Started Exercising & Gained Weight

Lillivix
Lillivix Posts: 23
in Health and Weight Loss
Does anybody else seem to gain weight when they start exercising? I've started really paying attention finally again to what I eat and exercising and I've started gaining weight instead of losing it. It's a bit discouraging overall. I'm hoping that I start losing it again soon.

Replies

  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,428 MFP Moderator
    Welcome to the world of water retention. It's common with exercise as water is stored to repair the muscle.

    BTW, open your food diary if you want more analysis on what it can be.
  • EvanKeel
    EvanKeel Posts: 1,904 Member
    It's probably water retention from muscle recovery. It's pretty common.
  • sspahn49
    sspahn49 Posts: 47 Member
    Yes, water retention to repair muscle will make you gain. I also find I am starving all day after a hard workout, increases that metabolism. I have to watch my calories closely, and I try not to eat back the ones I have burned.
  • katemoskal
    katemoskal Posts: 7 Member
    It's called "working up an appetite" and it's normal. Exercise has never, and I mean never, been proven to help weight loss. It definitely helps for many other things and is very good for you, but if weight loss is your goal exercise will not help you. Focus on your diet first and exercise later!
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    you're working muscles that haven't had to do much...when you work your muscles you create little tears...those require repair...your body requires extra water for repair, thus you retain more water when you exercise.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,428 MFP Moderator
    Yes, water retention to repair muscle will make you gain. I also find I am starving all day after a hard workout, increases that metabolism. I have to watch my calories closely, and I try not to eat back the ones I have burned.

    Well if you are using MFP as designed, then you should eat back at least some of those exercise calories, especially with protein type foods to increase the chances of muscle retention.
  • Lillivix
    Lillivix Posts: 23
    Ahh yes...good old Water Retention....I'd never thought of that even though it's so simple. All I ever hear is the good old "Muscle weighs more than fat".....
  • EvanKeel
    EvanKeel Posts: 1,904 Member
    It's called "working up an appetite" and it's normal. Exercise has never, and I mean never, been proven to help weight loss. It definitely helps for many other things and is very good for you, but if weight loss is your goal exercise will not help you. Focus on your diet first and exercise later!

    I think what you mean to say that the majority of calories that people usually burn during the course of their day aren't associated with exercise. Activity does help with weight loss..because, you know, physics. Hence exercise can help with weight loss. There's truth to the saying that you can't out train a poor diet, but exercise can definitely help; it just isn't necessary.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,992 Member
    It's called "working up an appetite" and it's normal. Exercise has never, and I mean never, been proven to help weight loss. It definitely helps for many other things and is very good for you, but if weight loss is your goal exercise will not help you. Focus on your diet first and exercise later!
    While true that one can't out exercise a bad diet, the gain here is from water/glycogen retention and not from "working up an appetite".
    Also if losing weight was just the goal, then adding exercising back after reaching it would trump it because weight will go back up. Exercising while losing weight is a better choice because once one hits goal, the weight is easier to maintain.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
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    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • klaff411
    klaff411 Posts: 169 Member
    It's called "working up an appetite" and it's normal. Exercise has never, and I mean never, been proven to help weight loss. It definitely helps for many other things and is very good for you, but if weight loss is your goal exercise will not help you. Focus on your diet first and exercise later!

    Wow, someone else who understands this. This belief in exercise is the BIGGEST reason people get discouraged. They think running on the treadmill for 30 mins is the be-all, end-all. Then they go home and suck down a big mac. lol. j/k

    Diet = 90%
    Exercise =10%

    Exercise can help append your weight loss. But I totally agree with you.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Ahh yes...good old Water Retention....I'd never thought of that even though it's so simple. All I ever hear is the good old "Muscle weighs more than fat".....

    It does as per volume...but you don't put on muscle overnight...muscle is really, really, really, really hard to build and takes a very, very, very long time. People who tell themselves they are gaining muscle at the same rate or at a higher rate than they're losing fat are just fooling themselves big time. Building appreciable muscle requires a calorie surplus and really killing it in the weight room...along with some pretty fantastic genetics.
  • Kimbles67
    Kimbles67 Posts: 13 Member
    Muscle does not use water as repair in the sense of it being purely water fluid that you store, Water retention should actually be classed as "fluid retention". The correct analysis is the following:

    Training causes microscopic tears in your muscle fibers. When these tears heal, the body rebuilds the muscles stronger than before. After a tough workout, blood rushes to the affected muscles to provide the nutrients that they need for recovery and to clear lactic acid and other cellular waste. The extra fluid causes muscles to become inflamed. This swelling is temporary and does not cause your body to retain water beyond its functional use.
  • jennk5309
    jennk5309 Posts: 206 Member
    I agree that it's water retention, but it's not just to protect damaged muscles. It also protects damaged joints. I've found that I gain water after higher impact cardio, but when I stick with no impact workouts like the elliptical machine, I don't gain anything. The scale continues to go down. If your lower body is not conditioned, though, you'll gain a lot of butt and leg muscle by using the elliptical at first, which might result in a higher number on the scale from muscle + water retention.

    The thing is, if you want to lose long term, exercise it pretty necessary. You have to push past the dismay you may feel from seeing a temporary gain and just keep sticking to it. It may increase appetite as others have said, but it's NOT THAT STRONG and as long as you don't eat more calories than you've burned, you'll be fine. Also, I have noticed that it does NOT increase my appetite if I exercise later in the day. I am a morning eater though (my appetite is greater earlier in the day), so later workouts work better for me. If you find the timing that suits your body (during a time when you have greater appetite control), the small increase in appetite won't hurt you.
  • pittsjg
    pittsjg Posts: 46 Member
    I think you generally looking at it the wrong way, when people say they want to loose weight (unless competing in weight class sports) they generally are refereeing to loosing body fat %. As you begin exercising and building muscle (a good thing as it will increase you resting metabolism), your body will begin to reshape. That could mean a gain, loss, or even maintaining weight, however, as long as you continue operating on a daily or weekly calories deficit you will loose weight or body fat .

    I think the scale can have its uses, but a much better way for someone just getting started to measure their progress is gauging how your favorite pants fit. Are they getting looser or fitting better? If so your making progress reshaping. You could even go the extra mile and be taped and measured, but that's probable unnecessary.

    Remember, if weight was the only goal, we could just cut off a leg and be happy (joking), but maybe thinking of it this way can keep ya motivated a little better

    Good luck!
  • Lillivix
    Lillivix Posts: 23
    Thanks for the input...it has definitely given me some pointers. Overall I know exercise will help in the long run...I just need to tell myself not to put as much stock in the scale. Overall I feel much better...I can see muscle tone beginning and i'm losing my extra chin and my pants are looser...that's what I need to focus on vs. what the scale says.
  • Koldnomore
    Koldnomore Posts: 1,613 Member
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/595473-why-the-scale-goes-up-with-a-new-workout-program-must-read

    As an aside not everyone gains weight when they start working out. I'm still losing over .5 / week after starting a lifting program 2 months ago. Maybe it's because I drink a ton of water and was not completely sedentary before I started - I am still trying to figure it out, but overall seeing the scale go up with a new program is normal.
  • Gapwedge01
    Gapwedge01 Posts: 494
    Ahh yes...good old Water Retention....I'd never thought of that even though it's so simple. All I ever hear is the good old "Muscle weighs more than fat".....

    Actually 5 pounds of muscle weighs the same as 5 pounds of fat. It just means that being equal in weight muscle takes up less volume.

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