Increased muscle mass Exercising causes tiny tears in your muscle fibers. It sounds bad, but it's actually a good thing. After your workout, your body works to repair these tears, allowing your muscles to get bigger and stronger. So even though you may be losing fat, you're gaining muscle.
Water Retention: Intense workouts can cause your muscles to retain water as they recover. This can lead to temporary weight gain. Dietary Changes: If you've increased your caloric intake to fuel your workouts, this could offset any weight loss. Pay attention to portion sizes and the nutritional quality of your food.
You're eating the wrong things
Research has shown that diet has a greater impact on weight loss than exercise. Be sure to eat enough fruits, vegetables and healthy protein, and try to avoid ultraprocessed foods or items with added sugar.
The combination of your pumped up muscles, dehydration and overworked muscles might make you feel well toned then, a few hours later, you appear flabbier despite the exercise you know should be making you lean. Your muscles have pumped up but your excess body fat has remained.
Unhealthy eating is the biggest driver of big bellies. Too many starchy carbohydrates and bad fats are a recipe for that midsection to expand. Instead, get plenty of veggies, choose lean proteins, and stay away from fats from red meats. Choose healthier fats in things like fish, nuts, and avocados.
Muscle is denser (meaning a lot less fluffy) than fat, says Dr. Calabrese. Put another way, 10 pounds of muscle takes up a lot less space than 10 pounds of fat. So, as you start working out regularly and building strength, the new muscle you build may eventually weigh more than the fat you've burnt off.
It's usually large and bloated but can also be small and round, depending on genes and other factors. It involves visceral fat accumulation in the lower abdomen and typically feels hard to touch. A PCOS belly is also characterized by a high waist-to-hip ratio of >0.87 (apple body shape).
There are several research-backed reasons why you might notice a slight weight gain after exercise. These include muscle gain, water retention, post-workout inflammation, supplement use, or even undigested food. In most cases, post-workout weight gain is temporary.
Your Body Is Holding On to Water Weight
“Glycogen can rapidly provide energy — in the form of glucose — when needed,” says Dr. McGowan. But because glycogen binds with water to fuel muscles, that water can increase your weight slightly in the initial weeks of a new workout routine.
“Gastric emptying slows down as blood is redirected to more critical areas, such as the muscles,” she explains. For some people, this may result in a bloated feeling at the end of a workout, particularly after high-intensity exercise or super-challenging core moves.
If you're asking yourself, “Why am I gaining weight when I barely eat,” several factors may be at play. Your body may be holding onto fat stores if your eating habits are inconsistent or restricted. Or, your weight gain may be the effect of a sedentary lifestyle, medical condition, or long-term stress.
High intensity exercise could lead to weight gain, researchers say. A recent animal study suggests that intense exercise may unexpectedly contribute to weight gain by reducing subsequent physical activity and lowering body temperature.
Muscle helps keep up the rate at which you burn calories (metabolism). So as you lose weight, your metabolism declines, causing you to burn fewer calories than you did at your heavier weight. Your slower metabolism will slow your weight loss, even if you eat the same number of calories that helped you lose weight.
Most people who have difficulty losing weight are simply eating too many calories. An important factor in weight loss is how many calories you're eating versus how many calories you're burning. It may seem easy, but if you're not tracking your calories each day, you may be consuming more than you think.
Especially in the first days and weeks of a new workout routine, your body is going to retain water. In most cases, it goes down within a few days.
Working out can cause short-term weight gain as your muscle mass increases. Post-workout inflammation may cause temporary weight fluctuations. Workout plateaus, supplement use, and dietary changes can also stall your weight-loss efforts. Try not to obsess over the number on the scale.
Mostly, losing weight is an internal process. You will first lose hard fat that surrounds your organs like liver, kidneys and then you will start to lose soft fat like waistline and thigh fat. The fat loss from around the organs makes you leaner and stronger.
Muscle weighs more than body fat
If you've only ever done cardio exercise, you may be confused when a strength-training program leads to weight gain. But the reason for it is simple: Weight training builds lean muscle mass, which is denser than body fat.
Stage 1: Fast weight loss
In the beginning, weight loss happens pretty rapidly. Over a period of 4-6 weeks, you'll likely see a noticeable difference in your body weight [1] — either on the scales or by the way your clothes fit.
Although exercise is extremely healthy, too much can actually be a stress on the body. Overtraining happens when you go too hard, too often, or don't take time to recover. This can increase inflammation as well as the stress hormone cortisol. Cortisol can lead to fatigue and weight gain, especially around your belly.
You can easily pinch the excess fat because it builds up under your skin. When hormonal imbalances cause abdominal weight gain, the fat accumulates around your internal organs (visceral fat). Your belly enlarges and takes on an apple shape. You may look extremely bloated instead of like you're carrying extra weight.
It primarily affects females. You may develop coarse, dark hair growth on your upper lip, chin, chest, abdomen or back instead of the fine hair sometimes referred to as “peach fuzz” that commonly grows in those areas.
What does a FUPA look like? You might notice a bulge above your pubic bone, sometimes feeling like an extra pouch. It can create smooth lines or bumps under tight clothes, revealing its unique characteristics that many can relate to.