Weight training and weight gain

[jellyandgelato]

Over the past three years I’ve committed to regularly strength and weight training. For years I did endless cardio and running but being mid 40s I understand the health benefits of having more muscle and while I do still run (can do 10k comfortably) and use other cardio equipment, weight and strength training now takes up the bulk of my workouts. I’m working towards being able to do unassisted pull ups and have added things like deadlifting etc to my workouts and love being able to challenge myself with heavier weights and training to failure.

I feel great, my clothes all still fit well (size 8-10) and I don’t have any wobbly bits. I have visible abs and quite sculpted, strong looking shoulders. Solid legs. I feel healthy, fit and strong and my diet is good. I’m hardly ever ill, I ensure I get enough protein, have tried to reduce UPFs and generally eat good nutritious foods (although I’m not massively strict and do eat ‘unhealthy’ foods and drink wine at weekends etc. because life is short and I’ve suffered with disordered eating in the past and don’t want my mind to go into a place where I’m counting every calorie and then endlessly trying to exercise off ‘naughty’ food.) Plus I have kids and want to role model healthy habits.

The issue is my weight has gone up by about half a stone in the past 6 months (now 9 stone 7lbs / 60kg). I’m 5 foot 5 ins so well within healthy BMI range, and I know the increase is probably down to gaining muscle which takes up more space than fat, but being female I’m conditioned to want the number on the scales go down not up! I used to weigh myself regularly and have been around 9 stone all my adult life bar pregnancies, but as it’s started to creep up, I stopped weighing regularly as it was making me unhappy to see it creeping up. I weighed myself this morning and seeing 9 stone 7lbs on the scales has triggered something in my brain making me think I need to get rid of that half a stone.

But if I’m training regularly, my clothes fit well and I have a lean body, should my weight matter? I’d honestly like to chuck my scales away, because I’m not training to be skinny (which was my motivation in my 20s) I’m training to be strong and hopefully to live a long healthy life.

Has this happened to any other ladies who weight train and if so how did you lose the chimp in your brain that says we must be light and weigh as little as possible?

It's difficult, isn't it - we've been conditioned to think of x weight as acceptable and anything above that as bad. I agree that you should ignore the scales and go by your clothes fitting.But if you can't stop weighing, how about body composition scales, so you can track muscle and fat instead?

From the sound of your OP it is muscle that has caused your weight to increase. You likely have pretty low body fat if you have visible sculpted abs. It may help you to take measurements with a tape of your biceps, bust, waist, hips and thighs and look at those in relation to clothing measurements. Chances are you are smaller and your body composition is more dense. If I have your figure I'd be extremely happy. Important to emphasise you sound really healthy. That's more important than a certain weight when you know you are slim.

You lose very little weight by exercising. If your goal is to lose several pounds quickly it will not happen by going to the gym or even running 5k every day.

This is a common misconception that gyms and other influencers exploit.

Exercise is good for your general health, cardio, muscle building and sometimes, if you go to the gym instead of having a latte it can contribute to minimising your calories consumption.

Some people can gain weight by going to the gym because you increase muscle mass or allow themselves a cake because “I have gone to the gym.”

You lose weight simply by being alive. It’s called the basic metabolic rate. (Search)

Human bodies differ from that of our closest primate relatives in that we have proportionally to our weight a much larger percentage of fat.

We are designed to accumulate fat whenever we can and keep it in case of emergency.

It is possible to lose weight, exercising can be one of the means to doing so, but exercising alone is unlikely to lower one’s weight and keep it down.

This did happen to me.
After several years of training, and an adult lifetime of being ~60kg I suddenly gained 2kg of muscle (according to the fancy body zapping scales at the gym). And I could feel it too. Bigger thighs & glutes.

It is hard to overcome a lifetime of weight being the main metric and that internalised criticism of taking up space.

I also went from size 8/10 to 10/12. I now can’t fit in a size 10 at all (bottoms). And that’s psychologically hard.

I literally kept repeating to myself that this is actually what I had been training for. I like seeing the muscle on my quads. I can feel how much stronger I am and how much easier daily things like walking up stairs, or I remember carrying gear down the steep slope to the beach (& back up again) was easier.

I had to spend months reminding myself that this was a good thing. And I did come to accept it.

Now my body fat % has increased and I’m having a similar but harder to justify experience. But my body fat is still low. My BMI is still in the middle of the healthy range. I’m still good, just different to how I was in my 20s & 30s (arguably healthier, actually, with a lot more muscle and a bit more fat).

It is a hard thing to wrap your head around, OP. Especially if you’ve struggled with eating and weight issues previously.

Give yourself time to adjust. And remember to flex in every shiny surface you pass! That helps!

@applecake78 did you actually read the OP's post properly? She doesn't need to lose weight yet here you are suggesting she might be eating cake because she went to the gym, i.e. she is not being honest. This kind of thing really pisses me off because it could push someone to disordered eating with its insidious messaging.

For me personally I would start doing more cardio again. It burns more calories than weight training. But then I have never wanted to bulk up with weights only stay toned. Half a stone in muscle sounds like a lot of gain??

If BMI 21-22 I don’t think that’s nearly low enough body fat to see abs on a woman!

Muscle takes up less room than fat. That's why your brain can't understand the numbers on the scale to your dress size after years I'd conditioning.

