I started weight traning and gained weight

[smashy2022]

Hi everyone! I am a woman, 40 years old, and with excess body fat I want to get rid off.

I started doing weight traning consistently 2 months ago (I did before but stopped for a year), and I notice a change in my body, I look fitter. I also do long walks on the treadmill or outside.

Problem is, I started to feel my body was heavier and was starting to feel tired in my every day tasks. I weighted myself and I gained 4kg since 2 months ago!

But when I look in the mirror, I don't look fat or that I gained fat.

Can it be the case I gained muscle from the weight traning and since muscle weights more than fat, I am heavier?

But my goal is also to lose body fat. In these 2 months I didn't change anything in my diet and sometimes I still eat sugar. Should I cut the sugar completely and increase my protein intake so together with the weight training my body is able to burn the extra fat?

Thank you!

[SuffolkPunch]

Congrats on getting started. Weight training is the right choice but you may have to tweak your calorie intake to lose fat...

As you discovered, it improves your body composition and can make you look better without losing weight. At the start you may well gain a little weight from extra glycogen in the muscles, inflammation from training etc. But 4kg is telling me that you are eating a little too much. Trim off 500 calories from what you normally eat in a day (probably by removing processed foods) and see what happens for another month.

[Pennywisest]

Hi everyone! I am a woman, 40 years old, and with excess body fat I want to get rid off.

I started doing weight traning consistently 2 months ago (I did before but stopped for a year), and I notice a change in my body, I look fitter. I also do long walks on the treadmill or outside.

Problem is, I started to feel my body was heavier and was starting to feel tired in my every day tasks. I weighted myself and I gained 4kg since 2 months ago!

But when I look in the mirror, I don't look fat or that I gained fat.

Can it be the case I gained muscle from the weight traning and since muscle weights more than fat, I am heavier?

But my goal is also to lose body fat. In these 2 months I didn't change anything in my diet and sometimes I still eat sugar. Should I cut the sugar completely and increase my protein intake so together with the weight training my body is able to burn the extra fat?

Thank you!

Without info on your calories and current weight/height there isn't a lot of help we can give you that's tailored to your situation... ex: if you are on the tiny side that weight could be healthy and almost entirely muscle, while if you are morbidly obese 4kg could be explained away via water retention... and everything in between.

Some general tips that might help:
- start logging your food... if you aren't measuring your food there's no way of knowing if your food consumption is actually the same... and if you're training after a period of being sedentary, the tendency is to eat more than you think. ex: My handful of nuts before and after a workout are the difference of about 200-300 calories a pop when I actually weight them.
- start measuring your body with a sturdy tape measure... this gives you a concrete measure of success and will clue you into whether or not your body is putting on muscle rather than fat
- Your instinct on protein may be right. Most women don't eat enough protein and most people don't drink enough water... cutting out/down sugar can absolutely help, but generally speaking it's easier to grab changes that are low-hanging fruit like tackling protein and water intake before moving on to more challenging tasks.

[smashy2022]

Thank you guys!

I think I started to eat more food as my body was asking for more food after started doing weights.

But perhaps I didn't make the right choices in food, eating too much carbs and sugar, although my body looks great in my clothes!

I am going to cut sugar, reduce carbs and increase my protein intake for a month and see how it goes. Also gonna start drinking more water.

[Hypernation]

Cardio and salads

[xsquid99]

I am going to cut sugar, reduce carbs and increase my protein intake for a month and see how it goes. Also gonna start drinking more water.

Keep in mind carbs have the same number of calories as protein (both are 4 cals per gram), so if you replace an equal number of carbs with protein that doesn't do anything since the net calorie difference is 0.

Get a food scale and calorie counting app like myfitnesspal and start counting calories.

[Cass40]

You are doing the right thing. Weight training is by far the best choice for fat loss in the long term. It will fasten your metabolism and makes body a fat burning machine. You can tweak your diet but you're absolutely in the right path.