Weight gain from exercise

sharkura
sharkura Posts: 7
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello,all. There really is a question at the end of this explication.

I recently lost a significant amount of weight during treatment for throat cancer ... btw, I kicked its *kitten*.

Now that I am able to eat food again, I have decided to continue to eat more healthily, and am using MFP to track my caloric intake, with a goal loss of 35 more lbs at about 1.5 lbs per week.

This was working quite well, and I made it down another 23 lbs to 192 lbs.

At about that time, I started a walking regimen of 10,000 steps a day (about five miles). I track this using a FitBit, and linked the fitbit.com website to myfitnesspal.com so that they cross link exercise and caloric intake.

However, at my next weigh in, I noticed that my weight had jumped about 5 lbs. I considered that this might be fluctuations due to water weight and other factors, but subsequent weigh ins fluctuated (like normally) around that five pound gain.

I plateau'd there for about a week, and have started to drop down, and am now at 196.

Does anyone know if this level of sudden increase could be due to conversion of fat in my legs and *kitten* into muscle, which is denser than fat?

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Replies

  • sharkura
    sharkura Posts: 7
    PS ... I try not to obsess over weight so much ... trying more to focus on reduction of body fat percentage, which currently appears to be about 26%.

    But, weight is an indicator, in any case.

    ¦{Þ
  • wolfehound22
    wolfehound22 Posts: 859 Member
    Well, I wouldn't say its muscle, as you wouldn't of gained that much muscle that quick, but its also not fat, as you would of had to of eaten a huge amount of access calories to gain that in fat. MOre than likely its due to the sudden cahnge in activity. With the extra working out, your body and muscles are holding on to extra water, so its more or less water weight. Some of that is muscle, but definnittly not 5 lbs worth of it. Just keep doing what your doing, and start focusing on pics and measurements, this will help to give you a better indication of your losses and gains.
  • vim_n_vigor
    vim_n_vigor Posts: 4,089 Member
    When changing a workout routine, many times our bodies will hold extra water to protect and repair the muscles. Once our bodies adjust, we begin to lose that water weight. I can gain up to 10 pounds when starting a different workout routine.
  • DixiedoesMFP
    DixiedoesMFP Posts: 935 Member
    Good for you for kicking its *kitten*!

    My best guess would be that it is a combination of water retention and glycogen storage being used for muscle repair.
  • twinmom01
    twinmom01 Posts: 854 Member
    Good for you for kicking its *kitten*!

    My best guess would be that it is a combination of water retention and glycogen storage being used for muscle repair.

    ^^^^^^ this....

    I wouldn't worry to much about the number on the scale as you can get smaller and leaner all without the stupid number moving...

    My scale can fluctuate as much as 5 lbs in a day or two depending on what my workout is like....
  • sharkura
    sharkura Posts: 7
    Thanks, everyone, for the great information.

    I knew that there was often fluctuation in weight due to water, but I did not know about the body's mechanism for retaining water to aid in muscle reconstruction.

    This is good to know. As I said, I am not obsessing about numbers, but I had never seen that particular pattern of weight change.

    Thanks again for your help.

    ¦{Þ

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