Sudden weight gain

thomasjacobs11
thomasjacobs11 Posts: 3 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
i've been dieting for about 6 weeks, i have had a decent amount of success and consistently lost weight every week, so far i had lost about 16 pounds just from eating well and portion control. Because progress had slowed down i decided to add exercise into the mix. i have been cycling to work, about 10 miles every day, going from nothing to this, as a person of my size, i expected this to have a good impact on the weight loss. apparently i've put on 3lbs in the last week. i weigh 18st 8lbs now apparently, someone of my size works up a sweat walking up the stairs. i have knackered my body and been soaking t-shirts in sweat every day.

i've read some stuff about people gaining weight when they start a new exercise but it seem insane for someone of my size to experience that kind of gain in 5 days. is this normal for someone like me or must i be doing something wrong?

Replies

  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
    Water weight. When you start a new fitness routine/more intense fitness routine - your muscles store excess glycogen to prepare/repair the muscles. Each glycogen gram holds I believe 4 grams of water. Its temporary.
  • donyellemoniquex3
    donyellemoniquex3 Posts: 2,384 Member
    You don't DIEt.. You commit to a LIFEstyle change.

    Open your diary.
  • thomasjacobs11
    thomasjacobs11 Posts: 3 Member
    thank you for that incredibly insightful comment, i'll be more on point with my semantics next time.
  • klreiland
    klreiland Posts: 14
    I agree about the water weight. The same thing happened to me when I started exercising. Of course you can also retain water weight due to menstruation.

    Have you changed your eating so you are getting back any of those calories you lost? Are you feeling any more hungry?
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
    When you overload your muscles, which will happen if you are just starting to exercise, they will retain water both for the purpose of repair as well as to solubilize and transfer glycogen (an energy source) to the muscle. It is actually quite easy to retain up 5% of your total weight as water retention in muscle so 3 pounds is nothing. Quite possible that actually you have continued to lose fat, you have lost an additional 2 pounds of fat and you are retaining 5 pounds of water.

    Bottom line though its nothing to worry about, continue doing what you are doing.
  • thomasjacobs11
    thomasjacobs11 Posts: 3 Member
    i lack the ability to menstruate, so i doubt that is having an impact on anything :P
  • celphiee
    celphiee Posts: 11 Member
    I just had the same thing happen. Was minding my own business doing my thing, due an injury had to stop running, so decided to take up cycling. I don't weigh myself regularily but, I'm up 12 pnds since the last time I weighed myself. People have been telling me I look like I've lost weight, so I assume I gained muscle?
  • maidentl
    maidentl Posts: 3,203 Member
    You don't DIEt.. You commit to a LIFEstyle change.

    Open your diary.

    What does ANY of that have to do with his question?

    To the OP, yes, as everyone else stated, water weight. :smile:
  • psych101
    psych101 Posts: 1,842 Member
    Yep - i'd say water weight. Keep going as you are and reassess. Weight loss isn't linear, but so long as the big picture trend is down, then you're doing great!

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