I started working out three days a week two weeks ago. I’m feeling much better and I already have more energy.
I walk for 30 minutes twice a week and I lift weights three times a week. I’m a little sore, but nothing too bad, I’m building strength, especially in my chest, and I feel great, as I said.
Why am I gaining weight? I weighed myself before I started, 231. Next week, 237, this week, 247. Same scale, same clothing. Ardred, doing the same workout without the walking has lost six pounds in the same period, using the same scale.
How do your pants fit? If they feel loser even though you way more, then it’s probably just the fact that muscle weighs more than fat that accounts for it.
You definitely have to watch what you eat, and working out doesn’t give you carte blanche. When you realize that the average car can go a mile or two on just a cup of gasoline, and that the chief hydrocarbons of gasoline are very similar in composition to dietary trigycerides, you see why they say you have to walk an ungodly amount to work off a few pounds.
When I first started working out I found myself ravenous after workouts. You literally could not fill me up. My body was begging for protein and replenishment and I didn’t understand that and filled up on the wrong stuff. I too gained weight (though not 16 lbs-I think roughly 5lb) and after some online reading and careful scrutinization of my diet realised I was eating more than I was burning.
Now, a year on I still need to be replenished though not nearly as drastically so I make sure to have a yummy protein chocolate shake handy to fill me up til my next meal.
I haven’t changed my diet at all. I may eat slightly less because I’m not as hungry after I work out.
I just thought of something. Hormones. I may have put on water weight with the onset of my period. It seems like a ton, but I think it’s always this much, I just don’t weigh myself every week when I’m not working out.
I’ll try again next week and we’ll see what happens.
I think you’ve got a good idea waiting 'til next week to weigh again. Until then, don’t go near the scale - if you’re about to have a period, it’s not fun to watch your weight creep up, even if you’re making a strong effort to achieve the opposite effect. I tend to gain 4 pounds prior to my period, and I hear some women gain even more. Hormones are a bitch, aren’t they?
Are you weighing yourself at the same time each week? If you drank even glass of water before you weighed yourself, you added that glass of water to the total and water is HEAVY.
My weighing routine:
Get up on Sunday
Bathroom visit
Strip
Weigh
Not weighing myself during the week saves me the mean old scale ups and downs as a result of fluctuations during the week.
Retaining water is the most likely explanation, especially if it is your time of the month. And don’t eat a bunch of crap that you wouldn’t otherwise just cause you’re working out.
You’re not going to gain any serious amount of muscle in two weeks, and I defy anyone who says “muscle weighs more than fat” to explain exactly what that means and how it could account for weight gain.
Muscle is more dense than fat. From USA Weekend.com August 12, 2001: “Lean or fat-free muscle tissue is about 22% more dense than fat tissue.” Muscle is denser than fat, but takes up less room. So, if you work out with aerobics and strength training and replace a pound of puffy fat with a pound of lean muscle, your weight will stay the same, but you will be slimmer.
It’s a good idea to whip out a tape measure and get a measurement of your hips, bust, waist, thighs, upper arms so when the scale won’t budge, you can still see the progress.
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