You were working out hard when you suddenly discovered that you had gained excess weight? This happens to many people. Your immediate thoughts: “Why exactly do I gain weight when I exercise?” While it can be easy to let a higher number on the scale throw you off, gaining weight after a workout shouldn't be a reason to panic.
ContentWhy do I gain weight when playing sports: water retention after training Weight gain immediately after training Why do I gain weight when playing sports: the result of strength training training
WomanEL lists the reasons why you may gain weight even when exercising and eating healthy.
Why do I gain weight when playing sports: water retention after exercise
The amount of H20 in your body greatly affects your weight. If you see a higher number on the scale, it may be due to water retention (which sometimes happens after exercise).
“Water makes up approximately 65 to 90 percent of a person’s weight. Changes in the human body's water content can tip the scales 10 pounds or more from day to day, says Jeffrey A. Dolgan, clinical exercise physiologist. This is one of the main reasons for the popularity of diuretics. They flush water from the body, which only leads to short-term weight loss, but they do not change your body composition in any way.
Increasing weight immediately after training
Many people gain weight immediately after training, but this is a short-term phenomenon, Source: freepik.com
A person's mass is a combination of muscle, fat, bone, brain and nerve pathways, connective tissue, blood, lymph, intestinal gas, urine, and the air we carry in our lungs. Immediately after training, the percentage of mass in each of these categories can change by as much as 15 percent.
Intense exercise causes weight variability due to factors such as hydration status, inflammation from repairing damaged muscles (also known as delayed onset muscle soreness), even the amount of bowel byproducts or urine and blood volume.
So, Here's the thing: if you're gaining weight while working out and eating healthy, it's probably not the type of weight gain you're thinking about.
Why do I gain weight when playing sports: the result of strength training
We are often told that “muscle is heavier than fat,” which is misleading. A pound of fat weighs the same as a pound of muscle; however, muscle volume is denser than fat volume and therefore heavier.
If you begin to change your body composition through exercise—by building denser muscle mass and decreasing the amount of body fat—your weight may increase and your body fat percentage may decrease. These changes occur over weeks and months (not hours or days).
If someone is trying to improve their fitness, they should ignore the scale and pay more attention to objective measurement tools such as composition body to track your progress, according to Dolgan.
While weighing yourself can be one way to track your progress, it shouldn't be the only way. And you definitely shouldn’t get hung up on weighing yourself every day (and, as a result, worry about gaining weight while working out and eating healthy). Don't forget that losing a pound on the scale doesn't mean you're in better shape – it just means you're lighter.
And the last reason is nutrition. And keep in mind that if you exercise but are gaining weight, your workouts may be effective, but you will need to change your diet if you want weight loss results.
Many people do cardio to lose weight weight, but don't see the result. Here are some more things you should stop believing in.
