Weight gain

dscampbell1979

Hello all! I'm a 34 year old female. I had a baby a year ago and have finally decided to start working out again. Three days a week I'm doing running or incline training on the treadmill and strength later in the day (at least 6 hours between workouts) The other three days are just running or incline training. All workouts are about 30 minutes a piece. Also some beginner yoga almost every day.
Gonna be completely honest and say I'm not tracking calories. I lost the pregnancy weight 3 months post partum and maintained a steady weight since then. Baby is still nursing some. I'm not looking to lose anything.
Here's where I'm at: the scale has been steady climbing for the 26 days I've been working out. I'm up 12 lbs at this point!! What the heck is going on?? I'm not naive enough to think this could be muscle gain. Besides I measured today and up a solid inch EVERYWHERE! Could I really be eating in excess of my normal by 1,400 calories A DAY?? It's worth mentioning that I fast and only eat between the hours of 11am till 6/7pm most days. Advice? Felling pretty discouraged...

MichelleSilverleaf

Without tracking calories you don't have any idea of how much you're eating in relation to your activity. It could be water retention from new activity, but as you said you're not tracking so it's hard to say why you've gained weight.

dscampbell1979

Well bummer. I figured that's what I'd hear. I've only tracked calories once in my life and it made me obsess over food. I actually gained weight then. Otherwise I've weighed the same weight since I was a senior in high school until now (and post partum of course lol)

Roosh513

Let me preface this by saying these are observations that I've noticed for myself, especially at the beginning of a new training program. I am not an expert, and am also male, so my body may react different.

It depends on what type of training you are doing in the gym and what you eat regularly. It is pretty normal for me to gain some weight when training. A small portion of this is muscle, lots of it is water. If you are eating a balanced diet with good portions of complex carbs, then your muscles are going to hold onto that water like crazy, especially if you salt your food!

I've experimented with my diet and observed weight changes without increasing/decreasing in clothes sizes. For example:

I tried Keto for 3 weeks and lost 12 lb. After going back to a moderate carb diet (fruits, vegetables, grains), that weight bounced right back. I began weight training, and put on another 8 lb in a few weeks. My clothes still fit the same. On high carb days, or days where I eat too much salty snacks, I notice that my weight is on the higher end of my fluctuating weight range.

My advice is to continue to carefully observe your weight. If it continues to climb at a steady rate, it might be worth tracking your food for a week to see if there are some sneaky calories in your diet. Otherwise, if your clothes still fit and you like how you look in the mirror, keep doing what you're doing!

dscampbell1979

Thank you for the personal insight! You could be into something with the salt. I'll bet I eat more than I should lol
Much as I hate tracking food because I know I'll obsess I guess maybe I need to for a couple weeks. Maybe the exercise IS making me over eat