Exercise and weight gain

teetsel4

My sister is new to working out. For the last week we have been going on moring walks, she also has been riding bikes with the kids to school in the morning.. I am very porud of her, as i recall how hard it is to start exercising when it's not in your nature to do so. Anyhow, She's been eating great, exercising and not drinking, but the poor thing has GAINED 7 lbs! I think its due to her body adjusting.. Any thoughts on this? Thanks!~:flowerforyou:

camf1217

probably gaining lean muscle and losing fat. So she may weight more, but still be getting slimmer. Fat takes up 3 times the space that muscle does. So if you weight out a pound of muscle and a pound of fat one a scale the fat would take up more physical space. Scales can be ok, but for a true measure use body fat (not online), and the mirror to judge progress.

klaflamme

Do you know if she is eating a lot of high sodium foods? I easily gain water weight (5 lbs really quick) when I have a lot of sodium so I really have to watch the sodium amounts in all my foods. Chinese foods have a TON of sodium - even the meals that look healthy. I avoid adding salt and if I do, I use Morton Lite salt for the potassium. Otherwise, I can only imagine how discouraging the scale must be. Is she using this site? If not, I'm sure it would really help her to log her food intake so she can see if she's taking in too much salt.

carrieberrie

Is she eating a lot more??? or she may not be eating enough I doubt it is muscle, you cant gain muscle that fast, especially women.

BrendaLee

Is she using MFP to count her calories? As you know, it's easy to underestimate how much we're eating if you're not logging it carefully.

lessertess

People react to the onset of an exercise program differently. It is not unusual for to retain a lot of water when you first start exercising. No worries :flowerforyou: