Tonka

Okay, so I'm borderline Athena (5'7", was 150 pounds). I don't look huge or anything, but if this keeps up I just may look that way.

I started biking 5 weeks ago. I am currently up to commuting 4 days/week for 25 miles a day. I also ride 30-40 miles on the weekend.

My diet hasn't changed. I don't drink and I consume one 12 oz soda a day just as I did before (I do it in the morning since I don't drink coffee). I don't chew gum or otherwise eat sweets. I eat a Smart Ones meal for lunch, every day. I probably consumer 1500 calories a day.

Problem is, I now weigh 154. I think 4 pounds of muscle seems a bit much. I measured my waist and hips yesterday since clothes started to feel tighter and I gained half an inch. I am steadily gaining .4 pounds about every 3 days now.

Question is, what's going on here? I expected to lose weight and now I am only gaining. I tend to ride casually to work and then fast on the way home. I also go faster on my weekend rides. I have bigger leg muscles more than ever but my waistline has increased? I am very OCD about eating the same food as before and tend to hate variety so none of that has changed as I mentioned before. What is the deal?

miles.lowry

Could you be Pregnant?

Beachgrad05

Are you retaining water? Water weight can fluctuate up to 5 lbs from day to day. If you are retaining water, you may be bloated in the mid-section.

Have you had a physical check up lately? Could be a thyroid problem...that slows your metabolism.

Other than that, I would have figured it was a bit of muscle gain.

Beachgrad05

Damn...I should have thought of that as one possible issue. Doh!!

wfournier

Log everything you eat, 1500 calories isn't much (that one soda is more than 10% of it), I think you might be surprised by the results. Assuming a sedentary lifestyle (doesn't sound like it fits you) 1500 calories would most likely result in losing weight with no exercise. What you eat can make a difference, I always gain weight after eating salty foods from retained water.

miles.lowry

Yup, it can cause a bit of weight gain:

goldfinch

Assuming you are not pregnant. . .

At your activity level and caloric level you should generally be losing more than a pound a week and likely closer to two pounds. You are within normal weight range so I would not want to be losing more than a pound a week, and may even be trying to focus more on body composition (muscle vs. fat) than weight loss. I would sit and figure out how many calories you are consuming. I can't help but question 1500 calories. A can of Coke has 140 calories. Most of the Smart Ones meals have around 250 calories. What else are you eating? there is a tendency for people to eat more when they are exercising a lot.

That said, I have read that when starting an exercise program some people gain weight even if they are not over eating. Not much may be muscle but a fair amount can be water weight as your body begins operating differently. If you are clear on your calories and eating the right amount for your size and activity level (1500 may be too low, and it certainly isn't too high) then I would give it some time as your body adjusts to the new demands.

Also, how long have you been weighing yourself? How often do you weigh yourself? Do you weigh under the same conditions each time? For example, first thing in the morning after peeing and before getting dressed? You should know that there is a lot of variability in how much a person weighs from time to time and day to day. I vary roughly three pounds during the day and from day to day. I weigh more the day after heavy exercise. My waist measurement varies a good half an inch from time to time because I think that the waist is difficult to measure accurately. I have gone through menopause. Women who have not can have much more variability in weight and measurements. I am not saying you are not gaining weight, just working through the puzzle you presented.

As you figured out, it is extremely unlike that you gain .4 pounds of muscle every three days. From what I have read it is difficult to gain more than a half a pound of muscle a month for women.

Tonka

Haha, I wont say why, but not a snowballs chance!

mprelaw

Water retention is definitely a possibility. I'm male and I can retain water easily. I've undoubtedly added muscle in my quads, hamstrings and calves, but something else accounts for my weight fluctuation between 155 and 160 over the course of a week, and water retention is a likely suspect. Also bear in mind that as your fitness improves, you need to exercise more intensely to burn as many calories as you did when you were a noob. It's easier to gain weight than you realize.

Check the sodium content of that morning soda, too. And your frozen food lunch. Frozen foods are one of the biggest single sources of "hidden" sodium, and excess sodium leads to water retention. And drinking your calories is the worst thing you can do. If you have to get your caffeine from soda, try diet soda. Or plain tea without sugar or cream.

Women tend to be more prone to water retention than men, too. Drink that 64 oz of water they recommend every day. If you're not getting enough water, your body may be retaining more fluid as a hedge against the dehydration that exercise can bring about, if you're not staying hydrated.

Tonka

Thanks for the reply. Here is a daily breakdown of what I eat:

Luna Protein Bar for breakfast (170 calories)
Mello Yello (170 calories)
1 Apple (50-80 calories)
Smart Ones for Lunch Pizza Minis (4) 270 calories
Smart Ones for Dinner 4 Mini Cheeseburgers (800 calories)
Another Apple (50-80 calories)

So roughly 1530. I dont weigh myself everyday, more like every other day, and its right in the morning like you mentioned. I really hate varying from the above diet and eat it religiously. Maybe I just hold on to a lot of water, I dont know....

Street Pedaler

I also lean toward water retention. If you're not properly hydrated, your cells retain water to protect themselves. I don't know how much water you drink now, but shooting for about a gallon a day, especially since you're exercising, can alleviate that. Muscle weight gain is a slooooowwww process. You haven't gained four pounds of muscle in five weeks. Up the water intake and, like the others have said, start tracking calories.

