What to do when you’re working out but putting on weight

“I’ve started working out but I’ve put on weight - it must all be going wrong!”

Sound familiar? If so, you aren’t alone. Many people find themselves in this situation and panic or give up that healthy new lifestyle.

So what is happening? Why have you gotten heavier?

It’s all about education and learning to understand your body. Many people come to the gym after months or years of inactivity and poor nutrition, expecting immediate results. The problem is that they get results, but don’t realise because they don’t understand how weight works.

If you have a reasonably balanced diet including plenty of fats, carbohydrates and protein, what you will find is that when you go and hit the gym for a few weeks, throwing weights around and moving, your body will respond to this stimulus and the cells in your body will start to adapt to it.

The most obvious change is muscle mass

When you start training regularly your body will prioritise muscle repair using the food you consume and, whilst you will begin burning through your fat stores, you will add muscle tissue.

Now muscle takes up an average of half as much space as fat does, so let’s say you lose 1 kilo of body fat but build 3 kilos of muscle at the same time (and yes this is possible despite what you read online, especially for beginners) you will be heavier.

However, because muscle fibres are far smaller and tighter than fat you will very likely notice that your tape measure numbers have dropped as the change in composition pulls in your midsection and hips.

It can be a confusing experience at first, but keep the faith and train hard, because you will see a change in your body shape and become more athletic. Now this is of course limited to the initial stages of training, and based on somebody making no changes to their diet.

The rules of thermodynamics still apply that to add weight long term (muscle or fat) we need to eat in a calorie surplus favouring carbohydrates and protein as our main food groups.

For weight reduction, we need to reduce our calories to a deficit (eating fewer calories than we burn through each day) and, depending on your goal, you will reduce your carbohydrate or fat levels whilst maintaining a solid base of protein to avoid muscle wastage.

If you are adding weight consistently you simply are eating more than you require; and if you’re trying to lose weight but aren’t, then you are not reducing your intake sufficiently to allow for your levels of physical activity.

Still confused? Reach out for more help.