Can you get fatter from working out

The likely culprit is your diet and you not creating large enough of a deficit with it. For example, people start juicing and drinking a shitload of smoothies. What could possibly go wrong? After all, fruits are good for you! Maybe they are. Another example are the people who switch from vegetable oil to coconut oil, the healthier alternative. Add some to noodles. Throw it in oatmeal. Mix it with protein powder. Fake healthy foods? Weight loss is a reasonable goal as long as you approach it in a healthy manner.

This is easy to do when you start ramping up your routine. Then eat as you normally would the rest of the day. Like, really. Your body responds by retaining fluid.

Be sure to respect your rest days so you can fully recover and come back stronger. Your muscles respond to the elevated effort level by storing more glycogen, which binds with water in your muscle cells to keep you fueled and can tick the scale up by one or two kilos.

Your muscles respond to the stress of hard training on the run and in the gym by getting bigger and stronger.

So as you gain more muscle and lose fat, you change your overall body composition, which can result in a higher weight, but a smaller figure and better health. Though high-intensity interval training can be very effective at improving fitness and shedding kilos, too much can put too much stress on your system and lead to the opposite result.

When left unchecked, Elsesser says it makes it very difficult to lose weight. To keep things in control, limit the eye-popping efforts to about 20 percent of your total training volume. Training is a process in which you push your body harder than usual, then pull back and let it recover.

This allows you to bounce back even stronger and more resilient, and you can repeat that process to perform at your best. Too many people push the first part of the process the hard training while shortchanging the second part the pulling back and recovering.

That can leave you with chronic inflammation and hormonal disruption, both of which can lead to stifled weight loss or even weight gain. The good news is that there are tools available now that can help keep your recovery on track. Or you can invest in a heart rate variability HRV strap, which tracks your morning heart rate variability —the change in time between successive beats.

It sounds counterintuitive—eat less to lose weight, right? Eating to excess, particularly eating nutritionally-barren processed foods, is never a good idea.

But you need to match increased training with properly increased fueling so you can recover and make progress—including weight loss. When you skimp on fuel, you not only never fully recover, but your body also goes into low-power mode much like your phone when the battery is running low , so your metabolism dips, and workouts suffer. Fuel yourself and satisfy your hunger with whole foods including lean proteins, complex carbohydrates, healthy fats, and plenty of fruits and vegetables throughout the day.

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Please subscribe to our newsletter to get the latest news in your domain of interest. Don't forget to follow us on social networks! Sign in. Log into your account. Fitness General Fitness Other Sports. Andra Picincu is a certified nutritionist and personal trainer with more than 10 years of experience. Her mission is to help people live healthier lives by making smarter food choices and staying active.

In her daily life, Ms. Picincu provides digital marketing consulting and copywriting services as well as nutrition counseling. She owns ShapeYourEnergy, a popular health and fitness website. In , she launched a local nutrition office and partnered up with local gyms to help their clients take the steps needed to better health. Picincu is a regular contributor to these platforms where she provides either health-related content or coaching to those who are interested in achieving a balanced lifestyle.

Connect on LinkedIn. Mackenzie Maxwell. Mackenzie is a writer with seven years of experience in the health and wellness space. She first got interested in college, when she had to be her own medical advocate in getting an accurate diagnosis for her autoimmune disease.

She co-owns a martial arts gym with her husband, where she advocates for mental and physical health in her small community. Not every gym-based exercise will lead to weight loss. Video of the Day. Relying on Exercise Alone. Eating Too Many Calories. Health Conditions and Medications.