Why running makes me gain weight??

it is just very disheartening to see the number go up when you work so hard!

It's not! It shouldn't be! Get over it!

When you see a lean fit person, does it even cross your mind what they weigh? It's virtually irrelevant.

I have to run on a treadmill since I'm a stay at home mom with a toddler that does not tolerate a jogging stroller. The gym has child care I track the calories that the treadmill says I have burned, and I do put my weight in while programming it so I think it's probably pretty accurate. I am not diligent with weighing foods, and I will eat back some calories but not all. I know I need to just stick it out and it will pay off, it is just very disheartening to see the number go up when you work so hard! Today I ran a mile at 5.0 mph and I said I burned 170 calories. I am no where near my goal weight, so I know being heavier I will burn more than someone that is smaller than me.

Well that's the first problem then. The calibration of the majority of treadmills, ellipticals, etc. in the gym are OFF. They are NOT recalibrated every day, and maybe once a year if that. You're actually better off with getting your own HRM.


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Been in fitness industry for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

How long are you giving it to see if it starts going back down? My scale is finally starting to go back down after about 4 weeks of ups and downs and no real progress. I'm actually still at a higher weight than I was 12/15, but it is now slowly going back down but more importantly I've lost: 1.5" under bust (bra band size), 2.5" off my natural waist, .5" off my belly button, 2.25" off my hips and 1" off my thighs! Very rapid gains like 5 lbs in one week are almost never true gains. When my TOM is approaching, I tend to gain 1-2 lbs a day for about 4 days straight, then my weight stays up for about 4-6 more days, then it starts coming back down. I tend to hit a new all time low right before this trend starts and as long as my low is getting lower, I'm happy!

One thing I have noticed is that I am more hungry now than I used to be, so do be sure that you are properly logging and tracking everything you are eating.

After any exercise, you'll retain more water as the body repairs the muscle fibers used in that exercise.

Running doesn't make you gain weight, other than minor adjustments your body makes to aclimate to running.... bringing in more calories than you burn makes you gain weight.

Suspect that you are over estimating your calorie burn from running and underestimating how much you are replenishing.

It is basic math.

Good luck.

Get a food scale and a measuring cup.

I run with an HRM and in a 10K (6'1' 210) I burn about 1000 calories in an hour. That's 500 for a 5K. A half-m would be 2000.

Based on all the race junk you can eat, and some of the post race goodies, it is EASY to overeat on race day too.

1. If you love running- keep it up.
2.Stick with your eating goals.
3. STOP WEIGHING YOURSELF EVERYDAY!!

(Maybe just weigh yourself once every week or every 2 weeks. My weight goes up after each workout!)

The first year or so I was running I couldn't lose any weight. Turns out I was NOT EATING ENOUGH. Okay calories in calories out is still valid. But I was trying to survive on 1300 calories (and not eating back exercise) which was causing me to binge on weekends etc. Which meant that even though I THOUGHT I was staying within goal and eating only 1300 calories, I was averaging much higher. Now I eat closer to 1600 calories (as my TDEE) and my runs have been much better and the weight loss, though slow, is at least trending downwards. Also agree with others on measuring carefully. I'm sure before I got my food scale and joined MFP even though I was calorie counting that 1300 might have been more like 1700 some days.

I have to agree with Minnie that it's unlikely you're burning 170 calories for one mile at 5mph. Obviously a HRM is the most accurate way to track calories burned but I always work on the assumption that the average woman burns around 100 calories per mile. This number will be slightly higher depending on your weight or if you run really fast but its not going to be wildly different from this number.

This too. I wear a HRM while I run and find that a 12 minute-mile (5 mph) is about the tipping point for this. If I run a little faster than that, it's about 100 calories per mile. If I ran slower than that, it'll be less.

I have a nice treadmill that tracks calories. However, once I bought a HRM, I realized my treadmill was estimating my calories at about 40 to 70 more a mile than I was really running.