Help! I'm GAINING weight!?!?!?

d2footballJRC

You're gaining muscle. Muscle weighs more than fat, so more muscle than fat means you'll weigh more.

No. No. Just No.

8lbs of muscle really? Maybe over 4-6 months.

Most likely culprit.. Water.

kmkizziar

What is TOM?

Time of the month. :happy:

oh ha ha ha, no i have not had to deal with that for 7 years lol no wonder I was like ??????

kfitzs

i dont know why people always have this argument but im going to put my 2c in.
those who say muscle weighs more then fat are correct
and those that say a pound is a pound are correct but are doing the maths wrong
if u take a cubic inch of muscle and a cubic inch of fat and weigh them the muscle will weigh more
and if u take a pound of muscle and a pound of fat and measure them in a container the muscle will take up less room then the fat does
so stop arguing over it cuz you're all right

kmkizziar

ok so thank you all for the suggestion to check my measurements... i have lost a total of 3.5 inches over all...still in tears but now in a good way...(no pun intended!!)

Thinkin' Ima just throw out that dang old scale and keep doin' what I'm doin!

however I am going to add more protien and keep a closer watch on my sodium intake....

Sarauk2sf

You're gaining muscle. Muscle weighs more than fat, so more muscle than fat means you'll weigh more.

Muscle does not weigh more than fat! 1 lb is 1 lb whether it is a fat lb or a muscle lb!

This. Plus you don't gain 8lbs of muscle in 8 weeks. It's possibly water retention or maybe the way you ate in the 6 weeks was making you dehydrated, now you're normalizing. 8lbs in 8 weeks isn't so bad still. That's still a lb a week. With 52 weeks in a year, you'll have time to lose as much as you want.

^^this

d2footballJRC

This extra weight is usually water.

When you are doing more exercise, your body begins storing more fuel in your muscle cells, where it can be used easily and quickly to fuel your workouts. The process of converting glucose (carbohydrates) into fuel that your muscles actually store and use (glycogen) requires three molecules of water for every molecule of glucose. As your muscles are building up glycogen stores, your body has to retain extra water for this purpose. That's what causes most of the initial weight gain or lack of weight loss. This is a good thing—not something to worry about.

However, despite what the scale says, you are actually losing fat during this time. The extra water retention will stop once your body has adjusted to its new activity level.

They say on average once you start to work out it takes 4-6 weeks to really see the benefits of the work outs you are doing.

noketch

That happened to me yesterday. I last weighed on Saturday and was happy with my weight loss. I kept with my calories and excercised just like I always do. On Tuesday morning I stepped on the scale to find out that I had gained back every single pound I had lost! I was panicked, but confused. I was wearing a dress that I haven't been able to wear in months because it was too tight and the dress fit very well. I knew I wasn't getting any bigger, but the scale went up. I weighed on two different scales to check, and it was the same.

I decided not to think about it and to just keep up what I was doing. I think I was retaining water for some reason because today I weighed again and had lost back 5 of the 8 I had gained. I have made many trips to the ladies room today and expect that it will be back to normal soon.

I don't know what happened, but I'm wondering if I ate too many pickles and took in too much sodium.

wilson1024

Okay..............good grief! Well listen to all them then a LB IS A LB! I just know what other people have told me, I'm new at this too I was just guessing............ but whatever, it probably is water weight:) Good Luck! Just measure yourself and you'll see a difference there if you eating and exercising right:) Sorry that I struck a nerve with all the smart ones! Ugh.................

KL124

Nobody says "a pound of muscle weighs more than a pound of fat". They instead just say "muscle weighs more than fat". Think of it like 1 bowl filled with muscle vs. 1 bowl filled with fat. The muscle bowl would weight more than the bowl full of fat. The saying is correct, just as long as you don't use the quanitity in terms of pounds.

thetrishwarp

My jeans are loose and I feel better than I have in years, I am motivated. But # on the scale yesterday brought me to tears:sad:. What is the point if it keeps coming back? :mad:

Any suggestions or feedback??

If your jeans are loose and you feel better, then that is the point. Your muscles are likely adjusting to your new program and you're retaining extra water. Or you're close to shark week, which personally sticks me with an extra 6-9lbs each month. There are lots of explanations and none of them result in failure for you - just keep doing what you're doing and it will all come off in time

Good luck and good work!

Erfw7471

i dont know why people always have this argument but im going to put my 2c in.
those who say muscle weighs more then fat are correct
and those that say a pound is a pound are correct but are doing the maths wrong
if u take a cubic inch of muscle and a cubic inch of fat and weigh them the muscle will weigh more
and if u take a pound of muscle and a pound of fat and measure them in a container the muscle will take up less room then the fat does
so stop arguing over it cuz you're all right

Yep!

When someone says "muscle weighs more than fat" I understand what they mean, and frankly so do others.....I'm sure people know that a lb. = a lb. no matter what the substance, that's pretty common sense stuff.

gretchenwb

I agree with the above, I was eating WAY TOO FEW calories since January and only lost 4 pounds, and have recently set more realistic ones. I have lost inches-that is what I am tying my progress to-not the scale.