Ecercising and gaining weight and inches
maiths18
Posts: 17 Member
Hi Guys, I am looking for some input here. I have been exercising for about 3 months now. I have done pretty well staying consistent woth at least 4 times a exercise. I do HIIT on 4-5 days a week and lift weights 2 times a week in gym. I noticed right after I started my regimen my weight just shot up by and it has steadily climbed from 126 lb to now 131-132 lbs over 3 months period. I also gained inches on my stomach and thighs. I initially thought it was water weight but 3 months rules that out now. My nutrition is so so...I track most days but weekends are much much harder. I do not eat junk at all. No soda, no chips. Only indulgence is candy once in a while. I just want to know if this is what I should have expected. I see some muscle definition on my legs from lifting and all the jumping. But that is all. I would like to hear what is your opinion and also if anybody went through the same thing. Thank you.
Edit: I must mention that I am very short. Only 4 feet 10 inches
Edit: I must mention that I am very short. Only 4 feet 10 inches
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Replies
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Are u tracking your calories?0
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Yes. I try to track most days. I end up tracking good on weekdays and slip on weekends. I am sure my nutrition needs more controlling. I am wondering about the part where I started exercising, tracking and gained pounds and inches.0
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If you have been gaining pounds and inches for three months, you are not eating in a deficit. You need to tighten up your logging.0
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If you have been gaining pounds and inches for three months, you are not eating in a deficit. You need to tighten up your logging.
That is exactly what I did since little over a month. I started portion control / weighing my food. Which again I do on most of the weekdays. The weight is steady at 132lbs. I monitor my water intake and macros. and take fish oil and iron supplement. I realize that my weekends could be killing my weight loss journey. But I am so confused by the fact that I was holding steady at 126 lb for about half a year with occasional exercise and very loose logging and now when I am much stricter it started going in opposite direction!0 -
Exercise alone cannot cancel out eating poorly. If u way over eat on weekends that is the inches u have put on0
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Your workouts sound great, but food wise you need to track more. It's easy to eat more than you think when you don't log.0
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If you have been gaining pounds and inches for three months, you are not eating in a deficit. You need to tighten up your logging.
That is exactly what I did since little over a month. I started portion control / weighing my food. Which again I do on most of the weekdays. The weight is steady at 132lbs. I monitor my water intake and macros. and take fish oil and iron supplement. I realize that my weekends could be killing my weight loss journey. But I am so confused by the fact that I was holding steady at 126 lb for about half a year with occasional exercise and very loose logging and now when I am much stricter it started going in opposite direction!
A weekend of not logging is killing your deficit for the previous 5 days. Log on the weekends. I know it's hard because weekends are busy, but maybe try to pre-log or make meals ahead of time that you can reheat during the weekend so you have better control over what you're eating.0 -
I am really really skeptical that I am eating more in overall week as compared to before. I ate donuts and pizza and high carb diets at least 2 times a week. I now even when not tracking consciously put only healthy food in my mouth. I am sure I am still going over my limit when not tracking. I guess I am stuck with tracking as accurately on weekends too. But how am I supposed to keep that as my lifestyle! Do you guys weigh every single thing for more than 5 years?0
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If you are noticing more definition is it possible you are burning fat but building muscle? I dont track everything all the time but I have learned to eyeball portions better from the tracking I have done. Maybe focus more on proper portion sizes and see if that helps0
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I am really really skeptical that I am eating more in overall week as compared to before. I ate donuts and pizza and high carb diets at least 2 times a week. I now even when not tracking consciously put only healthy food in my mouth. I am sure I am still going over my limit when not tracking. I guess I am stuck with tracking as accurately on weekends too. But how am I supposed to keep that as my lifestyle! Do you guys weigh every single thing for more than 5 years?
I mean, if not through eating more than you're burning, how else do you think you are gaining weight? It's not really about "healthy" foods that you eat; it's about how much of them you eat. I could get obese on chicken and broccoli if I ate enough of it. It's all about calories for weight loss.
And yes, I log on the weekends. It's not hard if you pre-plan. And if you go out to eat, just make smarter choices and watch the booze.0 -
The difference in maintenance calories between 132 pounds and 126 pounds is only about 50 calories per day. It would be plenty easy for inaccuracies in logging and weekend overages to lead you to eat an extra 350 calories per week.0
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ataylorgardner wrote: »If you are noticing more definition is it possible you are burning fat but building muscle? I dont track everything all the time but I have learned to eyeball portions better from the tracking I have done. Maybe focus more on proper portion sizes and see if that helps
No. The two are mutually exclusive 99% of the time. Losing fat requires a calorie deficit, gaining muscle requires a calorie surplus.0 -
Just a heads up--today is Monday and you have logged quite a few things in a way that suggest inaccurate logging. Your clementines? They should be weighed (without the peel, if you'd like to take on that next step). Same for your Healthy Choice lunch. Prepackaged food weights can be way off from what you find on the label. I see other entries with cups of rice, incomplete days, etc. These are all weekdays. Weighing is incredibly important if you are not seeing the results you expect.
