Why do you gain weight the more you exercise?

Exercise is considered the safest and most effective way to lose weight, because exercise can not only consume fat, but also increase the muscle content in the body, thereby replacing the fat content. This is the purpose of exercise to lose weight. However, some people become fatter the more they exercise. So why do they gain weight the more they exercise? Let’s take a look at the explanation below, I hope everyone can understand it.

After exercise, the body's glycogen increases and water retention. In fact, if you did not exercise before and suddenly gain weight after exercise, it is not mainly because of fat gain. The main reason is the increase of glycogen and water retention in the body.

During exercise, our bodies consume a large amount of muscle glycogen and liver glycogen. They are the first substances to provide energy during exercise. Data show that their total reserves in the human body are approximately between 250g and 400g. After exercise, due to the stimulation of exercise, the body generally stores more glycogen than before exercise.

If you store 100g of glycogen in your body, and you also store three times as much water, the total weight will reach 400g. Overall, your weight will appear to have increased because of the increase in glycogen and water storage.

It is still necessary to replenish water after exercise. It should be noted that although water needs to be stored in a ratio of 1:3 during the synthesis of liver glycogen, this does not mean that it is best not to drink water after exercise in order to lose weight. In fact, if you do not replenish water after a lot of sweating exercise, your body will easily become dehydrated, and glycogen will not be replenished, which will cause illness. If you are doing high-intensity, intermittent strength training, your body needs to be replenished with water, and carbohydrates should be added to the water. Experiments have confirmed that supplementing with carbohydrate-containing drinks during this type of exercise can effectively delay physical fatigue and make the exercise more lasting.

Finally, what I want to say to everyone is that if you did not exercise before, but now have to exercise to lose weight, and then experience weight gain after exercise, don’t panic at this time, but understand that this is a normal physiological stage, and this stage will generally be eliminated within 1 or 2 weeks of regular exercise.