gaining weight as I gain muscle?

I can tell you it isn't muscle mass. You need a caloric surplus to increase lean muscle mass unless you are talking noob gains or are morbidly obese. The weight gain is water. I have a feeling it's from not eating enough calories. Also, why are you doing cardio 6 days a week, I am curious. In reality, if you are trying to tone up, then the biggest thing you need to do is drop cardio to 1-2 days a week and do WT 3-4 days a week and if possible one yoga day.


So the first 10 lbs are generally easy as it's very little fat loss, it's more water weight due to the change in diet/routine. So my question comes down to, how much do you weigh and how tall are you. Once you provide this we can determine caloric needs. Also, as you approach your goal, the smaller the caloric deficit can be as your body will fight harder to preserve body fat. It does this as a defense mechanism to provide energy.

The same has happened to me. I'm gaining weight, but I'm losing inches. I'm happy with losing inches

To me too, but I am gaining weight but NOT losing inches. I am getting really really frustrated.

I believe you are eating too little and doing too much cardio. I plugged you data in at www.fat2fitradio.com. For moderately active, the calories it gave me back at your age height and weight was 2124. At your current activity level you are very active. I pretty much think Psulemon nailed it. You cannot gain muscle beyond slight newbie gains in a deficit. You are likey seeing a water weight gain from not eating enough and lifting is contributing to that. If I were you, I would do exactly as he recommeded. Up your intake, reduce your cardio and lift heavy 3x per week. The changes that you are seeing in your body will continue and you will get more shapely and leaner. If that keeps happening, do you really care what the scales says?

Can you or dear Mr. Lemon explain to newbie here why not eating enough could lead to "water gain"? I honestly want to know. thanks.

I can tell you it isn't muscle mass. You need a caloric surplus to increase lean muscle mass unless you are talking noob gains or are morbidly obese. The weight gain is water. I have a feeling it's from not eating enough calories. Also, why are you doing cardio 6 days a week, I am curious. In reality, if you are trying to tone up, then the biggest thing you need to do is drop cardio to 1-2 days a week and do WT 3-4 days a week and if possible one yoga day.


So the first 10 lbs are generally easy as it's very little fat loss, it's more water weight due to the change in diet/routine. So my question comes down to, how much do you weigh and how tall are you. Once you provide this we can determine caloric needs. Also, as you approach your goal, the smaller the caloric deficit can be as your body will fight harder to preserve body fat. It does this as a defense mechanism to provide energy.

^^^ yep.

Congrats on doing cardio 6 days a week, ensuring that your body does what it has evolved to do -- which is rapidly adapt to exercise. You're probably only burning 1/4 of the calories you think you are. Since you are counting your excercise calories, you are most likely eating too much food.

Hence why you should never count exercise calories in regards to losing weight.

I believe you are eating too little and doing too much cardio. I plugged you data in at www.fat2fitradio.com. For moderately active, the calories it gave me back at your age height and weight was 2124. At your current activity level you are very active. I pretty much think Psulemon nailed it. You cannot gain muscle beyond slight newbie gains in a deficit. You are likey seeing a water weight gain from not eating enough and lifting is contributing to that. If I were you, I would do exactly as he recommeded. Up your intake, reduce your cardio and lift heavy 3x per week. The changes that you are seeing in your body will continue and you will get more shapely and leaner. If that keeps happening, do you really care what the scales says?

Can you or dear Mr. Lemon explain to newbie here why not eating enough could lead to "water gain"? I honestly want to know. thanks.

I'll give it a shot. If you are not eating enough, your body is going to resist loss as a survival tactic. Retaining water is one of the ways it does this. Also, when you are lifting, you muscle tissue take in water and glycogen to repair and rebuild. The combination of those 2 things would be the probable culprits if the scale goes up. Especially given that the OP is eating so little and exercising so much and suddenly shows a gain. Based on her intake and burn, if it's accurate, she sure didn't eat 7000 or so extra calories to gain a couple of pounds!

So the others gave a good reason for why it's water weight. But below are three good links. They should be read multiple times. The first, pretty much describes why you shouldn't do cardio and resistance training together. In a nutshell, your body will compete for resources to repair itself. The second one talks about weight loss vs fat loss. And here is the simple way I put it, weight loss makes you look good in clothes, but fat loss makes you look good naked. Doing lots of cardio and eating low calories, make you lose muscle. Muscle is what makes you look good. You will look a lot better in a naked at 145 lbs @ 20% body fat, as compared to 130 @ 20% body fat because you have an extra 12 lbs of muscle. This is even more demonstrated by spngebobmyher's post on Staci. The last link describes the outcome of a high calorie deficit.



http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/504130-why-i-m-not-for-cardio-and-resistance-concurrently

http://www.metaboliceffect.com/topic/38-nutrition-lifestyle.aspx


http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/why-big-caloric-deficits-and-lots-of-activity-can-hurt-fat-loss.html



So to take it one step further, I did a experiment with a person on MFP. She is 36 yr old, 5'5, and was 154 lbs. She did zero cardio and lifted 4 times a week. Days she lifted, she ate 2100 calories and days she didn't, she ate 1800 calories. Below is what she responded with.

