sudden weight gain

Is it normal to gain 3-4 pounds in 5 to 8 days.  I'm a male so I don't think It's normal water retention.  I have been eating more lately but not much more (still maintaining a deficite) and I recently added weight training (moderate intensity) and I am sore.  I realize mussel weights more than fat, but this much weight is too much too fast to be that.  Does your body retain water when trying to deal with an increase in exercise intensity, while trying to heal and if so is it temporary.   I've been exercising all along but primarily 4-5 mile hikes with the dogs and bicycling to and from work.  thank you

Your weight gain doesn't sound too rapid at all.  Depending on how much instensity is used during your routine, I'd say this is normal since you are just beginning.  It will slow down.  Remember that as a male, your testosterone levels enables you to bulk up at much higher rates than women, especially if you are consuming a lot of protien in your diet.

The best way to be sure however, is to buy a caliper and to measure your body fat percentage.  Or take a tape measure and measure inches.  The scale may have gone up but if your inches are the same or smaller, than that means you have gained muscle and NOT fat.

I hope this helps.

Hubby was 5 pounds heavier this morning than 2 days ago. We had pretty salty food yesterday, and spent a long time in the car, coming home close to midnight. No way it's fat, although we didn't eat great he didn't eat 10.000+ calories, and no way it's muscle, all we did was a pretty nromal upper body routine. It's possible for guys to retain water... lol

I think the increase in food (and hence sodium) and the increase in weight training can easily lead to water retention in your case.

The culprit is, indeed, water. Google "glycogen storage effect."

thank you all; I sure hope its temporary I'm trying to lose weight not gain it