Why did i gain 30 pounds when i started lifting?

[BChico]

Hey,

Ive been lifting everyother day, with cardio in their sometimes. Im not doing too much weight, 155-165-175-185 pyramid bench, 220 legs, 80 curl...its really not alot. When i started i weighed 190, 5'11",good tone in legs and arms, small beer gut...First week dropped to 185, just weighed myself today and im at 220.8. This anything to be worried about? Im taking creatine, cause my coach encourages it, but i didnt load the first week.

-Brad

 

[joohang]

Muscle build-up?

 

[Ameesh]

if the volumes are the same muscle wieghs more then fat., have you gained alot of fat or muscle?

 

[BChico]

I mean i notice alot of muscle building up, im not a small kid by nature, build muscle fast, but 30 pounds in 3 weeks?

 

[Spoooon]

30 pounds seems like a lot, but one thing may be water weight. Creatine causes you to retain water, if I remember correctly.

 

[iamme]

i'm no expert, but damn, that sounds like alot of weight.

 

[BChico]

Muscle not fat, im not eating pizza everynight this semester...Salad protein pasta...usually only dinner, sometimes small lunch.

 

[Looney]

30 lbs of muscle is A LOT. Do you have less bodyfat now than before? If you do, then it is muscle... but if it's a mixture, you're diet is too much for your activities. I'm more to incline to believe the scale might be off than to say anything else... but then again, you didn't say how long you have been lifting for. A year? 2 year? 2 weeks?

 

[MikeMike]

if you have been working out for a while now, muscle is denser than fat, thus it takes up less space, yet weighs more. That is why when people weigh 350+ ppounds you dont always assume its all fat, look at the worlds strongest man competitions, those guys are like 300+ and yet they are strong as f*ck

 

[BChico]

Some one told me about the water build up, and then when it goes down you looked more ripped, is this confirmed?

 

[Looney]

Bah, the scale is off. There's no way you are goign to gain 30 lbs in 3 weeks, even if you were on anabolic steroids.

 

[BChico]

Same scale at gym, friend is same weight, already thought of that.

 

[Zugzwang152]

ok where's SnapIT?

 

[Amused]

It's water weight. Have you not read up on the effects of creatine?

If you were to stop the creatine, you'd lose most of that weight.

 

[BChico]

So when does the water go away, and what will happen, i read up on it a little, mostly by what people tell me.

 

[Spoooon]

"Say you do load up on creatine and gain 10 pounds in one week, pretty amazing isn't it? But do you really think you grew 10 pounds of muscle? No. The fact is, that extra weight is due to more water retention in your muscles (not the bad water retention that makes you look puffy), and if you stop taking creatine, you'll lose the water and be back where you started.

Chances are, after loading up on creatine, you'll also feel stronger. I won't argue that creatine is used to immediately replenish ATP in a working muscle, but is this necessarily a good thing? Say after one week you can lift 20% more weight, impressive for sure. But what about your tendons? Did they get stronger? No, so suddenly you exposing your tendons to forces much heavier than they've ever dealt with before. What about your nervous system? Too much heavy training leads to burn out and overtraining."

source

Some one told me about the water build up, and then when it goes down you looked more ripped, is this confirmed?

I don't see how that could be true. Your muscles appear to be larger because of the water retention. You lose the water, you lose some of the bulk.

 

[BChico]

Ive read alot of conflicting opinions, i know some kids that benefited from it, so i figured id give it a shot, it was free.

 

[Yossarian]

It is next to impossible to gain 3 lbs of muscle in 3 weeks, let alone 30.

 

[LAUST]

Lean muscle weighs more then fat... ask your coach to measure your body fat %

wait 3 weeks?... check on another scale.. 10lbs a weeks is insane

 

[Electric Amish]

Were you holding a 30lb weight while on the scale??

amish

 

[focusyn]

Chances are, are you are retaining water. It's also probably your diet. Has your coach given out a rough meal plan? I somewhat had the same problem when I started lifting in h.s. But my coach told me to take glutamine powder and protein shakes instead of creatine.

 

[Marshallj]

You will not gain 30 lbs of water on creatine.

I've been on and off of creatine for the past year, and the most I gain is 5 lbs of water.

 

[Marshallj]

Originally posted by: BChico
Some one told me about the water build up, and then when it goes down you looked more ripped, is this confirmed?

Yes, this is true. I've been taking it for quite a while and when you go off the creatine you'll look less "filled out" and more cut.

By the way, there's no way you gained 30 lbs of muscle in a few weeks. Even if you did massive amounts of steroids you most likely wouldn't gain that much muscle. It's probably a combination of some muscle, some fat, and some water.

 

[Marshallj]

I'd like to point out that working out is not a "one size fits all" kind of thing. Some people have more testosterone than others and will pack on more muscle. Some people are also genetically predisposed to having mostly "quick twitch" muscles. Some people have big muscles but can't do much weight, while others may look thin and be strong as hell.

Personally, I can't pack on a lot of muscle, yet I still get stronger. I don't look all that big but I've been working out for about 7 years, and I work out with the stack on most of the machines at the gym.

 

[Rudee]

A 30 pound gain in a couple weeks is unheard of. Either your scale is wrong or you need glasses.