Excessive exercise actually makes you gain weight! How can?

As the saying goes, "Everything that is excessive is not good". This also applies to sports and physical activity. Many people desperately do sports by increasing the portion of exercise in order to get the ideal body weight. Unfortunately, excessive exercise actually makes you gain weight. How come? Check out the explanation in this article.

Why does excessive exercise actually increase body weight?

Basically, every physical activity will affect various functions and processes that occur in the body. However, the effect on each person is not the same. This can happen because the differences in hormone levels that each person have will affect how fat is burned by the body (metabolism). Well, this process is what makes the results of burning fat for everyone different, even though they do the same type and time of exercise.

Even so, in general there are several reasons why excessive exercise actually increases your weight, namely:

1. Eat more after exercise

Whether we realize it or not, excessive exercise makes the body very tired. As a result, you become hungry faster because your energy intake has been depleted. Well, this condition actually makes you eat larger portions.

Not to mention the choice of food you consume. You have been working hard to get rid of the accumulated body fat. Unfortunately after that, you end up eating foods that are high in fat, sugar and carbohydrates. If you do this, don't expect the exercise that you have done so far will show benefits for your body.

That is why many experts recommend that you balance the portion of exercise and the amount of calorie intake. The goal is that burning fat when you exercise can work proportionally, according to the calories you have consumed.

2. Stress

Exercise is great, but it can also stress your body. If you do exercise properly with good nutritional support, adequate rest, and proper recovery, the stress caused by the side effects of exercise can strengthen you. More precisely to strengthen your body against further stress.

However, if you exercise excessively, your balance will be lost. This makes exercise actually causes problems for your body, including causing weight gain. This is because the uncontrolled release of the hormone cortisol - a stress-causing hormone, can increase the accumulation of fat around the stomach, allowing you to gain weight.

3. Increased muscle mass

Actually, you can gain weight even though you have done the exercise seriously and regularly. This is very possible. However, this weight gain is not solely because you are getting fatter, but because your muscle mass is increasing. This is because muscle mass weighs more than fat. So, your weight will increase even though the fat in your body has decreased.

Therefore, it's a good idea to use a special measuring tool to calculate the levels of fat and muscle mass in your body. Usually, this special measuring device is provided in a fitness center or gym.

4. Exercise is not regular

You may be doing high-intensity exercise for a long time. Unfortunately, you don't do these activities on a regular basis. Not exercising regularly can waste your efforts because your body is not challenged enough to try hard to build muscle and burn lots of calories. This makes the fat in your body accumulate, which in turn contributes to weight gain.