exercise the enemy?

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jesshale
jesshale Posts: 6 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
For the last 3 months I have stuck to my calories, made great changes to my diet and lost 12 lbs, yay! But last week I decided it was time to add some exercise in. I started doing 30 min of cardio 3 days a week, and when I did my weekly weigh in I had gained 2.5 pounds!! I had still been under my calories and eating well. So how does that work?! And WHY? What's the point of exercise if it doesn't help me get to my goal?

I'm just feeling discouraged.

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  • AZackery
    AZackery Posts: 2,035 Member
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    For the last 3 months I have stuck to my calories, made great changes to my diet and lost 12 lbs, yay! But last week I decided it was time to add some exercise in. I started doing 30 min of cardio 3 days a week, and when I did my weekly weigh in I had gained 2.5 pounds!! I had still been under my calories and eating well. So how does that work?! And WHY? What's the point of exercise if it doesn't help me get to my goal?

    I'm just feeling discouraged.

    Jesshale, first off, congratulation on your loss. How do and when do you weigh yourself? The 2.5 gain you have seen could be from water retention. The night before you have weighed yourself, you've probably have consume too much sodium. You're probably not eating enough food for the workouts you have been doing.

    Don't give up and please don't focus on scale weight. Scale weight loss and fat loss aren't the same thing. Starting tracking your body fat percentage and inches. You will see days where the scale don't move or your scale weight go up.

    You can do this! Believe in yourself.
  • kmbrooks15
    kmbrooks15 Posts: 941 Member
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    Did you eat additional calories to make up for the exercise (MFP refers to this as "eating back your exercise calories")? Here's an example of what I mean:

    When you set up your account with MFP, they recommend a calorie level to eat for weight loss that assumes you are NOT exercising. If you eat that amount and don't exercise, you should lose weight. So let's assume they tell you to eat 1200.

    If you add exercise into that equation, you are now burning more than originally stated, making your calorie deficit larger. Too-large a calorie deficit can actually slow down or stall your weight loss. So, assuming you earn, say, 400 calories from exercise and don't eat extra, you now are netting only 800 calories. Your body needs more than that just to function (use the tools function here on MFP to figure your BMR--the amount of calories you'd burn just lying in bed all day).

    You might want to try eating more when you work out. There are lots of threads on here about this, too, with some really good information in them. I'd encourage you to read them and try eating more. You might find that it jumpstarts things again.

    Good luck!
  • UponThisRock
    UponThisRock Posts: 4,522 Member
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    water fluctuations
  • engineman312
    engineman312 Posts: 3,450 Member
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    water fluctuations

    this. it's probably water. and you can't weigh yourself everyday. try once a week, on the morning of the day AFTER your rest day.
  • _JamieB_
    _JamieB_ Posts: 417 Member
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    water fluctuations

    this. it's probably water. and you can't weigh yourself everyday. try once a week, on the morning of the day AFTER your rest day.

    I actually took my scale out of my bathroom and only weighed in once a month for quite some time, this helped a lot!!!!
  • therealangd
    therealangd Posts: 1,861 Member
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    Water.

    Your muscles retain water while they are trying to repair. Also, make sure you are not overestimating your exercise calories.
  • jesshale
    jesshale Posts: 6 Member
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    Thanks you guys.

    I usually weigh in in the morning before I eat. And I'm sure sodium has something to do with it.

    I have been eating my extra calories on workout days. I usually have around 50 calories left. I'm not one who can starve myself :)
  • vim_n_vigor
    vim_n_vigor Posts: 4,089 Member
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    Depending on the type of exercise, and since it is new to your body, you can hold water for a while. Any time I start a very different workout, I plan on seeing anywhere from 4-8 pounds fluctuation up on the scale for anywhere up to 3 weeks before dropping the water weight and showing a loss. Make sure you are eating enough calories for the amount of activity you are doing and keep up the exercise!
  • KarenPostmus
    KarenPostmus Posts: 47
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    I had the exact same thing, which I attributed to building muscle mass - give your body a bit of time to adjust:) And for sure eat a little more when you work out, your body will learn to use it more efficiently. Personally I had to give myself about 3-4 months before I started seeing the scale creep down, but my inches dropped much quicker! All the best:)

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