Why am i putting on weight while excersising?

Question

i have been useing a treadmill 3 times a week 30 mins for 2 or 3 weeks i am 6"2 tall 14.6 stone i started at 14.2 stone. is it muscle that is makeing me heavier i am trying to eat healthier and less.

i am eating less calories easily under 2500 and trying to avoid fatrty food and mass carbs, i drink plenty of water. i am starting to feel fitter but am concered why i have put on 4 pounds in 2- 3 weeks. i do some sit ups and curls after i use the tredmill

Answer 1

Muscle weighs heavier than fat...so yes its probably muscle.... especially if your eating loads of protein too as then you ll get more muscle.

(2500 caloories is the RDA for men, so if your eating under then thats not really healthy.)

Answer 2

To be precise, muscle is exactly twice as heavy as fat (per volume), so a four-pound gain in 2 to 3 weeks with the level of activity you are undertaking sounds about right to me. This weight gain from exercising will plateau soon, so please don't worry about it. What will speed things up is the following:

* Try to increase your workout time by either lengthing the time you are in the gym (from 30 to 45 or 60 minutes) or by adding another day or two, or a combination of these.

* On the treadmill, use the "grade" button to increase the grade. When I did this (going from 0% grade to 4% and then 6% and now 12%), I began to lose weight immediately. The higher grade makes your heart work harder, increase your metabolic rate, and you burn more calories.

* Consciously add more fruits and vegetables to your diet (even if you have to buy "ready made" fruit salad and green salads in the store) and use them to replace starch like bread, crackers, pasta or rice OR fast food or meat. This will work, believe me.

Do all of the above and I can guarantee that you will see some rapid weight loss. About 1 kg a week is the maximum that you can lose that is not just "water loss" however.

Good luck!!

Answer 3

Using a treadmill for 30 minutes sounds like your going too slow. Do crunches instead of situps, and speed the treadmill up so it's more than a jog and only go for 15 minutes, make sure you sweat. Also eat more meals a day, but less portions. Make sure you get 7 hours a sleep a day. If I were you I'd buy Tae Bo and do that 30 minutes instead of the boring treadmill. I know Tae Bo is outdated, but that's because people don't like to sweat, but it really works and you have fun with it. Make sure you have an open space in your living room and put out a blanket on the floor and a water on the table near you. You will build flexibility and I think you'll like it better. Plus in like a month you'll be able to kick higher than your head.

Answer 4

When you work out, you build muscle, and muscle weighs more than fat. For people trying to lose the correct way - with a balanced diet AND exercise, and not just those silly fad diets - a scale can be the most discouraging thing in the world.

Try to do what I do - instead of weighing yourself so often, grab some measuring tape and occasionally jot down in a little notebook the actual measurements of your key body parts. I also hop on the treadmill every day and wright down my mileage. Been doing that for a few months now and nothing feels better than when I looked back and saw I used to struggle with 2 miles a day and see the progress I have made so far to about 5 miles a day and feeling great with it! Much more motivating!

Btw, kudos to you for doing it the correct and healthy way!

Answer 5

Firstly, you need to stop weighing yourself so regularly and especially in the early days. What is happening at the moment is that you have started a new exercise regime and a new eating regime and you are sending your body into shut down. The body is reacting as you are not feeding it enough calories for normal day to day life, let alone with exercise too.

Your body is reserving your fat now and not burning it off.

This is a common mistake that people make when trying to loose weight.

To keep weight off, you must loose it slowly and gradually to retrain the body. That way the weight will stay off in the future.

It is unlikely that 2-3 weeks of the treadmill will have any impact on the weight of your muscle.

2500 calories is the RDA, if you are training, you will need to take on more than this to allow your body the calories it needs to function your body correctly and healthily.

Do not cut out any major food groups, just retrain the way you eat them.

With carbs, try to have your portion at lunchtime and in the afternoon. Replace carbs that you would normally eat in the evening with alternatives. For example, bolognaise on a bed of spinach rather than bed of pasta or spaghetti.

Your body needs fat, but try to eat good fats.

You will not lose weight healthily if you continue in the way you are.

Answer 6

Ok, now that everyone has given you some good answers, and your calories are a little less than you should be eating means you may need to adjust your diet. Are you drinking plenty of water, 6-8 glasses a day? And are your fats kept at 25% of your diet? Are you writing the calories down? Sometimes we eat more than we think, but writing everything down really assures you of your true caloric intake. It really doesn't matter what you eat as much as portion control along with fat calculations. Keep up the good work exercising. I promise you that there is a big healthy payoff for all your hard work!

Answer 7

Muscle weighs more than fat, but it takes up less space. I have a feeling that you are in fact not eating enough for all that you're doing, and as a result your body is going into famine mode, thus storing fat.

Eat a little more carb every day, go for low GI foods to start with (wholegrain bread, wholewheat pasta, boiled or baked potato), just about 80 to 100g of this a day, and see how you go.

I think for your height you are actually quite a good weight, I take it you're a man? Yes, you probably should take in a smidgeon more of carbs, and you're right to mind the fat intake.

Best of luck with it, and keep up the excellent work.

Answer 8

It probably is because muscle is heavier than fat.

I would try not to get caught up in how much you weigh... but more try and hit targets of doing loads of exercise and eating healthier...

You don't need a scale to make you feel thin... knowing that you are getting fitter should be having a much better effect than knowing you lost a couple of pounds...

Good luck and keep it up!

PS I would start swimming too to mix the exercise up a bit

Answer 9

By doing regular exercise, you are turning fat into muscle.

It is not so much that muscle is heavier than fat (e.g. 1lb of muscle weighs the same as 1lb of fat), but 1lb of fat takes up much more room than 1lb of muscle (hope u understand what I mean by that).

Therefore, while you may have replaced fat with muscle (which could explain the weight gain), you will probably be losing in terms of inches.

I know that this sounds rather complicated, so I will try and give you another example. I joined a gym just over a month ago, and while I have been participating in regular exercise, I have not lost weight, but I am slimmer as I have lost 4.5 inches from various parts of my body. This is why it is important not only to weigh yourself, but to measure as well.

Often, when you start to exercise, you will build muscle first, and in turn, the muscle will then go on to burn fat. Many people therefore experience loss of inches to start with, followed by loss of weight (once the muscle has been built up).

Answer 10

3 times a week, 3 weeks, 30 minutes is not enough to have had any effect on fat, muscle bulk, or weight.

You don't say whether you're walking, running, or using the treadmill as a hatrack, but if we assume that you're going at a moderately fast jog and covering 3 miles in that 30 minutes, your efforts thus far have burned less than the 3500 calories contained in one pound of fat. Likewise, its not enough to have added any muscle bulk either.

Any change in your weight to date is a result of what you're eating, or perhaps variation in your hydration level (water weight).

Using exercise to effect weight loss works, but you have to do a LOT of it to have any notable impact in a short period of time. Aim for at least an hour a day of vigorous aerobic exercise, and be patient. Think hours, not minutes for exercise, and think months, not days or weeks for results.

Sorry, that's how it works.

Answer 11

Yep, it's definitely muscle - good on you!

Numbers really don't matter so ignore the scales! If you look at yourself naked in the mirror you'll see the changes already, plus I should think that your clothes probably fit a bit better too.

You're doing the right thing so don't let your weight put you off. Keep at it and you'll see the weight come off in a while. It's a lengthy process so please be patient.

Don't do weights for a while either if you're wanting to lose weight as these will bulk you up. Keep at the cardio and once you get to a size that you're seeing more difference, then start doing light weights to tone up.

Stay positive and keep it up!

:)