Muscle? Fat? Water? Eternal doom?
Jeyradan
Posts: 164 Member
I posted a couple of weeks ago about being on a plateau (along with my partner). Since then, I've taken the advice of both my doctor and people on this forum. Here's what I'm doing:
- eating 1,000 calories a day (plus most, but not all, exercise calories - and yes, this is doctor-approved)
- weighing and measuring all possible food, and doing my best to overestimate where not possible
- three two-hour aikido (low-impact martial arts) classes per week
- three half-hour Sworkit full-body strength workouts per week (a new addition to the schedule)
- at least one long hike per week (two to six hours)
- walking to all of my errands, plus a short walk every lunch hour
We weigh ourselves every Friday morning, and this week, I had gained over a pound. What's going on?
I don't think it's even physically possible to put on that much muscle in a week. Am I gaining fat? Is it water weight? Is there another possibility I haven't considered?
It's not the short term that worries me, but the fact that diet and exercise are a lifestyle change. I don't mind being on this regimen to lose weight, but... I mean... I was hoping to transition to a slightly more relaxed calorie limit, etc., when I went on maintenance. But I'm scared now. If I'm gaining on 1,000 calories a week plus exercise, what does that mean for the rest of my life? I don't want that to be my permanent regimen...
- eating 1,000 calories a day (plus most, but not all, exercise calories - and yes, this is doctor-approved)
- weighing and measuring all possible food, and doing my best to overestimate where not possible
- three two-hour aikido (low-impact martial arts) classes per week
- three half-hour Sworkit full-body strength workouts per week (a new addition to the schedule)
- at least one long hike per week (two to six hours)
- walking to all of my errands, plus a short walk every lunch hour
We weigh ourselves every Friday morning, and this week, I had gained over a pound. What's going on?
I don't think it's even physically possible to put on that much muscle in a week. Am I gaining fat? Is it water weight? Is there another possibility I haven't considered?
It's not the short term that worries me, but the fact that diet and exercise are a lifestyle change. I don't mind being on this regimen to lose weight, but... I mean... I was hoping to transition to a slightly more relaxed calorie limit, etc., when I went on maintenance. But I'm scared now. If I'm gaining on 1,000 calories a week plus exercise, what does that mean for the rest of my life? I don't want that to be my permanent regimen...
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Replies
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I don't know a hell of a lot about nutrition and weight stuff, but I'm pretty sure weight is always going to fluctuate a few pounds. Maybe do it for another week or so and see if there are any visual changes as opposed to the numbers on the scale?2
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I usually tend to be at my heaviest on Friday mornings. Over the weekend I lose some water weight as I'm moving more and not sitting in the office. My weight then builds up again in the course of the week. This might be one possible explanation. TOM might be another explanation, more salt in your diet as well.
Other options: maybe you'd want to open up your diary. Maybe we can spot things there that are not right yet
How do you measure your sport calorie burn? You might be overestimating there as well.3 -
Arkerbarker wrote: »I don't know a hell of a lot about nutrition and weight stuff, but I'm pretty sure weight is always going to fluctuate a few pounds. Maybe do it for another week or so and see if there are any visual changes as opposed to the numbers on the scale?
I'm mainly worried because I weigh so little that "a few pounds" is a fairly significant amount for me - and if I get things wrong a few weeks running, I can gain so much that I'm in trouble. I'll keep doing mostly what I'm doing for another week, but if there are small tweaks I can make, I might want to do that.0 -
I usually tend to be at my heaviest on Friday mornings. Over the weekend I lose some water weight as I'm moving more and not sitting in the office. My weight then builds up again in the course of the week. This might be one possible explanation. TOM might be another explanation, more salt in your diet as well.
Other options: maybe you'd want to open up your diary. Maybe we can spot things there that are not right yet
How do you measure your sport calorie burn? You might be overestimating there as well.
