Will bodyweight exercises make you gain weight?

[buffdude78]

I started the simplefit routine a couple weeks ago and am really enjoying it. Additionally, I calculated my daily caloric intake and expenditure to create a deficit to lose bodyfat. My question is will doing bodyweight exercises increase muscle therefore result in weight gain? Or will it just help to preserve muscle mass when I'm losing weight? I will be keeping track of scale weight at regular intervals and I want to know what to expect.

[Bri3626]

Hi Buff,

there are a lot of variables here. Your body type and how fast you gain vs. lose, what you eat, how active you are in general, your medical condition, and the intensity of the exercise you do here. I highly encourage you to seek a Physician and get a physical (if you haven't already) as there are some syndromes that can interfere with this process.

That being said, most folks will tend to get a leaner body mass and lose pounds overall because they strip body fat. It's not too likely you will gain a lot of muscle weight unless you are purely an endomorph. Endomorphs are those folks who tend to look thicker and bigger than everyone else. They look at a french fry and put on a few pounds. It tends to be a lot tougher to shed the pounds with them.

With bodyweight exercises it is usually very difficult to "bulk up". Pure power lifting and strength training with weights are the bad boys of weight gain.

One thing I'm sure of is that if you follow the simplefit regimen (changing nothing else) and if you push to make continuous gains you will be fitter, leaner, and feel better. I recommend adding the 3 day run workout also. When I'm doing simplefit I like to do a Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday run. I began with a 5 min jog. Then I do 1 min sprints, 2min jogs for 3 rounds total. I end with a 5 min cool down. On Saturdays I like to do a long run where I basically do 2x the farthest distance I ran Tuesday or Thursday. That run is exclusively just a comfortable run. I do that more for the distance and sort of a meditation/thinking run. This is the run Kevin recommended some time ago and works pretty well for me. Of course you can substitute any aerobic exercise for this (swim, bike, elliptical etc.).

When I counsel my overweight patients I encourage them to just eat a balanced diet similar to the zone diet. I'm not big into counting calories as I just don't have that kind of time but I tell everyone to split their plate up into three sections. Put the meat on one, and 2 different color vegetables on the other. The meat (doesn't matter what kind) has to be no bigger than your palm (Basically you have to see all the outer edges of your palm with the meat sitting in it) and no thicker than your hand. The vegetables can be as much as you like or measure out a cup to start. There are only three to avoid because of the simple sugar they break down into. I call em PCP because they are evil and I can remember em that way. Potatoes, Corn, and Peas.

This is a very simplified version of the zone and many folks will say to do different things but I believe in keeping that as simple as possible same as this workout.

Anyway, hope this helps some and I hope to see ya cranking out level 8 soon!

[Gaz E]

Great reply Bri!
I especially like the run program that you mentioned.
I run at the moment but there is no structure to it,just the same route and I time it ,but I like the idea of incorporating sprints into the run.Thanks.

[Bri3626]

hey thanks!

Kevin is the one who posted this idea originally. I give all credit to him. I have to say that it improves your run time significantly. Back when I first started simplefit and prior to the injury I had let myself go pretty bad. I ran 1.5 miles in something like 15 or 16 minutes. After I started doing the sprints it went down to less than 13 minutes.

Since the injury I have lost everything and am starting over in even worse shape. But I'm going to utilize the same principles when I start L1D1. One thing I didn't mention is that about every two weeks it's a good idea to increase your sprints by one round. I'd like to stick around 5 rounds total and try to get three miles each time including the warmup and cool down. Hard to believe I was at lvl 7 at one point. I want to see that again very soon.