HELP!!! I keep gaining!

HappilySingle

As many here I am trying my hardest loose weight. Since June 10th I have gained over 10 pounds without changing my diet. I did see my doctor last week who assured me it had to be water weight and prescribed 20 mg of Lasix. I have taken 4 pills (1x a day) and have actually gained 2 pounds since then!

While my food diary may not be complete (dinners are missing), I assure you I eat an appropriate amount for dinner. Yesterday's diary is complete and moving forward it will also be complete.

Yes, I weight/measure everything. In addition I walk about 1 mile every day. Once the bugs die down I will increase my walking. Also, i am drinking 64-100 ounces of water a day

abitofbliss

Looking at a couple days of your diary, personally, I think cutting down on carbs (pasta, cereal, etc) may be helpful. Also, it seems like the days you have logged are "half assed". If you're gaining weight then a deficit doesn't exist in your diet. Be honest with yourself, give yourself a little tough love...Log all of your meals!!!

Maxematics

Many days of your diary are empty; it's not just your dinners that are missing. I assure you that if you were eating appropriate amounts and actually weighing all of the food you eat, you wouldn't be seeing a 10 pound increase on the scale since June 10th. Unless you have a severe underlying medical issue that has yet to be diagnosed, you are eating much more than you think. Walking one mile every day isn't going to give you much of anything in the way of calories either. Like stated above, be honest with yourself.

diannethegeek

1. If it's been less than 3 weeks or so, don't sweat it! Normal fluctuations happen and unfortunately sometimes we stall for a week or two even when we're doing everything right. Give your body some time to catch up with the changes you're making.

2. If you aren't already, be sure that you're logging everything. Sometimes people forget about things like veggies, drinks, cooking oils, and condiments. For some people these can add up to enough to halt your weight loss progress.

3. Consider buying a food scale if you don't already have one. They're about $10-$20 dollars in the US and easily found at places like Amazon, Target, and Walmart. Measuring cups and spoons are great, but they do come with some degree of inaccuracy. A food scale will be more accurate, and for some people it makes a big difference.

4. Logging accurately also means choosing accurate entries in the database. There are a lot of user-entered entries that are off. Double-check that you're using good entries and/or using the recipe builder instead of someone else's homemade entries.

5. Recalculate your goals if you haven't lately. As you lose weight your body requires fewer calories to run. Be sure you update your goals every ten pounds or so.

6. If you're eating back your exercise calories and you're relying on gym machine readouts or MFP's estimates, it might be best to eat back just 50-75% of those. Certain activities tend to be overestimated. If you're using an HRM or activity tracker, it might be a good idea to look into their accuracy and be sure that yours is calibrated properly.

7. If you're taking any cheat days that go over your calorie limits, it might be best to cut them out for a few weeks and see what happens. Some people go way over their calorie needs without realizing it when they don't track.

8. If you weigh yourself frequently, consider using a program like trendweight to even out the fluctuations. You could be losing weight but just don't see it because of the daily ups and downs.

9. Some people just burn fewer calories than the calculators predict. If you continue to have problems after 4-6 weeks, then it might be worth a trip to the doctor or a registered dietitian who can give you more specific advice.

SueInAz

I know you think you're being good with your diary but from the outside view it doesn't appear so. I posted an article earlier in this board that I read a few years ago, and found again today, that really hit home with me. The point of the article is that people are really, really bad at logging what they eat, even when they are trying really hard. http://www.bodyforwife.com/the-most-important-thing-you-can-do-to-lose-weight/

The brutal truth of the matter is that you're almost certainly eating more calories than you think you are and possibly overestimating the impact of your exercise, too. One mile of walking burns few enough calories to be disregarded entirely in the context of weight loss. For me it's about 60 calories.

If you really want the scale to start moving downward take a deep breath and really commit yourself to logging absolutely everything you eat every day, including dinner and after dinner snacks. Everything means everything. If you add a little oil to the pan when cooking you must log it. If you put a little smear of butter on your toast you must log it. If you take a cookie while you're making dinner you must log it. If you put a lemon wedge in your water.... You get the idea. Drinks have calories, too, so if you're drinking anything beyond plain water, black coffee or home-brewed iced tea without sweetener or lemon you must log it, too. Be brutally honest with your logging and go one step further: overestimate. The idea isn't to pick the item with the fewest calories or to decide that you're only eating 3 ounces of chicken instead of 4 ounces. Round up and guess higher rather than lower when it comes to calories and the opposite when it comes to exercise.

Neanbean13

Yep. Simple fact if you not in a deficit you won't lose weight. As people lose weight the body adjusts. Where as you may have started say at 1600 Cal to lose weight you nay now need 1400. The metabolism can slow and you may need less cals than before. Like everyone said u must log accurately. Everything. Try not use the generic measurement on MFP . Find the brand you have and measure.
Try taking 100-200 off and measure for a month if you can't uo your exercise. Or keep same count and uo your exercise. Unfortunately the walking a mile doesn't cut it.

AliceDark

Water weight typically causes fluctuations (so you'd be up some days and down others), or a temporary weight increase due to a common factor (like increased sodium or increased exercise). If you're steadily gaining over a long period of time, it's probably not water weight. Something about your issue being just water weight doesn't add up.

However...you're not doing yourself any favors by not logging accurately or consistently. Studies show that people under-estimate their caloric intake by up to 60%. If you're gaining steadily AND not logging correctly, you're just gaining weight. Stop using generic entries, log everything, weigh all your solids (even things like yogurt) and measure all liquids using a measuring cup or spoons. Do this for 4-6 weeks, then reevaluate your progress.

kimny72

MFP is full of people (myself included!) who were POSITIVE they were eating low-cal and something unfair was keeping them from losing weight.

My suggestion would be to 100% commit to weighing and logging every single bite of food for 2 weeks. That way you will know for sure how much you are eating, and I'd bet the answer to what you need to do will jump right out at you. When I did this exact thing, I discovered I was eating at least 200-300 cals per day more than I thought, and sometimes much more. Good luck!