Wednesday, I went to work out. After working, I got on the scale...I had gained weight. Not necessarily that day. Talking to the woman working there, I asked her a question.
She then told me that the Muscles swell up during a work out... OK that makes sense... Then she said that I gained weight by working out too?
Is there any fact to that statement? can you gain weight doing 30 min. of exercises?
You don't gain weight working out. But you do retain fluid in your muscles after working out. When your muscles are really sore, it's because you have all that acid stuff in your muscles and then you retain water in them too, so it makes it look like you gained weight. as your muscles start to feel better, your muscles let go of that acid stuff and water and hopefully fat, which is when you either start looking smaller, or see a drop in the scales.
You won't gain fat but the number on the scale may appear higher after a workout. Sometimes after a workout, the scale will be up as much as 5 lbs for me. If you are watching what you are eating, then I wouldn't worry about it.
Because I work out 4 times a week almost consecutively, I have decided to try to only step on the scales on Sunday. That will be my second day of not excersizing and maybe I'll get a truer read out of my weight. Or I may wait until Monday morning, then it will definately be more than 48 hours since my last workout. I'll try both days for awhile and see which one gives me a truer weight....or at least what i want it to say. lol.
one thing to be careful of is also watching what you eat. As a whole (i'm just as guilty) when we start working out..we automatically increase our food intake. Yes you should increase some...but most of us over do it. So yes you will see some wt gain when working out (since muscle weighs more than fat) but if you aren't careful about your food intake you will also gain weight. Good luck! Just be patient and if you are good about your food then the weight gain is okay. Really you should also measure yourself (ie hips, bust thighs) that way, there may be weeks where you don't loose wt at all..but you may be loosing inches around those areas. Hang in there
I weigh myself before and after every workout, out of curiosity, and it's always at least 0.5 lb more after the workout...more if I've been drinking more water or done weightlifting.
Wouldn't you _have to_ be drinking water for the scale to measure higher? You can't create mass from nothing.
I can't wrap my head around it, either, but for me, it happens without fail. I've encountered similar issues to do with weight gain and water retention, too...for example, weighing myself, eating 1 lb of food and weighing myself immediately afterwards to discover that I'm 2.5 lb heavier (as per Easter dinner this year). ...or, a condition I sometimes experience due to a health condition ("IC Belly") which has me gain 3-4 pounds in swelling without anywhere for the weight to come from!
I'm guessing that it has to do with water being retained instead of its normal evaporation, but that seems like a lot of weight in a short period of time. I'd be interested to know the science behind this.
can u gain weight working out?
