New To Lifting: Almost 13lb Weight Gain in a month? Is that normal? Help

Good job on the lifting plan NLud4118! Muscle is much denser and therefore heavier than fat, so besides possibly some water weight, that's the main reason for the increase on the scale. Just continue to focus on what your pictures look like and how your clothes fit, and less focus on the scale. And I agree with futuremanda, make sure your calorie count isn't too low for your body type and the lifting plan. You might want to increase the protein a little bit, to help feed the muscles as well as the fats. The carbs are good.

bearmom09 wrote: »

Muscle is much denser and therefore heavier than fat,

Muscle is not heavier than fat. A pound of muscle weighs the same as a pound of fat no matter how dense. A pound of feathers weighs the same as a pound of lead. Etc Etc Etc.

How long are your lifting workouts that you are burning 450 cals?

Are you weighing/measuring your food? 15 pounds is quite a bit so I think it's safe to assume it's not all fat, but make sure your food diary is accurate as possible calorie wise.

NLud4118 wrote: »

Thanks for the responses all. Regarding some of your questions:

I'm 5'7", 28 years old, and currently weigh 169.6 (starting was around 155 in January). My lifting sessions are about 45 mins. to an hour long which includes 10 mins of cardio (HIIT) at the end. My lifting schedule is roughly based the training routine at the bottom of this page http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/obese-to-beast-john-glaude-170-pound-weight-loss-journey.html with some modifications based on the equipment available at my gym. I wear a HRM when I workout, which I know can be off, but I use it to measure output and but on average I burn 450-650 calories depending on the muscle group.

Pertaining to calories, I was sitting at a low 1100 a day which I'm aware is abysmal so I've started to add calories back into my diet slowly to get back up to an acceptable level. From what I've read about reverse dieting, you shouldn't add too much too quickly or your body will respond poorly. Now I'm currently eating around 1350 calories a day at a split of 50P/30C/20F for my macros and I don't eat my workout calories back.

I hope this info helps! Thank you again for all the responses.

HRMs are for steady rate cardio only (like swimming or running)..not for HIIT, yoga, weight lifting etc.

When you use a HRM for weight lifting, you are going to get exaggerated burns. I know I managed to get mine to give me 800-900 calories a few times.

More than likely, you are burning more like 175-275 cals for that hour.

On 1350 calories a day you are not building that much muscle to weigh 13 lbs more. you can get newbie gains but it wouldnt be that much in a month.heck most likely it wouldnt be that in 6 months(women gain muscle slower than men). I dont even burn 450 calories for an hr of weight lifting and I lift heavy. Im 5' 6 1/2 ,40 yrs and 175 lbs. Im lucky to burn 250 calories weight lifting in an hr which is my time frame,even if I do hiit after for 10 min it would only be on average about 100 calories more if that. so for you to burn 450-650 calories sounds overestimated. maybe you are eating more than you think? are you weighing/measuring your food?

the spike in your weight can be from retaining water from lifting if you are lifting that often.what I do is one hr of weight lifting(1-2 days heavy and 1-2 days of light weights) and then usually 30 min of cardio(hrs later though),but some days I just do weights and other days I just do cardio,I change it up . I give my muscles time to rest from lifting which does help. maybe do an hr of lifting earlier in the day and then later on do 30 min of cardio if possible.

I also make sure that after exercise my net calories are over 1200. Im eating 1780 without exercise. I usually burn close to 600 a day so that would put me below my net of 1200. so I eat some of my exercise calories back to where I am over 1200 net. make sure you are getting plenty of protein also. I just broke out of a plateau due to now working out twice a day and eating a little more but thats me, what works for one may not for another.

make sure you are eating enough and keep doing what you are doing, if you dont see any results say in the next month then see a dr as it may be a medical issue causing the weight gain

NLud4118 wrote: »

As of right now physically I look about the same in the two pictures I've take (one 1/19 the other today 3/5) however my weight itsef has gone up from 155 to 169. I should point out that I've noticed I'm getting stronger but I didn't realize that maybe I was doing too much too soon. I assumed the more the merrier and that's why I lift up to 6x a week with only 10 min of cardio at the end; I assumed (based on my HRM which I now know is wrong) that I was already burning a ton of calories and since I'm trying to fix my metabolism I didn't wanna back track. I liked the suggestion of cardio daily, and then lifting later on so I might try that and see what happens. I never thought that the weight gain was water due to a possible stress reaction or too much too fast but that makes sense now.

I've learned so much today. Please feel free to keep posting suggestions. Thank you all again!

If your goal is more aesthetic and strength oriented than I'd say no to doing cardio first. And there isn't a need to do cardio daily unless you like it (or we are talking about something like walking the dog type of deal).

There's a woman on here that only lifts 3x a week and absolutely no additional cardio workouts and she not only successfully bulks, cuts and maintains, but is also a competitive powerlifter. Basically, unless you are training for something specific or just like it - work smarter, not harder.

If your measurements are at least the same, then I wouldn't worry about the gain. Just keep watching your intake and switching from HRM calculations for weight training to MFP's for now. Cutting that down will probably get the scale moving again if you've been consistent with netting the deficit goal MFP gave you.

I agree with @PikaKnight.. no need for daily cardio, this could hinder your progress with the strength training, and excessive cardio could even cause burn out / fatigue.

It sounds as though everything you're doing is right, if you are eating the calories and macros you say you are. I would only comment that your carbs are a little low, do you feel fatigued at all? Carbs are very important for refuelling your muscles’ glycogen levels and flood your body with insulin, which has anti-catabolic effects (prevents muscle breakdown). I usually follow around 40C:35P:25F.. just tweak it a little until you find what works for you.

As said by @futuremanda and others, I believe that it is likely that you have gained weight due to water retention. I wouldn't watch the scale too much, measurements count for more and an accurate BF% calculation.

I also find it interesting what @Squirrlt said about stress responses and doing 'too much', because I myself have experienced that first hand. I now have a maximum of 3 training sessions per week, and maybe 1 maybe 2 cardio sessions (of about 20-30 min HIIT). I find my body responds much better now, however this is obviously my own personal experience and you just have to tweak until you find what's right for you!

Good luck on your journey