Working out, eating better, GAINING weight...

I've been working out for the last 4 weeks (starting my 5th week today).  I work out 3-5 days a week and do resistance and incline on the elliptical.  I am usually at the gym between 45 mins and 2 hours.

I don't eat extremely heathfully, but I am eating better than I was 4 weeks ago.  I cut out a lot of fast food (which was all I ate), and I have cut my portions in half.  A typical day I will have a cereal bar for breakfast (and maybe one later in the day as a snack), a grilled chicken sandwich and a diet coke for lunch, and a bowl of kellogs special k for dinner (or maybe a can of soup or spaghetti-o's).  I cut out regular pop almost completely (I allow myself to have one meal with regular pop on the weekends).  I drink lots of water and maybe one diet pop a day.

I have gained 5 lbs since the beginning of this ordeal.  I was really psyched at the beginning of this new lifestyle thinking "This time, I WILL do it!"  Now with all this hard work and the weight gain, I have lost all my motivation.  I know it's not muscle because I have not been lifting weights (I'm a little intimidated to use free weights and machines at the gym... that's the "man area"). 

What am I doing wrong???  I'm not training for a marathon or "The World's Stongest Woman" competition.  I just want to know why the changes I have made aren't working.  Why bust my butt and watch what I eat and gain weight, when i could be eating whatever I want and sitting at home watching "Rock of Love" and gaining weight?!?!

Someone please help me!  I need to know what normal changes I can make to live healthier.  I just want to be normal...

Ok sweetie first of all you are lifting weights. They may not be free weights, but guess what resistance training is? That is all about builiding and trainging the muscles. Take it from someone who had a personal trainer for almost 6 months his favorite type of muscle training is resistance training. Stop with all of that and just stick with basic walking areobics. If what you are looking for right now is to lose weight stick to watching what you eat which you are doing a awesome job by the sounds of it, and just stick to the basics which is walking and basic aerobics. I promise it may be a slow process but it will work. M.J

 

P.s One more thing. At one point I weighed 210 lbs and I did lose the weight it was a slow process. i now weigh 136 I had to learn that dieting was not for me because the minute I went back to eating like a normal person I gained the weight back. I had to find a way to cut my portions and a work out routine I could stick to for life..

I don't know how helpful this is, but I experience the same thing when I start to work out. I gain weight! If I do not work out at all I lose about three pounds. When I work out I gain three pounds. How much weight are you talking about?? I keep telling myself that it is just three pounds. It could be muscle or water weight from my muscles reparing themselves. I don't lift weights or anything and I do about a half hour of cardio. It is a little frustrating. That is for sure!!

Angelkc22, I too was having this problem. I was using my new total gym everyday, to help build lean muscles and I wasn't doing enough cardio to burn the fats cells stored all over my body, so I gained 5 lbs within 2 weeks. I was building muscle and not burning the fat.

I cut back on the amount of strength training I was doing to 3-4 days a week and then I increased the amount of cardio I was doing and I started to lose weight. I do at least 1 hour of cardio a night, whether it is walking, jogging, or latin dancing. I can't do more cardio then that a night since I gave myself shin splints on my right leg, hurts too much, but I still do it every day.

I also had the problem when I first started to work out, with swelling or looking bloated. I was told that I tend to look bloated after working out because of building my muscles and making them stronger. Other than that, I don't know much more that could help you. Just keep eating healthier and working out and the results will show.

I think gaining is the worst when working out. I like to think that as soon I start the lbs will just shed off. I realized that isn't how it works. Even though you don't do free weights you are probably still gaining muscle which as you know weighs more than fat. I would try entering the "man area" to lift some weights. I have been one of those workout, stop and gain, workout, stop and gain people so I have done a lot of reading. From what books and trainers say, if you build more muscle you burn more calories sitting still.  Another thing maybe that since you do the same cardio machine everyday your body doesn't have to work as hard to do it. Switch it up a bit and make sure you are hitting your target heart rate. I found it is hard to keep my heart rate up once I get in shape. I hope this helps, you can do it!!

It sounds like you are doing 2 things: one, gaining muscle (which weighs more than fat) and two, not eating enough/balanced enough. When you go from not working out at all to your regimen, you are going to gain muscle because you probably didn't have much to begin with. This is a GOOD thing, because in the long run more muscle burns more calories. The other thing is that if you are really only eating what you say you are, you're probably not getting nearly enough calories, and not very balanced calories either. You're getting probably under 1000 calories a day, which will put your body into starvation mode. When that happens, your body does everything in its power to hold onto fat in order to keep you alive. You're also not getting any fruits or vegetables, so try incorporating some of those. If you are not a big fan of those foods, start off slow and find things that you do like and incorporate those to the meals you already have. Add an apple to your cereal bar for breakfast, some baby carrots or a small salad with lowfat dressing for lunch, and some sort of protein and vegetables for dinner. Not only will you be more satisfied, but working out will be easier because you are putting more quality fuel into your body.

