When does post workout weight gain go away?

When i did insanity I gained ten lbs! But felt and looked much better. The number on the scale doesn't tell the whole story. Having said that, I do understand and empathize.. it's frustrating to kill yourself in the gym and not see changes.

Do you just do cardio? Cardio and low cal tend to backfire together. Do you do resistance training? HIIT? Adding 2-3 days of those and cutting back on steady state cardio do a lot in the way of retaining/building muscle. Cardio isn't enough to protect muscle, and in fact tends to cause you to lose muscle over time. This is why people who run marathons can still have a jiggly middle.

I also highly recommend taking pictures and measurements every 2-4 weeks if you aren't already. The improvements will be much easier to spot!

Good luck!

My weight jumped up about 3 lbs for a couple weeks before it went back down (after I started a structured lifting program).

3 lbs is really insignificant, isn't it? You will always have fluctuation. As you lose, you will still fluctuate up and down as you go. This is what it means when we say "Weight loss is not linear." Keep in mind that you are concerned about FAT loss for this journey. Fat loss will always go down if you are eating at a deficit. Always. The fluctuations are caused by WATER, which increases with exercise, after eating a high sodium meal, time of month, and other factors. Water weight will always go up and down. Sometimes it's hard to know the difference on the scale, so we just keep plugging away at our plan.

I didn't believe my trainer the first time I gained 5 lbs and he said that fluctuations are normal. I'd never heard of this before and I needed to prove it to myself. I began to weigh daily and track in a trending app like Happy Scale. This helped me to see the pattern of fluctuations and the overall trend. I hit a new low on weight a couple of times a month, and this is how I knew I was losing FAT. I lost 150 lbs this way, fluctuating the whole time. I've been in maintenance for 10 months, and I still weigh daily and I still fluctuate like crazy. It's even harder to sort out any gains due to fat vs water now, but I do my best to keep an even overall monthly trendline.

3 lbs is really insignificant, isn't it?

Not when you're only 5'3" and don't have that much weight to lose. I'm a little shorter than the OP and 3 lbs is a big deal to me- whether it's up or down.

DomoPoa wrote: »

lmroessler wrote: »

3 lbs is really insignificant, isn't it?

Not when you're only 5'3" and don't have that much weight to lose. I'm a little shorter than the OP and 3 lbs is a big deal to me- whether it's up or down.

Haha thanks! I e heard it's harder to lose weight the lighter you are too I know a lot of people might think that 137-140 isn't a big deal but it makes a big difference. Especially when you're goal is 110. I'm scared I might never get there

Even at 5'6 the difference between 147 and 150 was very noticeable to me!

not going to critique the op's experience, perception or goals because it's a long weekend and i just want to have fun.

just going to answer the question itself: for me, three or four extra lifting pounds hang around until long after i've gotten used to them and forgotten to be invested in them suddenly going away. three or four or more weeks, i guess.

still not critiquing your experience, but fwiw, i'm pretty #meh about it because post-workout weight sits in my muscles. so it's distributed all over me and i don't feel nearly the animosity towards it that i feel when an extra two pounds of post-face-stuffing fat attach themselves to specific parts of my body. l

BabyBear76 wrote: »

DomoPoa wrote: »

I worked out pretty hard WED and gained 4lbs! I had swelling in my legs (but have went down) but the scale still says I've gained 4lbs!!! But I'm eating about 1-1.200 diet. Cardio Wed only burned like 160 b/c of an unrelated pain.

Before anyone mentions my calorie intake if I eat anymore I gain weight! Im trying very hard to lose weight. I eat tons of vegetables and good protein like fish and baked/grilled chicken. Nothing fried! I drink 12-16 cups of water a day and sometimes a cup of tea.

I'm 27 5'3. I'm getting super discouraged I've been increasing my cardio for a month and can not make any progress. So when I went from a 137 to 140 I'm super depressed now. I'm hoping that this is just muscle bloat.

Does anyone know the time frame from post workout bloat goes away?

Cardio will not help you lose more weight. It doesn't, not unless you are doing HIIT for at least 45 minutes. Weight lifting will burn fat faster than anything else! There are two main reasons: 1. Unlike cardio where you burn calories for only a short time after you stop, with weight lifting, your body will continue to burn calories for up to 3 hours after you finish your workout!!!
2. For every 1 pound of muscle you have, your body will burn an additional 100 calories a day, just to maintain that muscle. So, if you gain 5lbs of muscle, you will burn and additional 500 calories a day by purely existing. That's why bodybuilders need to eat 6,000 calories a day (or more) to "maintain" thier weight.
While the scale might move up, your pants size will shrink! And hey, do you really care what the scale says if you're dropping clothing sizes???

A calorie deficit is what makes a dent in your fat stores. Whether it's by eating less or moving more or a combination, a calorie deficit is what tells your body to burn some of its fat.

A pound of muscle burns 6-10 calories per day.