Cardio and weight gain?
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EarthAmber
Posts: 20 Member
A couple months ago I started LCHF, metformin and light weight training, mostly body weight. I saw pretty good results, and lost about 15 pounds. I hit a plateu and decided to start adding in cardio and heavy lifting. Mon, Wed, Thu I run for 15 minutes and do an hour of heavy lifting, where I do 3 sets of 10 reps and I struggle through the last couple reps.
To my horror, I've gained 10 pounds. In three weeks! My body doesn't feel or look smaller to me, and I don't buy that I would gain that much muscle mass to cause a gain like that.
I've read that cardio can sometimes do more harm than good when it comes to hormone balance with pcos. Could this be it?
To my horror, I've gained 10 pounds. In three weeks! My body doesn't feel or look smaller to me, and I don't buy that I would gain that much muscle mass to cause a gain like that.
I've read that cardio can sometimes do more harm than good when it comes to hormone balance with pcos. Could this be it?
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I don't have any first hand knowledge on this, but yes, cardio can be counter productive, but it's usually the overtraining. Muscle gain and water retention for muscle healing/repair can add up to 10 pounds. Muscle building is a complicated process. Heavy lifting is one of the best things for PCOS, as much as I understand it. As with anything, you MUST give things a full 4-12 weeks without changing anything to see results. Sometimes we gain before we lose, sometimes we have to gain to heal properly, and sometimes our body just doesn't agree with our plans. If you have gained 10 pounds but haven't had to change clothing sizes, keep on with what you are doing. Take measurements. Take photos. When low carbing, these are critical.
More weight, less reps, doing compound movements is recommended. Like stuff where your whole body has to stabilize. @Dragonwolf posted some recommendations in recent threads.
I don't have a link handy, but there is a great post here called "The Scale is a Lying Liar Pants." I'd recommend you read it. Plus:
http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/07/21/meet-staci-your-new-powerlifting-super-hero/
And the follow up:
http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2013/09/26/an-update-with-staci-our-powerlifting-superhero-plus-academy-scholarships/
She's hands down a great example at how being heavier can be healthier when weights are involved...0 -
Awesome, thank you so much for the info!0
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@EarthAmber Your experience sounds similar to mine, so I thought I would share in case it is helpful?
I started in May 2015 with a modified LowerCHF diet (not super-low, I try to keep my carbs <70-80g net or lower right now) & Metformin ER 1000mg b.i.d). I also take Inositol.
I started with my exercise as body-weight strength training (pushups, planks, yoga, etc) & increased the amount of steps I take daily as my only exercise increases for the first 1.5 months. At the beginning of July, I added lap swimming 2-3 times a week. I lost about 25 pounds between my start day in May & the beginning of August. I had a 2 week stall after adding swimming to my exercise regimen.
The first week of August I added weight lifting 2-3 times a week, prefaced by 30-45 minutes of brisk walking on a treadmill. Once I started weight-lifting, I had a 4 week stall in my weight, and my weight actually bounced up around 4-6pounds depending on the day. I was really frustrated. A trainer-friend of mine at the gym asked how my progress was going, and I complained to him. He said it was common, especially with his female clients that people actually gain weight for the first weeks of strength training, and then it will stop dropping. He told me to start taking measurements, because that can be a good motivation to get through the stalls. Toward the end of the stall, even though I was technically up almost 6 pounds, I had to go buy new pants because my old ones started falling off.
The good news is that my stall faded away at the beginning of September, and I'm losing again. I'm almost at the 40 pound mark. If you aren't already tracking your measurements, it might be good to start . I really wish I had a "beginning" set of measurements from when I started in September. I also think strength training is the biggest booster to my mood EVER. I love it. If limited on gym time, I will nix all cardio but a few minutes of warm-up, & just lift. I feel like I get better results, now.
I've also noticed that I will have stalls in my weight loss during the few days before & start of my TOM (which fell during "The August of Stall" so it was probably a contributing factor), and I will get a 3-4# bump midway through my cycle for a couple of days...which is apparently another common time for women to get a weight-gain (hormones responsible for ovulation, or attempts at ovulation).0 -
As noted here in the other accounts, adding a new exercise routine of any sort can cause some weight gain. This is water weight, not muscle or fat. The body retains water in order to protect and heal itself from damage and the new strain of a new workout routine.
