Gaining Weight When Exercising?

tsjourney · February 2012

Does anyone else tend to gain weight after they exercise?? It seems that every time I start seriously exercising the next day I have gained up to 4 lbs.! It is very frustrating. I know that I may be losing inches and I am, but makes no sense to me. I did not go over in my calories and drank all my water. Just curious.

dancinginatlantis · February 2012

That's either water weight or muscle gain, love!

chrislin2011 · February 2012

I also go up the next day, usually about 1-2 pounds and it seems to stay that way for a few days (sometimes a week). I've heard it is because your muscles are holding onto water trying to repair themselves. It is discouraging to work really hard and see the scale go up the next day or two.

rroberta · February 2012

You're probably building more muscle. Do you weigh yourself the next morning or evening? that can make a difference too.

amdahwd · February 2012

My cousin is a participant in an Extreme Fitness Makeover at a local gym. She said the trainers told her with her intial weight gain that when you work out, your muscles retain fluids to help to repair themselves and that is where the weight gain comes in. They also said that if you are working out, the 64 ounces of water a day rule is not good - you need to be drinking closer to a gallon a day to make sure your body is properly hydrated and not retaining fluids.

LPS1986 · February 2012

Does anyone else tend to gain weight after they exercise?? It seems that every time I start seriously exercising the next day I have gained up to 4 lbs.! It is very frustrating. I know that I may be losing inches and I am, but makes no sense to me. I did not go over in my calories and drank all my water. Just curious.

Pay attention to your overall weight loss trend and do not weight yourself immediately after exercise. Also, it might be helpful if you only track weight lost each week (though, I know I tend to weigh myself every morning). I think that, but could be wrong, you do gain a bit of water weight (but I always thought that to be pretty negligible).

People on here gave me an earful about being positive and it is so true. If you keep smiling, acknowledging the good work you do, and not sweating the small stuff...you'll lose weight (in addition to diet, exercise and positive support). Also, you have to give it longer than one day! Be positive and keep it up, long term benefits will come!

BarbWhite09 · February 2012

Your body will retain water to help repair the muscle that was worked during the workout. I forgot the actual name for what it's called, but yea...just water retention. Same thing happens to me.

lizard053 · February 2012

I have that happen all the time! Better to gain a little for muscle, because it will help you lose more in the long run. Help flush the water weight with extra water. I believe an average of 8 ounces per half hour, minimum.

Real_Cool_Hand · February 2012

That's happened to me before. I tend to retain water like crazy. It gets really frustrating, but I'm "losing" again (meaning the 4 pounds I was up are gone again. I also switched up my routine. I read/heard somewhere (not sure if it was online or one of my fitness mags?) that muscles can hang on to water weight while they are repairing, espcecially when you first start exercising.
Here's an article from LiveStrong that kind of explains that:
http://www.livestrong.com/article/351391-water-retention-in-muscles-after-exercise/

wellbert · February 2012

It's water.

muscle gains in ounces per week, not in pounds.

tsjourney · February 2012

Thanks for all the info! I kind of thought that about the water retention in the muscles but still don't like it! Gonna keep going though and eventually it will even up and start coming back down again! Didn't realize about drinking more water, very helpful!

Gaining Weight When Exercising?

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