New Exercise Water Retention?

AirieBerry

I've recently taken up a physical conditioning class at my community college, and it's only 2 days a week, but the workouts include weights and intense cardio. I leave every class very sweaty, and wake up the next day with some kind of muscle soreness. I also try to do at least 30 minutes of walking or riding my exercise bike a day.

I've seen a few posts about people beginning a new exercise routine and not losing. Many replies have said that your body will retain water for the muscles to repair or something of the like.

My question is, is this true? And if so, how long does it last? (This will be my 3rd week being in the class.) Just trying to figure out if this is the cause or not.

psuLemon

AirieBerry wrote: »

I've recently taken up a physical conditioning class at my community college, and it's only 2 days a week, but the workouts include weights and intense cardio. I leave every class very sweaty, and wake up the next day with some kind of muscle soreness. I also try to do at least 30 minutes of walking or riding my exercise bike a day.

I've seen a few posts about people beginning a new exercise routine and not losing. Many replies have said that your body will retain water for the muscles to repair or something of the like.

My question is, is this true? And if so, how long does it last? (This will be my 3rd week being in the class.) Just trying to figure out if this is the cause or not.

Yes. It will last as long as you exercise. i always care 2-3 lbs of water weight. It's because your body draws in fluids to repair muscle fibers.

cwolfman13

AirieBerry wrote: »

I've recently taken up a physical conditioning class at my community college, and it's only 2 days a week, but the workouts include weights and intense cardio. I leave every class very sweaty, and wake up the next day with some kind of muscle soreness. I also try to do at least 30 minutes of walking or riding my exercise bike a day.

I've seen a few posts about people beginning a new exercise routine and not losing. Many replies have said that your body will retain water for the muscles to repair or something of the like.

My question is, is this true? And if so, how long does it last? (This will be my 3rd week being in the class.) Just trying to figure out if this is the cause or not.

Yes...

You will always retain additional fluids when exercising...it's not fat so why are you worried about it? Your body is doing what it's supposed to be doing...

AirieBerry

I'm wondering because the scale is showing no loss, and has been for the last 3 weeks.

psuLemon

There are a lot of variables that affect the scale. How often do you weigh? Are you near your TOM?

AirieBerry

I weigh once a week on Friday morning, and I had my TOM 2 weeks ago, and it's 2 weeks away now. So I'm right in the middle

psuLemon

AirieBerry wrote: »

I weigh once a week on Friday morning, and I had my TOM 2 weeks ago, and it's 2 weeks away now. So I'm right in the middle

If you dont mind, I'd recommend weighing daily and averaging the week. What I have found is I naturally have high and low days. And since I am a data person, the more data points, the easier the trend analysis will be.

Side note, do you use a food scale and do you track daily?

tcunbeliever

The scale is only one metric, try adding measurements and photos...sometimes you really are getting smaller and less fluffy even when the scale is being silent...

b3achy

As the others have already said, you will retain some water from the exercise. I've had it sometimes release a few days later, and other times take a couple weeks to release. Just depends on how your body is reacting.

I'd also recommend having an alternate way to measure your success. I personally use a tape measure to keep track of my body measurements. Often you'll see a loss in inches/cm when you don't see a loss on the scale and vice versa. I found having something else to use to measure my losses, kept me sane when I wasn't seeing a loss on the scale (typically due to water retention).

And yes, many factors can affect water retention - exercise / muscle repair, TOM, high sodium meals, some other thing you ate that causes your body to retain the water, (for me) not enough water daily, etc.

charlenekemp07

This is my 4th week and I FINALLY started loosing. Saw my first loss this morning. I weighed myself every day and now I only do it once a week and it works better for me, because now I'm not so obsessed anymore and take it one step at a time. Everyone told me to give it at least 4 weeks, 3weeks is too soon to see a difference and your body needs to adjust first

AirieBerry

I don't have food scale, and I tried weighing daily at my highest and it just didn't work for me. I track daily minus the weekends (Fri and Sat) I use those two days to not eat "diet" food, and that has worked for my 60lb weight loss previously. I'm thinking of revising that though.

AirieBerry

charlenekemp07 wrote: »

This is my 4th week and I FINALLY started loosing. Saw my first loss this morning. I weighed myself every day and now I only do it once a week and it works better for me, because now I'm not so obsessed anymore and take it one step at a time. Everyone told me to give it at least 4 weeks, 3weeks is too soon to see a difference and your body needs to adjust first

I'll keep trying, because I know that if I quit it definitely won't change!

psuLemon

AirieBerry wrote: »

I don't have food scale, and I tried weighing daily at my highest and it just didn't work for me. I track daily minus the weekends (Fri and Sat) I use those two days to not eat "diet" food, and that has worked for my 60lb weight loss previously. I'm thinking of revising that though.

The smaller you get, the harder it is to make up for inaccuracies. At some point, you might need to evaluate what your priority is.

TimothyFish

Exercise will cause weight gain that doesn't really go away until you quit exercising for a while. Initially it is water weight, but some of it may (eventually) turn into muscle mass. But aside from the first few weeks the gain is so small that a calorie deficit will overcome it. Give it another week and you'll probably start to see results.