Why is working out making me gain weight?

Question

I have been working out for a couple months now, mostly some pilates type stuff, and it seems like I am losing inches, but I am gaining weight. I know they say muscle weighs more than fat, but I have put on fifteen pounds!!! I'm already overweight as it is, so the added pounds aren't making me feel any better. Any suggestions??

Answer 1

Muscle weighs more than fat... you are in better shape than before and weight is not a good measure of fitness. Be happy. You probably look and feel better...

Here are my thoughts on weight and fitness from my 360 Blog of September 10.


For all of the "quick and easy" weight loss diet pill suggestions, remember, if something sounds too good to be true... it probably is, particularly if you have to pay for it.


On Yahoo!Answers I find certain questions being asked repeatedly which is simply a reflection of new people participating. A couple of common question amounts to "How do I lose weight," or more specifically, "How do I lose abdominal fat?" I have gotten very positive responses from my answers when I paused to reply (and now beginning to get "It works!" emails that are very gratifying. I like helping people)... so have recently decided to put a good solid answer on my Yahoo!360 Blog (September 10) that I can point people to. These are my thoughts as a physician and athlete.

Don't target losing more than about 2 lbs per week. If you try to lose faster, your body will go into "starvation mode" and get very stingy about burning calories while at the same time very efficient about storing any calories that you do provide. And it will make you feel awful.

There is no site specific way of losing fat... the old myth about working your abs to burn belly fat isn't true. To get rid of love handles, you need to lose overall fat. That happens with exercise and watching your diet. More on that below.

The most effective way to lose fat is aerobic exercise in the "moderate" fat-burning range, ideally first thing in the morning before you eat. When you wake your body is ready to burn fat and your levels of growth hormone are highest at that time. Later in the day it can take up to 30 minutes just to put your body into a fat-burning mode.

Another overlooked way to burn fat is by lifting weights. Skeletal muscle has very high caloric needs... almost twice that of adipose (fat) tissue. Put on a little muscle and you will burn calories all day even at rest. Be aware that skeletal muscle weighs more, so with this approach you may see your weight increasing while your body fat is melting away. Not realizing this often stresses folks who think they should be losing weight as a measure of fitness. Forget the scale, look in the mirror and you will be happy.

To lose a pound of fat, you need to eliminate about 3500 calories. You can do this by burning more with exercise or by modifying your diet to reduce intake. If you do a Google search on say, "swimming calories" you will quickly find a website with tables of calories burned for a given exercise. You can use such lists to estimate how many calories you are burning up with your routine.

For diet, keep a diary for a couple of weeks counting calories, grams of protein, and grams of fat intake. It is easy with online sources of nutritional information (type the name of the food and calories into the Google search engine) and packaging labels. That will let you quickly figure out where the fat is coming from in your diet.

Fat gives you 9 calories per gram. So take the number of grams of fat, multiply by 9, then calculate what percentage the fat calories are of your total daily calories. Restricting the calories from fat to about 20% of your total intake is ideal for a maintenance diet... that isn't overly restrictive. Of note, you need some fat in your diet. For instance, the body uses fat to produce hormones. Once you have a picture of how to modify your diet, you can drop the diary and just go back to it occasionally if you are wanting to tweek things further.

There is a subset of questions that goes further and asks about "How to get a six-pack?" The answer is the same. Six-packs are 20% abdominal exercise and 80% diet. There is one caveat... abdominal muscles will form in the position that you work them, so be certain to pull them tightly toward your spine while doing crunches, etc. Also, during most lifting, the "core is active" which means that you should be stabilizing with contracted abs then too. Fail to do this and the abs will form, but bulging outward and the result is not attractive.

If you are trying to build muscle as a way to lose fat, then you may need to increase total calories and specifically your protein intake. I target about 0.8 g of protein per pound of body weight each day when actively building. That is far more protein than most people need in their diets.


Aloha

Answer 2

Aha...! I know why you are gaining because I have been there..........

