Why am I still swelling up after working out?

Hi everyone

Just wondering if you could help me with this. I've been trying to get in shape for a while now, only really seriously been working on it these past few months though. I was never overweight to begin with, female, 21, 5'3 and 120lbs but "skinny fat" with barely any muscle, so I wanted to lose body fat and get a bit of muscle tone so I looked slender.

Anyway it appears that my body just doesn't want to lose inches, and I seem to be swelling up like crazy. I've heard that in the beginning your body will retain water after working out to repair the muscles but it eventually dies down, but my body just doesn't seem to want to. I go to the gym around 3 times a week for weight training, and each session I'll work a muscle group (arms one day, back another, legs another etc) and every time I go I do squats and deadlifts too (i hate cardio, I'll run once every 2 weeks so I say this is my cardio!) currently doing 30kg barbell squats (trying to perfect form) and 50kg deadlifts, going up a few kg almost every session. My legs and arms seem to be permanently swelled up, even though I have at least 2 rest days in between gym sessions and i stretch every day or every other day. It's noticeable to me and really bugs me because I feel like I'm gaining inches instead of losing and my body can look drastically different every single day. Really gets me down sometimes because I feel like a balloon! I went for a week without exercise a while back and the swelling stopped and j looked pretty good, but wanting to maintain regular exercise means as soon as I started exercising again it's permanent swelling again.

As for my diet, I eat as clean as I can 85% of the time with 1 or 2 cheat meals a week. I avoid all the general bad stuff like refined carbs, eat my oats every day with protien powder and fibre and eat lots of green veggies, lean meats, olive oil etc. I do snack a lot, mainly on nuts and fruit and carrot & homemade hummus though, I'll probably have 2 bananas a day and I recently went through a 100g bag of Brazil nuts in 2 days. My diet is good most of the time and I don't see why it would affect me hut just thought I'd add it anyway

I try to drink as much water as I can to avoid too much water retention but i still get the swelling. I'm also taking SHREDZ supplements, the fat burner and multivitamin but only take one a day. Why, after so long of exercising am I still swelling up? Finding it hard to stay motivated because of it :( i look bigger than I was before I started, and it's really getting me down because I'm working so hard and don't seem to be going in the right direction! Do you think I should ease up on the squats or something to see if this helps my legs? They don't hurt, they just feel really firm and bloated all the time. Help please!

Replies

  • natchanti
    natchanti Posts: 2 Member
    Hi have a look at this link about swelling for prolonged period of time without change. http://fitfeat.com/blog/2011/06/03/rhabdomyolysis-if-you-exercise-read-this/
    I struggle as well with treadmill. Check this guy out 'six pack shortcuts' he's got loads of different cardio exercises on YouTube. Maybe it might help.
    Good luck
  • tlicttbh
    tlicttbh Posts: 89
    how is your sodium intake? Some of my friends swell up if they have too much sodium.
  • abrasumente
    abrasumente Posts: 2 Member
    I cant say that I monitor my sodium, but i dont excessively use salt in my cooking. I only ever Wat a lot of salt if im having a cheat meal and im having a take away or something. How much sodium should I be consuming per day?