Why You're Gaining Weight While Working Out and Eating Well
Gaining weight while working out is totally normal. Here's what you need to know about that number on the scale post-sweat sesh.
You've been exercising on the reg, only to step on the scale and discover you've gained a few pounds. Your immediate thoughts may be, "Why am I gaining weight when I'm eating less and working out?" While it may feel frustrating to see a higher number on the scale, especially if your goal is weight loss, there are actually several reasons why gaining weight while working out can happen.
Here, learn more about the four research-backed reasons you might gain weight while working out and eating healthy.
Water Retention After Exercise
Think you just lost a few pounds from that serious spin class? It's likely just water loss due to sweat. And if you're seeing a higher number on the scale, that could be due to water retention, which sometimes happens after exercise.
"Water makes up approximately 65 to 90 percent of a person's weight, and variation in water content of the human body can move the scale by ten pounds or more from day to day," says Jeffrey A. Dolgan, a clinical exercise physiologist.
Hormones can also affect water retention after a workout. In fact, research notes that temporary water retention is fairly common and can especially impact individuals in the pre-menopausal stage of life and those who have periods.
The takeaway: The amount of H20 in your system heavily influences your weight. This is one of the main reasons diuretics are so popular — they flush the water out of your system, resulting in short-term weight loss — but they don't change your body composition in any way.
Related: How Your Hormones Affect Your Metabolism
Weight Gain Immediately After a Workout
Have you ever noticed that the scale goes up right after an intense workout or even after a day or two? That's normal, and it doesn't necessarily mean you're actually gaining weight, says Dolgan.
"A person's scale mass is a combination of muscle, fat, bone, the brain and neural tract, connective tissue, blood, lymph, intestinal gas, urine, and the air that we carry in our lungs," he says. "Immediately after a workout routine, the percentage of mass in each of these categories can shift as much as 15 percent."
Intense workouts cause variability on the scale due to factors such as hydration status, inflammation from muscle damage repair (aka delayed-onset muscle soreness), even the amount of intestinal by-products or urine and blood volume, says Dolgan. Research backs this up, noting significant changes in fluid retention, inflammation, swelling, and more post ultra-endurance triathlon, as well as after a six-day bicycle ride.
So, if you're gaining weight while working out and eating healthy, it may not be the type of weight gain that you think it is.
Gaining Weight Working Out from Strength Training
"A common comment when looking at the scale is that 'muscle is heavier than fat,' which is misleading," says Dolgan. "A pound of fat weighs the same as a pound of muscle; however, the volume of muscle is denser than the volume of fat and, therefore, heavier."
Recent research notes that if you start to change your body composition with your workouts — by building more dense muscle mass and decreasing your body fat — your scale weight may increase, while your body fat percentage may decrease. Dolgan says these changes happen over weeks and months, not hours or days, so the scale is useless when tracking them. With all that in mind, gaining weight when exercising is not uncommon.
Weight Gain from Muscle vs. Fat
The scale can't tell you how much of your body weight is muscle or fat, so it's not the best tool for measuring improvements if your goal is to improve your fitness level. Not to mention, checking the number on the scale when weight loss isn't necessarily your goal can result in too much time spent wondering, "Why am I gaining weight?"
Related: 10 Ways to Tell If You're Losing Weight
"If someone is trying to improve their fitness, they should ignore the scale and pay more attention to objective measurement tools such as body composition to track their progress," says Dolgan.
While weighing yourself can be one way to track your progress, it shouldn't be the only way. Don't forget, says Dolgan, that losing pounds on the scale does not mean you are more fit — it just means you are lighter.
Keep in mind that if you're exercising but gaining weight, it could be that your workouts are effective, but other factors, such as certain medications, caloric intake, or more, are contributing to your weight gain. If your goal is weight loss, it may be worth speaking with your healthcare provider or a registered dietitian for additional support.
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Read the original article on Shape.