Started working out and gained weight!!

[SMP76]

I started working out about 3 months ago, zumba and weights, and have gained weight. About 8 pounds. I am averaging about 650 calories burned each workout. My diet is good. Pretty clean over all so I don't think that's it. Help!!!

[WendyB]

When starting to workout your muscles will retain water and cause a gain. But it usually works itself out after about 2 weeks.

Are you measuring your food to make sure you are getting a proper serving size? Are you logging your food?

Have you taken measurements? You could of lost inches and no weight as well

[Mukluk4]

Define a good diet?

In many cases, people tend to eat more because they work out under a bad assumption that they earned it or that they have a larger deficit than they really do.

As said before, you should really track BF% and clothes more than weight.

[roxysiren]

I'm having the same problem. I started about 6 weeks ago, and may start weight was 133 and now I'm at 138. I've cut out alcohol, drink only water, eat lots of veggies, and include protein in all my meals. I've pretty much cut out pasta, prepackaged foods. I average 10-15,000 steps a day, so I don't know what I'm doing wrong. It's really frustrating. I'm glad I'm not the only one dealing with this. I just don't know what else to do at this point.

[SMP76]

You are definitely not the only one!! I lost 50 pounds about 5 years ago and have been able to keep that off, which I know is an amazing thing. It was after my 2 children were born and I did it with diet alone. Now My kids are finally at an age where I can start to focus on me more. My diet is like yours, lots of veggies and protein. I have cut back on fruit because it bloats me big time. I don't eat bread, rice, pasta,  processed foods, etc. I also suffer from IBS so I have to watch what I eat with that too. People wonder how I eat so well and don't lose. I'm stuck so I thought working out would help. And for the first time in my life I am actually enjoying the sweat!!! So it's frustrating to be working so hard and the scale just went up. 

[SMP76]

I finally took some measurements last week to track my progress. I am very attached to the scale because of always struggling with my weight, I have to get away from it a bit.

[Dominique]

---

@SMP76 wrote:

People wonder how I eat so well and don't lose. 

---

Maintaining your weight is about energy balance (calories): having your caloric intake match your energy expenditure. Food composition ("eating well/clean") is primarily about health: getting all the macro- and micronutrients you need to function, and from quality sources. It’s possible to gain weight while "clean eating" (though it’s harder than when eating junk food). It’s also possible to lose weight while eating a lot of junk (though it’s harder than when clean eating), as proven by Professor Haub and his "Twinkie diet". 

You’re already making good food choices, which is great. Now you need to pay attention to the quantitative side (e.g. portion size and items high in calories). Just because olive oil, nuts and avocados are healthy foods (and they definitely are) doesn’t mean you can eat any amount of them and lose weight: they do contain a lot of calories, so there’s only so much of them you can eat, and it takes a lot of activity to "out-exercise" a single avocado.

[Dominique]

---

@SMP76 wrote:

I finally took some measurements last week to track my progress. I am very attached to the scale because of always struggling with my weight, I have to get away from it a bit.

---

Taking body measurements and using the scale don’t need to be mutually exclusive, they’re more complementary. If you want to lose fat, you should definitely look at the scale (it’s very unlikely that you would gain so much muscle it would hide your fat loss), but also at your waist circumference. With the scale, you should look at longer term trends rather than day-to-day fluctuations. If you’re not familiar with it, have a look at TrendWeight: it’s a free, web-based service that pulls your weight (and body fat, if applicable) data from your Fitbit account.

[Daves_Not_Here]

Totally agreeing with @Dominique.  Log all your eating and eat less.

[FriendlystNinja]

Muscle weighs more than fat.  As you gain more muscle, you will also lose fat. However the scale may not move much. Muscles are sexy so please don't put so much value in weight. The best value is in keeping your healthy habits over time.  Bonus, muscle burns fat even at rest. Soon your new muscles are working in your favor to help trim fat.