Thank you! I don't know when I'm heaviest, but I've been weighing on Friday mornings since January 1st, so I guess at least it's consistent (so if I weigh more this Friday than last, the number might be off, but the gain is still true). I'm not sure what TOM is (unless "time of month?" in which case, does that affect men?) but I can pay closer attention to the salt for sure.
For measuring burn:
- the strength workouts (and any additional Sworkits I occasionally do) are measured directly from the app, which syncs with MyFitnessPal to take my weight and stats into account
- for aikido, I use the "judo, karate, kick boxing, tae kwan do" option in the MFP database, but because aikido is low-impact, I knock off 30 minutes of the lesson time to account for technique demonstrations and so on, then cut the remaining minutes in half as a deliberate attempt not to overestimate my burn (so I log a 2-hour class as 35-45 minutes total)
- for walking, I pay close attention to pace and then just use the MFP database entries for walking at that pace (usually 3.0 mph, but occasionally 2.5 mph)
- I don't log any the walking I do for errands or during lunch (about 20 min/day, not very fast) to give myself a little "buffer zone" for accidental mis-estimations
I know MFP's exercise database is fairly inaccurate, but I don't really have a better way to do it, as I can't afford a heart rate monitor or FitBit or anything like that.0 -
You say you're doing this with your partner--how are their results? It could be salt, therefore water retention. 1 week isn't alot of time, and I would recommend taking measurements weekly, since you can better gauge if things are moving by that sometimes. It's alittle early to panic, so just calm down and keep it up for a month. Then evaluate with your doctor. Weigh and measure your food. Your calorie goal is very low and difficult to hit.2
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snowflake954 wrote: »You say you're doing this with your partner--how are their results? It could be salt, therefore water retention. 1 week isn't alot of time, and I would recommend taking measurements weekly, since you can better gauge if things are moving by that sometimes. It's alittle early to panic, so just calm down and keep it up for a month. Then evaluate with your doctor. Weigh and measure your food. Your calorie goal is very low and difficult to hit.
Thanks! We weigh ourselves weekly, but perhaps we ought to buy a measuring tape and do inches as well. It's not something we've ever considered trying before!
We're both on a plateau. This week, he was down 0.2 lbs from last week's weight, but he's supposedly on a 1 lb/week weight loss gradient (and gets plenty more calories than I do, because he's got much more body mass). We've been on this plateau for ages now (a little over a month), and every time we see a little improvement, it's either unchanged or reversed the next week.
I do weigh and measure all of my food (except in situations where that's impossible, like in a small restaurant). I know my calorie goal is low and hard to hit - but that's why I was sort of hoping it wouldn't become my permanent limit. However, if I can't lose weight even while sticking to it, who knows?0 -
Under eating + over exercise = stress related, transient oedema (aka water weight) + food in gut or normal fluctuation in weight + monthly variance (aka TOM) = weight gain.
Solution: drinks more water, give yourself time. It will pass. You've only been at this a month. With a lot of changes in exercise that can take 4-6 weeks to even out. Seriously, drink more water.
A loss of 0.2lb per week is not a plateau. Same weight for a month... maybe.
(PS. Use Happy Scale or anther weight trending app and weigh more often and you'll see that the change is happening.)2 -
You asked this previously:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10398445/is-it-me-or-is-it-my-body/p1
Honestly, both threads have a lot of red flags.3 -
EvgeniZyntx wrote: »Under eating + over exercise = stress related, transient oedema (aka water weight) + food in gut or normal fluctuation in weight + monthly variance (aka TOM) = weight gain.
Solution: drinks more water, give yourself time. It will pass. You've only been at this a month. With a lot of changes in exercise that can take 4-6 weeks to even out. Seriously, drink more water.
A loss of 0.2lb per week is not a plateau. Same weight for a month... maybe.
(PS. Use Happy Scale or anther weight trending app and weigh more often and you'll see that the change is happening.)
