In the Forum - I'm gaining weight!

Muscle weighs more than fat. It’s possible to gain at first from developing more muscle but muscle burns more calories so it is not a bad thing.

Sure your off the fries for 2 weeks but are you dieting or just eating something else? I also don’t think 2 weeks is long enough to make a big differance

It’s true that muscle is denser than fat but I’m not sure it would cause the pants to get tighter! I would point at the diet as the culprit here.

Helen

Since your body requires more energy when you’re working out, you are probably taking in more calories than you think. Try keeping a food journal for a month and see if it solves the problem.

I’ve been experiencing the same thing. I am about 30lbs overweight and had not been exercising regularly for about a year. I just started a new strength training program and recently added cardio. The problem is I have gained 3 lbs in 3 weeks and I seem more hungry. I thnk I have been eating more so now I am keeping a journal. However, my question is does the extra hunger slow down sometime in the ramp up cycle? I hate to think that all this great exercise is just going to make me hungry all the time.

To Marie–I believe that once your body grows accustomed to your new exercise routine, your hunger will drop off and you will be better able to monitor your caloric intake. One of the nicest benefits of regular exercise, after all, is the stabilizing of your metabolism. Have patience and persevere!

I am experiencing the same problem. I am working out 4-5 times a week. My face is beat red and I am drentched with sweat when I get off the elyptical for half an hour. I have been working out like this for 5 months and have not lost any weight! I get very flustered but I feel so healtht that I just keep plugging away and hope my body will start to change. Good luck to you and me both!

I am so frustrated as well. I am small framed woman and recently starting running 3 to 4 miles, 5 to 6 times a week. Sundays, I will go a little farther. I have actually gained 3 lbs.! My body looks better to me, but I am frustrated, I know it doesn’t matter what you weigh, but I want to drop 5 lbs. to be back to 12o. I am 5′4 and a half, so that is a reasonable weight for me. I eat around 1500-1800 calories a day. Any suggestions?

I have even bigger problem. I dont’t eat more than 700 calories,I work out almost every day, and gain about 6 lb for one year, all my pants taight on me. Help me!!!!!!!!

When I was younger I was quite heavy set, but over the past 5 years my weights leveled off at an acceptable size. Currently, I’m 5′8 and I just started working out vigorously 3 weeks ago. I lost 5 lbs at first, but I gained ten back! Ugh! My body looks firmer and better, but I can’t stand being heavy. What can I do?

Um, 700 calories per day is very low. You should be eating at least 1200, or 1000 at the very least. Otherwise your metabolism will be shot and if you ever start eating more, it will turn to fat and make you gain even more weight. Up the calorie intake. You need them for fuel, anyway.

I don’t know what to do as well. I lost 20lbs and started exercising 5 months ago, after I lost the weight.The first five months I was losing inches, but the last month now look like I am gaining fat. I have gained 7 lbs and my clothes are getting tight. What happened??

I am having the same issue. I’m not overweight to begin with, but am trying to tone. Weighed about 116lbs and an up to 125lbs. Kickboxing 60 minutes 3 times a week and strength training 2 times a week for 30 minutes. I’m not eating any more than I was as before, but I can’t button my pants. I dont understand…..

ive started goin to the gym for the past 2 weks, i get soo hungry after!. so might eat more that i should, but all healthy!.. why am i gaining weight! ive gained 3lbs!. & my bro/sis all calling me fat, a pig, huge!.. ive even cried, ive even bought 3 diet pills. but might turn to phentermine, but they’re too epensive!. HELP!

it seems like we are all in the same boat without any advice. I to gained like 8 pounds after I started back working out. I tell my self that I am just gaining weight, but I dont know if that is the case. Could we be gaining muscle?

You all seem a little neurotic to me. Stop obsessing about your weight and be happy that you are working out and getting healthier. Besides, new research shows that being at the upper range of a normal BMI is healthier than being at the low end, and being underweight is flat out unhealthy. Eat well. Exercise. Have a healthy body image, no matter what your size.

I agree with you Kathy! 110 percent! My God, worry about more important things in life….One day you’ll look back and wonder why the hell you obsessed so much about something so shallow!
Trust me, this is coming from a FORMER anorexic….I know this BS inside and out.

I don’t think this is an obsession thing. I feel the same way. I have been keeping a calorie journal and exercising regularly and mixing up the exercises. I also eat at least 6 small meals a day. And I am not necessarily just gaining “weight,” I’m gaining fat. I don’t get it either. Maybe its the carb thing? It makes no sense. Doesn’t anyone know why this happens to so many of us?

