started exercising and putting on weight

Lou1973

Silver Member
Hi all

Am hoping someone can help me - I started exercising hard 2 days ago and on sunday spent an hour and a half in the gym followed by a half hour swimming, then on monday i spent an hour swimming.

I stuck to my food plan religiously

The result is after sunday I put on half a pound and after Monday I put on another half a pound.

Anybody got any ideas as I really want to continue the exercising but it's a bit demoralising to put on weight after doing it - I can't afford to put on half a pound every time I go and at this rate I'll be 3.5lb heavier by end of the week
 
The most likely thing that's happened is that you haven't drunk enough fluid. This is a really common occurrence especially in new exercisers. Most people seriously underestimate how much extra fluid they need before, during and after exercise, and when they're told how much extra they should be drinking they assume it's an exaggeration - but it's not.

You're doing a lot of exercise and although I don't know what you're doing in the gym or how much, you say you're exercising hard. If you work out hard for an hour, you generally need to drink at least an extra litre of water. If you didn't do this on Sunday/Monday, your body will have retained water which results in a gain on the scales. Also, if you're working out hard for prolonged periods (more than an hour at a time), you should really drink a sports drink as well as water.

What you won't be gaining, however, is fat. Particularly if you continue to exercise and keep it up in the long term. ;)
 
I have to agree with Kate. There is NO WAY you can gain weight that quickly from exercising! It takes a lot of time, effort, and diet to build even a pound of muscle, and exercise doesn't build fat.

Can I suggest, instead of being so focussed on the numbers on the scale, you choose some other measure of fitness and size? Like a pair of jeans that are too tight now, you can try them on every week until they fit really great! Scale numbers go up and down all day, so I think worrying too much about the numbers can be counter-productive. Plus...think about all the positive benefits you will get from exercising; better CV fitness, more endurance, your body shape will actually become better!
 
Crikey, yes, building muscle is harder work even than losing fat...sadly. ;)
 
Um, again, not sure why you are weighing yourself every day as weight can fluctuate up to four pounds in one day. Once a week is sufficient...seriously!
 
thanks for the advise - i drink loads of fluids - about 6 litres a day so not sure that it's dehydration although to be fair I suppose my body is used to 6 litres a day so maybe i should up it to 8 on the days when I am exercising?

didn't think it was muscle that resulted in the weight gain (I know it takes a long time to build a pound of muscle) that's why I was a bit perplexed

nexangelus - i choose to weigh myself every day, it's just a personal choice so i know what's going on - it's always at the same time every day as I know weight fluctuates throughout the day - for me it would be much worse to get on the scales at the end of the week having been good on my diet all week and put on weight than it would be to know daily that it's happening because at least i'm prepared for it - i only log my weight once a week.

I guess the next course of action for me is to continue with the exercise as I'm definately not doing myself any harm and hope the weight going on trend reverses itself
 
What eating plan/diet are you following?
 
Hiya kate
it's a high protein low carb food diet that puts you in ketosis (it's not atkins) - it's called go lower and they deliver the food to my house - basically it's a nut granola for breakfast with raspberries and milk or yoghurt, lunch is a low carb soup, dinner is low carb usually chicken based with one portion of veg. I also have protein bars to snack on but tend not to use them as I don't get hungry. Calorie wise probably about a thousand calories a day.

I've lose 2 and a half stone so far and only have about half a stone to go
 
And there we have your answer. You can't work out hard for two hours at a time on no carbs. Or rather, you sorta can, but your body really doesn't like it and ultimately you are probably burning protein for some of your fuel. You're also retaining water. Either you have to eat carbs or you have to revise your exercise plan - lower intensity or shorter time. Have you spoken to a PT about a sensible plan that will work alongside your diet? If you're going hard every time and your workouts can run to two hours, you're not doing your body any favours by depriving it of carbs. Of course you can exercise - I highly recommend it (in fact, it's essential) and it's ace that you are keen - but get some professional advice about what you should be doing that's appropriate to your diet. I know there's a great temptation to go all in right from the start, but you're better off starting small and building up. Were you doing any exercise at all before Sunday?

Whatever you do, no, you don't need to go up to 8 litres a day. 6 litres is more than enough even with the additional exercise. It won't do you any harm as long as you space it out, but it's excessive to your needs.
 
If you are working out after brekkie then it looks like you might have enough carbs for that...maybe use the protein bars as protein gets used as energy as well throughout the day, so maybe just using them might make the difference, 1000 calories might be too low for doing that much exercise at a time, I'm not sure...everyone is different...but it sound slike you might just be retaining water...
 
thanks so much for the advise. I did mention to the guys at the gym that I was on a protein diet when they helped me to put my programme together but will go back and recheck with them
 
Back
Top