MRT2

Check the sodium in your TV dinners.

BigUgly

Cut out the soda and drink tea. I used to do the same thing because I hate coffee. I tried it many times and still don't like it. Tea was the answer. Once I cut soad out I began to lose weight. Also, 1500 per day may be too much if you are trying to lose. I track my calories on Livestrong Myplate they suggest me at 1600 cals per day to lose 2 pounds per week and I am 235 lbs!! I would try to get away from the Smart Ones twice a day. Eat something not processed. Processed food and soda are evil when trying to loose weight. Your body needs veggies, cheeseburgers and pizzas ain't gonna cut it. You should track your calories and excercise on one of those free sites that do it for you.

mprelaw

Here's your problem: your dinner alone---4 mini cheeseburgers---contains 1440 mg of sodium. Each one of those things has 360 mg of sodium.

490 mg in 2 mini-pizzas for lunch. Double that if you have 4. You're at the maximum RDA for sodium on those two meals alone. I'm sure that the protein bar has some also, as does the soda.

I know that cooking can be a chore for working folks, but preparing your own foods is one way of successful weight loss. You're not getting any vegetables and not a lot of fiber with that daily menu.

miles.lowry

I think I may see part of your problem. Apples are a good sourse of fiber but you still need veggies to maintain a neutritional diet, without the proper neutrition you will never loose weight (wel, not untill they lock the lid down)

Beachgrad05

to track what you are eating and their nutritional values try something like myfitnesspal.com, it is free (they have a free app too).

I use it to track my intake and watch my nutritional content.

The pizza mini's have 490mg of sodium
The 4 mini cheeseburgers have 1440mg of sodium

Tonka

Sodium alone does not make one gain fat. I was on this diet before the exercise, yet somehow the exercise is causing my normal sodium intake to hold on to even more water than usual. Still, calories in = calories out if nothing has changed, so I should be making a dent before long.

chefisaac

Track everything you eat and that will tell the story.

Beachgrad05

Most here are not figuring you are gaining "fat" but are in fact retaining water due to the sodium. Water retention can bloat you causing the difference in measurements you noted and in increased weight on the scale.

goldfinch

Tonka, you can lose weight on any kind of diet. It doesn't matter if the foods are good for you or not. But I really, really think you should add some vegetables just because it is the healthy thing to do. You could even toss in a salad with low fat dressing and add little to your total calories and still lose weight.

--signed, Mom.

I would not drop the calories below what you are eating given the amount of exercise. I would see what happens over the course of the next few weeks as you body adjusts to the exercise. You might have a sudden weight drop. The sodium level is high and could be a problem if you have high blood pressure. Otherwise, the jury is out. I can see sticking with your meal plan, but throw in a salad at least for one of the meals.

If your goal is gaining muscle and losing fat you might bike a little less and do weight training. Biking will not do much to preserve muscle as you lose weight. I wish I had done that while I was losing weight. I didn't and ended up losing more lean body mass than I would have liked and my body fat percentage is higher than I would like even though my BMI is just fine.

So, my inexpert advice:

--enjoy your daily soda.
--add a salad
--bike a bit less
--do some weight training
--one day a week do not bike and do not weight train. Recover.

ThermionicScott 

Even if you're not gaining muscle, active muscle cells will store water and glycogen for later use. So fat gain and "bloat" aren't the only reasons for the weight increase.

goldfinch

Correct. This is especially true when starting an exercise program. As her body adjusts Tonka might have a sudden drop in weight.

Tonka

Thanks 'Mom'! =D

I'll try those things. 4 pounds isn't horrible until it is double that, really. I assume at some point I'll start heading back the other way (I hope). I added a salad for lunch today so we'll see... thanks for the input.

Torrilin

If the salad turns out totally intolerable coz you hate changing routines or you hate veggies or whatever, try adding a multivitamin. Bodies can indulge in pretty weird weight behavior if you're asking them to grow new muscle and not giving them all the nutrition they need to do it properly. I personally find the salad a lot more pleasant, but mileage varies on this.

Given your sodium intake, it might be worth tracking your liquid intake. At least for me, salty foods push me to drink more so that my kidneys can process the extra salt properly. The theoretical minimum is 8 8oz glasses of water a day, or about 2L. If you're out exercising in hot weather a lot, you might go through more like 4-5L over the course of a day. If plain water isn't fun or gets boring, there are a lot of ways to liven it up. My dad goes for slices of lemon or lime... no sugar, just the fruit. I like tea (both herbal and black). Other folks go for things like NUUN or Crystal Lite. It's more important to drink enough than worry about drinking the "right" thing.

Seconding goldfinch's weight training recommendation. You don't need special stuff to work on weights. Wall pushups, counter pushups, squats, situps, lunges, and a lot of different yoga poses and ballet exercises will give you strength training. Gardening works too. I don't necessarily like weight work, but there's pretty much always a way to make it fun.

Big Pete 1982

Am i really going to be the only one to recommend she give up the daily soda? High fructose corn syrup is nutritionally one of the worst things you can consume. The human body doesn't digest HFCS so a very large portion of those soda calories turn to fat. It's tough giving up soda, but I think it's well worth it.

Also, I'm a bit extreme at times when it comes to food choices so some people think I'm crazy, but I wouldn't recommend switching to diet soda either since it contains apartame, which has a whole slew of bad effects on the body such as brain tumors and cancer.