The answer is always that you are eating more than you think. Until you have a completely accurate log (weekdays, weekends), you are spinning your wheels to think otherwise.
Once you do have a very accurate log and are losing as expected (although likely not linearly), you can start to think about not logging on certain days. If this causes your weight loss to slow or disappear, you'll know that you are not yet able to estimate. I enjoy the logging and, at this point, think I will continue in some capacity for life.0 -
ataylorgardner wrote: »If you are noticing more definition is it possible you are burning fat but building muscle? I dont track everything all the time but I have learned to eyeball portions better from the tracking I have done. Maybe focus more on proper portion sizes and see if that helps
No. The two are mutually exclusive 99% of the time. Losing fat requires a calorie deficit, gaining muscle requires a calorie surplus.
The muscles should grow if you are exerting tension on them. They will not grow much faster if you are not eating at calorie surplus. So I think there is still overlap more than 1% of the time....as for where do I think I am gaining weight from, to be honest as contrary to logic it sounds I want say I don't know! haha.....I just find it really really hard to believe that I am eating more than before. But I wouldn't know until I log faithfully on weekend.....Very hard task
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I am really really skeptical that I am eating more in overall week as compared to before. I ate donuts and pizza and high carb diets at least 2 times a week. I now even when not tracking consciously put only healthy food in my mouth. I am sure I am still going over my limit when not tracking. I guess I am stuck with tracking as accurately on weekends too. But how am I supposed to keep that as my lifestyle! Do you guys weigh every single thing for more than 5 years?
You can be skeptical but the scale and measuring tape are telling the tale, not us. You're gaining weight and getting bigger, that means you are eating more calories than you're burning on a regular basis. As others have said, what you're eating is not nearly as important as how much you're eating. Healthy foods have calories just like anything else; eat too much of them and you will gain weight. The good news is, you've been weight lifting so some of that weight you added is from muscle. Keep lifting, tighten your logging especially on weekends, stay under your calorie target, and you'll start to lose fat and keep more muscle.0 -
The difference in maintenance calories between 132 pounds and 126 pounds is only about 50 calories per day. It would be plenty easy for inaccuracies in logging and weekend overages to lead you to eat an extra 350 calories per week.
Yes....but in addition to tracking I also added exercise. That gives me more deficit.0 -
You're eating too much.0
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I'll add that it is helpful to stop thinking of weighing your food as a chore, and start seeing an accurate log as a very valuable tool.0
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Just a heads up--today is Monday and you have logged quite a few things in a way that suggest inaccurate logging. Your clementines? They should be weighed (without the peel, if you'd like to take on that next step). Same for your Healthy Choice lunch. Prepackaged food weights can be way off from what you find on the label. I see other entries with cups of rice, incomplete days, etc. These are all weekdays. Weighing is incredibly important if you are not seeing the results you expect.
The answer is always that you are eating more than you think. Until you have a completely accurate log (weekdays, weekends), you are spinning your wheels to think otherwise.
Once you do have a very accurate log and are losing as expected (although likely not linearly), you can start to think about not logging on certain days. If this causes your weight loss to slow or disappear, you'll know that you are not yet able to estimate. I enjoy the logging and, at this point, think I will continue in some capacity for life.
The days where the entries are in cups...that is because I did portion control similar to 21 day fix for those days. I did not know that prepackaged food can be way off!!!! In any case I eat them very rarely. But I understand what you are saying. As hard as if may be initially there isn't way around tracking accurately and consistently. It is good to get a wake up call from all of you here.0 -
The days where the entries are in cups...that is because I did portion control similar to 21 day fix for those days. I did not know that prepackaged food can be way off!!!! In any case I eat them very rarely. But I understand what you are saying. As hard as if may be initially there isn't way around tracking accurately and consistently. It is good to get a wake up call from all of you here.
It is definitely an adjustment! My way of logging has totally evolved as I've learned to be more accurate. There are things I do now (just having the food scale, really!), that I would have thought were crazy when I started. The clementine/banana/whatever peels would have totally fallen into that category for me as well. But it is super empowering to gain knowledge about tracking intake and makes me feel more confident in my choices when I do decide to eat things that can't accurately be logged. You are on the right track!! Good luck
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Yes. I try to track most days. I end up tracking good on weekdays and slip on weekends. I am sure my nutrition needs more controlling. I am wondering about the part where I started exercising, tracking and gained pounds and inches.