I'm not surprised you call it an 'ordeal'.  I've no idea why you're gaining weight because what you're eating is very, very small indeed.  It may be less than what you were eating before but it's really not providing you with any goodness.  Besides which starving is a notoriously ineffective way to lose weight.   What you eat is, if anything, more important than how much you eat and I'm worried that with this kind of menu and the excessive exercise you're going to make yourself ill.   Do you suffer with things like constipation?  Diarrhoea?  Poor skin?  Irregular heartbeat?

Try a slightly different tack, perhaps.  Aim to improve your diet nutritionally by starting with 5-a-day fruit and vegetables as your base.  A glass of OJ with some high-fibre breakfast cereal and a yoghurt to start the day maybe.  Bananas, nuts and raisins instead of cereal bars.  A home made wholegrain sandwich with plenty of cooked meat, sliced tomatoes and lettuce for lunch.... There's lots of ways to get 5-a-day.

And Special K or canned spaghetti really isn't a balanced main meal.   Do you have access to cooking facilities?  Could you put together a big salad with some cooked meat and a bread roll?  Or grill some fish and boil a few potatoes, peas & carrots to go with it?  Or cook some wholegrain pasta and add some tomato sauce and some cheese on top?  They'd all be a lot more balanced than what you're eating now.

You aren't eating enough, plain and simple.

By not eating enough, your body is running away from letting go of the fat stores you have, and storing MORE fat.

You need to eat enough to signal to your body that you aren't going to starve anytime soon, and that letting go of the excess fat on your body is alright!

How old are you, and how tall are you? Those will help determine how much you should be eating.

http://www.bmi-calculator.net/bmr-calculator/ Input your data in there, and if you eat what it says your BMR is, and continue to exercise, you shouldn't gain anymore weight, as your body will be able to say "Ok, I'm not going to starve, I can let go of this excess fat now"

Eat more veggies and fruit, less processed carbs (special k and cereal bars aren't good for you. REALLY).

Maybe you are retaining water. I would make sure to drink a ton of water. Some days i drink sooo much water that I feel water logged until the next day! Also..if its close to TTOM, you could be retaining water and that will add some weight. When I first started going to the gym, not long ago, i wasnt losing weight on the scale, so i got a measuring tape and found that i was losing inches! You might try that too!

Like someone said before you are not eating enough and what you are eating is not very good for you.  There is so much sodium in canned spaghetti and that  cause water retention.  Also i know it makes us feel better to say muscle weighs more than fat so that must be why i'm gaining etc... but...it is almost impossible to gain muscle while in a caloric deficit.  If you are new to lifting you will gain a little muscle for the first few weeks due to the shock on your body but after that you don't gain muscle you just maintain and strengthen.  It takes months for even a professional bodybuilder to gain 1 lb of muscle.

Original Post by judkinsfam:

Ok sweetie first of all you are lifting weights. They may not be free weights, but guess what resistance training is? That is all about builiding and trainging the muscles. Take it from someone who had a personal trainer for almost 6 months his favorite type of muscle training is resistance training. Stop with all of that and just stick with basic walking areobics. If what you are looking for right now is to lose weight stick to watching what you eat which you are doing a awesome job by the sounds of it, and just stick to the basics which is walking and basic aerobics. I promise it may be a slow process but it will work. M.J

Lifting weights is actually the form of exercise that is most efficient at burning fat.  Slow, steady state cardio (i.e. walking) is the least efficient.  Lifting weights while on a calorie deficit will not cause you to add muscle, but will instead help to burn fat while maintaining existing muscle mass.

http://www.t-nation.com/readArticle.do?id=152 6539 

Floggingsully hit it right on! Walking will not help the weight loss efforts, unless it's race walking! Lift those weights and do some interval cardio (alternating hard and easier efforts). Also, I agree with the others that you aren't eating enough calories or a healthy one. A nutritionist could help with the diet, and a personal trainer (perhaps one who doesn't advocate walking as a major calorie burning activity) could help also.

How many calories are you eating per day? From what you've told us it doesn't sound like nearly enough. That could be why you're gaining weight too.

Original Post by jansherman:

Floggingsully hit it right on! Walking will not help the weight loss efforts, unless it's race walking! Lift those weights and do some interval cardio (alternating hard and easier efforts). Also, I agree with the others that you aren't eating enough calories or a healthy one. A nutritionist could help with the diet, and a personal trainer (perhaps one who doesn't advocate walking as a major calorie burning activity) could help also.

 Walking will definatly helpt with weight loss efforts! Any exercise will help! Walking might be a less efficient method of losing fat, but it will still work.

Measure yourself!  Sometimes the scale can be my worst enemy.  If you are gaining muscle and losing fat you will lose inches and gain weight.