Thank you! Perhaps I wasn't clear. We've been working on diet and exercise since January 1st (so five and a half months). We've just been stuck at a "plateau" for the last month and a half or so in that we're going up and down within the same 3 lb-ish range, but never getting beyond it.
I've just ramped up my water intake (which was far too low, but is now 2 or more litres a day) - and it's true that adding the strength workouts (and removing the once-daily five-minute cardio) was a recent change. I'll give it a little while longer and start checking inches as well, as recommended by another poster.
I guess it's all just patience; it's just that my limits are so close that I get nervous probably too early.0 -
You asked this previously:
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10398445/is-it-me-or-is-it-my-body/p1
Honestly, both threads have a lot of red flags.
Yes, I did mention that in my post above. Perhaps you could elaborate on what you mean by "red flags?"0 -
Arkerbarker wrote: »I don't know a hell of a lot about nutrition and weight stuff, but I'm pretty sure weight is always going to fluctuate a few pounds. Maybe do it for another week or so and see if there are any visual changes as opposed to the numbers on the scale?
I'm mainly worried because I weigh so little that "a few pounds" is a fairly significant amount for me - and if I get things wrong a few weeks running, I can gain so much that I'm in trouble. I'll keep doing mostly what I'm doing for another week, but if there are small tweaks I can make, I might want to do that.
You already weigh so little? How much are you trying to lose and at what rate are you trying to lose it? And a doctor approved that few calories? I'm just trying to wrap my head around this, it's not making logical sense to me.3 -
You already weigh so little? How much are you trying to lose and at what rate are you trying to lose it? And a doctor approved that few calories? I'm just trying to wrap my head around this, it's not making logical sense to me.
I'm under 5'2", have a tiny frame size, a desk job and sedentary sideline career, and am subclinically hypotonic with a low metabolism - so there's not a lot of BMR going on there. My body's calorie needs to exist simply aren't very high. Adding exercise bumps it up, of course (and the doctor did tell me to eat back my exercise calories - so for the most part, I do).
I'm not trying to lose very much (at most 3-5 lbs, but if I never drop below my current weight, that would be okay). It's just that I don't want to be stuck at 1,000 calories all my life - I'm worried that, because I'm not losing weight on my current regimen, I won't be able to increase my limit without gaining.
(As a note: gaining weight by adding on muscle would be fine. I just don't have the physical capability to pack on the muscle, so any weight I put on is more likely to come from fat, and I don't have a lot of "wiggle room" for that.)0 -
Just a side note: 'metabolism' is not only the amount of energy your body needs to stay alive, it's also how your body digests food. Many people that are hypothyroid have digestive problems, especially with digesting fats (but also other digestive enzymes). That means lots of good dietary fat and other food ends up in the toilet again without their energy being used. That means there is a possibility that your body is actually getting less energy from food than you think. Adding to that, scientific papers talk about a reduction of about 4% in BMR in hypothyroid people; a one time lowering on the onset. That's it. Yes, this can result in a weight gain, but if food intake stays constant then a new equilibrium will be reached fairly quickly. Sorry, for me it's a question of not measuring properly.2
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Just a side note: 'metabolism' is not only the amount of energy your body needs to stay alive, it's also how your body digests food. Many people that are hypothyroid have digestive problems, especially with digesting fats (but also other digestive enzymes). That means lots of good dietary fat and other food ends up in the toilet again without their energy being used. That means there is a possibility that your body is actually getting less energy from food than you think. Adding to that, scientific papers talk about a reduction of about 4% in BMR in hypothyroid people; a one time lowering on the onset. That's it. Yes, this can result in a weight gain, but if food intake stays constant then a new equilibrium will be reached fairly quickly. Sorry, for me it's a question of not measuring properly.