Believe it or not, weekends CAN undo all the good work all week....I suggest you try a few weekends tracking, using a food scale, and see if it starts to change...I'm betting your numbers will quickly go down after the first two weekends.. Good luck xo0 -
Just a heads up--today is Monday and you have logged quite a few things in a way that suggest inaccurate logging. Your clementines? They should be weighed (without the peel, if you'd like to take on that next step). Same for your Healthy Choice lunch. Prepackaged food weights can be way off from what you find on the label. I see other entries with cups of rice, incomplete days, etc. These are all weekdays. Weighing is incredibly important if you are not seeing the results you expect.
The answer is always that you are eating more than you think. Until you have a completely accurate log (weekdays, weekends), you are spinning your wheels to think otherwise.
Once you do have a very accurate log and are losing as expected (although likely not linearly), you can start to think about not logging on certain days. If this causes your weight loss to slow or disappear, you'll know that you are not yet able to estimate. I enjoy the logging and, at this point, think I will continue in some capacity for life.
Absolutely this...100%0 -
Yep, you have to track very accurately. I track even in maintenance (eh, not every single day
). I don't weigh things anymore, though.
You might have gotten hungrier from the exercise and not known it. I always do that. You also might still be holding a certain amount of water if the weights still seem hard and you are doing progressive lifting.
But the waist measurement isn't likely to go up if it's from weight lifting. That's the one that signals fat gain for me. If yours is consistently higher in the waist, I'd have to say it's probably a bit of real weight gain.
But hey! That means your weight lifting probably did a great deal of good in putting on muscle
It was a mini bulk by accident, lol. You gain fat and muscle in a bulk. 0 -
I agree with others who have explained that you should log more consistently & accurately. If you do this, you will likely see the results that you want
Yes....but in addition to tracking I also added exercise. That gives me more deficit.
I would also like to mention, in case you were unaware, that MyFitnessPal generally overestimates the number of calories burned from exercise by quite a lot. Many people recommend only eating a maximum of 50% of those exercise calories that MFP says you burned.
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I am really really skeptical that I am eating more in overall week as compared to before. I ate donuts and pizza and high carb diets at least 2 times a week. I now even when not tracking consciously put only healthy food in my mouth. I am sure I am still going over my limit when not tracking. I guess I am stuck with tracking as accurately on weekends too. But how am I supposed to keep that as my lifestyle! Do you guys weigh every single thing for more than 5 years?
I haven't missed a day of logging in over 12mths. I Prelog my day every morning 7 days a week. It's become second nature now, that I don't even think about it.
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You're probably eating too much because exercising made you hungrier, and because you don't track with accuracy (weighing makes calorie-counting so easy; I use it to MAXIMIZE the amount of food I can eat within my calories limit), the amount you eat has increased without you noticing --> weight gain.0
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That is exactly what I did since little over a month. I started portion control / weighing my food. Which again I do on most of the weekdays. The weight is steady at 132lbs. I monitor my water intake and macros. and take fish oil and iron supplement. I realize that my weekends could be killing my weight loss journey. But I am so confused by the fact that I was holding steady at 126 lb for about half a year with occasional exercise and very loose logging and now when I am much stricter it started going in opposite direction!
Exercise can make me raveneous. It is easy to gain 6 lbs in 3 months by eating more than you think and burning less than you think. The past is over. Focus on the now. Drink as much water as you can and track your eating as much as you can.0 -
I am really really skeptical that I am eating more in overall week as compared to before. I ate donuts and pizza and high carb diets at least 2 times a week. I now even when not tracking consciously put only healthy food in my mouth. I am sure I am still going over my limit when not tracking. I guess I am stuck with tracking as accurately on weekends too. But how am I supposed to keep that as my lifestyle! Do you guys weigh every single thing for more than 5 years?
Try weighing absolutely everything for two weeks. Make sure the entries you are using are accurate (double check them with a reputable online source like the USDA...once you get entries you know are right, you will do this less and less). Make sure you are not logging too many exercise calories; only use 50-60% or so of what MFP gives you for a particular exercise.
If you do those things, the scale will move, and then I bet you won't mind weighing and logging everything for a while!!
If the scale does not go down, but keeps going up, I vote pregnant.
FYI: I log everything, but I do not weigh absolutely everything anymore, now that I have a better handle on what a serving/portion looks like. I weigh most proteins and the croutons I put on my salad (if I don't weigh those, I would eat the whole bag!!!) So don't let the fear of it being to burdensome stop you from achieving your goals. It doesn't have to be forever, just until you get a handle on it.
I will recheck myself every few weeks to make sure I am in the ballpark, but if I ever hit a long stall, I know the first thing I will begin doing again. Weighing EVERYTHING.
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