Why am I gaining weight from exercise? Help?

I have a passable understanding of nutrition and exercise, but I am kind of stumped here.

I lost consistently every month UNTIL I started exercising in earnest in April and was as low as 150.6 lbs. I started gaining, slowly, immediately after. About 4 poudns that first month, a fraction of  pound a week since.

 I'm now 156 pounds.

 I've heard everything from glycogen stores, muscle having more mass, not eating enough-- but I am going to spell out exactly what's happening and have you take your best guess.

1) I lost 215 pounds while doing minor exercise-- walking a half mile 3x a week, anda full gym nautilus type workout once a week-- and occasionally a seated light-weight program (3 pound weights)

2)In April of this year I started having much better mobility and started walking daily-- a mile at first-- then 3-4 miles daily as of two weeks back

3) I was eating 1400 cals (and logged every bite)-- and people agreed that I was probably undereating-- since my RMR was tested at 1680. So I got GoWearFit-- a calorimeter so I could figure out precisely what to eat. My food's good-- I eat 40% protein/35% carbs, 35% fat.

4) Based on the numbers from the calorimeter, I started eating more-- about a 6-700 calorie deficit a day (meaning that if I was burning 2200 a day, I was eating 1500-1600. For the past couple weeks I've also added aerobics (Jane Fonda) or 15 minutes of biking and a few extra muscle workouts.

A typical day's exercise now is 50 minutes aerobics, and a 3 mile walk---  or 35 minutes on the nautilus and 15 minute biking at max heartrate-- and some days all of the above. I do the same and often more on the weekend.

And my reward for all this? Gained another .2 a pound this week.

Nope, measurements haven't changed. Still eating 500 cals less a day than I burn or more. (Even though I am gaining, against my better judgement I am still trying to get closer to that 500 calorie deficit without making the deficit TOO big)

Any ideas why I am gaining?

Why?  I don't have a good answer for you, but my weight loss almost stopped when I went from walking to running.  I have heard other people say the same thing as well.  My weight finally came off and I hit my goal, but it was at a much slower pace after I started increasing my workouts.

I always assumed that I was gaining lean muscle mass.

I hope someone can give you a good answer.  I just wanted to let you know that you weren't alone in this happening.

Scott

I am fine with it being muscle mass if that's what it is. Hope you're right! :)

The idea that we can operate at a calorie deficit but not lose weight because we "aren't eating enough" is a misunderstanding of the studies on starvation diets. Yes, when you restrict your calories, your metabolism slows down and, the more you restrict them, the bigger your metabolic slow down. But, in the studies on starvation, the subjects still lost weight. The slow down wasn't enough to wipe out the calorie deficit.

What tends to happen to people in real life is that they start exercising and their food intake goes up. Or they start dieting and they start subconsciously conserving energy and their daily living calorie expenditure goes down. Or both.

So the reason that eating too little stalls weight loss is that people are subconsciously doing things to make their calorie deficit lower than they think it is.

But this is all moot if you are using a gadget to measure your calorie expenditure. It would account for any metabolic slow down and it would show up in the numbers it pumps out.

So, if your GoFit says you are expending X calories and your food diary says you are consuming Y calories and this is a deficit, then either you are losing weight and the scale isn't reflecting this for some reason, or the numbers aren't accurate somewhere. There really isn't any other possibility.

Personally, I never trust the formulas. Yes, the GoFit is more accurate than the online web sites and some HRMs are more accurate than the GoFit. But all of these gadgets use formulas and the inputs they collect to estimate your calories burned.

So it's still an estimate and estimates can be wrong.

For example, some HRM use your VO2 Max rate in their formula. If you don't know that and you don't change the setting from its default, their estimate can be off by quite a bit, either high or low. (But if you do know your VO2 Max and input it, those HRM are more accurate than ones who don't use that number.)

Then we have the calories in. When watchdog groups spot check the nutritional info on food, they consistently find that fat is under-reported on nutritional labels and restaurant menus. Plus studies have found that people consistently under-report what they eat.

So I just assume whatever calories my food diary says I've consumed is lower than reality and I factor that into my cushion.

I also go back over my food diary all the time and look for stuff I might be entering wrong. And I *always* find stuff even though I'm really anal about tracking things and I still spot check my portions by weighing and measuring. (Under-estimating portions is the number one way people under-estimate their food in take.)

Btw, are you taking days off from your exercise so your muscles have time to heal up? If you aren't, you are not only slowing down your fitness gains, but also maximizing your water weight.

Based on my own experiences, whenever I increase my exercise routine, it takes about a week for it to be reflected on the scale. I assume the first week's loss is being masked by water weight due to glycogen depletion and restoration.

I've also had my RMR tested and found it to be 8% below average. That is probably a result of calorie restriction. However, that was many pounds ago so I need to have it tested again. If our RMR number was done at a higher weight, you might want to get it tested again as well.

The thing about the RMR test is that it's measuring the actual oxygen you are consuming. (At least the one I did works that way.) This means it's not an estimate. So I trust it more. It's still a number so I don't trust it 100%, but it would be a good way to double-check your GoFit numbers.