Thanks! This is really interesting information. I've never been told I have low thyroid activity, although I suppose I could always ask a doctor. In the meantime, though, I'll work on trying to improve measuring and tracking - perhaps at times when I'm forced to estimate food, I'm being too generous to myself...0 -
Oh gosh.. you wrote hypotonic... sorry, please forget everything I wrote. One of those days
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Oh gosh.. you wrote hypotonic... sorry, please forget everything I wrote. One of those days
That would make more sense, wouldn't it? Yeah, unfortunately it just means it's really freaking difficult for me to build or tone muscle. Think "pre-serum Steve Rogers," but not skinny, just small...0 -
You already weigh so little? How much are you trying to lose and at what rate are you trying to lose it? And a doctor approved that few calories? I'm just trying to wrap my head around this, it's not making logical sense to me.
I'm under 5'2", have a tiny frame size, a desk job and sedentary sideline career, and am subclinically hypotonic with a low metabolism - so there's not a lot of BMR going on there. My body's calorie needs to exist simply aren't very high. Adding exercise bumps it up, of course (and the doctor did tell me to eat back my exercise calories - so for the most part, I do).
I'm not trying to lose very much (at most 3-5 lbs, but if I never drop below my current weight, that would be okay). It's just that I don't want to be stuck at 1,000 calories all my life - I'm worried that, because I'm not losing weight on my current regimen, I won't be able to increase my limit without gaining.
(As a note: gaining weight by adding on muscle would be fine. I just don't have the physical capability to pack on the muscle, so any weight I put on is more likely to come from fat, and I don't have a lot of "wiggle room" for that.)
Ah, gotcha - I see now & can understand your concern. That's a scary low amount to possibly consider as maintenance calories!
I do agree with above posts regarding giving more time to evaluate your plans effectiveness. FWIW I've been hovering around the same calorie intake for a few months now and am just now seeing the scale going & staying down.1 -
Ah, gotcha - I see now & can understand your concern. That's a scary low amount to possibly consider as maintenance calories!
I do agree with above posts regarding giving more time to evaluate your plans effectiveness. FWIW I've been hovering around the same calorie intake for a few months now and am just now seeing the scale going & staying down.
Thanks! I'll try to have patience. When I see short-term bumps, I tend to get nervous due to the lack of wiggle room, but that's something I'll have to work on. Meanwhile, it's comforting to hear that the same thing happened to you and you're on your way down now - I'll try to focus on that as I wait to see what happens over a longer period of time!0 -
If you panic about 1lb then yup, eternal doom3
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If you panic about 1lb then yup, eternal doom
Fair point well made.
(Sorry, it wasn't so much the pound gain as its unexpectedness, combined with the frustration of the overall plateau. But you're absolutely right. I probably fluctuate more than that over a week anyway without knowing it.)0 -
you are only trying to lose 3-5 lbs but you want to lose 1lbs per week? not realistic! 3-5lbs is really nothing - within the daily fluctuations.2
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Muscleflex79 wrote: »you are only trying to lose 3-5 lbs but you want to lose 1lbs per week? not realistic! 3-5lbs is really nothing - within the daily fluctuations.
Don't worry - I don't expect to lose 1 lb/week. I'm just worried at not losing anything. I've been in the same 3 lb range for about six weeks now. I'd like to either see at least a slight downward trend over that kind of time or, if I'm just not going to lose any more weight, I would really like to be able to maintain at a higher calorie limit. It'd be nice to be able to have the occasional snack!0 -
Adding new exercises always cause me to gain or plateau for a couple weeks.1
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What kind of doctor are you going through to determine your calorie goals? Most aren't trained well in that area... A dietitian is usually a better choice to work with than a GP. (My GP would have me vastly under eating if I followed his advice.)
I also noticed in your previous post that you said there had been days when you ate over your calorie goal. How many of those days have you had during this "plateau"? For me, a really bad day of eating can blow any loss that I might have seen for the week. A few of them can easily add up to a gain.
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Adding new exercises always cause me to gain or plateau for a couple weeks.
