Gain weight when excercising.

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grace159

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Hello, this is the first time I have ever posted anything so I hope it works.

My fitness is goal is to lose 10 pounds and tone up my thighs and buttocks. (I am 5'6 and weigh 136) I have always excercised but recently have been really diligent. I currently walk on the treadmill at a 12-15% incline for 40 minutes (at least one of those times I go for 60 minutes) four-five times a week, and have been doing strength training twice a week, but I have actually put on three pounds instead of losing (was 133 when I started) It is really frustrating. I would like to think that I am putting on muscle, but I don't know if that is the case. I have a scale that also measures body fat and the scale says my body fat has not changed. Any suggestions?
I also eat a balanced diet, and drink tons of water. When I stop excercising I lose wieght, its really irritating.

Also, is it better to work out at 80% of your target heart rate or 60%? Which burns more fat which will give me better results?

If anyone has any informtation I would really appreciate it.
 
Welcome! I'm glad you posted. First, stay off the body fat scales. They are quite inaccurate and can cause nothing but frustration.

If you just started strength training I wouldn't be surprised if you did gain a bit of muscle. Likely not 3 pounds though. Your weight could have fluctuated up for any number of reasons. Try not to let it frustrate you. Be patient and keep your eyes on the mirror for changes.

Hope that helps.

Sarah
 
It takes a long time; I weihed what you weight, and I'm shorter, and it took me 5 mos to lose 20 lbs, and a few more months to lose the next 5.

Consistency is the key!
 
Clothes fit?

Are your clothes still fitting the same? If they are then I wouldn't worry too much about weight. I rarely weigh myself...I use the mirror and the way my clothes fit as my guiding points.

I weighed 125 my whole life and wore a size 4-6. When I started lifting heavy weights and stuff I weighed about 130 and wore a size 2-4! That why I don't worry about weight...it's too frustrating. So many things can make your weight fluctuate...

~teresa
 
Hi, Grace159.


Welcome to the boards :)


It could be a number of things. You didn't post what you are eating. That could be the culprit. I know you said you eat a balanced diet, but someone once told me they eat very well and well... they certainly did not :)

You may eat very well but maybe you are not eating enough? Or perhaps too much? So the food plays a big part in this.

While I agree with the others about tossing the scale... I do recommend knowing your body fat. I like the hand held devices better than the device you stand on (like a scale). With any measurement you take... there will be a margin of error.

I believe that so long as you know the pattern of your body fat... you are fine. Your pattern thus far is no change but an increase in weight. You just do not know what sort of weight you gained. Fat or muscle?

Does your body fat scale tell you a ratio at all? Or does it just give you a percentage? Does it say 23% and 110/34 or something like that? If it has that ratio number... then watch that because it will tell you how much fat and how much lean muscle mass you have.

Sorry this post is getting long. The bottom line is that if you post more info about your diet we can help a bit more. but knowing your body fat is helpful in the long run. :)
 
Thanks for all the replies.

To answer the question on more about my diet, I usually eat cereal for breakfast (Always a whole grain with lots of fiber and little sugar such as bran flakes, all bran, or sometimes rice chex, and more recently oatmeal) I have about a 1.5-2.0 servings going by the box standards and about a cup of 1% milk ( I am a big milk drinker). For lunch I will have a soup, sandwich, or salad, or yogurt and fruit, or cheese and crackers. Dinner is usually chicken and salad, or home made bean burritos. My I am a fulltime nursing student and I waitress so my shedule and meal times vary greatly from day to day but I try to be as consistent as possible. Sometimes I don't get a chance to eat until 9:00 at night or so which I know is not good and if I have to eat late I will usually have yogurt or a sandwhich.

I don't follow a specifc meal plan, I just watch my portions very carefully and try to eat a lot of vegatables and whole grains. I am well informed about nutritional value, how much fat and calories are in foods as well as good fat, bad fat, etc.
Hope this gives info will help to see where my problem is coming from.
Thanks
 
Oh one more thing, my scale only gives a percent, not a ratio. And the percent flucuates. Sometimes I get on it and it says 26% and sometimes it says 22% or 24%.
 