Don't fret over it. Just keep doing what you're doing, and the weight will come back off, though it may take up to a couple of months. If you were successful at losing weight before you added exercise, and your diet hasn't changed beyond a little compensation for the added activity, then you will start losing again.
Also, your cardio time isn't long enough to really screw with hormones. In fact, if the intensity is high enough and you alternate between high and low intensity during those 15 minutes (interval training, the Couch to 5k program uses this method, I believe), then it should have a pretty positive effect on your hormones, as it's a similar effect to the weight lifting. Where cardio starts running into problems is around the hour mark and steady state of mid to high intensity. In that condition, you start risking excess cortisol release, which does become counterproductive.0 -
This has been such a help to hear, thank you guys so much. @aSearch4Me, our experiences do sound insanely similar. I've even been looking for a place to start lap swimming. I really don't enjoy running, but I love weight training so much that I use it as incentive to make sure I get my cardio in.
When I asked this, I was also a day or two before my TOM (which I didn't know) and that always accounts for some weight gain. I've only even been regular for the past couple months and I'm so not used to how it effects me yet, so I wasn't thinking about it at the time.0 -
EarthAmber wrote: »This has been such a help to hear, thank you guys so much. @aSearch4Me, our experiences do sound insanely similar. I've even been looking for a place to start lap swimming. I really don't enjoy running, but I love weight training so much that I use it as incentive to make sure I get my cardio in.
When I asked this, I was also a day or two before my TOM (which I didn't know) and that always accounts for some weight gain. I've only even been regular for the past couple months and I'm so not used to how it effects me yet, so I wasn't thinking about it at the time.
If you have a smartphone, check out period tracking apps. I personally use Glow (available for Android, not sure about iPhone). Even if your period is irregular, a good one can track changes and help you track your cycle, with increased accuracy over time. I've found it very useful since I've recently found myself dealing with some pretty bad depression/anxiety the week before my period, and being able to look at the tracker and have it show that it's a week before has helped tremendously with coping with it. The same can be done for weight, especially if you weigh in every day or week.0 -
Dragonwolf wrote: »If you have a smartphone, check out period tracking apps.
Ditto to this. The one I use is called "Clue" and it has been pretty spot on. Now that things are starting to become a bit more regulated for me (on metformin & low carb), it's also been helping me become more in-tune with my body. I.e. I gain weight during when it thinks my "fertile window" (theoretical ovulation) time frame is. I also routinely see my weight spike right before my period & for the first few days of it.
The only negatives I think it has is: It doesn't actually track weight & temperature for those who are trying to conceive. I track that in "Happy Scale" (& on MFP too, obviously). b) It doesn't track BBT temperatures.
I'm debating switching apps just because I'm debating starting to track BBT's & that type of data since we are trying to gear up to TTC...but my love of the way Clue is formatted keeps me from updating at this point. When I had irregular cycles, it was also a bit better about predicting when they might show up...
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aSearch4Me wrote: »Dragonwolf wrote: »If you have a smartphone, check out period tracking apps.
Ditto to this. The one I use is called "Clue" and it has been pretty spot on. Now that things are starting to become a bit more regulated for me (on metformin & low carb), it's also been helping me become more in-tune with my body. I.e. I gain weight during when it thinks my "fertile window" (theoretical ovulation) time frame is. I also routinely see my weight spike right before my period & for the first few days of it.
The only negatives I think it has is: It doesn't actually track weight & temperature for those who are trying to conceive. I track that in "Happy Scale" (& on MFP too, obviously). b) It doesn't track BBT temperatures.
I'm debating switching apps just because I'm debating starting to track BBT's & that type of data since we are trying to gear up to TTC...but my love of the way Clue is formatted keeps me from updating at this point. When I had irregular cycles, it was also a bit better about predicting when they might show up...
FWIW, Glow tracks BBT, CM, and will pull weight from MFP, as well as all sorts of other stuff. If it's available for your platform, I definitely recommend checking it out.0
