Gaining weight while exercising.

melisay

Hello everyone,

I have been working out none stop for the last 3 weeks and I did nothing but gain weight. I did eat carefully either. My trainers says not to worry about it. i have 2 trainers. 2 days I do resistance and 3 days I do boxing and 1 day I do light cardio and the last day I do hot yoga yet I have gained 4 pounds.

Is there an explanation for this ?

I am going mental.

Taneil27

Remember muscle weighs more than fat So my guess is that you are gaining muscle!

sbabb02

my trainer told me you can gain weight if you if you workout everyday. try working out 3-4 times a week. you need to give yourself a break. you might also be gaining muscle everywhere too which weighs more than fat.

alucard835

Make sure your body is getting enough calories. If you are working out nonstop, make sure you are eating more than 1200 calories at the LEAST.

If you are not consuming enough calories to balance out expenditure from exercise, your body will start to hold on to fat as a starvation mechanism.

This site will tell you how many calories you should be consuming every day in order to meet your weight loss goal in a certain amount of time. If you feel like you aren't eating enough to keep your energy up, increase the amount of time to reach that weight loss goal.

It's better to lose weight gradually and in a healthy way than deprive your body of the energy it needs to fuel your workouts and your day to day activities.

kmeekhof

Make sure you are drinking enough water.... it will help you NOT retain water.

ScottyLikesCake

If you are working out loads and not taking in enough water you will not lose weight. Make sure you drink plenty as well as eating well.

hpsnickers1

Hello everyone,

I have been working out none stop for the last 3 weeks and I did nothing but gain weight. I did eat carefully either. My trainers says not to worry about it. i have 2 trainers. 2 days I do resistance and 3 days I do boxing and 1 day I do light cardio and the last day I do hot yoga yet I have gained 4 pounds.

Is there an explanation for this ?

I am going mental.

If you doing some serious heavy weight lifting then it could be muscle gain (it's really hard for men to gain muscle much less women). Or your body is just getting used to the changes. Take a look at this post from another fitness site:

http://www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_public_journal_individual.asp?blog_id=3926473&SPShared=TRUE

The scale doesn't tell you much. It's just a number. Have you been taking measurements?

You could possibly need more calories. When there is cardio and strength training going on you need extra calories and nutrition. And try to eat enough of your exercise calories to keep your NET over 1200. It is a general baseline number for Starvation Mode but it's a good number to go by.

malabaugh

Muscle does not weigh more than fat. A pound is a pound. Muscle is denser, not heavier.

http://www.weightwatchers.com/util/art/index_art.aspx?tabnum=1&art_id=8311&sc=128

I am struggling with the same thing at the moment. Trying not to let it psych me out! Drink more water and stay off the scale for a while. Also, try just monitoring your measurements for a while. Good luck!

alucard835

Make sure you work out 5-6 days a week, with one day of rest MINIMUM. Your body needs to rest.

amyoliver85

Ummm...your trainers are WRONG. Sorry. If you've only been working out 3 weeks and you're gaining weight there are four possible reasons:

1) You are in the crappy "gain weight" period. Which usually only lasts about 8-10 days, but I guess it could be longer.
2) Your new workout routine has given an earlier invitation to TOM and you just don't know it yet.
3) You are eating more calories than you burn! You burn 1200 by being alive. If you burn 300 exercising, then that is 1500 calories. If you are trying to lose weight you need to eat 1500 calories and not one more. If you are trying to maintain but tone, you should figure out your BMR and then eat those calories plus your exercise calories each day.
4) You are eating too few calories. If you are eating 1200 calories per day and then burning 300, then you only ate 900 net which will put your body in starvation mode.

NEVER listen to a trainer that tells you you don't need to think about what you're eating. When you are trying to better yourself and your body EVERYTHING you do matters.

I am not some run of the mill member on the site btw. I work at a college that trains personal fitness trainers and if we ever heard one of them tell someone not to worry about eating carefully or at least being healthy, we'd be sending them back to nutrition 101.

I am also working to become a certified group fitness instructor so I have been taking a lot of nutrition courses lately. That is just lame.

alucard835

Hello everyone,

I have been working out none stop for the last 3 weeks and I did nothing but gain weight. I did eat carefully either. My trainers says not to worry about it. i have 2 trainers. 2 days I do resistance and 3 days I do boxing and 1 day I do light cardio and the last day I do hot yoga yet I have gained 4 pounds.

Is there an explanation for this ?

I am going mental.

If you doing some serious heavy weight lifting then it could be muscle gain (it's really hard for men to gain muscle much less women). Or your body is just getting used to the changes. Take a look at this post from another fitness site:

http://www.sparkpeople.com/mypage_public_journal_individual.asp?blog_id=3926473&SPShared=TRUE

The scale doesn't tell you much. It's just a number. Have you been taking measurements?

You could possibly need more calories. When there is cardio and strength training going on you need extra calories and nutrition. And try to eat enough of your exercise calories to keep your NET over 1200. It is a general baseline number for Starvation Mode but it's a good number to go by.

Muscle gain usually is gradual. About 1-2lbs a week is typical unless you are supplementing big time and you're using heavy heavy weights.

Other measurements are important as well. My weight had stayed the same for a long time but my pants were looser :P

alucard835

Ummm...your trainers are WRONG. Sorry. If you've only been working out 3 weeks and you're gaining weight there are four possible reasons:

1) You are in the crappy "gain weight" period. Which usually only lasts about 8-10 days, but I guess it could be longer.
2) Your new workout routine has given an earlier invitation to TOM and you just don't know it yet.
3) You are eating more calories than you burn! You burn 1200 by being alive. If you burn 300 exercising, then that is 1500 calories. If you are trying to lose weight you need to eat 1500 calories and not one more. If you are trying to maintain but tone, you should figure out your BMR and then eat those calories plus your exercise calories each day.
4) You are eating too few calories. If you are eating 1200 calories per day and then burning 300, then you only ate 900 net which will put your body in starvation mode.

NEVER listen to a trainer that tells you you don't need to think about what you're eating. When you are trying to better yourself and your body EVERYTHING you do matters.

I am not some run of the mill member on the site btw. I work at a college that trains personal fitness trainers and if we ever heard one of them tell someone not to worry about eating carefully or at least being healthy, we'd be sending them back to nutrition 101.

I am also working to become a certified group fitness instructor so I have been taking a lot of nutrition courses lately. That is just lame.

This is true. If you're in a plateau period, just work through it. Usually lasts 2-3 weeks maximum.

Using this site, you can get a good estimate of how many calories you should net per day based on your weight loss goals. As long as you are close to that number, you should be in good shape.

What you eat is important! Make sure you are getting your calories from wholesome foods. If it doesn't come from the ground or have a mother, it's probably not good for you.

melisay

Thank you all. I will keep a tight journal and take a break twice a week from working out. Why is weigh loss so complicated lol.

Thank you for all of your replies and of course support.

If this doesn't change within a week or two than I need to do more research.

cheers and love to everyone.

hgs

alucard835

Just remember that in your weight loss journey, there are no failures. You may slip up some days and you may not be able to give a workout your all on some days but, tomorrow is always another day.

It's happened to me. I can only do 30 minutes of a 45 minute workout, I have to bump down to lighter weights, or I just flat out am too exhausted to work out. As long as you pick back up and challenge yourself to push that extra little bit, you'll walk out of a workout without regret.

As long as you have confidence in yourself and push yourself to do your best, that's the best thing you can do for your body. You're capable of things you never thought possible and that's what's going to help you reach your goal.

12by311

You burn 1200 by being alive.

Most people burn way more than 1200 just by being alive.