in. Think about blisters. When the skin is broken or damaged in some way, the body will create a blister (pocket of water) for the skin to heal in. It's the same for our muscles; even if you aren't weight training, doing repetitive or high impact moves that upset the body's homeostasis will cause this to happen and you will see a weight gain on the scale.
This happens to me every 3 weeks because that's how often I change my strength training regimen (yes, my body adapts that quickly). I always know that I will see a gain, and I prepare myself for it. But knowledge is power. As long as you realize that your body will do this, and you keep logging faithfully, you will eventually see the fruits of your labor.
Many times this is when people give up, and they prevent themselves from losing any additional weight. And if they stop and do continue to lose weight, they are disappointed with what they end up with.
Stay the course!
So it's safe to eat the extra calories given for exercise?0 -
@latina0514 yes eat back at least half of them 0
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RunRutheeRun wrote: »1014 is too low, if you don't have much to lose why not change settings to 1/2lb a week so your deficit is smaller and that way you'll be able to enjoy eating more cals. The more you exercise the more you will boost your metabolism, mine was rubbish but two yrs of consistent working out 6 days a week and my TDEE is now 2300 (and I'm small and ..middle aged)
(for some reason my avatar is no longer showing my photo, I have no clue as to why that is the case)
I'm doing 1200 right now so that has me at around 1/2 a week I belive. I justhave to start being very diligent about logging in evry single crumb. When you have such a low threshold it's so easy to go over, even if it's just a piece of chocolate.
To the OP, I am not eating back my calories right now because I just don't trust the calorie counts. Once the scale starts moving I'll reevaluate.0 -
Thanks!RunRutheeRun wrote: »@latina0514 yes eat back at least half of them0 -
But I believe that standard practice around here is to eat back 50%,and see where that lands you and go from there.0
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@latina0514 you're right not to trust some calorie counts so take care when logging. A lot of us input/create our own recipes in the recipe creator function then we know the calories are more accurate. Just be as diligent as you can be with weighing/measuring your foods and you'll see the scales start moving down again. 0
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latina0514 wrote: »Do you 'eat' the extra calories given for exercise?
In theory, yes.
The problem is that it's difficult to accurately measure how many calories you burn doing exercise, so it's often recommended to only eat a portion of them back (rather than all of them) to account for errors in calculating.0
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