"I just wanted to thank you for your help. You helped me a few months back and I just wanted to give you an update on my progress. 12 weeks ago I started at 154 and 28% bf. I got my bf remeasured last Friday and it was 24%. But I only lost 1 pound. It is crazy to me but I have learned to ignore the scale. You were right that keeping consistent and not giving up my body would finally adjust.

Thanks again for your help!

Stephanie"

I'm gaining weight also. Im only trying to lose 5 lbs..no I'm not overweight at all but just trying to get rid of my mommy fat around my middle. I started at 138 and am now 140 in 3 weeks. I've been hiking with 6 lbs of ankle weights a so I think my legs are chunking up. I feel my back fat less jiggly...and I think my stomach is getting less wiggly...I should have measured myself to gauge and not used weight.

Good for you for losing inches..

You should stop concentrating on weight and start concentrating on cutting fat. If you lose weight, it doesn't mean you will lose it all from your belly. You make lose .5 lb from your arms, .5 from our calves, etc.. But if you start heavy weight training and have a small calorie deficit, then you will cut body fat and that is what gives you that hot in a bathing suit look.

Thank you again to all who answered my question on "water weight gain".

However, for 99% of my life time I think I will be wearing some sort of clothes. So looking good naked is important but I still want to look better with clothes on. So down in weight is still in my mind. I will continue with my study and go ahead reading the links.

Down in weight doesn't mean down in dress or pant size. Down in body fat is where tighten the body. So would you rather be a size 8 or size 6 for example? The more muscle you have and the less body fat you have, the "skinnier" your body will be. You can stay the same weight and drop clothing size. In fact, I recently did that. I lost a total of 1 lb but I am down another notch in my belt. Weight is purely meaning and when you start concentrating on cutting fat, you will see huge results. Just check out the links below and you will see what I mean.



http://nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/07/21/meet-staci-your-new-powerlifting-super-hero/

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/392784-skinny-fat-vs-fit-photo?hl=skinny+fat

I'm doing mostly bodyweight exercises right now. I haven't lost any weight since I started this new program (I bought Lose Weight in 8 from ExerciseTV before they shut down), but I just added 2 more pairs of jeans to my "fit" pile, and I had to buy smaller tops.

Thank you again to all who answered my question on "water weight gain".

However, for 99% of my life time I think I will be wearing some sort of clothes. So looking good naked is important but I still want to look better with clothes on. So down in weight is still in my mind. I will continue with my study and go ahead reading the links.

Down in weight doesn't mean down in dress or pant size. Down in body fat is where tighten the body. So would you rather be a size 8 or size 6 for example? The more muscle you have and the less body fat you have, the "skinnier" your body will be. You can stay the same weight and drop clothing size. In fact, I recently did that. I lost a total of 1 lb but I am down another notch in my belt. Weight is purely meaning and when you start concentrating on cutting fat, you will see huge results. Just check out the links below and you will see what I mean.



http://nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/07/21/meet-staci-your-new-powerlifting-super-hero/

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/392784-skinny-fat-vs-fit-photo?hl=skinny+fat

Hi Mr. Lemon,
I already started my daily reading with the second link you provided in the first post. So far I am simply stunned by how contradicting all these theories are against each other.

Of course down in size the ultmate goal. I started with light weights (5lb *2）with low reps a bout 3 months ago and didn't increase cardio at the same time. Guess what happened? I didn't just gain the weight, but also inches. I can see my stomach and waist more defined an toned but the the inches are bigger. How frustrating! Then I did massive research and find out that it might be lack of cardio. Then I increased the cardio to 1 hour jogging 5 days a week...And guess what happend now after 2 weeks? I gained 2 more pounds and inches didn't shrink either. I am in a dead end and feel seriously depressed...

The gaining of weight and inches is temporary and very common when you start new exercise. It's your muscles response to fixing itself. It's a bloating affect. Sometimes it goes away in a week, sometimes a few weeks and some take a month. But if you increase exercise, you need to increase calories. Alos, light weight/high reps is for muscle endurance and won't cause your muscles to actively repair itself so you wont get post activation results.

I will make you a deal, send me a private message. I will set you up on a diet and exercise program where you will see results, i guarantee it. All I request is you give me 8 -12 weeks and you be honest with yourself.

OK message sent. Please check. So you are saying my WT routine is not ideal for fat loss? that's my starting point considering I had never done anything in that department. I also got a pair of 20 pound weight.

that is very possible, check out this story:

http://www.nerdfitness.com/blog/2011/07/21/meet-staci-your-new-powerlifting-super-hero/

Sorry but no it is not - check out how much Staci eats.

Before I had a baby, when I weighted the most I wore the smallest size. I looked good! I now weigh 12 lbs less but my waist is a lot bigger because I have so much less muscle and so much more fat on my body. Muscle weighs more than fat.

Don't get hung up on the numbers on the scale. Inches mean much more. Using photos to track the changes in your body instead of tracking your weight is better in my opinion. I haven't set a weight goal because I want to look better but I know that getting a better proportioned body does not mean simply weighing less.