A question about weight gain during Beachbody’s Insanity workout?
Hi all,
Recently, I began doing the Insanity workout in order to get lean and get ready to go off to college (hopefully in Florida, meaning lots of beaches and bathing suits). I’ve been doing the workout for about a week and a half, and I’ve noticed that I’ve actually gained a pretty big amount of weight since starting.
I’ve been following the diet guide as closely as I can (always fat-free foods, measuring/weighing everything, following the meal plans, etc.,). I also did the calorie calculator, so I know how many calories I need when working out. But somehow my weight has gone up from 118-121 (it fluctuates, but that’s the usual range) to about 125… As stated before, I’ve followed the nutrition guide closely and kept my own food journal, so I know I’ve been eating right. I’ve also pushed myself pretty hard during the workouts, and I’m always sweating and exhausted at the end, so I know I worked out hard enough to burn some major calories. So I’m just wondering why the weight went up by 4 pounds? My clothes don’t fit any differently so I don’t think it’s muscle weight.. My jeans have gotten a *tiny* bit more loose around the waist, but otherwise there’s not much difference.
Some background information to help: I’m 17, female, almost 5′5, and moderately active. I’m not skinny, but I’m not chubby either, I have an average build, and my weight is pretty evenly distributed. I try to eat about 1500 to 1700 calories a day, and before doing Insanity I’ve done P90X and ran on the X-country team at school. To prepare for the Insanity program, I started running 30 minutes on the treadmill at a fast pace 3 days a week, and did body weight exercises.
I don’t have any health problems (no thyroid issues, so that’s checked off the list). The only possible guess I can come up with is that at one point I was eating very little (about 1200 calories) for about 2 years, and now the larger portions are catching up with me. The thing is, I tried to gradually raise the number of calories so that my body would take it better (I knew the way I was eating before wasn’t a good long-term solution, so I worked to change it), so the sudden weight increase just has me worried a bit. Any ideas? Did anyone else have this problem? Is this much weight gain normal at the beginning of the workout? I never got this much weight gain before, and usually I would lose it in about a week when I start a new workout.
Thanks a lot in advance, and sorry for the absurd amount of things I wrote, just figured the more detail I give, the easier an accurate answer would be. 
I have recently started the insanity workout myself and it is a very difficult workout. There are a lot of plyometric exercises in the program. My guess is that the high impact exercises you are performing is building muscle and that is causing your weight gain. In people that do not have a solid muscle base to begin with (beginners and women who have never worked out) should expect to put on muscle weight. The good news is that this added muscle will raise your metabolic rate and cause you to actually lose weight and look better in the long run. Give it a little more time and you should see the weight comes back off, or at least makes you look better due to added muscle. Good luck
I have recently started the insanity workout myself and it is a very difficult workout. There are a lot of plyometric exercises in the program. My guess is that the high impact exercises you are performing is building muscle and that is causing your weight gain. In people that do not have a solid muscle base to begin with (beginners and women who have never worked out) should expect to put on muscle weight. The good news is that this added muscle will raise your metabolic rate and cause you to actually lose weight and look better in the long run. Give it a little more time and you should see the weight comes back off, or at least makes you look better due to added muscle. Good luck
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