Gained weight when I started excercising

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chopkins1976
chopkins1976 Posts: 4 Member
in Fitness and Exercise
I've been on my fitness pal for over a year and have lost about 18 pounds just from watching what I ate. After this past Christmas I gained a couple pounds back which I have been unsuccessful at losing. About a month ago I started going to the gym and doing the elliptical for about 40min and an abs machine where I would do about 2 sets of 40 "sit ups". Since then I've gained 2 pounds. I'm a female about 154/155 and 6'0. I know it's just a number buts it's driving me crazy that I added excercise and I'm gaining. I just want to get down a few pounds so I can go back to my goal weight - where I was before Christmas. Why is this happening?!

Replies

  • L1zardQueen
    L1zardQueen Posts: 8,754 Member
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    Are your clothes looser? That is more important then the number on a scale.
  • BrianKMcFalls
    BrianKMcFalls Posts: 190 Member
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    Exercising often leads to water retention, if you started training enough to be sore, the body takes that as a cue to store more water in your muscles to aid recovery. Eventually the body releases it.
  • chopkins1976
    chopkins1976 Posts: 4 Member
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    Clothes are the same after only gaining a couple pounds back and I know it's just a number but I think you and I both know that it would be maddening when you get to your goal weight and you can't get back there even adding in excersize. Thanks for the water retention tip, I did read that somewhere else too, that the body would take about 8 weeks to regulate that weight again but it is discouraging even though it shouldn't be!
  • Tonkajoe
    Tonkajoe Posts: 14 Member
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    its water .. itll balance out in a few days
  • ABballet4227
    ABballet4227 Posts: 17 Member
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    Muscle weighs more than fat. Try to focus on how you look because if you are getting some muscle tone but not at your goal weight maybe it should be acceptable. Most people will gain weight with exercise even if they lose whole inches to their waistline so keep that in mind when you look at the scale.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
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    ABballet4227 wrote: »
    Muscle weighs more than fat. Try to focus on how you look because if you are getting some muscle tone but not at your goal weight maybe it should be acceptable. Most people will gain weight with exercise even if they lose whole inches to their waistline so keep that in mind when you look at the scale.

    OP didn't gain muscle from the elliptical and a few sit ups
  • pamfgil
    pamfgil Posts: 449 Member
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    If you're maintaining you should be using a range either side of your goal, so as long as you are within range you're ok
  • natecooper75
    natecooper75 Posts: 72 Member
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    ABballet4227 wrote: »
    Muscle weighs more than fat. Try to focus on how you look because if you are getting some muscle tone but not at your goal weight maybe it should be acceptable. Most people will gain weight with exercise even if they lose whole inches to their waistline so keep that in mind when you look at the scale.

    Muscle and Fat weigh the same. Muscle is more dense than fat so 1lb of muscle doesn't take up the same amount of space as 1lb of fat. I think that is a more apt description.
  • AliceDark
    AliceDark Posts: 3,886 Member
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    Are you eating back your exercise calories?

    If yes, you may be unintentionally eating more than you think. Try eating back fewer calories.

    If no, how confident are you in how accurately you're logging? Try tightening up your logging and see if that helps.

    If no and if you're confident in your logging accuracy, it may still be water retention. Carry on for a few more weeks to see if it resolves.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
    edited April 2017
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    chopkins1976 wrote: »
    I've been on my fitness pal for over a year and have lost about 18 pounds just from watching what I ate. After this past Christmas I gained a couple pounds back which I have been unsuccessful at losing. About a month ago I started going to the gym and doing the elliptical for about 40min and an abs machine where I would do about 2 sets of 40 "sit ups". Since then I've gained 2 pounds. I'm a female about 154/155 and 6'0. I know it's just a number buts it's driving me crazy that I added excercise and I'm gaining. I just want to get down a few pounds so I can go back to my goal weight - where I was before Christmas. Why is this happening?!

    Water retention...

    Also, your maintenance weight should be a range, not a specific number...there are all kinds of things unrelated to fat accumulation that cause swings in body weight...body weight isn't static.

    ETA: I'm up 4 Lbs from yesterday...I can assure you that it isn't fat...zero of that gain is fat.
  • abundantlyme
    abundantlyme Posts: 44 Member
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    Same thing happened to me! From what I've read online, this is due to initial water retention, as others have stated above. I don't buy that I've added that much muscle. But I went from sedentary to active, and this creates water retention that will go away! Hang in there!
  • arussell134
    arussell134 Posts: 463 Member
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    OK guys. I'm seeing a lot of comments here about water retention and "muscle weighing more than fat" but very few asking the obvious question about food intake.

    I'd ALWAYS start there first. I find it's easy to gain weight when you start working out because it's easy to eat more (either thinking you've earned it or feeling hungrier).

    OP, start there. Have you been carefully logging your food intake? Look at the most likely cause first. :)
  • dmarie50
    dmarie50 Posts: 7 Member
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    Glad you posted this as the exact thing happened to me. Went from very sedentary to working out 4-5 times a week alternating cardio (elliptical or treadmill) for 40 minutes and then 30-40 minutes on various weight machines and yep I'm up 2 pounds! In reading the posts I agree it's water retention but it's still discouraging - you know how hard it is to lose a pound and how seemingly easy it is to gain one! As much as we all know it's just a number on the scale and how your clothes fit and how you feel should matter more, everyone still looks at numbers. Not sure if that stigma will EVER go away! On a side note I just read the other day that weight lifting/training works quicker when trying to lose weight - just my two cents worth.
  • adamgoleafs87
    adamgoleafs87 Posts: 129 Member
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    natecooper75 wrote: »
    ABballet4227 wrote: »
    Muscle weighs more than fat. Try to focus on how you look because if you are getting some muscle tone but not at your goal weight maybe it should be acceptable. Most people will gain weight with exercise even if they lose whole inches to their waistline so keep that in mind when you look at the scale.

    Muscle and Fat weigh the same. Muscle is more dense than fat so 1lb of muscle doesn't take up the same amount of space as 1lb of fat. I think that is a more apt description.

    Glad you beat me to it lol
  • chopkins1976
    chopkins1976 Posts: 4 Member
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    That's what is so frustrating- fitness pal is set for me to eat 1200 cal (which is as low as it will let me go) and even if I eat back my excercise cal that is still only 1600- which I try to stay under. If I estimate 12 cal per pound I weigh I could eat 1850 cal and maintain - without the working out. I've been tracking for over a year and tend to estimate on the high end of each food so I'm pretty confident about that. I'm going to try to go off what I look like and hope that in a few more weeks my body will figure out what's going on.
  • chopkins1976
    chopkins1976 Posts: 4 Member
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    Also don't think I'm building that much muscle by doing cardio!!!
  • darbunk
    darbunk Posts: 26 Member
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    1. If water rentention is the culprit, drink more water throughout the day. Your body holds on to it if it doesn't feel like it has/gets enough. This is especially important if there is soreness. Try drinking at least 1/2 oz per pound of body weight.

    2. Check that food (portions, calories) are on point. Eating too much is an obvious culprit but eating too little to fuel your daily activities can also slow weight loss efforts.

    3. This is just from my personal experience, but I could do steady-state cardio all day everyday and not lose weight or see a change in my body. It was when I started with 'vigorous calisthenics' that I saw a difference. If I do cardio it's always HIIT and I don't spend more than 30 min, and that includes a warm up and cool down. With the vigorous calisthenics, I lost inches even when the scale didn't move.

    Hang in there and good luck!

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