George

I cant understand what's going on. I've been riding more miles and I'm gaining weight. I think maybe, I'm drinking to much water. Anyway I gained 5 pounds in the last week and I hope it's temporary. I'm back up to 198#. I went out Friday and did a 50 miler and I came back and jumped on the scale and I weight 2 pounds more. It's pretty hot out, you would think I would have lost 3 pounds. The only thing I can think of, is to much water, but that doesn't sound logical, because you need more water in this hot weather, any hints. I don't think I could gain that much muscle from a few rides. I could only wish that I could.

Tom Stormcrowe

Has to be asked, are you peeing enough? That rapid a gain is generally water weight.

StephenH

If you're pretty fat, you'll lose fat and weight when you exercise. If you're not very fat, you'll gain muscle and can actually increase in weight from exercise. I assume from the question that this is not the case.

Losing weight is a function of exercise and diet. If you're working out more but also eating more, no telling what your weight is doing.

Anyway, I'd try to look at it over a longer time frame.

lil brown bat

What are you eating?

Alathea

If you track your weight daily and average it out, you might be doing fine. I go to physicsdiet.com (it's free, this isn't a referral or anything-they don't do that) and it spits out charts and things for BMI, body fat (if you use a different calculator or scale to figure it up), calories in and out (if you track your food and excercise-you have to enter it in yourself) etc and plots averages on a chart. Pretty handy for trending.

bdinger

+1000 I lost 7.5 pounds last week, and a whopping 2 this week. When I divide the two, however, I get 4.25 pounds/week for the past two weeks, which is spot on for my previous averages. Go with averages, not with hard numbers.

Alternately you could be building muscle, but likely just are reatining lots of water.

donnamb 

I seem to have this cycle of not losing weight or even gaining a bit for a couple of months, then going through a period of tangible loss then back to not losing. This happens no matter what/how much I'm eating (or not). My endocrinologist tells me it's because muscle uses thyroxine more efficiently than fat.

(I separate this from my 8 pound gain/loss of water that happens for me monthly like clockwork.)

George

Thanks for the replies everybody. When I started riding and I still do, I weigh myself everyday before and after a ride so I know how much water I should drink, when I'm done riding. I think I cut back on calories, but I've been taking Whey, for a recovery drink. I wonder if that could be the cause. Anyway, when I started I weighed 215 and I'm was down to 190 and now I'm back up to 198, go figure. I don't think I could ride any harder than I am now. I'll just have to keep watching it, thanks again.

forrestt

I only weigh myself once a month, since daily weigh-ins with no weight change discourage me.

deraltekluge

Because your monthly weighing could be at a peak or valley of your ups and downs of weight, you really ought to weigh yourself much more often and then average the readings in order to get a better picture of what's going on. Think how discouraging it'd be to weigh yourself at a minimum one month and then at a maximum the next. You might see no change or even a gain when the trend is really down.