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Water Retention Lifting

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breeshabebe
breeshabebe Posts: 580
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Anyone else experience serious water retention when they first started lifting? I've put on about 7lbs in the past 3 weeks and I've been feeling really poofy. Today, after 2 rest days, I been peeing every. single. hour. (TMI) since I woke up this AM. Tonight, I'm back on and I'm just curious as to how long I should expect the water retention?

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  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    If you've had a good workout, after every single one.

    The effect will lessen, but if you did damage, which a good workout does, you'll retain.

    And yes, when time to get unsore, water drops.

    Now, that doesn't keep adding up, you can only gain so much. 7 lbs over 3 weeks isn't that water retained.

    Are you doing reset right now too?
  • rokal
    rokal Posts: 15 Member
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    Sorry to cut in on your thread but i'd really like to hear the outcome. So I think I mean bump! I am currently resetting and just started p90x a fortnight ago I feel so turgid its insane but I haven't really gained scale wise just fluctuations of 2-3 lbs. When will it pass and can I make it go away?!!
  • breeshabebe
    breeshabebe Posts: 580
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    No really resetting, but I'm positive that the weight gained is water. Weighed myself when I got home today and it went down 5lbs since this morning...so I'm thinking that I will be back at what I was at tomorrow morning, but I had a killer leg workout tonight, so who knows what will happen. I guess my best weigh in day will be on my second rest day of the week,.
  • hamheather
    hamheather Posts: 10 Member
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    I have been heavy lifting for about 6 weeks now and the water retention is so bad the next day I can not get my wedding ring off. I feel you and I hope it will end or become minimal in the future. After a rest day the 2 # of water retention goes away for me.
  • breeshabebe
    breeshabebe Posts: 580
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    I have been heavy lifting for about 6 weeks now and the water retention is so bad the next day I can not get my wedding ring off. I feel you and I hope it will end or become minimal in the future. After a rest day the 2 # of water retention goes away for me.

    Yea, When I woke up this morning I was only a half a pound away from where I started.... but today is a leg day.. so not sure what it will be tomorrow. All of the things that I've read up on have said that the water retention/ soreness will die down eventually.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    I have been heavy lifting for about 6 weeks now and the water retention is so bad the next day I can not get my wedding ring off. I feel you and I hope it will end or become minimal in the future. After a rest day the 2 # of water retention goes away for me.

    Yea, When I woke up this morning I was only a half a pound away from where I started.... but today is a leg day.. so not sure what it will be tomorrow. All of the things that I've read up on have said that the water retention/ soreness will die down eventually.

    I've been lifting for years. The soreness, either intensity or longevity, will die down, but the water retention remains. If I've really pushed myself.

    And thinking about muscle size, some will hold more.
  • trappedslim
    trappedslim Posts: 11 Member
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    I read this the other day, might help explain the water retention. Full article here: http://www.coachcalorie.com/working-out-but-gaining-weight/

    Glycogen Storage

    Your body mostly stores glycogen in the muscles, but it also stores it in the liver. Glycogen comes from glucose, which comes from eating carbohydrates (or protein via gluconeogenesis). When we eat carbs our body breaks them down into glucose. That glucose enters the bloodstream, and any extra is taken up by insulin and stored as glycogen in the muscles and liver.

    Here’s the thing though, that glucose is combined with water to form glycogen. In fact, every gram of glucose is stored with about 3 grams of water [1]. Taking that one step further, the average person can store about 15 g/kg of body weight of glycogen [2]. So, let’s do a little math:

    A 200 pound person weighs about 90kg
    At 15 g/kg, that person carries 1350 grams of glycogen (15 * 90 = 1350)
    1350 grams equals 3 pounds (1350 / 453 grams in a pound = 3 pounds)

    That’s right, 3 pounds of glycogen is what this person stores on average in their muscles and liver. If he were going from a sedentary lifestyle to a very active one, the swing in intracellular water weight could be several pounds. Your capacity to store glycogen increases as you increase your work load.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    I read this the other day, might help explain the water retention. Full article here: http://www.coachcalorie.com/working-out-but-gaining-weight/

    Glycogen Storage

    Your body mostly stores glycogen in the muscles, but it also stores it in the liver. Glycogen comes from glucose, which comes from eating carbohydrates (or protein via gluconeogenesis). When we eat carbs our body breaks them down into glucose. That glucose enters the bloodstream, and any extra is taken up by insulin and stored as glycogen in the muscles and liver.

