Working out but slowly gaining weight and inches??

HealthyisMindful

Hey, just a question to all of you helpful people

I recently joined a gym and have been going 4-6 days a week depending on my work schedule. I am eating within my calorie allowance (as per this app) , macros are generally good, and drink my water. I have been following my "fitness buddy" app and have been lifting weights (as per a training routine it created) for about 50 minutes per session and 15 minutes of HIIT cardio afterwards.

YET! In 6-7 weeks not only have I gained a couple lbs but I am actually putting on inches.

Can someone please tell me what I am doing wrong? Or why this is happening?

If it helps, I'm:

30 yrs
Female
5'7
138lbs
Body fat % roughly 26%

Thanks everyone!

xLyric

When you say you're eating at your calorie allowance, what do you mean exactly? If you're trying to lose weight, what's your deficit? Or are you trying to gain or maintain? Do you eat your exercise calories? How do you calculate those calories?

If you're working with weights and eating at or above maintenance, I would think gaining weight and inches would be normal, since you're trying to build muscle.

The weight is probably just water retention from starting a new workout. If you're eating at a deficit, the inches are not likely to be from gaining muscle (though someone can correct me if I'm wrong). It could be bloating related to the water retention, or you could be eating more than you think. Just reread and saw that you started 7 weeks ago. You're probably just eating more than you think, or you're burning less than you think you are.

It's super easy after a workout to feel like you deserve a huge meal because you worked so hard, when in reality you probably aren't burning as much as you think (if overeating is the case for you).

Erik8484

The first (and maybe most likely) reason that comes to mind is that you may be eating more calories than your body is using for energy, leading to the body storing fat and/or building muscle. This can happen even if MFP is telling you that you're eating at a caloric deficit, for example because:
1. MFP got your body's caloric needs wrong. MFP is just giving you an estimate as your calorie goal based on limited information that you provide. You aren't necessarily going to fit neatly into that estimate;
2. MFP and/or fitbit and/or your heart rate monitor overstated how many calories you burned during exercise. This is only relevant if you "eat back" your exercise calories. None of those will accurately measure calories burned while strength training; or
3. You may be consuming more calories than you log with MFP. When you estimate how much you've eaten in order to log it, we sometimes get our estimates wrong (and understate how much we ate).

If this is the problem, then the solution is to either reduce your calorie target, reduce the exercise calories you eat back, or get better at logging your calories.

Another reason could be due to "newbie gains". People who are new to weight lifting can sometimes gain muscle volume, even if they are in maintenance or a caloric deficit. I don't know if this is particularly relevant to you given that you're a 30 year old woman, as it's usually discussed in the context of young 20s males. If you're packing on inches around the stomach area, I would guess that this would be an even less likely reason.

Finally, some of the increased weight and volume may be due to water (during resistance training, muscle cells expand with water).

Oh, and one other reason could be that you measured your starting point incorrectly.

xIxRAVENxIx

In very rare cases of woman you may have a higher testosterone level than most If its not fat your putting on. After all muscle weighs more than fat

HealthyisMindful

Thank you all for your comments, I'm going to look into all of your suggestions and see if I can't figure this out. It's a little disheartening when you're working so hard and seeing the opposite results you were hoping for!