Hi,

Body fat scales are notoriously inaccurate, so don't worry about what they say. As for your diet, eating only 3 times a day is not good for the metabolism. I know with your busy schedule it's very hard to sit down to small meals. Take something with you--Clif bars are a good choice. Very yummy and they have protein. Bring an apple with you. Raw veggies and hummus.

Your diet looks pretty low in protein. I would also recommend decreasing the amount of cereal you eat in the morning and have a protein with it. Egg whites or fat free cottage cheese are good, or some turkey bacon. For some excellent lean protein grab those pouches of tuna they sell now.

Hope these suggestions help.

Sarah
 
Body fat scales do have a margin of error, but they are better than the regular scales. And it is very important for you to know what your body fat is. The number is not important, but the pattern. You are in a healthy range. So good for you.

I also noticed that you need to eat more and every 3 hours. It's hard, but if you don't do it... you'll keep getting frustrated. More protein too :)

You definitely need to be sure you are eating enough calories for you height, weight, age, sex and daily activities. If you are busy and working a lot... you burn a lot of calories.
 
You are right, I do need to try to eat more frequently and I don't pay as much attention to protein as I probably should, approximately how many grams of protein a day should I aim for?

Also, a few years ago I took a nutrution class and the insturctor told us that most people intake too much protein and that too much protein is just as bad as too much carbs and fat intake, is that true?
 
A common measurement is to eat 1g per pound of body weight. I have not heard that people eat too much protein. However too much of anything is not good. I have heard that people do not realize how many things contain protein. For example- asparagus. Sure it doesn't contain as much as a steak, but it contains protein nonetheless.

Now you should know that some people recommend 1g of protein per pound of LEAN muscle mass. The only way to find this out is to know your body fat. Since you know it we can do some math. Let's take the average body fat number of 24%. Since you weight 136 pounds we will multiply that by 24%. That let's us know how much body fat you have (approximately- it doesn't mean you need to lose this much fat because we all need fat). This also tells us how much of our weight is lean muscle mass/bones/water, etc. For you it is 103.36.

So you need to eat between 103-136 grams of protein per day. Some people say to eat 2 grams of protein but I think that's more for those with large amounts of muscle mass or for those wanting large amounts of muscle mass.

I hope that helps you a bit more.
 
So... I decided to quite weighing myself as frequently but decided I should today since it has been two weeks, to my surprise I am now 138 (up from 133-yikes!!!) I am really discouraged, because I have added more protein and more veggies to my diet and started eating five small meals a day, and have increased the intensity of my strenghth training and am still doing cardio four days a week. What gives??

So I am going to keep a strict food journal (I started this morning) Here is my question. How many calories should I aim for a day? I was planning on eating 1500 is that too much? too little? I am 5'6 1/2, 138, BF 24-26%.

Also, so i need to go so far as to also keep tally of carbs and fat grams or is it mainly the overall calories I should be more concerned with?
 
Trainer Lynn said:
Hi, Grace159.
It could be a number of things. You didn't post what you are eating. That could be the culprit. I know you said you eat a balanced diet, but someone once told me they eat very well and well... they certainly did not :)
Click to expand...


i hope you weren't talking about me there, Lynn! :)

To Grace: Definately watch your food intake. When I start exercising, trying to diet, what usually happens is my mind wants EVERYTHING I can't have. It's stupid! I'll never crave chips until I decide to go on a diet. Grrr. Goodluck to you!
 
grace,
1500 is probably about right depending on your activity level throughout the day (in addition to working out). I eat around 1500-1800 calories a day. I weigh the same as you and workout but during the day I just sit at my desk about half the time. The rest of the time I'm just walking...my job is not strenuous.

The breakdown of fat, carbs, and protein is very important when you're trying to lose those last few pounds. When you're first starting out just losing weight then the calories matter more.

~teresa
 
I was close to your area when i started trying to get into shape and lose fat. Here are some things that might help as they did for me.

1. If you must weigh yourself, weigh first thing in the morning after using the bathroom with nothing on, and nothing in your belly. And only weight yourself once a week. In a day i can go from 129 to 132 in a matter of few hours. Its normal, don't worry about the numbers as much as what you see and how clothes feel.

