Why do you gain weight after exercise?

Losing weight has always been a lifelong career for women, but many women find that their weight has not decreased but increased after exercising to lose weight. This makes many women feel very painful. They originally wanted to lose weight through exercise, but unexpectedly, they gained more weight after exercise. What is the reason for the phenomenon of weight gain after exercise? Let me explain it to you!

What actually increases is not fat, but glycogen and water. 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. After exercise, with a proper diet, liver glycogen will be replenished quickly. During the replenishment process, the body will store a large amount of water according to the ratio of glycogen: water = 1:3 (this data is based on the widely cited experimental data from the University of Michigan in 1931, and recent studies have also shown that the exact value of this data should be 1:2.4). That is to say, if you store 100g of glycogen in your body, you also need to store 3 times the amount of water, which means the total weight increase reaches 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. Therefore, it is normal for people who use exercise to lose weight at the beginning to gain weight like this. If this happens in the early stages of weight loss, don't panic. Just follow your plan and stick to it for a long time. As long as you stick to it, you will naturally see the results.

After reading the above introduction, I believe you already have a clearer understanding of the phenomenon of weight gain after exercise. Generally speaking, this phenomenon is normal when you first start exercising. Losing weight cannot be achieved overnight, so as long as you follow your plan and stick to it, you will get good results.