Just started more intense exercise and now gaining weight

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ebouchie
ebouchie Posts: 124 Member
edited September 2015 in Health and Weight Loss
I have lost 50 lbs in the past six months through primarily diet changes (whole foods, no diet soda, lots of water) and regular walking (8,500 to 10,000 steps per day). This past week was my first adding a more intense excercise routine. I did three spin classes and one cross fit clas in addition to a yoga session. I was really careful not to "eat back" all of my earned calories. Prior to this past week I was eating about 1,200 to 1,300 per day and losing about 1 to 1.5 lbs per week. This week I gained 3 pounds! What is going on?

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  • Azuriaz
    Azuriaz Posts: 785 Member
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    Water weight retained for muscle repair if you're correct about your burn estimate and food calculations.
  • Mycophilia
    Mycophilia Posts: 1,225 Member
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    Most likely water retention from increased physical activity. Give it at least a couple more weeks before getting worried IMO.
  • Bowsergirl
    Bowsergirl Posts: 89 Member
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    More intense exercise means more retained water in your muscles. You can try weighing yourself the morning after your rest day for a more accurate weight. I'll gain three pounds if I weigh myself the morning after running.
  • Azuriaz
    Azuriaz Posts: 785 Member
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    Bowsergirl wrote: »
    More intense exercise means more retained water in your muscles. You can try weighing yourself the morning after your rest day for a more accurate weight. I'll gain three pounds if I weigh myself the morning after running.

    This doesn't always work for everyone. Not for me, anyway. One rest day won't always drop the water weight off me. Even two. Even three. Eventually I do shed it as I keep doing whatever I'm doing, sometimes suddenly or a bit at a time over a period of a few weeks.
  • Bowsergirl
    Bowsergirl Posts: 89 Member
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    Azuriaz wrote: »
    Bowsergirl wrote: »
    More intense exercise means more retained water in your muscles. You can try weighing yourself the morning after your rest day for a more accurate weight. I'll gain three pounds if I weigh myself the morning after running.

    This doesn't always work for everyone. Not for me, anyway. One rest day won't always drop the water weight off me. Even two. Even three. Eventually I do shed it as I keep doing whatever I'm doing, sometimes suddenly or a bit at a time over a period of a few weeks.

    Yeah my mom has that problem. Maybe it has to do with how intense the workout really is. I'm pretty out of shape, so an intense workout for me is 9 minutes of running.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,464 Member
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    How many exercise cals did you get and how many did you eat back? Maybe eat back less.
  • ebouchie
    ebouchie Posts: 124 Member
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    I have been earning about 500-600 extra excercise calories but at most eating back half of those. It has really only been a week so perhaps I just need to be patient.
  • sinbadfxdl
    sinbadfxdl Posts: 103 Member
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    If your doing intense exercise, measure your waist also. Weight will flex, but waist will stay.
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,626 Member
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    Muscles that haven't been used in a long time (or ever) respond by saying, "Whoa!" and getting themselves in shape. This can add a few pounds. Stick with the exercise and you'll see the weight loss continue.

    Don't be afraid to eat some of those extra exercise calories. Especially now that you're doing more, you can't eat more food and still lose weight! You may want to cut back on your calories later and you'll want some to cut!
  • cnbbnc
    cnbbnc Posts: 1,267 Member
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    I agree that it's probably the exercise. The scale started doing that to me too when I started increasing my exercise intensity. It went on for a couple of weeks and then all of a sudden I saw a significant drop. As long as you know your calories are where they should be, just stay the course and I think it will all even out.
  • PinkPixiexox
    PinkPixiexox Posts: 4,142 Member
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    Water retention due to muscles repairing themselves - totally, totally normal! And well done on the exercise :)
    Those 3lbs will be gone next week, don't panic! You're doing great!
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    Intense exercise - major carb burning.

    Bodies response - store more carbs in the muscles.

    Glucose stores with water - water weight.
    Good, needed, body responding to the exercise you are doing, increased LBM, increased metabolism water weight.
    Don't attempt to lose it. This is what you asked your body to do.

    Besides as mentioned above, the extra water also retained for repair.

    And if you are attempting to keep a high rate of loss when not much to lose - expect elevated cortisol levels too - there's even additional water weight retained, could get upwards of 20 lbs that way.

    So don't make the diet too extreme and add even more stress to the body - likely freak out over the results.

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