If you’ve recently embarked on a fitness journey and have been regular at your exercise, putting in sufficient effort, you would expect the weighing scale to tip in the downward direction. You would also expect to be tightening your belt a notch or buying clothes a size smaller than you normally would have. But what if that does not happen? What if the weighing scale remains the same regardless of your hard work or much worse, starts creeping in the other direction? Here’s why you maybe gaining weight and not losing it.

Reason # 1 You feel hungrier than before – After starting a new workout or exercise for the first time, it is not uncommon to feel hungrier than before. But how much of it is real hunger and how much of it is make belief? A recent study says that exercise actually leaves you feeling full. But if you genuinely feel hungry after a workout, make sure you don’t come back and snack on anything you can lay your hands on. Proteins packed post workout snacks are best.

Reason # 2 I am burning calories so I can eat anything – This one is not an uncommon reason that many people give once they start working out. Many people who workout claim that they can eat anything just because they are working out. But this is a hard cycle to keep up. It’s very likely that when you start working out, you may eat much more than you burn because you think you can, causing steady weight gain.

Reason # 3 You are already a reasonably active individual – If you are already reasonably active and your day is a whirlwind of activity, be it commuting all over the city for work, or running around within your workspace, you may find that exercise does not cause as much of an impact as you hoped it would. If you’ve started moderate exercise it may not help you much so try upping it a notch. On the other hand if your lifestyle is sedentary than even moderate exercise helps. 

Reason # 4 Portion control – Exercise or no exercise, you have to watch what you eat because 80% of your body composition depends on what you put in. So if you start a workout like weight training and don’t supplement it by increasing your intake of proteins it is not going to be effective no matter what you do. It may show a little result in the beginning and then you’ll be back to normal. Portion control and a change in dietary habits is the key. 

Reason # 5 You maybe gaining muscle – If all is going well i.e. If you are eating right, and working out hard but you are seeing the weighing scale tilt in the opposite direction in spite of feeling more energetic, congratulations! You’re probably losing fat the right way! Its possible that you are gaining muscle and losing fat which is why you can’t see a great deal of difference on the weighing scale, but whip out your measuring tape and it may tell a different story.

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