You’re in the gym every day. Keep your diet right. Yet, one morning while standing on the scale, you suddenly realized that the weight was running in the opposite direction. Is it making you wonder, What’s happened? Why can’t I lose weight?
And the most surprising thing? It almost happens to everyone because they don’t even know where they are messing up. Some people gain weight in the first 1-2 weeks after they start working out. But they are not wrong.
According to a 2021 study published in the Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research, after an intense HIIT session, the lactate level in the body increases, and the muscles temporarily retain water, which has a direct effect on weight.
The question is, is it just water? Or something else? And why is this change happening to so many people at once? Let’s break it down.
Not all Weight Gain is Bad
As we gain weight, we tend to lose fat. But, you know, it’s not all about weight. Sometimes the body becomes heavy with things that are not actually fat, but a sign of fitness.
When you are doing weight training in the gym. That means you’re putting pressure on your muscles, and as the body is repairing them, it’s building those muscles up a little bit, and that’s muscle hypertrophy. It adds weight, but it’s the weight of the muscle, which increases strength, not fat.
Again, let’s say you had a really hard leg day. Your body will then react by inflaming the muscles and pumping water into them to help them heal. This extra water is also a type of weight that only lasts for two to three days before going down again.
Another reason that increases weight is glycogen storage. This is because when you eat normal carbs and your body uses them, glycogen (a type of sugar) builds up in your muscles and liver. This glycogen can hold water. The body saves about 3 grams of water for every gram of glycogen it has. It makes you gain weight, but it’s more like your fuel tank is full, not fat, but fuel to improve performance.
Eyeballing Food Portion
When many people start working out, they always think that their food is under control! Then why is the weight scale showing a negative result? That’s because most of them never measure their food or calculate. All they do is try to adjust their diet by guessing the food weight and calories, that is, “eyeballing.”
Research was done by the Food and Brand Lab at Cornell University in 2006. It found that people generally don’t know how many calories are in food, and they unknowingly consume 20–40% more than they think. People who want to lose weight or care about their health tend to be more sure of their ideas, which is where the big mistake lies.
This visual error is most common in certain foods:
- A handful of almonds or a spoonful of peanut butter – there is no way to understand just by looking, there are 150-200 calories hidden here
- One tablespoon of olive oil contains 120 calories.
- Protein balls, smoothies, and granola that you make yourself may look small, but they are full of carbs from milk, honey, nuts, and chia seeds.
That’s not all—when we label something “healthy,” we eat too much of it because we believe “it won’t hurt.” This is the health halo effect, which is also the reason why many healthy eaters eat too many calories without realizing it.
The Hidden Calories
There are small calories all around us every day that we never pay any attention to. Just two tablespoons of ranch or honey-mustard sauce used in salad dressing contain about 150 calories, which is often omitted in the diet.
And if syrup, fulcrum, or extra milk is added to the morning coffee or latte, then it becomes not only coffee, but a kind of light dessert, which adds extra calories instead of filling our stomach. A tablespoon of peanut butter contains about 100 calories. Adding more than one teaspoon to a protein smoothie or snack can quickly increase the number of calories, but our eyes can’t see those extra calories.
On top of that, most of the trouble comes from liquid calories like coffee, juice, milk, and shakes. These drinks don’t fill us up enough, so we don’t realize they’re high in calories. If you’re consuming only 150 to 250 extra calories every day, which you never realize or don’t officially count, that can add up to 1000 to 1500 calories over the weekend. And these extra calories are the main reason that you’re trying harder but still gaining instead of losing.
Hormonal Imbalance or Medical Issues.
People often ask themselves: “Am I doing something wrong somewhere? ” But sometimes the question should be, ‘Is my body blocking something from inside?’
If the hormonal balance in the body is not right, then even the most perfect diet will not give the desired result. A decrease in thyroid hormone slows down the metabolism. When there is insulin resistance, the body can’t use the food it eats efficiently. Also, fat builds up around the stomach if the cortisol level stays high for a long time.
And these messes don’t catch on quickly, because the symptoms almost always look like a lifestyle problem. Feeling a little too tired, having trouble sleeping, or having more or less hunger—at first, no one can figure out what’s causing it.
Therefore, before deciding to “cut calories even more,” it’s important to first get a hormonal profile test. Thyroid panel, insulin sensitivity, and cortisol levels. These reports make it clear how much the body is ready to respond from the inside. The fight to lose weight is not only about food and sweat, but also about understanding the inner rhythm of the body.
