Weight gain with exercise?

Molly08

Hello!
I've been eating well (<1500 calories net) for over a week now. I've started this round of healthy living with exercise (rather then wait a bit first). I was really good. I ate well. Good whole foods. Also, during the week I exercised doing moderate arobics (biggest loser workout). I do at least 30 minutes. I stepped on the scale on my first weigh-in (after 1 full week) and gained 4lbs from when I started. It wasn't clothes or time of day that made a difference. I always weigh In first thing when I get up. I eat a lot of my exercise calories (measured with HRM) and try to stay between 1400-1600 net calories. I have a lot of weight to lose (roughly 100lbs) and so I would think I would lose at least a pound or two in the starting weeks. My question to you is: did you gain weight with your starting exercise? Did it take long to start losing? When you lost after a gain like this did you lose a lot (ie more then just 1-2lbs)?
Thanks for the insight!

kluvit

I found that when I first started reducing calories with no exercise I lost steadily, but I lost less or even seemed to gain when I worked out. I think it was just my body adapting to the workouts...retaining water in the muscles, etc. I had a period where I lost nothing for a 3 week period, then showed a 3 pound loss the following week. Just keep doing what you know are the right things, and the weight loss cycle will kick in within a week or two.

2hobbit1

Could be a few things -

Starting up a new strenuous workout stress the muscles and as they repair they hold water as part of the process. This will pass in time. Be sure your getting 30-40% of your cals as protein - it will help with muscle repair.

How are your sodium levels? high sodium causes water retention. If you had a sodium bomb meal it can take a few days for your system to let go of the water it retained to help deal with the higher salt content.

Are you drinking enough water? Water helps to flush out the sodium/water retention.

Are you measuring/weighing your intake or just guesstimating? There can be a huge difference in what you think you are eating vs what you are actually eating if you do not.

How do you measure your calorie burn? If you are using a HRM to measure and it is set up correctly for you stats then good. If you are using a gym machine that does not ask your stats - weight,age height etc then not good. If you are using MFP's calorie burn then you are overestimating you burn - MFP tends to be overly generous on calorie burn!

If you mix and match a few of these you could either be holding water, over eating or over recording your burn. Give yourself some time to figure tings out - remember this is a journey for life - it won't all come together in the first week!

Hang in there you can do it!

ETA : also don't forget TOM - it will cause water retention.

And finally a good dump before you weigh in the morning makes a difference - stay on top of your fiber intake - you need to balance soluble fiber with insoluble fiber to get the most movement!

PrincessNikkiBoo

bump. Just gained recently

jappie10

It's a very common thing so don't worry. I agree with 2hobbit1: it could be a couple of things.

If you weren't active before your weight loss and you suddenly exercise, your body is actually creating muscle mass. Great! The more muscle mass you have, the better you can burn fat. However, muscles weigh more than fat so it could just be that you are increasing your muscle mass and decreasing your fat mass. The scales won't tell you. After 2-3 weeks you should see a reduction in weight.
Try to eat 30-40% protein in your diet to allow your body to built/repair muscle mass.

Molly08

Thanks so much. I do weigh all my food (or measure if liquid). I drink 8 cups of water minimum a day and use a polar HRM to measure my calories burned during a workout. I will monitor my sodium, but I don't add any to my meals and try to not eat pre-made foods. I really want to be successful. I had previously lost 70lbs in 2011. I gained 1/2 of that back in the last year and so I'm working towards losing it again and reaching goal this time. It was just brutal and discouraging to see a 4lb gain my first weigh in back on a healthy lifestyle!
Thanks!! I appreciate any and all insight )