Good to know! I didn't think it was possible to put muscle on that fast (especially for me, as I tend toward hypotonia), but more research reveals that adding new exercise can also cause muscles to retain water, which seems like a more realistic idea about what might be going on. Thanks for the reassuring words!0 -
TresaAswegan wrote: »What kind of doctor are you going through to determine your calorie goals? Most aren't trained well in that area... A dietitian is usually a better choice to work with than a GP. (My GP would have me vastly under eating if I followed his advice.)
I also noticed in your previous post that you said there had been days when you ate over your calorie goal. How many of those days have you had during this "plateau"? For me, a really bad day of eating can blow any loss that I might have seen for the week. A few of them can easily add up to a gain.
I'm afraid it is my GP - I don't have access to a dietitian, unfortunately. We went through the process of determining my calorie needs in terms of BMR/no exercise (which I later cross-checked with several different online calculators, not that I'm claiming they're accurate, but they were all within the same approximate range) and then discussed the need to eat back calories if I exercise.
Your question actually got me thinking. If a pound really is 3,500 calories, then the calorie overage from my "bad" days definitely shouldn't counteract the loss from my "good" ones just by the numbers - but it's possible that my body gains more easily or loses less easily than average. Unfortunately, I'm not always in a position to make good choices when I'm not at home (business dinners where I can't choose the orders; venues where there are no options with a low enough calorie count), but I've stepped up the vigilance at home, and will continue to do so.1 -
It makes sense you gained weight if you started this new exercise regimen recently. The only way to help with that is to drink more water. I've read it's theoretically possible to put on 2 pounds of muscle per week, but that is highly unlikely for most of us here. For the average person it's more likely to put on 2 pounds of muscle per month. Here's an article for other reasons that could apply to you: http://www.completehumanperformance.com/slow-fat-loss/1
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I can only share my experience here, and take from it what you will: I'm 5' 3", and I eat 1270 on non-exercise days, 1420 on exercise days. I'm still dropping weight. With all the love in my black little pagan heart, I humbly submit that you're not eating enough calories. There's a reason MFP's minimum calorie goal is 1200/day.
Also, I tend to lose pounds in fits and starts, and the cycle gets longer in duration the closer I get to my ideal weight (125 lbs). Mayhap your body needs a little more time...?2 -
beatyfamily1 wrote: »It makes sense you gained weight if you started this new exercise regimen recently. The only way to help with that is to drink more water. I've read it's theoretically possible to put on 2 pounds of muscle per week, but that is highly unlikely for most of us here. For the average person it's more likely to put on 2 pounds of muscle per month. Here's an article for other reasons that could apply to you: http://www.completehumanperformance.com/slow-fat-loss/
Thanks very much! Yes, it seems to make more sense now that I know that increasing strength workouts = increasing muscle water retention. (I know that for me, over a pound of actual muscle in a week is totally impossible, but I didn't know exercise could add weight in other ways!)
Thank you for that article, too. I'm going to keep that as a reference!0 -
I can only share my experience here, and take from it what you will: I'm 5' 3", and I eat 1270 on non-exercise days, 1420 on exercise days. I'm still dropping weight. With all the love in my black little pagan heart, I humbly submit that you're not eating enough calories. There's a reason MFP's minimum calorie goal is 1200/day.
Also, I tend to lose pounds in fits and starts, and the cycle gets longer in duration the closer I get to my ideal weight (125 lbs). Mayhap your body needs a little more time...?
Yep, I definitely need to work on patience. (I'm not so much impatient as over-anxious. If I can just convince myself that a speedbump is only a speedbump, I don't mind a long wait!)
As to the calories, I think I'm hesitant to bump up the calories without consulting the doctor again, but I'm managing to "let go" of the anxiety enough to eat back my exercise calories without obsessing over "did I log enough exercise? am I overestimating my burn? do I need to do some more jumping jacks just in case?" Hopefully that'll help!1
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