First, working out does not give you the license to eat a lot. Actually, you should eat less calories (meaning, eat right). If you are in a strict work-out regimen, you probably wont like to eat a lot. Your body will tell you. Eat small, eat often but no more than 1500 to 2000 cals., in total, per day.

Second, cardio/weightloss settings on your bicycle, treadmill or whatever should match your age. You MUST workout in that range only.

Third, have a weight lifting schedule, one day on, one day off etc...and repeat this cycle diligently.

After all that, your clothes fit right but you weigh more? You are on the right track. Throw that weigh scale away - out the window - and right now. Weighin once in 3 months at the gym is all you need to do.

It is your clothes that tell you whether you are losing weight or not. Muscle mass weigh more. So, don't worry.

Keep up. You are doing fine. Good luck.

Answer 3

Wow! Fifteen pounds is alot to put on in just a couple of months. While Pilate's is an excellent firming and flexibility workout, you may need to do some cardio in order to loose weight. If you want to loose weight and inches, you need to do some form of cardio in which you "burn" body fat. Don't make the mistake of adding muscle size to the body fat you already carry. This can make you not only get bigger but, appear bigger as well. You have to trim down the fat to expose the muscles that are hidden beneath. Its like shedding a big coat of fat. It does no good to train the muscles and make them firmer if you have a 2-3" layer of fat hiding them.

even adding just 30-45 minutes of cardio to your work-out will help tremendously. Also, working out can make you very hungry afterward, which in turn causes you to devour everything in site when you get home! Eat a light snack (vegetables, part-skim mozzarella cheese stick), before you work-out. Make you you don't pig out afterward to completely demolish your efforts of your work-out. But do eat something healthy.
Do your cardio (treadmill, bicycle, elliptical etc.,) before your Pilate's. This way you get the most important thing done first and your muscles are warmed up for Pilate's, reducing the chances of a muscle pull.
Cardio does not mean running. The treadmill is an excellent place to start if you are a beginner or if you are overweight.

Get some good motivating music and go for it girl! Just don't quit!

I am a fitness trainer and the key is start easy and constantly aim for more. Determination is your key. Good Luck!

Answer 4

Although muscle weighs more than fat, it is way harder to gain so weight gain of this type takes a long time. Make sure you are eating small and often (the most important being a low fat breakfast) and drink loads of water. The more water you drink the more you will expel as your body gets used to it, preventing fluid retention.

Answer 5

The answer is simple...muscle weighs more than fat. If you are strength training and not doing much cardio, you will gain weight, but lose inches in some areas. You have to change your diet and do more cardio...drink lots of water as well.

Answer 6

If you are building muscles you may gain weight and lose fat. If you want to see the difference compare a pound of butter with a pound of meat. If you are losing inches you should be looking better.

Answer 7

Muscle weighs more than fat, so it could be the muscle that is making you gain weight. If you want to lose, I suggest more cardio instead of weight lifting (like running/jogging, walking, aerobics, etc.).

Answer 8

The only ways to know if you're truely losing inches is to measure yourself before weight loss, or by the way your clothes fit.
Are you watching what you eat, or do you eat no-nos because you're exercising?
You shouldn't gain that much muscles unless you were very sedentary before.

Answer 9

maybe try more cardio/weight loss activities and less muscle building exercises? I don't really know, it is just a suggestion. If you are losing inches then it sounds like that is what is important, a number is just a number. Don't give up, goodluck!

Answer 10

Yup muscles weigh more than fat but 15 pounds...how much did you weigh before and where was it?

You need to cross train my dear. Do pilates but switch out between aerobics, lower weights more reps, swimming, walking (running), etc. Drink more water until your urine looks like water and make yourself sweat. Cross training is how professional athletes, dancers, models, etc. keep slim.

Answer 11

fat is larger, but muscle is heavier. when you work out properly you will lose fat and gain muscle. so losing the big, bulky, fluffy fat causes the loss of inches, while gaining firm, dense, hard muscle will cause an increase in weight. you should also notice an increase in your HDL or "good" cholesterol as you build muscle. keep up the good work!