Putting on a few pounds after taking up exercise happens a lot. There are several possible reasons, and none of them are reason to panic. (Does this happen to you?)
by Martica Heaner, M.A., M.Ed., for MSN Health & Fitness
Q. I have been working out faithfully for three weeks now using an elliptical trainer. At first I struggled to keep going for half a mile. But now I can do 4 miles in 40 minutes. I'm clearly getting fitter, but I'm getting fatter, too! I've gained five pounds! I thought that cardio exercise was supposed to help me lose weight. I am totally discouraged.
A. Relax, you're on the road to weight loss. But it takes time to arrive at your destination. How you navigate makes a big difference in the results that you'll see.
First, congratulations on working up to exercising for a full 40 minutes! What a great accomplishment—especially considering that you were struggling to keep it up for a half mile at first. You are clearly fitter, and you're improving your health with every step.
Before you get impatient about the lack of weight loss, understand why it takes time.
When you exercise, you burn more calories than you normally would during the day. This is especially true for cardio workouts (such as walking, running, cycling, skating, dancing or exercising on the elliptical trainer), during which you burn many more calories per minute than you do during non-cardio workouts (such as yoga, light weight lifting or core-conditioning moves.) That's an important reason why cardio workouts are key for weight control—you can burn more calories faster. So you are on the right track with your elliptical-trainer sessions.
Since losing weight comes from accumulating a sizable calorie burn over days and weeks, the more calories you can burn from exercise each day, the greater the weight loss. In general, if you burn about 500 extra calories per day (and keep your diet unchanged), you'll lose around one pound per week.
But there are a few caveats.
First, it's not easy to burn 500 calories in one exercise session. If you're not in great shape to start, it may take a while before you can burn a big chunk of calories by either pushing hard enough in a shorter amount of time, or lasting long enough to work at an easier intensity for a longer time. Depending upon how much you weigh, it make take about 90 minutes of walking or one hour of running to burn about 500 calories. If you're unfit, a 30-minute workout may only produce a 250-calorie burn. That workout is still contributing to a calorie burn, but it takes a while for the total calories to add up.
Boosting the calorie burn
You mentioned that after only three weeks are you now able to keep up a moderate workout for 40 minutes. At this point, you may be burning about 300 calories during this workout (keep in mind that the calorie-burn estimate can vary). More importantly, because your sessions were shorter during the first week or two, you started off burning fewer calories per workout. If the first week you exercised for 10 minutes per session, you may have burned 100 calories or less.
You don't mention how often you've been exercising each week, but if it's three days per week, then the overall calorie burn you've accumulated is still quite small. Over the past three weeks, you may not have accumulated the 3,500 or so calories needed to lose one pound.
So that likely explains the lack of actual weight loss. In theory, you are now on track to start racking up a bigger number of total calories burned if you can work out for 40 minutes or longer each time, and especially if you can exercise on most days of the week. Most weight-loss recommendations are to exercise for five or more days a week for 60 to 90 minutes.
So why the weight gain?
So your relatively low extra-calorie burn might explain why you are not losing weight. But why are you gaining?
First, a reality check: You may not have gained a full five pounds. It's normal for body weight to fluctuate by several pounds a day depending upon fluid shifts in your body and the time at which you weigh yourself. Stepping on the scale first thing in the morning when you have not eaten in 12 or more hours will give you a slightly different number than later in the day when you may have had several meals, snacks and plenty of fluids, for example.
Still, you have noticed an upward trend on the scale. So it's possible that you have gained a few pounds.
Could the extra pounds be from new muscle?
Some people believe that people gain weight from exercise because they are building more muscle mass. In your case, this is unlikely. You can't build much muscle doing cardio. And even if you were lifting heavy weights, it would be very difficult to gain five pounds of muscle in three weeks.
Exercise and hunger
Could it be that because you are exercising more, you are eating more?
It's possible. Although there is no proof that exercising makes you hungrier (in fact, more vigorous workouts can even suppress hunger), many people eat—and overeat—for reasons other than hunger. Comfort eating can be a response to emotional, environmental or social triggers (drowning your blues with a pint of ice cream, automatically grabbing the chips while watching TV, or eating more when eating out with friends). And because food is often perceived to be a reward, a person who works out can very easily justify having an extra helping or dessert (or both) as a pat on the back for having exercised.
Controlling calories
If you exercise long enough and often enough, eating extra is necessary to replace energy stores. And chances are, even if you eat more, you still won't eat more than you burn off. But if you're only doing short workouts for only a few days per week, it will be very easy to eat more calories than you're burning and, as a result, gain weight.
Until you are at the point where you are exercising for 60 to 90 minutes per day on most days of the week, be vigilant about calorie control. You may not need to diet, but you should keep a check on whether you overeat so that you don't cancel out the calorie burn of your new exercise regimen.
When you are about to snack, pause and ask yourself whether you are really hungry. People often mistake thirst for hunger and eat when their body is really craving more fluid. You can tell if you're hydrated enough by your urine. It should always be clear, rather than yellow. If it's not, drink more water.
Eat regular meals so that you don't get overly hungry. And eat plenty of fruits and vegetables so that you eat enough fiber and bulk to feel full, but on foods that are lower in calories.
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