If your main goal of exercising is to lose weight, but you still see an increase on the scale after workouts, it can feel discouraging, especially if you're putting in a lot of effort.
But there are many reasons why your weight might rise after workouts, like muscle gain, water retention, post-exercise inflammation, using supplements, or even undigested food.We'll break down these reasons below:
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11- Muscle weight gain:
When you exercise, you likely build muscle. If your activity was mostly steady before your training, the new physical activity can improve your body, including muscle growth. Some people build muscle easier than others , if that's you, consider yourself lucky because muscle shapes a strong, healthy, fit body. But gaining muscle shows as higher weight on the scale. Even if you're losing fat, muscle is denser, so your weight might still go up even while fat is dropping.
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2- Water weight gain:
Water weight comes from temporary water retention in your body. This causes a temporary weight increase that you might see on your scale.
There are several reasons for increased water retention in the body, including:
- Menstrual cycle period:
You might notice women have a certain degree of bloating before and during their period. Studies show fluid retention peaks on the first day of the period, hits its lowest around the middle of the cycle, then starts to rise gradually over the 11 days around ovulation. Some exercises are recommended before the period to reduce pain, but despite that, you might still see weight gain on your scale.
- Increased salt intake:
Another major cause of increased fluid retention is eating more salt (sodium). Research shows eating salty foods leads to weight gain because the extra water you retain doesn’t just leave as urine but stays in your body as extra pounds on your scale.
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3- Post-workout inflammations:
Working out can cause weight gain itself (at least temporarily), but this increase actually shows you’re exercising enough to see real results from your effort.
Simply, exercise damages muscle tissue, then the damaged tissue gets repaired. This repair process helps your muscles grow stronger but also causes inflammation in the tissue during that time.
Exercise physiologists call this muscle damage after exercise EIMD. It's a temporary thing that happens after new or tough workouts.
So this inflammation and fluid buildup can show up as a temporary weight gain right after exercising.
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4- Using supplements:-
Different eating methods after workouts or taking supplements can cause some weight gain, especially endurance exercises like running and cycling, because they use up glycogen stored in muscles.
That's why many people drink carb supplements to help refill glycogen in muscles, but for every 1 gram of glycogen stored, the body holds on to 3 grams of water, so stored water increases and that shows as weight gain.
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5- Undigested foods:-
If your workouts make you hungry and you eat high-fiber foods, that might be why your weight goes up. Fiber holds fluids in the colon and leads to less dry poop, which can raise your scale number.
• Should you worry about extra weight after working out:-
In many cases, you shouldn't worry about gaining weight after you exercise, especially if the gain is due to one of the reasons mentioned above.
Actually, gaining weight for one of those reasons is a sign you're succeeding, not something to be discouraged about. So it might help to use other ways to track your progress besides the scale. For example, you can use a body fat meter. If you see you've lost some centimeters, that means you're doing well.
Also, check your clothes and how they fit. You might find a dress or pants that fit you better after a while, which is a sign you're on the right track.
Besides the mental and mood benefits you get from working out, which are a great bonus, so don't let your whole worry be just about weight and the scale.