The type of training what you're doing means tape measures not scales OP. Throw them out.

There's still a lot of misconceptions. Cardio does not burn more calories than weight training. The effects of cardio lasts for a short time after you stop. Fat burn lasts for hours after doing weights.

The numbers on the scale mean nothing.

You are a similar build and weight to me, and I also gained more than half a stone when I started CrossFit and weight training a few years ago. I know what you mean about getting the heebie jeebies when you see the numbers going up on the scale...

I am 57 and maintaining muscle and strength is more important to me than any number, so I rarely weigh myself now. You are already protecting your heart with your running etc so just enjoy your strong and healthy body! You sound awesome!

If you're happy with how you look, I would do what you suggested and ditch the scales!!
It might be worth taking measurements and keep track that way, or get a proper dexa weight scale done every so often which will show your fat/muscle/bone mass. And I do mean a proper one, not just a home one which are inaccurate

The difference between cardio and weights is that cardio burns the calories then and there. Wheras with weight training more is probably burnt in the day or two after so yea potentially in totally you could burn more calories.

And fat takes up less space so its possible clothes feel looser etc despite the " gain"

How often do you weigh yourself. Everyone fluctuates, i can gain and lose the same 3 pounds on a daily basis. If it'd daily then its not fat you are gaining.

Do you take creatine? That pulls water into the muscle so gain can very potentially just be water retention.

And women do not get bulky with your bog standard solo gym work outs.. it takes years of extremely hard work and having your training programme and nutrition spot on to even get to a point that could be considered bulky. Women should weight train. Strengthen bones etc

Yes, get rid of the chimp 😀.

I'm older than you - late 50s and started strength training pre-meno in my early 50s. I'm bit overweight by BMI (size 10-12 in most makes) but can do pull-ups and dips for reps, and no health issues. My weight is stable and eating as I do (reasonably healthily and no booze) fuels a fairly intense gym regime that I love and which keeps me strong, fit and happy. So think I will just carry on.

My weight does fluctuate tho - I think that's normal with strength training and also I like changing what I train and how, and that does affect my body shape a bit. It is all good though 😀.

You sounds like you are doing brilliantly 😀. I'd carry on, see where all this takes you, try new stuff and enjoy it, and try not to worry about your weight especially given you are in the healthy BMI range. I definitely wouldn't start calorie counting because exercising as you do (heavy deadlifts etc) WILL increase what you need to eat and it is impossible to calculate properly.

I think loving to challenge yourself with heavier weights and having the ability and capacity to do so is a real privilege - make the most of it 😀

Exactly- 7lb of muscle seems a lot to me with a standard gym workout!!

HIIT (cardio) workouts also burn more calories the next day too. I very much doubt a weights workout can burn as many calories as when OP is running 10 km!

Actually in the OP she states her arms are sculpted, so my bad. She's already at a good weight and her BMI is fine.

I guess it depends on why you exercise. For me I don't exercise for the sole purpose of burning calories, I do it to feel strong and fit and because it really help my mental health too - helps me to stay level and not get too anxious. It's my me time where I get to spend time on myself by myself and I love how I feel when / after exercising. I also agree with a PP who stated that building muscle raises your metabolic rate meaning you continue to burn calories post workout.

There is also no such thing as 'toned' muscles. Muscle either hypertrophies (grows) or atrophies (shrinks). Bigger muscles will appear 'toned' just because they are taking up more space. When I was younger I was worried about 'bulking up' but I actually like having muscles now. I feel like it will help me live longer.

Thanks to other posters' kind words and encouragement.

It's comments like that which makes women at the lower end of the healthy BMI range think they are too big or fat. Stick to what you want to do in the gym and keep your messed up opinions to yourself.

I didn’t say it was desirable or not to see abs! Just that at that bmi it would be very unlikely. I have same bmi and definitely can’t see mine!

Yes this has happened to me
I had clothing that only fit me when I was half a stone lighter. Now I'm 7lb heavier than when I bought them and they fit. These were more dressy things only worn occasionally and I presumed they'd be too small but tried before sending to charity.
I have some ab muscles visible but want to lose some fluff to be leaner overall and I'm wary of starting to weigh myself regularly.
Maybe just go by fit of clothes and the mirror?

Oh yes definitely. As I said in my comment I was referring to how I would respond personally to 7lb weight gain if I swapped from mainly cardio to mainly weight training. I would assume some of that was weight gain due to burning less calories. I personally would want to make changes to ensure I didn’t gain another 7lb.

but you’re right lots of other benefits to exercise. And I love weight training to feel strong and toned

That makes no sense because BMI isn’t a measure of body fat, it’s a measure of weight vs height. Actually people with more muscle often have a higher BMI.

True but women naturally do have a higher percentage of body fat than men. And in order for just muscle rather than fat to affect bmi you would need to have incredibly high muscle to fat ratio which the OP really isn’t describing.

I have visible Abs at 22.4 bmi

I have that line down both sides. But do you have visible sculpted abs that the pp I was replying to referenced?

Cardio addicts don't really see other people's experiences as true I don't think. The number on the scale is still super important to them. But with weight training, it's not a good tool to gauge anything really and needs throwing in the bin. As does BMI.

Enough definition that I regularly get comments which foils my efforts to stay hidden at the back of the room in classes..

Im 5ft 7 amd 144/145 lbs but I carry most my weight in the lower half of my body.