Cutting Calories, Working Out, Gaining Weight?

Neckita

Hello All,

Just Venting, and hoping that I am not alone. Due to time and quality of life reasons, I have reduced my cardio and added in more exercises with weights, Pilates, total body routines, for an over all body sculpting outcome. It has been fun and intense.
I am also watching what I eat, staying well under my goal, but the scale is not moving down. Its moving up! I am not sure how I feel about it since I was only looking to lose about 5 pounds and tone, but I feel as though I was losing weight when eating a ton of junk and being cardio crazy.

Whew! Vent over. I have read a lot about changing the routine, building up muscle before dropping pounds, but it is not fun to go through!!

malibu927

How long ago did you change your workouts? How long has it been since you lost?

Diastole

Might be muscle gain or water weight due to muscles being used more than usual (something about muscles microtearing and retaining water for safety).

If you`re slim keep track of body width measurements. This`ll help you realise that the weight you`re gaining is muscle and not fat. A photo diary can also help you keep track of how your muscles are developing (rounder bum, noticeable biceps, stronger thighs) in case you`re worried that a higher width means higher body fat.

All in all, keep in mind that strength based workouts mean developing muscles, and muscles weigh more than fat. So a higher weight may well mean more muscles and that body tone you want!

bbell1985

If you're in a healthy weight range, expect to lose 5 pounds slowly. Let me give you an example of why I won't see weightloss for almost a month.

I'm relatively lean for my weight, for starters.

Let's say I start reducing my calories a week before my period. I can only really lose a half pound per week, that's barely enough time to get into a deficit before the scale is going to go up REGARDLESS because of water retention from my period, on top of that maybe I added a new exercise routine or extra volume on my workouts so I'm about to finish my period but still retaining water from exercise.

Well...you'd think maybe I'd see a loss after those two weeks but HEY now we're ovulating, I always gain 3 pounds.

Who knows what else happens...maybe I'm in a deficit on the weekend, but I had a higher sodium/carb day. Water retention.

Maybe you haven't gone to the bathroom for a couple days...weight on the scale.

ETC.

Honestly, you have to track your weight from one point during the month to the next month. I can really get like one true weigh in per month.

Neckita

Thank you all for the feedback and info!!