I am having the exact same problem and I would like to ask all of you fellow ballooner uppers …. do you use Splenda? I’m just wondering if this could be my problem.. wondering if I am alone. I have heard that some people’s body just doesn’t ‘read’ Splenda as an artificial Sweetner. I use it for everything.

I’ve personally been lifting weights for a couple years now. I’m 23 weighing 115 and still gradually seeing my body changing. At 1st I was confused on why i was gaining weight instead of losing because my body fat % has been decreasing. Ladies! I’ve learned to NOT go on the scale if weight lifting is involved! It is true, muscle does weigh more than fat. Pay MORE attention to your body fat % rather than the pounds. At least for me, my body has been changing its form, especially the curves. Some of my old clothes do not fit the way they use to, BUT that’s a good thing because I feel and look healthier to the point where my muscles are showing. I’ve also gotten hungry quicker than i did before I started lifting weights and exercising on a daily bases. From what I’ve learned, this is perfectly normal! Everyone burns calories throughout the day without even realizing, but if you exercise and work your body as well- the more calories you will burn. The more muscle mass you gain the more calories you will burn throughout the day. So of course your appetite is going to grow on ya! Lifting weights will simply tone up your existing muscles and increase your strength, but this makes your muscles more hungry for energy. It will lift your metabolic rate significantly! And also help you to lose weight through your restricted diet.

Examples with appetite from what I have personally read from different experts:

If you had a moderate exercise session, you 1) increased your body metabolism and lifted your heart rate. 2) you actually stimulated your body so the body then says “you need to refuel!”

BUT.. If you have an intense workout people often feel nauseous and this is because there is build up of acids within the body as a result of metabolism, and these acids have a direct affect on the brain, which makes us feel quite sick to the point of where your appetite does not grow afterwards.

I’ve learned that by changing your diet will bring you a looong way! Any type of junk food, anything white (bread, rice, noodles…) need to go in the garbage! Anything natural/organic is the best solution. Fresh fruits, fresh vegatables, PROTEIN (chicken, fish..) are great for you! Intaking GOOD carbs are also very important because that’s what keeps your body going. If you eat small portions of HEALTHY food a few times throughout the day will show improvement alone and raise your metabolism as well. And please do not have “fat free” foods fool ya. It’s mainly the bad sugar (like fructose) that will store as fat where as healthy natural foods (and the fat in these foods) will store as energy throughout the day, but discipline is needed!

The best example I can give is cavemen back in the day and why all of them were basically fit. 1) They had to work and hunt for their own food (exercise to us) 2) there was nothing but natural foods and good fats they were putting in their bodies.

Maintaining your body is like maintaining a car. You need to keep up with it and put in the right amount of fuel.

I constantly get teased by my family and friends because of how strict I am with what goes in my body, but than they always question me on how I’m in great shape lol. It’s rough at 1st restricting yourself from certain foods while watching others around you eat all the “fun stuff”. But after a while, if your strict and stick with it, it really does just become your everyday life style to the point where you can care less about the “fun food”.

Having a well-ballanced healthy diet is 50% of your battle!

Some have offered the advice that we should just be happy with our bodies and stop being obsessed with weight. Well, you know, it’s really hard to be happy with how you look when you are being called every name in the book because you are fat. People won’t let me forget what I look like, so how can I just be happy with it? It’s not just some little obsession with a number on a scale. It’s painful to live this way and seeing those numbers go up when you desperately want them going down is incredibly frustrating.

this is a reply to anna-marye:
you should consume no less than 1200 calories a day or else your body will actually start working against itself,which is what is causing you to gain weight. it will start breaking down muscles, so try to stick to 1200 calories and you should definately start to see improvement

i think i shot my metabolisim. two years ago i started an exercise program where i did 1 hour of intense cardio and lifted at least 4 to 6 days a week. I was only taking in about 1200 calories a day though for a year. when i got to 127 ( 1 was 160 then ) people started asking if i was on drugs or anorexic ( i am a tall girl at 5′9″) so i slowly started to up my calories by 300 a day once every 2 months in fear that i would gain it all back. i was still working out and bouncing between 135 and 127. Ya my dr. diagnosed me with exercise buliema. so when that finally happened in october of last year i decided to not count calories at all. i never really ate junk food but i have put on 30 lbs since then and now though nobody asks me if im sick i want to loose half of what i have gained. i have been counting calories again but this time its around 1800 cal a day. my bmi calculator says that i should be taking in 2200 to loose 2 lbs every 2 weeks. but it seems that i just keep gaining. how can i get my metabolisim back on track. i want to look healthy but feel good about myself too. help ne one?

