Gaining muscle?? HELP!

BlessedMystique

Since October I have lost 23lbs on a restrictive low calorie diet.
When I stopped, I started using MFP, started exercising, and
increased my calories to between 900-1300.
Now here's my problem. I was 218lbs on Friday morning.
I went to the gym Sat, did cardio a little strength training...burnt about 500 calories
Sunday I did Jillian Michaels Shred-It level 1 30 mins...burnt about 400 calories
Monday I was very sore, I feel every muscle in my body, so no workout

Now Tuesday morning, I am 221lbs?!! I gained 3lbs from working out??
I havent changed my diet. What the..??

I know when you start working out u gain muscle. But I've been at this for only a weekend!
When does the new muscle mass start doing it's job and burn fat??

Please help me MFPals...I'm freaking out

princesslmc2

Give your body time to mellow out and adjust to the changes. It'll be okay. In the grand scheme of things, muscle WILL start help burning that fat. Just give it time, like you would any other change in routine.

RaeN81

Water weight. Check your sodium and water intake.

untamedheart

Your weight is going to vary from day to day depending on how much water you are retaining. Keep your sodium intake low and drink lots of water to flush your system. It never fails; i'll be one weight Friday and gain at least a pound over the weekend because i'm not as strict even though i need to be.

erickirb

Water weight. Check your sodium and water intake.

I second this, it takes weeks or even months to add 3 lbs of muscle.

kate205gti

if you're working hard and sweating you'll be dehydrating and if you're not replacing all the water lost you'll hold onto whats left - drink a ton of water and should help to shift it

BlessedMystique

Thanks everyone...I drink on average 4L of water, thats about 135oz
Surely that's enough? But I will try to drink even more today and see.

tolygal

Every time my muscles get sore, I gain weight. I'm just guessing that they are retaining fluid and that's the cause, but it never fails. In fact, even after an extra tough workout day this will happen (I gain). Just stick with it and let your body adjust.

binary_jester

Stop weighing yourself. You will drive yourself nuts. At the very least, take it with a grain of salt. Look at it logically. Still eating right...check. Still drinking water...check. Now adding exercise. Why would you be getting FATTER by adding exercising? Weight gain is not indicative of fat gain if nothing else is changing.

Fitness40

Good morning, as a Personal Trainer I see this quite often with my clients. You may want to adjust the number of calories you are eating. For example, if you are eating 1,300 calories and you burn 500 calories your net calories is 800. Your net calories should be at least 1,200.

msbanana

Stop weighing yourself. You will drive yourself nuts. At the very least, take it with a grain of salt. Look at it logically. Still eating right...check. Still drinking water...check. Now adding exercise. Why would you be getting FATTER by adding exercising? Weight gain is not indicative of fat gain if nothing else is changing.

word. He's on the money.

When you work out hard your muscles retain fluid for the healing process. Generally it takes between 4-6 weeks for this retention to mellow out. If you MUST get on the scale do it AFTER a rest day and in the mean time take measurements.

binary_jester

Good morning, as a Personal Trainer I see this quite often with my clients. You may want to adjust the number of calories you are eating. For example, if you are eating 1,300 calories and you burn 500 calories your net calories is 800. Your net calories should be at least 1,200.

I am curious. She gained weight and you are fearing...starvation? Your body doesn't starve in one day and even then it doesn't pack on weight suddenly. The metabolism slows but you still lose weight, just possibly not the best kind of weight.

SHBoss1673

I'll let you in on something that many trainers don't know (I blame them for not being studious enough, this is common knowledge to good trainers and strength and conditioning coaches, or should be).

Before you can increase any muscle, you must first maximize it's current capacity.

