Gained weight after gyming

samairablack

So, for the past one month I have been losing almost 2-3 pounds a week and then suddenly I gained about 4 pounds yesterday. Now I have been reading about this a lot and it says that you do tend to gain weight after gyming hard and I have been hard at it since january. I have good biceps to show now!
But then I read somewhere that you dont gain as much weight.
And I know I am eating right, within my calorie limit, I am never really over it, eating around 1300 calories a day.
Now, I wonder if I should go on a stricter diet? cut carbs for a week and see if I lose weight? Then I am scared that I will be low on energy for my workouts. I am very confused and stressed about this. Please help.

eddie3716

It's probably just water gain. Sometimes after a hard workout, your muscles can absorb water and retain it while they heal. Its perfectly normal and nothing to worry about.

wilsoje74

your weight can fluctuate. You can't gain muscle eating that little, so it's not that.

madhatter2013

I wouldn't worry about it. Weigh yourself again in a week and I'll bet that's gone plus some.

_Josee_

Water weight. Your muscles hold water after a hard workout to repair themselves. It will be back to normal in 3 days max.

If it bothers you, maybe you should put the scale away and weight yourself once a week ?

martinel2099

Do you eat back your exercise calories? Make sure you are honest and accurate with your measurements. Nothing worse than working hard at the gym to burn 1,000 calories then accidentally going over more than you burnt due to bad measurement.

Don't fret over the scale result of one day. The human body is complicated. Keep doing what your doing and look for the trends, I doubt you're eating enough to pick up 4 lbs of fat in one day.

cwolfman13

I wouldn't worry about it. Weigh yourself again in a week and I'll bet that's gone plus some.

Weight loss is not a linear function and body weight isn't static.

amberlykay1014

Body weight fluctuates a lot! This week I am anywhere between 136 - 141 lbs but I don't care. The trend is downward and measurements trump scale weight, always.

I gained 1 lb this week from last week's weigh-in, but I lost 1" from my waist measurement.

JoRocka

I wouldn't worry about it. Weigh yourself again in a week and I'll bet that's gone plus some.

Weight loss is not a linear function and body weight isn't static.

heh- I have a sticky that looks a lot like this that I drew for someone once- LOL

StephieHockeyGirl

Definitely sounds like you hit your muscles hard and there is fluid gain, my sons' who lift call it muscle pump and they will lift in order to get it and then go out in muscle shirts. I never knew that happened but since they brought it up I have noticed that if I do a lower body workout my legs actually look bigger and unfortunately, that means the fat on my legs is more noticeable, but, it goes away as the muscles repair and within a day or so, they are back to normal. So, if you are seeing a 4 pound increase in weight in a short period of time, like a day, it is difference in fluid. I also have the opposite happen to me where if I do a long bike ride and then a run after even if I hydrate during the bike/run, I will lose weight, but, I realize that the weight loss is fluid loss and then I hydrate after my workout.

jmangini

So, for the past one month I have been losing almost 2-3 pounds a week and then suddenly I gained about 4 pounds yesterday. Now I have been reading about this a lot and it says that you do tend to gain weight after gyming hard and I have been hard at it since january. I have good biceps to show now!
But then I read somewhere that you dont gain as much weight.
And I know I am eating right, within my calorie limit, I am never really over it, eating around 1300 calories a day.
Now, I wonder if I should go on a stricter diet? cut carbs for a week and see if I lose weight? Then I am scared that I will be low on energy for my workouts. I am very confused and stressed about this. Please help.

my guess is you're retaining water and if you've been training hard for weeks, your cortisol levels are probably high. Overtraining can and do cause these. I have this problem all the time because I hate to take a day off. If I'm correct and you've been overtraining, take a few days off. I'll bet you'll lose weight and feel thinner after a few days of rest.

jmangini

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/05/140512101406.htm

karinefitness

Water weight. Your muscles hold water after a hard workout to repair themselves. It will be back to normal in 3 days max.

If it bothers you, maybe you should put the scale away and weight yourself once a week ?

Agreed. I seem to weight more the 1-2 days after a good weight lifting session! Mostly when I train legs & glutes It goes away eventually... or until my next session anyways. It is mostly water weight, and not muscle gain, in such a short amount of time but it's perfectly normal.

bcmom_1980

I wouldn't worry about it. Weigh yourself again in a week and I'll bet that's gone plus some.

Weight loss is not a linear function and body weight isn't static.

I could stare at Jensen Ackles all day. Thanks for the gif!!

heybales

You have only 10 kg to go, and still have your weight loss goal set to 2 lbs weekly?

Bad idea.

Move it to recommended amount, 1 lb weekly.

You were probably like most dieters - lost 20% of your muscle mass with whatever weight you lost. very sad.

Suggest you back off the goal amount weekly, eat a tad more, and stop heading in the direction of making maintenance difficult and a failure and easier weight gain easier.

Let me guess - these hard workouts in the gym - you don't eat any of those exercise calories back, creating an even bigger deficit?

Water weight is the reason for the gain, but should not have been the reason for no weight loss.

SLLRunner

Weight naturally fluctuates, and more so when you add in new exercise because your body hold water for muscle repair. Be patient and stay off the scale for a bit.

MargaretSobers

Don't worry, you are not gaining weight because as you mention you are taking very less calories, so it is not possible to build new muscles. It can be water weight absorbed by your muscle it will become normal in a few days. For knowing that it is fat or water weight you have to focus on the amount of water your body is holding. Some other reasons for retaining water are as follows:
By taking too much salt or sugar.
Dehydration.
Too much alcohol. As a solution for these retaining water problems you have to drink plenty of water, modify your diet, eat fruits and vegetables.