I started working out about a week ago, and I have gained weight since. Why?

Question

None of my pants fit, I have a noticable "pouch", and I feel worse than when I started. I have been drinking alot of water, does that have anything to do with it? Do you have any tips to help out my situation?

Answer 1

First of all...MUSCLE DOES NOT WEIGH MORE THAN FAT!!!! Muscle is denser than fat, therefore, it takes up less space than fat. A pound of muscle and a pound of fat weigh exactly the same except if you held a pound of muscle it would look like a gold brick where a pound of fat would be a big sack of feathers.

Now, for the answer to your question. This comes directly from my blog. Read this and feel free to visit my website for more info on exercise and nutrition. Keep up the good work.

1. Do you journal your food? If you don’t…now is the time to start. When you start exercising it is very common to either under eat or over eat calories. Without a good food journal you don’t know which you might be doing. Exercising naturally makes you hungry because your muscles are screaming for nutrients to repair themselves. People either take this cue as, “I can eat a little more today because I exercised,” or “I don’t want to undo the good work I did when I exercised.” Fueling your body is a fine line so make sure you track what you eat and stay at an appropriate amount of calories for your needs. Most women need to eat between 1400 - 1800 calories a day depending on their activity level.

2. You might be retaining water. When you first start exercising, espeically weight training, your muscles develop microscopic tears. This is how the muscle builds, by breaking down and rebuilding itself. In order for this to happen, your muscles will flood itself with water to expedite things. For new exercisers, you will tear your muscles more than a seasoned exerciser because your muscles are not used to the exertion. It often takes at least three to six weeks to see the scale move in the right direction, but be patient as exercise is always a good idea.

3. Your gaining muscle faster than you are burning fat. Boy, the body loves it’s fat. Sometimes it feels like all conditions have to be perfect in order for the body to give any up. That’s true to an extent. Very often your body can build muscle faster than it can burn fat and in the meantime you see the scale slowly ticking up or not moving at all. This is why having other means of success can be vital to your mental state! Take measurements and use that as a gauge of how well your body is responding. Get out old clothes and use them as an indicator of how many inches you may be losing. You’ll be happier if you have other means of success other than the scale.

Answer 2

You may be gaining weight because muscle weighs more than fat, but that does not explain why you have the "pouch." Water weighs more than both of the above, so if you are drinking a lot of water you will not lose weight. My advice is to limit your water intake until you feel you absolutely need a drink. Energy drinks such as Gatorade and Powerade also weigh less than water but provide the nutrients you need, so give those a try.

Answer 3

Muscle weighs more than fat, but this is a good sign, once you have more muscle you can then burn fat faster, keep doing what you are doing and your fat will start to disappear, clothes will fit better or you will drop a size or two, keep drinking plenty of water and eating well, protein, carbs, fruit and dairy are all good for you during this time, just remember moderation is the key. Dont think that because you are working out that you can just eat anything if you are trying to lose weight your energy expended must be more than your energy intake. Although in order to build muscle to aid in losing weight you must still eat good food and not starve yourself this defeats the purpose of working out. P.s stop worrying so much, you have only just begun give it a few more weeks and you will be laughing...
Ps... stop drinking those fizzy caffenated drinks they are making you retain water... drink only water and milk.

Answer 4

You also have to watch what you eat, healthy, healthy,the more energy you use the more food you need to keep up your energy. You are suppost to eat ever 2 - 4 hours but small meals, a small meal is about the size of your hand. Make sure your eating your 5-7 servings of veggies & fruit. So if your eating every 2 hours you'll only need a hand full size meal. ( NO food 4 hours before bed) And drink lots of water, about 1 gallon... at first it might make you alittle bloated but it will pass. I started doing this a year ago and iv lost 15 pounds and gained 3 in muscel. So all this with exercise and patients you will acheve your goals.

Answer 5

The best thing would be to check with your doctor on this, drinking more water should not cause you a problem unless you are retaining to much in which case you need to talk to a doctor.

Usually drinking more water especially when working out is healthy and for the best.

When you start exercise and or working as in working with weights, this can increase your muscle tone, and so your muscle mass, usually a person will not notice a weight loss but rather a size loss, as in inches. One pound of muscle is smaller than one pound of fat. However there have been some who have some weight around the middle of their bodies stomach waist areas. If they start exercise programs that are designed to tone up and shape build abdominal muscle, they may notice that they are having problems because it is possible they start to build up the muscle under any excess weight and this causes it to push out.

Often it is best to first work on other muscle groups so that the muscles you are building can work on burning more calories and excess fat on the body before working on the abs, then after a couple of weeks work on the abs to begin noticing a difference in that area.

I know of one man who had to wait until he lost the weight around his middle / stomach area before doing any works outs designed to build abdominal muscle because it kept pushing his stomach out.

This could be your problem.

Answer 6

That's great! All that added weight is pure muscle mass. Keep it up and you'll continue to gain weight, and look even better as well. Just make sure you give your muscles a day to rest after working them so they have time to rebuild, and eat plenty of lean protein during this time.

Answer 7

Many people ask me how they can slim down. I recommend that people eat right and exercise. However, if they would like a little "help", I suggest using natural Hoodia (it's important to note that not all Hoodia works well, even if the bottle says "pure" or "standard").

The Hoodia sold at http://www.browneyea.info/free-diet-pills.php is in my opinion the best Hoodia on the market. It's pure, has no side effects, and they give you a free 15 day sample (there is a $7.99 shipping and handling charge, but they also give you free recipe and diet guides). Fantastic results have been seen with this particular Hoodia.

Answer 8

Working out can increase your appetite...but I doubt you could gain enough weight in a week to alter the way your clothes fit. Give it a little more time...Water will not cause you to gain weight...it has no calories. Just take it easy and watch the diet.

Answer 9

You probably have water retention.
Have you been drinking a lot of water ? You need it even more now to release all of the toxins in your muscles & systems to flush it all out. Your body will hold on to water if it fills it isn't getting enough.

Answer 10

If you are working out, muscle mass weighs more than fat mass, and yes the water could be adding weight. Dont be surprised that you are gaining a little.