weight gain with strength training

What I've been told is when you change or increase the amount of strength training you are doing, your muscles tend to retain fluid. So you could show a weight gain and your clothes may feel tighter because of it. Don't let that stop you from doing it or cause you to go back to an all cardio exercise program. The fluid retention is temporary and will go away once your muscle tissue repairs itself. Contrary to what some people say, muscle doesn't weigh more than fat but a pound of muscle will take up less room than a pound of fat. Also, muscle burns more calories than fat. So in the long term, it will be easier to keep your weight off and you will look thinner at a higher weight if you have more muscle. Also, weight bearing exercise helps to prevent osteoporosis. So it is important not to give up on a strength training program even though you may not see its benefits immediately and the scale may not reward you in the short term.

I just started weight training last week and haven't noticed any weirdness yet, but will take extra care to notice any fluctuations now that I know others have experienced some confusion. Overall, I'm really enjoying the challenge of keeping up on it, feeling stronger when I'm done.

Will do. Thanks. I had been doing decent on my treadmill but once I started this video my weight went up 5 lbs. So it erased what I lost and gained some more. I understand there are all sorts of factors that can determine this. But my pants that were loose
Last week are cutting me again this week. So I'm wondering should I go back to my interval training on the treadmill where I was having success or should
I just continue and see what happens after a couple of weeks.

Yeah... you are not alone.. I have been increasing the resistance on my elliptical machine and doing a bit of free weight exercises.. and i have had mysterious gains.. but usually after a few weeks, the overall effect lately has been down...
I cannot explain the up and down 2 pounds I sometimes get... even on weeks when overally I lose 2+ pounds, I will go up and down 1 or more pounds mid week.... weird and why I keep going even if the scale is disappointing.

Good thing, apparently muscle burns more fat at rest... than your previous body with fat.. at rest.. so even after you exercise there is more metabolizing day and night when you are well muscled (even if you have a lot of fat too)..

so .. we should be getting net losses in the very long term, despite temporary disappointments... KEEP IT UP

Okay, I started Jillian Michaels shred (which is a circuit training video) this week and I've noticed my weight consistently going up all week and I have not really changed my eating habits. One day I did really bad calorie wise but for the most part I'm keeping my calories at approximately 1800 calories a day. I had been interval training on my treadmill and had lost a couple of pounds doing that. This week I erased those pounds and went up higher than where I had been. Has anyone else had this problem with circuit training? That's frustating. On the flip side, my endurance on the treadmill was a lot better this morning. I was able to shave a minute off my initial mile.