Hey everyone, I was wondering if anyone can help me. I've always been active in my life (sports and such), till I got to college and got busy. Now I'm in my 4th yr and have begun working out again. I'm not overweight or anything like that but I do need to tone up, I'm loosing muscle definition. I've been working out but I've noticed that I've gained weight since I started. I've gained about 4 pounds in the last 2 weeks.

I'm 5'6'' 140 lbs now, I was 135/136. I workout 3-4 times a week and I do the bike for about 20 minutes, run for about 20-30 minutes and then do the elliptical (sp?) machine for about 20-30minutes. Then I do situps for lower, upper and side abs. I do weight machines about once a week for legs and abs.

I cannot figure out why I am gaining weight. I don't eat snacks or desserts, I only drink water and I have always been pretty healthy in my food eating habits. Can anyone help me? I want to stop gaining weight from working out and if possible loose 5-8 pounds.

Thanks so much if you can.

Muscle wieghs more then fat. If you're doing any kind of weight training, you can expect to go up a bit.

And you are likely eating more calories than you burn.

How long have you regulary been working it? It's common to gain within the first few weeks. Also, what is your diet like? I recommend counting your calories on paper/computer, don't just estimate in your head b/c most people underestimate their calorie intake by 20%!! I would attibute most of it to water retention because it isn't likely that you put on 4 pounds of muscle in 2 weeks.

Are your clothes getting tighter? Or is it just the scale moving?
If your clothes are getting snug then it could be your diet. Start tracking your food at somewhere like fitday.com. Do you know how many cals you should be eating? If not, go into the Fat loss forum and look at one of the top threads on guide to fat loss. It will tell you how to figure it out.

My clothes are getting tighter along with the scale moving. I do drink only water, but that hasnt changed for a while, so why would I start retaining it now? I dont monitor my calories because they have never been a problem. I dont eat fried, snacks, fast food, sweets or sugars and numerous other things. But I will try to monitor them better and see if that helps. Ive been working out continuously for about 3 weeks, I know thats not long, but Im scared the weight is going to jsut keep increasing. Ive never had this happen before when I was working out previously, and my diet was worse back then. Thanks for all the comments and all the future comments.

I had a similar experience recently. I hadn't changed my diet at all, but I did start exercising more. Over the course of about 2 weeks I noticed my weight creeping back up. This is after 6 months of seeing it steadily go down.

However, I noticed two things to explain the change. First of all, my strength was increasing, and second, I had gained about 1/4 on my biceps. So, I chalk the weight gain all up to added muscle. It's just a bit hard to adjust to the idea of seeing those silly numbers on the scale go up instead of down!

By the way, you might want to get a pair of bodyfat calipers if don't already have them. They would allow you to track trends in your actual body composition, rather than relying only on the scale. Neither method is absolute, but I personally find the calipers to be more reliable.

Good luck!

I dont monitor my calories because they have never been a problem.

Not wanting to sound like a complete jackass, but how do you know if you cals are a problem or not if you arent tracking them, or at least have an idea how many you are taking in?

You could post what you are eating (portion sizes too) and we could tell you if it looks reasonable. You definately sound like you are doing all of the right things.

I have seen and read many cases where weight is common in the first month or so when embarking on a new fitness/weight training regime.


My clothes are getting tighter along with the scale moving. I do drink only water, but that hasnt changed for a while, so why would I start retaining it now? I dont monitor my calories because they have never been a problem. I dont eat fried, snacks, fast food, sweets or sugars and numerous other things. But I will try to monitor them better and see if that helps. Ive been working out continuously for about 3 weeks, I know thats not long, but Im scared the weight is going to jsut keep increasing. Ive never had this happen before when I was working out previously, and my diet was worse back then. Thanks for all the comments and all the future comments.

Hi Skyy! :)
Your body changes all the time, so where you never had to think about calories before, you may have to track them for a while to see what works. I never thought you could gain weight from eating too few calories until the past couple of years-- it had never happened to me before. :confused:

If you post a sample of a day's eating and what your workouts are like specifically, I'm sure folks here can help you troubleshoot. You may need much more weight training in there to build muscle.

I'm with them- you really need to track calories. Your body changes year to year, and what worked back then may be totally wrong for you now. Also, you'd be amazed at how small portion sizes are on certain foods we think we can have plenty of. Then on the other hand, you can definitely eat too little and see no progress. Our bodies are super picky. Hell, with mine, once I finally figure out something that works, it goes and gets rebellious and I gotta tweak my nutrition/exercise.