You see, muscles are actually groups of muscle fibers. Each bundle of fibers has nerves attached to it where the brain tells it to contract or not. Each fiber can either fully contract or it will not contract at all. Generally, when you start using a muscle heavily, there is a period of time where the muscle is "trained" to be more efficient. This is called neural adaptation. If you could normally use the muscle to about 80% of it's theoretical maximum, after maybe 6 weeks of consistent resistance training, maybe you've boosted that up to about 95%. At the point where the muscle cannot become any more efficient with it's current volume, that's when the muscle grows. Until that point you aren't gaining muscle (4 to 8 weeks is generally the time period for a new resistance program).
So unless you've been doing the resistance training for somewhere near 2 months, I doubt you added muscle. Also, you don't gain 2 lbs in a weekend, nor in a week, doubtful in 2 weeks even. What you CAN do is train the muscles to use more fibers, and that means those muscles need more stored glycogen (the source used to create the energy we use in muscles), glycogen is a water glucose (and other stuff) mix that is relatively heavy, activating new muscles (as evidenced by your soreness) means storing more glycogen, which means more weight. But that's ok, it's good weight, it's not a drain on your body, and it's helping your body become stronger.

Now, I can't guarantee that's what is happening, but I'll bet that's at least part of the reason. Hope this helps.

binary_jester

I'll let you in on something that many trainers don't know (I blame them for not being studious enough, this is common knowledge to good trainers and strength and conditioning coaches, or should be).

Before you can increase any muscle, you must first maximize it's current capacity.

You see, muscles are actually groups of muscle fibers. Each bundle of fibers has nerves attached to it where the brain tells it to contract or not. Each fiber can either fully contract or it will not contract at all. Generally, when you start using a muscle heavily, there is a period of time where the muscle is "trained" to be more efficient. This is called neural adaptation. If you could normally use the muscle to about 80% of it's theoretical maximum, after maybe 6 weeks of consistent resistance training, maybe you've boosted that up to about 95%. At the point where the muscle cannot become any more efficient with it's current volume, that's when the muscle grows. Until that point you aren't gaining muscle (4 to 8 weeks is generally the time period for a new resistance program).
So unless you've been doing the resistance training for somewhere near 2 months, I doubt you added muscle. Also, you don't gain 2 lbs in a weekend, nor in a week, doubtful in 2 weeks even. What you CAN do is train the muscles to use more fibers, and that means those muscles need more stored glycogen (the source used to create the energy we use in muscles), glycogen is a water glucose (and other stuff) mix that is relatively heavy, activating new muscles (as evidenced by your soreness) means storing more glycogen, which means more weight. But that's ok, it's good weight, it's not a drain on your body, and it's helping your body become stronger.

Now, I can't guarantee that's what is happening, but I'll bet that's at least part of the reason. Hope this helps.

Why would I need a subscription to ON Fitness? I will just have you translate.

SHBoss1673

I'll let you in on something that many trainers don't know (I blame them for not being studious enough, this is common knowledge to good trainers and strength and conditioning coaches, or should be).

Before you can increase any muscle, you must first maximize it's current capacity.

You see, muscles are actually groups of muscle fibers. Each bundle of fibers has nerves attached to it where the brain tells it to contract or not. Each fiber can either fully contract or it will not contract at all. Generally, when you start using a muscle heavily, there is a period of time where the muscle is "trained" to be more efficient. This is called neural adaptation. If you could normally use the muscle to about 80% of it's theoretical maximum, after maybe 6 weeks of consistent resistance training, maybe you've boosted that up to about 95%. At the point where the muscle cannot become any more efficient with it's current volume, that's when the muscle grows. Until that point you aren't gaining muscle (4 to 8 weeks is generally the time period for a new resistance program).
So unless you've been doing the resistance training for somewhere near 2 months, I doubt you added muscle. Also, you don't gain 2 lbs in a weekend, nor in a week, doubtful in 2 weeks even. What you CAN do is train the muscles to use more fibers, and that means those muscles need more stored glycogen (the source used to create the energy we use in muscles), glycogen is a water glucose (and other stuff) mix that is relatively heavy, activating new muscles (as evidenced by your soreness) means storing more glycogen, which means more weight. But that's ok, it's good weight, it's not a drain on your body, and it's helping your body become stronger.

Now, I can't guarantee that's what is happening, but I'll bet that's at least part of the reason. Hope this helps.

Why would I need a subscription to ON Fitness? I will just have you translate.

lol, actually if you REALLY want to know this stuff, go to B&N and get a book called "Strength Training" published for the NSCA
Probably the best simple yet in depth description of muscle anatomy I've ever read. Plus it has some great techniques for (wonder of wonders) strength training.