Unknown reason for weight gain

Donger149

Hi everybody..
How do I determine if my weight gain is new muscle or fat? My diet, calorie intake and exercise routine has been the same for 2 yrs and my weight has remained the same for the same time. However, since June to the present, I've gained a total of 7 lbs. I weight lift 3x/week, stretch & planks 3x/wk, and bike at least 60 miles/week. My calorie intake is 1700-2000 calories a day. Any thoughts? TIA

cppeace

Do you measure yourself? If you haven't gained inches you likely gained muscle or water weight or a combo.

LazyBlondeChef

If everything is truly the same in regard to diet/calories and exercise routine and you only gained since June I would suggest getting your thyroid checked. That happened to me about 20 years ago. Sudden weight gain in spite of making no changes in exercise or eating for several years.

sijomial

Did you eat in a significant calorie surplus in that time?
If not, it's not fat.

Did you massively change your exercise routine?
Then it's not muscle (it would be a remarkable gain in that time anyway).

Which leaves water related changes.
What changed in your routine in that time? Diet, drugs, activity changes?
Did the weight come on steadily?
Or of course a measurement problem with your scales.

1700 - 2000 calories as a maintenance amount for a man who exercises a lot seems unlikely unless you are extremely small - your stats would give some context. Making your diary public also helps enormously in providing data.

nxd10

I assume that’s net calories?

Look at salt intake. How do your ankles look? When I travel on a plane or sit for a long time in car - particularly in air conditioning - I can gain 10 pounds overnight from water retention. It can take weeks to leave even though I am very active.

My mom’s odd cure does help. Take a bath and drink ice water.

It’s gotten worse as it be gotten older.

heybales

Both fat and muscle added as weight would require eating above maintenance.

Any diet change lately where the accuracy may not be so good?
Eating out more, more takeout?

Any non-exercise daily activity changes that might have you moving less?
Any tracker that counts steps to compare?

I'm guessing "since June" means only July and Aug.
Always do the math if you think it's fat.

7 lbs x 3500 cal/lb fat / 40 days = 613 cal surplus daily on average if fat.

Think that's possible daily on avg, perhaps combo of moving less for some reason, and eating more than logging for some reason?
That's kind of big number for minor changes, even for thyroid issue that would make your daily movement less, but you'd see that in tired to do workouts too.

As pointed out, even if in surplus, muscle ain't that fast - oh if only that could be true.
Lifts been increasing in weight?

Now, throw in water weight (perhaps stress induced though that isn't usually fast), perhaps a little of moving less & eating more and fat gain - may have something there.

KickassAmazon76

Any changes in medications? I recently was put on a hormone pill and both my appetite increased substantially as did my weight... found an extra ten pounds that I had successfully kept off for over 5 years.

chris89topher

I didn't read everyone else's replies yet, but I experienced the same sudden increase back in May! It freaked me out at first, but then I noticed that the same thing happened last year and didn't drop off until September. My theory is that it possibly has something to do with hot weather and retaining more water weight.

Is it hot where you are, and does that coincide roughly around the time of your mysterious increase??