    Here’s the thing though, that glucose is combined with water to form glycogen. In fact, every gram of glucose is stored with about 3 grams of water [1]. Taking that one step further, the average person can store about 15 g/kg of body weight of glycogen [2]. So, let’s do a little math:

    A 200 pound person weighs about 90kg
    At 15 g/kg, that person carries 1350 grams of glycogen (15 * 90 = 1350)
    1350 grams equals 3 pounds (1350 / 453 grams in a pound = 3 pounds)

    That’s right, 3 pounds of glycogen is what this person stores on average in their muscles and liver. If he were going from a sedentary lifestyle to a very active one, the swing in intracellular water weight could be several pounds. Your capacity to store glycogen increases as you increase your work load.

    Correct, 1 lb per 500 calories worth stored.

    Now, to this remember the fact that intra-muscular stores can't be put in to bloodstream and used elsewhere, only those muscles. So unless you are doing total body workout, you won't empty all the muscles, only the ones you are using.

    And the workload that trains the body to store more - endurance cardio.
  • ekdennis
    ekdennis Posts: 62
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    This thread is very interesting to me because I am in the same boat. I am about to start week three of consist lifting and running. I need to lose weight, and I've decided that strength training is the best way for me to lose the weight and shape my body. Over the past two weeks I have been trying to be more consistent with my workouts. I will alternate lifting (full body w/ bowflex) with jogging for three days in a row, take a day off, and do three more days of alternating (lift a day, jog a day). My weight hasn't gone down at all. In fact, it continually bounces up and down about 2-3lbs. I watch what I eat, but I do not starve myself. I probably eat close to 2000+ calories a day. I am hoping my body will eventually adjust and the weight will begin to fall off, but it is really frustrating at the moment.

    I should probably mention that my jogs are short, 20-30 minutes. My longest is 3 miles, which I might do every two weeks depending on the temp.
  • jmzz1
    jmzz1 Posts: 670 Member
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    does water retention helps u bloat ?... if yes then how do i know my weight is decreasing or not after a good workout?
  • Lupercalia
    Lupercalia Posts: 1,857 Member
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    My weight also bounces up and down for quite some time, then I'll have what is called a "whoosh" and drop weight. The best thing to do if you're a lady who lifts is stay off the scale if you can't deal with seeing it bounce around, or learn to accept that it just does that and keep going. So long as I know I'm doing the right stuff--eating well and at a slight deficit, and exercising as usual, I don't sweat the ups and downs of the scale. The scale is the worst measure of progress, anyway. Go by your measurements and your performance. Are you consistently lifting more weight or banging out more reps? YES? Then you're doing great. Your body composition (fat loss) will follow. It's inevitable. You do the right stuff consistently and your body will change. I see so many women get discouraged when the scale doesn't behave the way they want it to, but they're doing everything right and progressing. The only thing missing is patience and a bit of self confidence in what you're doing.

    The scale doesn't steadily drop for me each week, but it does indeed drop.
  • castelluzzo99
    castelluzzo99 Posts: 313 Member
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    does water retention helps u bloat ?... if yes then how do i know my weight is decreasing or not after a good workout?

    What I do is weigh at a consistent time of day, and only once per week at most (right now not weighing for 6 weeks). I also measure weekly. In my case, Saturday is my rest day, and Sunday I measure and weigh (if I'm going to) right after getting up. My results have been consistent this way (about 1/4" lost in the waist every week for over a month). So I know I'm progressing, even though I'm not weighing every week. Oh, and clothes are fitting better! :)

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