Exercise & still gaining weight...help!?

Question

I started weight watchers 7 weeks ago, and have lost 8.5 lbs so far. My clothes fit great. I started exercising 3 weeks ago with 30 min cardio and 45 mins weights. I noticed that I started gaining weight, instead of losing. So I changed my cardio work out to 1 hour, and very lite weights for 15 mins for 4-5 times a week. Within one week's time, my jeans that I am able to pull off and on without undoing them, is super tight barely fitting. I'm eating healthy , so what am I doing wrong?

As I mentioned I am on weight watchers, so my diet consists of sticking within the point system which is equal to about 1200 calories a day. I do not exceed my calorie intake, do not drink sodas, or juice. Just strictly water. My diet is mostly veggies, whole wheat tortillas, chicken, tuna, and turkey. I avoid red meat, and cheese. I sometimes have lean cuisines for lunch which is a diet frozen food, so I don't think I'm doing anything wrong with what I am eating. Somehow, I am not losing weight. Also, I would like to add, that when I say I am gaining, I mean gaining ounces or just maintaining my current weight.

Forgot to mention that since I started the gym on a regular basis of 4-5 times a week, that is when I noticed that haven't lost any weight. I seem to drop more in pounds before exercising.

Answer 1

The weight your gaining is probably muscle. That's a good thing! Maybe you should stay away from soda, most breads (bagels, toast, waffles..) try sit-ups.

Answer 2

Don't give up yet! You've started exercising and on weight watchers, what a great start! Don't get discouraged, it's very likely that you have put on muscle and lost fat. Most women do put on weight when they first start working out, just remember this muscle you gain is going to help you burn so much more fat!

Exercise needs to be a life long commitment as does healthy eating. Your on your way there, so give it a bit of time.

Out of curiosity what does your diet consist of? You may be lacking in some nutrients or not getting enough calories which would be affecting your weight lose programme.

EDIT: It def sounds like muscle gain to me, if it started happening when you started exercising because your diet sounds wonderful, keep up the hard work. With the extra muscle you are building you will be developing greater fat burning potential. Another idea, is to take before and after photos to compare, scales aren't always accurate, they don't seperate the fat from the muscle.

Answer 3

Thank-you, thank-you, thank-you for your question! I, too, went on Weight Watchers and gained 14 pounds in a week and a half!

Everyone accused me of cheating! So depressing because I wasn't! I had to have my husband vouch for me. I put him on WW too so we could lose together, he lost 22 lbs and I gained 14 and I was eating less than him (men and women have different plans because of body type and hormones, etc.)

I wish I could say I was getting the program wrong - but I wasn't.

My Dr's staff treated me like I was a liar. They whipped up a diet plan for me and I followed it to the "T". I gained another 4 lbs in two weeks!

Same types of recriminations and accusations.

So he sent me to a nutritionist. She took my medical history, my family's history, my activity level. Then she asked me about my childhood. I was puzzled, but answered her questions.

I apparently had an extremely active childhood. We are not talking sports activities. We are talking about growing up on a farm, doing farm chores, walking 2 miles to school and back. We moved when I was 13 and we ended up walking 5 miles to a one room country school and 5 miles back with my brothers and sisters. (I am older than I look) Chores had to be done so we ran a lot of the way. I was the oldest girl, so after the outside chores were done, I had to come in the house and do inside chores "girl" stuff, then do homework. Then help with the after supper dishes, laundry, etc.

Summer time brought field work, the garden, canning, mowing, haystacks, walking the corn and bean fields, feeding the hogs, cows, chickens. For a while we had horses, so that meant grooming, clipping, trimming, maintaining the tack etc.

Mom and I were up around 4:30 to get breakfast ready and we were usually the last ones in bed at night, 10:00 or so. It was usually later in the summer time.

Needless to say, when I married and moved to the city and then later to L.A. I was not nearly as active as I was growing up even though I worked full time to put hubby through school and raised a kid.

The nutritionist told me I would probably never reach that activity level unless I exercised at least 4 to 5 hours a day. She gave up because I didn't want to go on "diet" pills. Now they are finding that cortisol created by the body under stress can make you gain weight on 800 calories a day!

So, yes, I know you can gain weight when you diet and exercise. The bad news is it gets a lot harder when you get older.

Sometimes you reach a point where you have to work a little harder and a little faster. If you have a mentor with WW talk with them. They now have a better understanding now a days about the difficulties in losing weight. If you stress too much about the lack of losing it works against you.

Maybe you need to change the types of food even though the point system can help, I know from personal experience it doesn't always work.

Heavier people also don't use as much oxygen as thinner people (You would think it was the other way around), so try to do some slow deep breathing exercises once or twice during the day before your exercise. Oxygen helps burn calories easier. So the more you get before and during exercise, the better - just don't hyperventilate!

Good luck, hope some of these ideas help.

Answer 4

Are you stressed out? Stress cause the body to gain weight so try to relax. Second don't use any weight ... it's unnecessary. Try isometrics work-outs and/or yoga. Isometrics work outs are simply flexing your muscles as hard as you can and holding it for say 20 seconds. Do this 3 times in a row and in different positions for best results. Get a video on it and you'll get the results you desire. Also trying snacking between meals. Eat an apple or a small salad 5 times a day or substitute one of your weight watchers drinks as a snack. Eating smaller meals more often will keep your digestive system running faster. Try yoga :) breathing exercises will lessen your stress and if your body is relaxed it will lose weight. Drink cold water all the time & if you can handle it eat spicy foods ... spicy foods increase the speed of the digestive system.

Answer 5

What are you eating? Don't cheat on your diet, if you do, you're only cheating yourself. If you drink soda or sugary beverages....give those up. You'll lose like 15 pounds right off the bat. If you don't, well you just have to watch what you eat, and just because you're eating low-fat foods now, it doesn't mean you can eat more. You still have to eat in moderation. Because if you overdo it on the low-fat foods, it's basically the same as eating high-fat. You might want to mix up your cardio workouts because the body will adjust to it within a certain amount of time, and you'll burn less calories, so you need to switch it up, so the body will work harder to adjust to it...i would switch it up every couple of weeks.

Answer 6

Losing weight is a simple equation: if you burn more calories than you eat, the weight will come off. Start off by estimating how many calories you burn each day using the calorie calculator http://straighthealth.com/pages/tools/caloriecalclb.html This will give you an idea of how many calories to eat. Healthy weight loss is 1-2 pounds per week. To lose 1 pound per week you need to create a calorie deficit (burn more than you eat) of 500 calories per day. To lose 2 pounds a week, you have to double the deficit to 1000 calories per day. You can achieve this by eating less, exercising more or a combination of both.

Guide to Dieting - http://straighthealth.com/pages/guides/dieting.html
Health, Exercise and Diets - http://straighthealth.com

Answer 7

Exercise everyday like jogging around the block
Skip meals. Eat 2 times per day than 3 times per day
Dont eat until you're full
Eat fruits at night if your hungry.
Drinks lots of water and stop all the fast food and chocolate.
There are more tips and info.
there's a video on success fitness too.

Answer 8

Well first of all, make sure with a professional that your idea of eating "healthy" is truly healthy if you haven't already. If so, remember that gaining muscle will always cause you to gain weight due to the fact that muscle is heavier than fat. Also, it is important to be sure that your workout it always difficult for you. If you find that you aren't' tired after running, run longer. Lastly, remember that losing weight is slow and can't be rushed.