Protein make you gain weight?

Over the past two weeks I have increased my protein, a lot. I've been eating things like chicken and tuna and lots of protein bars, normally one a day. I rarely ate these things before, and I have gained 3 pounds. I don't understand. Other than the protein, I have been eating my regular diet and exercising my regular way. Does protein make you gain weight? Or is it muscle? I don't see how it could be muscle. Confused.

Protein helps build muscle and muscle weighs more than fat. Without knowing any specifics of your routine (exercise, eating and so on) I would suggest measuring yourself (bust, waist, hips, etc) and then charting your progress that way. If you are losing inches but not weight, then you are probably building muscle.

Protein has actually been shown to help in weight loss. Not really sure about the protein bars, but are you staying within your calorie limits? Protein bars usually have quite a few calories because they're typically used by athletes who burn quite a lot during exercise. Meats in general (whether chicken, tuna or beef) have quite a few calories as well.

Muscle probably won't start building up until after about a month or so, I think 2 weeks is not enough to see a change in muscle build up, especially if you're a woman.

I eat 1500 a day. The protein bars are 180 calories, 20 grams protein. I don't really know whats going on, but I just read another topic that makes a little bit of sense to me. I began lifting 5 lbs weights just this past week, and why it may not be muscle building, I read that your muscles retain water after a workout, so this could be the cause I suppose.

For one thing, tuna has a lot of sodium in it... and if you increase your sodium, then you're going to retain more water, raising your weight.

Original Post by ccrun4fun:

Protein helps build muscle and muscle weighs more than fat. Without knowing any specifics of your routine (exercise, eating and so on) I would suggest measuring yourself (bust, waist, hips, etc) and then charting your progress that way. If you are losing inches but not weight, then you are probably building muscle.

I hear time and time again that people say muscle weighs more then fat.  That's not true...muscle take up less room then fat does.  But, a pound is a pound...a pound of muscle and a pound of fat are still a pound.  Except, fat takes up a LOT more room then muscle does.  Which is why people will lose inches, when the scale barely moves.

 

Now, if you're going to compare an area of muscle with an area of fat, then yes, you could say that the muscle weighs more.  If you have a 12" x 12" square of fat and another one of muscle, then yes, the muscle will weigh more.

 

But to say muscle weighs more then fat is wrong...no one can disagree that a pound is a pound.

 

Ms Robbyn

Original Post by kajikit:

For one thing, tuna has a lot of sodium in it... and if you increase your sodium, then you're going to retain more water, raising your weight.

^^^ Good point.

 

On a separate note, I have to reply to another post I read  here about muscle and fat weight but I believe that muscle does weigh more than fat..

 

You need protein daily whether you want to build muscle or not, we all know this. I personally find that adding protein to your lifestyle helps keep you lean (or in some cases, muscular).. it has helped me lose weight. Combining protein rich foods, strength training and aerobics/cardio is a good combination.

It is possible like kajikit said, water retention may be the issue since you are eating tuna.. or anything else with large amounts of sodium. I think the weight gain could have been caused from you gaining 3 lbs of muscle.. which I think is a great benefit in the end.. do some aerobics/cardio/whatever and that muscle will help burn fat off!

Weight training leads to water retention by muscles as they need water to repair themselves. This weight will go in 4- 5 days.

As kajikit said salt could be another reason of water retention.

Its not possible to gain 3 pounds of fat specially when you are eating healthy and working out.

 

Well, if we want to get into semantics, all we can say that is technically correct is that muscle is more dense than fat. A pound of muscle weighs as much as a pound of fat but takes up less space, or a cubic inch of muscle takes up as much space as a cubic inch of fat, but weighs more, it means the same thing. Weight and volume are extrinsic properties (meaning they vary depending on how much stuff you have) whereas density is intrinsic to the material. Technically only intrinsic properties can be compared with any meaning, but extrinsic varibles are also often compared with the assumption that all other extrinsic varibles are the same.

And to give my answer on the OP's question, I would agree that it's probably water, it's impossible to gain 3 lbs of muscle in 2 weeks, and nearly impossible for fat if you are watching what you eat and all that. When you keep in mind that if you drink 8 cups of water a day, that's 4 lbs that goes through your system, 3 lbs of water weight over 2 weeks is not hard to believe.

I'd say if you're eating a LOT of tuna, the sodium will add up, so depends on how much you're eating. Also, be careful of the protein bars, as a lot of them have tons of carbs in them too, and sugar, depending on the brand. So if you're eating a lot of those, that might be contributing to the weight gain.

Original Post by msrobbyn:

Original Post by ccrun4fun:

Protein helps build muscle and muscle weighs more than fat. Without knowing any specifics of your routine (exercise, eating and so on) I would suggest measuring yourself (bust, waist, hips, etc) and then charting your progress that way. If you are losing inches but not weight, then you are probably building muscle.

I hear time and time again that people say muscle weighs more then fat. That's not true...muscle take up less room then fat does. But, a pound is a pound...a pound of muscle and a pound of fat are still a pound. Except, fat takes up a LOT more room then muscle does. Which is why people will lose inches, when the scale barely moves.

Now, if you're going to compare an area of muscle with an area of fat, then yes, you could say that the muscle weighs more. If you have a 12" x 12" square of fat and another one of muscle, then yes, the muscle will weigh more.

But to say muscle weighs more then fat is wrong...no one can disagree that a pound is a pound.

Ms Robbyn

A pound of feathers weighs the same as a pound of lead, but is lead heavier than feathers?  According to the "muscle weighs the same as fat" argument, then yes, lead and feathers and water and wood all weigh exactly the same thing.

People say "muscle weighs more than fat" because without adding in any specifics of volume, it's common sense to assume that you have the same volume of each substance.  A certain volume of muscle weighs more than the same volume of fat.

 

Back to the OP's question.  If you just started a new work out regime, you're holding onto extra water, it's temporary and normal and don't worry about it.  Increasing protein itself does not cause weightgain.  Measure anyways, you may eventually start changing shape without noticing much of a change in weight, which you'll pro'lly want to know about, since it's encouraging. :)