Why has increasing my walking increased my weight?!

[Bluesheep8]

Serious question. I am fastidious about what I eat during the week and relax a bit at the weekend. I've successfully maintained a 6 stone weight loss (ww propoints) for 5 years eating this way. On weekdays, I eat fruit for breakfast, tuna or chicken salad for lunch or maybe ryvitas and laughing cow light and wwsoup and then dinner of something like homemade chilli or spag bol, always with cauli rice or spiralised veg instead of rice or pasta or maybe chicken breast, veg and 3 propoints of potatoes. Bread, pasta or rice is a weekend treat. Anyway, I started a new job 3 weeks ago, which means that the time I spend walking mon to Fri has pretty much doubled. So how come I've gained 3 pounds? I'm honestly not eating any differently - what do you think?

There's a couple of reasons this might have happened.

The main reason is that your appetite will have been stimulated by the extra exercise and you are unconsciously eating more. This can happen without you even realising, so being extra careful will help.

but also - the walking will have increased your muscle mass. Muscle does weigh more than fat, however in this short space of time that won't be significant. It is more likely to be that your muscles are becoming inflamed and sore (have you noticed this?) and will be holding on to fluids.

When you use muscles they suck up fluids and blood and that how you get that "pumped" look. When walking all of your body muscles are being used in a new way and therefore they are all going to be holding on to fluid.

it will settle down and provided you are not eating any more, you should go back to normal once your body becomes used to the exercise.

oh and chances are you are drinking more water due to the warm weather.

And the old saying "you can't out run a bad diet" is so true. You will use up less than 400 Cal's in a hour's walk. You could easily eat that without noticing across the day.

Losing weight with exercise alone is very difficult.

rememberthetime hit the nail on the head here. There are a ton of reasons this could be happening. Do you feel like you're actually looking heavier? There's a very good chance that you're building up your leg muscles!

All sensible suggestions to think about - thank you...

Forgot to mention, I always did SOME walking with my previous commute but it has doubled with the new job. Yes, I am definitely drinking more fluid-water and tea, I just feel a bit out out that despite what I eat being the same, my weight has increased! My legs don't ache from walking and I do walk quickly but I do feel heavier and am convinced I look it too and that my calves are chunkier (may be in my mind). I think because I've tried so hard with my weight over the years that I obsess about every pound but that has kept the 6 stone I lost off for all these years. Am going to write down everything I eat and put a list on here in a weeks time. I'm probably walking about 4.5 miles a day.

You can't have put on 3 pounds of muscle in.3 weeks! That is impossible. It is very difficult for women to gain muscle - takes a lot of weight bearing exercise and a long time.