[Dominique]

---

@FriendlystNinja wrote:

Muscle weighs more than fat.  As you gain more muscle, you will also lose fat.

---

Yes, muscle is denser than fat, so given the same volume, muscle indeed weighs more than fat. However, gaining muscle doesn’t automatically cause fat loss. In fact, you tend to see one or the other, but seldom both at the same time.

A few facts about muscle gains and fat loss:

• you must be in a caloric deficit in order to lose fat
• for optimal muscle gains, you should be in a caloric surplus
• gaining muscle is a slow process, even for young males eating at a surplus (the best candidates for muscle gains)
• gaining muscle is even slower for females and older males (same reason: lower level of testosterone)
• in order to gain muscle, you need to provide a sufficient stimulus (resistance training based on progressive overload); simply "exercising" (which for most dieters – especially females  –  tends to mean aerobic exercise) doesn’t usually provide that stimulus

For all these reasons, it’s unlikely the OP’s weight went up because she gained so much muscle it offset her fat loss.

[FriendlystNinja]

I'm simply trying to encourage someone not to give up. I did not state any specific cause or effect.

I have never heard that you cannot lose fat and gain muscle at the same time. I will try more research but this is counter to everything I've ever read. But hey, I love learning something new.

Generally though, muscle does have a higher metabolism. I am referring to this when I say more muscle helps burn calories.

I'm not stating that this is happening to the OP. I am simply encouraging her to keep exercising.

[KDCross]

This happened to me as well. So, this is the advice I have been given by my trainers and nutritionist: 

Muscle weighs more than fat. So you probably are losing fat by doing zumba, etc. However, at the same time you are gaining lean muscle. This is a good thing! It's just that the muscle gain is leaving you at a plateau. Also with exercising more, you need to adjust your diet to match so that your body get the nutrients it needs in the amounts it needs so that it does not store food in the form of fat in your body (from not getting enough calories/food/nutrients).

So, you could stick with what your doing and you will see weight loss, just not as immediate as you would if you weren't exercising and just eating right. 

Or, if you are truly worried, you could cut back on the exercise to focus more on weight loss.

& measure yourself! I've been discouraged by the scale before, but when I take measurements I find that I have lost inches!

It is a double edged sword sometimes, but don't get discouraged!!! 

[VG81]

You are not alone! I was also around 134 and this morning hit 138. This last week I have worked out about 5 days with lifting, yoga and cardio. It's frustrating and discouraging.

[bBuck17]

I'm so glad I'm not alone. I've recently introduced ProJym into my diet again to help with muscle recovery. I'm hoping it helps with water retention. Good luck! 

---

---

[Barb1900]

Hello, I have the same issue. I started working out 3-4 months ago. Track my food. Gym- 4-5 times a week but no weight lost. I have gained 5 lb and I feel bloated. I really don't know what is going on. 

[SunsetRunner]

@Barb1900 could be many reasons. One is that you are measuring your food with error ( are you compensating for extra calories burned through workout? ). Feeling bloated may indicated wrong food ( maybe too much sodium ), something that doesn't work with your current process. Maybe you switched to plant based diet which very often results with bloatedness. Mind that workout doesn't guarantee the weightloss. You can lose weight without any workout but pretty much you can't without proper diet. If for some reason food makes me feel unwell than I take a break of one day limiting calories, drinking water, going to sleep pretty much hungry. One "crash" day won't cause issues and will let your body to do the work it needs to go back to normal. Next day is like reboot. In my case however it isn't for a weightloss but simply to get rid of the "upset body" feeling which very often I experience after coming back from holiday abroad 😉

[nightsparrow]

especially when lifting consistently you will see an increase in a weight but a decrease in visible body fat. It is a good sign not a bad one. When i first started working out about 2 years ago I weighed 40 lbs less and looked like a stick. I know have gained 40-45 pounds and have lost about 5% body fat. Keep up the good work and stay strong!