Why do I gain weight when I exercise to lose weight?

Losing weight is a topic that people have been discussing in our lives, and then exercise to lose weight has been sought after by many people, because exercise can not only lose weight but also enhance our body resistance. However, some of them did not lose weight after exercising but gained a lot more weight than before. This phenomenon makes people feel that losing weight through exercise is not feasible, so why does this phenomenon occur? Now the editor will explain it to you.

In fact, if you did not exercise before and then suddenly gained weight after exercise, it is not mainly because of the increase in fat. The main reason is the increase in 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.

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 in the ratio of glycogen: water = 1:3. 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 should be noted that although water needs to be stored in a ratio of 1:3 during the synthesis of 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 replenish water, and carbohydrates should be added to the water.

In fact, there is no need to be surprised if your weight increases instead of decreases after exercise. After reading the above explanation, I believe you also understand why our weight increases after exercise! If you have always had a dream of losing weight, then continue to exercise. I believe that if you persist, you will definitely achieve your goal.