Your gain of fat may not be diet-related at all. In fact, the number 1 reason for immediately gaining fat out of the blue is stress. so be sure that your workouts aren’t causing you to strain too much. that tends to lead to excessive fat gain that seem to have “no explanation”

I have had the same problem. I have used weight watchers for the last 3 months with exercising sometimes. This week I started to exercise about 4 times per week and I have started to gain some weight back. Will this eventually balance out and will I start back losing weight? Help! I love muscle, but I don’t want to continue gaining weight!

After reading all of the blogs above, I realize that we are all the same and in the same situation. I am going to stay motivated and I’m going to remember that I’m not alone. It’s tough being a woman, especially when my husband will run just once a week and his pants start to fall off! What the heck?!

I’ve read all the entries above and wonder, has anyone lost weight after the initial exercise/muscle weight gain?

I have had these same issues. I started working out 6 days a week, mixing up cardio, weights, and strengthening. I have also changed my diet to be a low-fat high protein diet (but not no-carbs) with veggies & fruits. I have not gained weight, or lost weight, but my pants are tighter. Is this because the muscle building under the fat, or because the weight in the body has shifted? I feel stronger, but it’s really frustrating not to see any results or go down a size. But I’ll just keep at it and see what happens…

There’s nothing more frustrating than seeing the scale going in the wrong direction–especially when you’re trying to do everything right: eating fewer calories, doing cardio, and strength training. If you’re eating less and exercising more, shouldn’t you be losing weight? The fact is, you might be losing body fat, but you might be GAINING WATER WEIGHT. When we ask our muscles to do things that we don’t normally ask them to do, they like to hold on to water. I remember a show on Oprah a while back when Bob Greene was on. I recall him saying something along the lines of, “When starting a new exercise regime, don’t get on the scale for at least a month because it takes that long for your body to equalize the water retention.” Easier said than done, of course. After we start exercising, we want to be able to see immediate results to keep us motivated. So please, don’t give up! Keep doing all the good things you’re doing and give your body time to adjust. And if you can, cut back on the salt and stay off the scale for a while.

I started working out last week. I weigh between 156 and 160 and I am 5′tall. I had a gastric bypass about 2.5 years ago and lost about 85 pounds. Since joining a gym, I have been working out about 45 minutes twice a day and now I am weighing between 158 and 162 and I am about to cry. I eat exactly the same as I did before. Before I joined the gym, I didn’t gain or loose and now I am working out, eating the same and I am gaining. I could understand if I changed my diet, ate more or less, changed the types of food I am eating etc etc, but I am not. My clothes still fit the same, but I look at the scale and I want to scream. I have been overweight all my life.

No, it might not be something that thinner people worry about (mentioned above) but to us who are overweight, society won’t let us forget that we are not attractive. If I go up for a job with someone thinner, they will get the job and I won’t. That is a PROVEN fact.

I won’t quit the gym, I won’t eat any different, however, if I continue to gain, I will start taking a dietary suppliment.

I don’t have any answers for anyone, I watch the biggest looser and when Audrey came back after being home for 30 days and had only lost about 15 pounds, she tried to say that it was muscle and Bob said that was Bull$#!t.

I don’t know what to think. Yes, I am stressed about all this, and the only thing that might change that is the scale going in the opposite direction.

I’ve been jogging/walking for over two weeks getting ready for my first 5K and I have to agree with all the comments relating to frustration about getting on that scale and seeing a rise instead of a fall. With that being said, I have to keep telling myself that it will all change in time and that feeling good and sleeping better with noticeable decrease in stress levels for me, is still a positive direction. Dont give up out there. Reading your comments only enforced me to believe, I’m not alone in this quest.

I have started P90X and am going into my fourth week, I am a nurse so new that some initial weight gain might occur because muscle weighs more than fat yada yada yada….however what i was NOT expecting was my jeans I wore three weeks ago to be tight to the point I cant wear them. A friend who is an avid fitness buff and understands the physiology behind this says that you initially build muscle and must to rev up your metabolism, the muscle is underneath the fat and is pushing the fat outward initially, once your metabolism catches up the fat will start burning off and size will decrease. I am trusting him and moving forward…..we shall see!

Maybe a trainer could help those of you who are frustrated to evaluate your eating patterns and exercise regimes. It’s a simple matter of calories in, calories out, and there has to be an imbalance here to cause a weight gain. Good luck and don’t give up. Even if you are not losing weight or gaining a small amount, remember that exercise is beneficial for many other reasons. Keep trying different things and the weight will eventually come off.