Interesting stuff here; thanks for the post. The information about making subconscious changes such as conserving energy is very interesting and likely very accurate.

Thanks,

Mary

I had the RMR tested-- it was 1680 about ten pounds back-- probably slightly lower now.
 
I was burning from 2000 to as much as 2700 calories (GoFit numbers-- fairly scientific) each day for a month while eating 1400 calories a day (plenty of "cushion" there if I was logging "low" and accounting for a couple days on weekends when I ate closer to 2000)-- and I still gained 6 pounds in a month of increasing exercise. Something's at play here besides numbers in and numbers out-- I just can't figure out what.

My intake doesn't "go up" unless I up it intentionally. I log everything and maintain a balance of 40% protein/ 35% carbs/ 35% fat or as close to it as I can come).

Time off's an interesing angle. I really know very little about the mechanics of exercise-- I literally could not walk from the house to the car two years ago, so it's all new to me. I figured the glycogen issue would happen, but it's been a month now, and still hanging at about +6 pounds from my low of 150.6. I was actually afraid to stop exercising, even for a day-- plus, no workout means, you know, less peanut butter that day. ;)

I'm experimenting this week with eat just about 500 cals under what I expend. I titrated up to it slowly. I'll let you know if it helps-- maybe I needed fuel to burn?

Thanks for responding!

"My intake doesn't "go up" unless I up it intentionally. I log everything and maintain a balance of 40% protein/ 35% carbs/ 35% fat or as close to it as I can come)."

I know, that's why I said it was moot for you. Or really anyone who truly tracks with any degree of accuracy.

OTOH, that poster up-thread suggested that things like the Body Bug don't really work for the surgically altered. That interested me because I hadn't really thought about it before. But all those gadgets do have formulas built into them (which they guard like they are the keys to Fort Knox) and the formulas are based on average people. So it's an interesting theory and it makes me wonder about my HRM, too.

But not the RMR test. I think that one is pretty solid.

About taking time off ... and also exercise intensity ... All fitness gains happen during rest. Exercise tears your muscles down and rest is when those microscopic tears are repaired back up to be stronger than before. Overtraining is very common because people take a "more is better" attitude and won't take time off, but time off really helps.

It's also best to vary your intensity too.

You will gain more fitness by doing something fast and then slow or hard and then easy. Repeating the hard/easy cycle throughout a routine is better than *always* going at your max.

I do a track workout every week where we do intervals and I got so fast so quickly from doing that compared to when I was running on the treadmill every time as fast and as long as I could. I still do fast "tempo" runs but they are limited mileage. I also do only "long" run a week that is high mileage, but a slower speed. The combo of all 3 should have me up to a half-marathon distance in 9 weeks. Each workout has a different purpose and they all work together for maximum gain. Alway running all out wouldn't get me where I want to be as fast as having the 3 different kinds of workouts.

I do the same thing with the bike. One spin class for my speed/interval work, one "tempo" ride a week with a group and then one "long" ride by myself or with a different group. It's not as straightforward with the bike though because we're out in the terrain.

Can I ask where you got your rmr tested?

thanks

My weight loss slowed when first started exercising as well and I was in a far greater calorie deficit than you stated.  I was eating only 850-900 calories a day and I should have been losing at least 2lbs a week.  I was SOOOOOOOOO frustrated.  But, that was based on calorie tracking, food measuring and average RMR/calories burned during exercise so not scientific measurements.  About 2 1/2 months ago I really upped the intensity and am changing my exercise routines constantly and that helped to kick start weight loss again.  I lost 2lbs this week and I haven't tracked my food at all but I started training for a Sprint Triathlon so am doing things I haven't done before like bike and swim.  I do have a Body Bugg and am going to start wearing it to get a better idea of calories burned.  I also am getting my VO2 max measured and my RMR tested so I have more accurate data. 

Here's the thing; I suspect I will not lose as much as my calories deficit says I should.  Don't know why but I've seen many others who have had WLS in this same boat on the Body Bugg website.  I am beginning to suspect that WLS somehow (at least initially) messes with our metabolisms at least some of us, but let me be clear I HAVE NO PROOF, just personal experience and anecdotal evidence.

All that being said,  I am delighted with the way my body is shaping up.  I know I have gained lean muscle mass so that accounts for some of the weight loss slowing.  I feel really healthy, and that is more important to me than the scale (but I'm not perfect I still fret the scale too).

Get your RMR and VO2max tested, my gym is offering something called the "sub-maximal Conconi Protocol test" which determines anaerobic threshold so I can have more accurate heart rate training ranges/goals.

I eat/ate below my RMR. (My RMR is 1680, I was eating 1400.--yes, I had it tested scientifically.)

Then I started doing 300-500 cals exercise plus upping general activity-- on weekends I was burning 2700 cals a day!  And gaining. About 6 pounds in a month.
 
I'm upping the cals to try to get to about a 500 cal deficit to see if it helps.