Weight loss: 5 signs your workout is actually making you gain more weight

Exercise plays a crucial role in aiding weight loss. Choosing the right regime that actually helps you meet your goal and matches your requirement is imperative to losing weight and maintaining it in the long run.

However, it can just so happen that you do everything right but still don’t see the number on the weighing scale budge. Or even worse, you start to feel heavier than usual.

The ‘wrong’ kind of exercise, if not well-suited for your needs might just go against your goals and actually make you prone to putting on more weight. It could also be one of the reasons you are not seeing the results you imagined in the first place.

If you have been training for a while and not getting to the goal you wanted to be at, here are some signs your workout may not be the best for weight loss. Check them below!

1. You have more lean muscle mass
Most exercises work to burn calories and define your body, including the creation of muscle mass. What most people are surprised to learn is that muscle mass is also a sneaky source of weight gain. It doesn’t happen right away, but most exercise doers, experiencing a change in the weight, a month or two of training is fairly common. Training under the expertise of a personal coach, and following a disciplined routine would be the ideal way to fight back this additional gain resultant of your regime.
Another reason for sudden weight gain could be the stress-induced on your muscle fibres due to harsh exercising, which can cause micro-tears, or trauma, which is a form of inflammation.

2. You aren’t active enough through the day
Spending an hour doing intensive exercise or following a strict routine isn’t sufficient for calorie burning. If you are spending the majority of your hours in a sedentary manner, it goes against the goal of weight loss. Even simple acts of staying active, non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) can act as the simplest way to burn up to 200 calories per day.

3. You aren’t burning as many calories from exercise as you think
Every exercise you do supports calorie burning, which ultimately contributes to fat loss. However, if you are not assuming the right form or performing enough repetitions, you might be doing more harm than good. You’ll be burning lesser calories than needed. Secondly, eating back the same number of calories could also be fairly easy, post the exercise. Hence, creating a calorie deficit solely dependent on exercise won’t provide the best results and has probabilities of failing.

4. Your exercise doesn’t match up to your gender
Studies suggest that men and women respond differently to exercises, with women more biologically prone to putting on body fat and get hungrier post-exercise than men, with a higher risk for obese women with a higher body fat percentage. Here’s where it gets tricky. If you feel your appetite is burning up post a workout session, you’ll feel the need to take in more calories than usual, disturbing the calorie deficit for weight loss.

Experimenting with shorter workout sessions, or distributed high-intensity sessions may help combat the problem.

5. Supplements may be making you gain weight
Supplements and post-workout meals are beneficial but may also cause some weight gain after working out. One of the primary reasons behind so is the carb content in it. Carbs in many supplements and energy drinks supply glycogen in the body, which increases water retention. The fluctuating water weight is more commonly experiences whilst trying out endurance supportive exercises such as running or cycling. Hence, it’s important to pick out the right kind of energy drink, follow good pre and post-workout meals which would limit additional carb build up.