What Are the Reasons for Weight Gain After Working Out?

Most people work out to either build muscle, lose fat, or both. Therefore, the most frustrating result after a workout is to step on the scale and see that your weight has gone up. It seems impossible, yet thousands of people have the same question---why am I gaining weight after my workouts? A few simple but important changes can eliminate this problem for good.

Basics

• If your efforts to lose weight are unsuccessful, you can be certain that you are not abiding by the law of calorie expenditure---you must expend more calories than you consume to lose weight. Diet books that play off of the typical American desire to be able to eat as much as you want and still lose weight allow exhausted dieters and gym-rats to persist in their cyclical confusion as they work out more and continue to gain weight.

Experiment

• Which is more important for weight loss---diet or exercise? In a study with three control groups (diet only, exercise only, and diet and exercise only) maximum weight loss was achieved by those who did both, second by those who only exercised, and not at all by those who dieted alone.

Analysis

• You must exercise for fat loss---however, if you become more hungry after an intense workout and replace the calories you expended by eating more, you will not lose weight. You may build muscle but you will also retain a layer of fat on top, making the muscle underneath invisible to the eye.

Answer

• Weight gain after a workout can be attributed to one or two things, separately or simultaneously---muscle growth or calorie load in the form of a heavy after-workout meal. One is desirable while the other frustrating, but both can occur at the same time, especially if you consider it important to eat a high protein meal after a workout to build muscle.

Summary

• To lose weight and build muscle simultaneously, you must work out more and eat fewer calories. You can retain muscle and lose fat without large meals or a high protein diet. In fact, you can eat a vegetarian diet and still become lean and muscular, like bodybuilder Steve Holt. Remember that not all weight gain is bad---instead, calculate your body fat and your lean body mass (muscle) so that you can celebrate gaining weight in the form of muscle and adjust your calorie intake to lose fat.