2. With your stats you need about 2000 calories to maintain your weight. So 1500 is right as to what you should have to loose weight. Don't go anywhere below 1450 at this time it will only do you worse. With 1500 you get 300 calories with every meal. Try try try to get One carb and One protien each meal. (example egg white omlette with a slice of whole wheat toast and sugar free jam for breakfast) Good carbs are in my opinion the key to controlling your weight loss. Try to cut out any white basically;) No white bread, white rice, sugar...Stick to Whole grain products and veggies and fruits. Basically the closer it comes from right out of the ground, the more of it you should eat.

3. Don't over workout. I saw you put sometimes for 60 mins. Well with your diet and working out like that you aren't getting enough food, and are not only telling you body to keep fat you have, you could be eating into the muscle you got left as well. Stay in a 60 to 80% target heart rate range for 30 mins, no more than 40. You aren't trying to be a hardcore athlete right now, just lose some weight so dont be so mean to your body;) I personally love to do some light resitance training for my whole body before i get into the cardio that way i am streched and warmed up and already got my heart rate going. Then i get 2-3 days of target training for different sections of my body.

4. Patience. In the beginning i really wanted to hit my "goal" date. But halfway through i realized that it was going to take alot of time and alot of effort. But hey thats okay because while we want everything so fast, we have to remember how long it took to put that weight on in the first place. Being you are so small already its will take months and months to acheve what you want because guess what, you are already so close to being there. That last 10-15 pounds sadly are the hardest to get rid of.

5. Water. Yeah you know...no WATER! I started off getting meh maybe 5-6 ounces. Then i went to 8-10. I chug a gallon a day now and let me tell you huge differnce, massive. Take it everywhere you go and drink it all day long.

Good luck and if you need more advice let us know.
 
maybe this will help to see what I am doing wrong??

Ok, so I tried the eating every 3 hours and I feel like I ended up eating too often and too much, and by the third day I was too busy to keep track and break down the nutritional values. I know I didn’t really do this right but I thought I would share anyway so I could get some feedback. Here is a three day sample from last week, the things I was unsure of calorie and nutrition wise I left blank or estimated. As far as exercise on the first day I did 35 minutes of cardio, and the second I did 30 minutes of strength training. The third day was one of my days off. Days two and three I was on my feet 8 hrs in the hospital caring for patients (which also makes it difficult to eat every three hours).

Any feedback would be appreciated. I need to know what I need to continue, what to stop, etc.
Thanks!
( I had this in an excel spreadsheet and it did not copy correctly but hopefully it will still make sense.......)
Time Food Cal Fat Carb Prot
Day 1
6:30a.m. Rice chex w/mik 395 4.5g 62.5g 11g
10:15 1/2 power bar 150 3g 39g 11g

1:30 2.5c salad 175? ? ?
2tbs light dressing 70 4.5 7
1/2c. Cottage cheese 100 2.5 5 14
hardboiled egg 70 4.5 1 6

4:00 apple and 1/2c.grapes 240?

7:00 1/2 turkey sand. 520

Daily total 1720 31 158 57


Day 2
5:45a.m. Cliff Bar 250 6 43 11

6:45a.m. Dbl nonfat latte (16 oz) 180 0 26 16

10:00 TLC bar 130 5 20 5

12:30 1c. Cottage cheese 200 5 10 28
1/2 pb sandwich (no jelly) 110 8
1/2 orange 110

3:00 Coffe w.cream 25
4:30 1/2 c. grapes 50
1/3 orange 30
carrot 20

6:30 Chix breast 150 5 0 25
2c. Salad w/light dressing 220?
2/4c. Brown rice 200

Daily total 1805 27 121 89

Day 3
5:30a.m. Cliff Bar 250 6 43 11
orange 80?

11:30a.m. 2c. Salad w/ ff dressing
1. clam chowder from hosp. cafeteria ???


3:30 1.2 c. grapes

6:30 Chix and blk bean burrito from mexican
restaurant/ ate half ????
chips and salsa ?????

Daily total unknown
 
I just think you need more protein...like for example on your first day's breakfast, i would have some egg whites and less cereal. At 4:00 I would add some protein to that fruit.

How much water are you drinking, by the way?

~teresa
 
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