Gaining lbs from exercise!

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43105mom
43105mom Posts: 3 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I have been working my program perfectly...staying under my daily calorie goal, eating a paleo diet. I do orange theory classes 3-4 times a week and have GAINED 4 pounds in 2 weeks versus losing!!! I know fitness pal does not account for.muscle gain...but it's discouraging to say the least. Any advice out there?

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  • not_a_runner
    not_a_runner Posts: 1,343 Member
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    Muscle gains are not that fast. There is no way you gained 4 pounds of muscle in two weeks. Maaaybe 2 months, but not two weeks.
    Any other factors that could have thrown off your weigh in? Bowel movement, TOM? Higher sodium intake recently?
  • Parfumista
    Parfumista Posts: 15 Member
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    4 lbs in 2 weeks is most definitely not muscle gain. I usually gain 1-2 lbs thanks to water retention after a workout, could be the same for you. Are you drinking enough?
    Log your food, as long as you burn more calories than you eat you will lose weight.
  • flippy1234
    flippy1234 Posts: 686 Member
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    Same thing happens to me. Frustrating. I rarely step on the scale because eI don't want to get discouraged so I go mainly how my clothes fit.
  • Asher_Ethan
    Asher_Ethan Posts: 2,430 Member
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    Do you eat back what you burned from exercise? How do you calculate your exercise burn? Why do you eat a paleo diet?
  • 43105mom
    43105mom Posts: 3 Member
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    It's a big mystery. I wear a heart monitor in class that calculates what I burn/session. I enter the calories burned in fitness pal and stay under the caloric goal for weight loss (calculated for 2 lbs a week). Since I started tracking everything and really focused on losing a few pounds to lean out...the scale has gone up 4 pounds since my first weigh in 2 weeks ago. It's not TOM and BM is normal. I have a lot more muscle definition and clothes are fitting a little loser...I've just want the scale going DOWN!
  • rileyes
    rileyes Posts: 1,406 Member
    edited April 2016
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    43105mom wrote: »
    It's a big mystery. I wear a heart monitor in class that calculates what I burn/session. I enter the calories burned in fitness pal and stay under the caloric goal for weight loss (calculated for 2 lbs a week). Since I started tracking everything and really focused on losing a few pounds to lean out...the scale has gone up 4 pounds since my first weigh in 2 weeks ago. It's not TOM and BM is normal. I have a lot more muscle definition and clothes are fitting a little loser...I've just want the scale going DOWN!

    Muscles get a "pump" (muscles may seem to grow) from certain activity. Basically your muscles may be retaining water and eventually (4-6 weeks) the swelling may lessen as you improve your fitness in that activity.

    My understanding is that you have to progressively add resistance to improve (add muscle). And eating at maintenance or above can help nourish the muscle growth.

    The scale may go out the window once you see your clothes fitting better. (Someone post that Stacie? Nerd Fitness article)
    ETA: here it is--> https://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/07/21/meet-staci-your-new-powerlifting-super-hero/
  • Psychgrrl
    Psychgrrl Posts: 3,177 Member
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    How are you tracking your intake? Are you weighing your solid foods and measuring your liquids? You could be eating more than you think. You can gain weight eating any diet no matter how "healthy" and lose weight eating "junk."

    If I measure out a 1/2 cup of black beans and 130g is the equivalent survey, that 130g is less than that half a cup. One egg is really 1.2 egg and 1 piece of cheese is really 1.15 pieces of cheese. And so on. Over time, those calories can really add up.

    Have you tried a weight trending program like Happy Scale, Libra, or Trendweight? It shows the big picture through all the daily ups and downs so you can see where you really headed long term.

    I do agree it's not that much muscle in so little time.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
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    43105mom wrote: »
    I have been working my program perfectly...staying under my daily calorie goal, eating a paleo diet. I do orange theory classes 3-4 times a week and have GAINED 4 pounds in 2 weeks versus losing!!! I know fitness pal does not account for.muscle gain...but it's discouraging to say the least. Any advice out there?

    If it were possible to put on muscle that fast, pretty much every guy on the planet would be jacked like Arnold.

    You're either 1) retaining water or 2) eating more than you think you are. Number 2 is easy to do...erroneous entries in the database are a big factor...so is estimating your servings and portions.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,996 Member
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    I gained seven pounds of water weight when I started lifting weights again last fall. Came off pretty quickly. Hang in there!
  • BrianSharpe
    BrianSharpe Posts: 9,248 Member
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    43105mom wrote: »
    It's a big mystery. I wear a heart monitor in class that calculates what I burn/session. I enter the calories burned in fitness pal and stay under the caloric goal for weight loss (calculated for 2 lbs a week). Since I started tracking everything and really focused on losing a few pounds to lean out...the scale has gone up 4 pounds since my first weigh in 2 weeks ago. It's not TOM and BM is normal. I have a lot more muscle definition and clothes are fitting a little loser...I've just want the scale going DOWN!

    If you're clothes are fitting better and you're getting more muscle definition why do you care what the scale says?

  • Hornsby
    Hornsby Posts: 10,322 Member
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    Are you weighing and measuring your intake with a scale?

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