Eating too Close to Bedtime
There is a big problem of eating too close to bedtime – you will think, “I am eating a little at night, is this the reason for weight gain? ” In fact, the digestive process of the body becomes much slower than usual at night. Plus, your body doesn’t have any way to spend that energy. That’s why eating close to bedtime can be a reason for accumulating fat.
A study published in 2018 found that people who ate dinner after 10 p.m. had a 2-hour increase in postprandial glucose (blood sugar after eating) by about 15-20%, and a significant decrease in insulin sensitivity. For example, when you eat late at night, your body can’t use insulin properly. This is a big reason that you face trouble controlling your blood sugar.
Not only that, but eating late at night also changes the way the hormone melatonin works, which helps us to keep our sleep routine. Melatonin disturbances cause a delay in sleep, which indirectly affects metabolism. Not getting enough sleep also makes it harder for the body to burn fat.
So, you need to do more than just cut back on calories. You also need to control the time of eating. Avoiding food too close to bedtime means you’re giving your body a good night’s sleep and proper digestion, which is a big help in the weight loss journey.
Poor Sleep Quality and Recovery
Lack of quality sleep has a huge negative impact on managing weight. The study found that sleep deprivation increases ghrelin (which increases hunger) and decreases leptin (which makes you feel full). This makes the body feel hungrier, and when it’s hungry, we often choose some unhealthy snacks.
Sleep deprivation also reduces the energy level of the body. As a result, you burn fewer calories and are less active throughout the day. Also, it hampers your workout performance and makes it harder for recover properly. This disrupts muscle muscle-building process, and fatigue increases rapidly.
Staying Inactive Outside the Gym
People who work out for an hour at the gym mostly remain inactive for 23 hours afterward, which adverse your total calorie consumption. After the session, the body often goes into “survivor mode,” which reduces calorie expenditure for the rest of the day.
In a meta-analysis published in 2018, it was found that non-exercise activity thermogenesis (NEAT) decreases in about 23% of people after exercise. In other words, the total number of calories is not burned because people don’t walk, stand, or move around as much during the day.
A lot of calories are burned through NEAT. It happens when you do small things like walking, using stairs instead of a lift, or standing while talking. Studies have shown that this NEAT can contribute to 6 to 50% of the calorie burn, and its importance in weight control is no less.
So, it is not enough to just work hard in the gym for an hour in a weight loss plan. Increasing movement for the rest of the day is also necessary to increase NEAT.
Skipping Meals
Some people skip meals because they think it will help them to cut off more calories. Generally, it seems they’re correct. But in reality, they are probably not aware of the downside of skipping meals. Then listen, by restricting a meal, it not only accumulates hunger it also accumulates stress hormones. As a result, the part of your brain’s food reward system sends signals to eat.
In this state of hunger, when the next meal time comes, the body does not just want to be hungry – it wants comfort. And a quick meal full of sugar, salt, and fat is an easy way to feel better. Without realizing it or even desiring it, you can end up eating more calories at the next meal than at the two meals before it.
It’s not just a mind game. In nutrition science, it’s known as “compensatory eating,” where the body and brain work together to eat more for the previous calorie deficit. Moreover, some studies have shown that after a long period of starvation, our ‘reward pathway’ becomes hyperactive. Then it becomes difficult to control fast food, sugary desserts, or anything else that tastes great.
Meal time and regularity are also important if you want to keep your metabolism in good condition. Hormones, the insulin reaction, and even digestion all work in a systematic way when the body is used to a cycle. So even if you want to lose weight, the strategy of skipping meals does not last long for most people. Rather, the best results come from a steady, balanced and sustainable routine.
Most importantly, the body and brain get confused if you play in a different way every day. And from that confusion comes a sudden hunger, overwhelming craving, and an ‘ate it, now sorry’ type of feeling.
Misconceptions about diet and exercise
You’ll be surprised to know that what you’re eating by the name of fitness food is not for fitness. For example, protein bars or any shakes. It has a lot of calories, and if you’re not checking the level before purchasing, it might ruin your journey unknowingly. And they often use some low-quality protein, which has a very low bioavailability.
On top of that, they never mention that it contains artificial sugar. Rather, they mention some alternative names of added sugar. Plus, these foods are packed with a lot of carbs and a huge amount of calories, around 250-400.
And there are some misconceptions about workouts. Some people think, “I sweat for an hour today, so I can eat as much as I want, while others think, “Just doing cardio will reduce weight.”
