Frustration! Under Calories but Gaining?

khopkins516
khopkins516 Posts: 63 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello-
I have been doing MFP and have been consistently under my calorie goal for a few weeks now each day.
I just started working out again, which has consisted of a cardio/weights class 3 times a week.
I have been eating back SOME of the calories burned but not all of them.

The past 2 days, my weight has been UP. The first day I was up 1.4 lbs and today I was up 1.4 lbs again.
I am very upset! I usually don't let a small fluctuation bother me, but this time it seems like more than that!
I have been drinking lots of water, and haven't been eating a ton of salt either.

Any help? I am feeling so frustrated and down on myself.
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Replies

  • scoii
    scoii Posts: 160 Member
    Is your period about to start?

    3lbs in 2 days means eating 4500 a day over. Very unlikely you'd miss that much intake no matter how bad the logging.
  • khopkins516
    khopkins516 Posts: 63 Member
    No, TOM is not about to start... I thought of that too.
  • kgirlhart
    kgirlhart Posts: 5,145 Member
    New or increased exercise often leads to water retention. Add in the regular water monthly fluctuations that women have and it is not unusual to go up like that. If you are not weighing your food on a scale I would recommend that you start to make sure that you are actually eating what you think you are. But my guess is it is water retention due to the new exercise. Try not to be discouraged.
  • abikas
    abikas Posts: 6 Member
    Likely just water being retained in your muscles as you have only just started exercising again. This can happen even if you've been drinking plenty of water, it's just an adjustment thing (I don't know the technicalities I just know it's happened to me before). Could also potentially be actual muscle gain, which is the kind of weight you want to gain! Don't be disheartened, it's almost guaranteed your body isn't gaining fat if you've been under your goal AND exercising recently. If it's just water retention though, you'll see it fall off soon enough!
  • ccrdragon
    ccrdragon Posts: 3,374 Member
    Given that you are starting a new exercise program, your body is retaining water to help take care of your muscles and to replenish the glycogen stores that you are burning off with the exercise. Give it a few days and your body will adjust to the new exercise and the water weight will drop off.
  • kgirlhart
    kgirlhart Posts: 5,145 Member
    edited July 2016
    khopkins516 wrote: »
    No, TOM is not about to start... I thought of that too.

    Could you be ovulating? I gain a little at ovulation, but not really at TOM. But my guess is still on the new exercise causing water retention.
  • orviske
    orviske Posts: 14 Member
    I have had the same thing happen to me this week. I started tracking all my food and exercise for the last 4 weeks. I lost 6 lbs in those four weeks and seemingly overnight I gained 5 back. I was super upset with myself as well, except after digging on here it dawned on me my cycle is about to start. Don't lose momentum, just keep going! The scale is not accurate of the changes that are being made in your body, try ditching the scale for measuring tape.
  • AmberSpamber
    AmberSpamber Posts: 391 Member
    This is why I don't weigh every day. I fluctuate from my cycle, from water intake, from salt and from intense workouts. The scale is just a number and it's not worth getting upset over it moving when there are so many variables. If this continues a 2 more weeks, then it will be time to evaluate things, but if not, I'd just let it roll off your shoulders and keep doing what you're doing.
  • ashliedelgado
    ashliedelgado Posts: 814 Member
    edited July 2016
    Echo time of the month water retention.

    You just started working out - your body may be holding on to water for muscle repairs.

    And how do you know you're under? Do you have a food scale you're weighing with? I agree that you likely aren't eating enough over to gain 3lbs in two days, but unless you're weighing to the gram, there is no way to know for sure how much you are eating, and you could be eating enough to not lose. What are you goals & stats? That will help the more seasoned members help you, as well.
  • AmberSpamber
    AmberSpamber Posts: 391 Member
    Also, I always have to increase my calories when I start working out again, so it may be time to evaluate your calorie intake ;)
  • Miss_Malibu
    Miss_Malibu Posts: 1 Member
    I always gain weight when I start working out again. Usually 3-5 lbs of water weight from the muscles retaining water.
  • vingogly
    vingogly Posts: 1,785 Member
    scoii wrote: »
    3lbs in 2 days means eating 4500 a day over. Very unlikely you'd miss that much intake no matter how bad the logging.

    I seriously doubt your body would even be able to process 9000 calories over in two days. Two most likely causes are: water weight, and inconsistencies in your bathroom scale. My previous scale would give different numbers depending on where you stood on it.
  • rsclause
    rsclause Posts: 3,103 Member
    I say stay with the planned deficit for a few more weeks. If still not losing than either look for errors in how you log foods, some estimates on here can be way off. Or do what I call "tweaking" meaning I change one thing to see what happens. I like to only change one thing at a time for a couple of weeks and weigh daily on a logging scale to track overall changes not daily one. Things I change are drop 100 calories, add exercise. drink more water, cut out breads and pasta and my least favorite booze. With my WiFi scale that logs it it fun to look at trends that span weeks, months or even years. Some say don't weigh daily, because I am looking at a graph I say more data points gives me better data.
  • ahmedislam484
    ahmedislam484 Posts: 3 Member
    You have to depend on fat percentage not weight to differentiate between fats muscles and water
  • khopkins516
    khopkins516 Posts: 63 Member
    Thank you all so much for the feedback!
    I will start weighing my food, and also I will take into account the water retention from starting a new exercise program.
  • mitch16
    mitch16 Posts: 2,113 Member
    Also--not sure where you are located, but it's been really hot and humid around here lately--that can cause bloating and water retention as well.
  • ryry_
    ryry_ Posts: 4,966 Member
    Your diary is not open. Its hard to provide feedback without much information to go off of.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    edited July 2016
    khopkins516 wrote: »
    Hello-
    I have been doing MFP and have been consistently under my calorie goal for a few weeks now each day.
    I just started working out again, which has consisted of a cardio/weights class 3 times a week.
    I have been eating back SOME of the calories burned but not all of them.

    The past 2 days, my weight has been UP. The first day I was up 1.4 lbs and today I was up 1.4 lbs again.
    I am very upset! I usually don't let a small fluctuation bother me, but this time it seems like more than that!
    I have been drinking lots of water, and haven't been eating a ton of salt either.

    Any help? I am feeling so frustrated and down on myself.

    The 7 pounds up spike early November is from when I started lifting weights again. The others are generally for ovulation and PMS.

    4dg7eo5mywkh.png


  • wessx1
    wessx1 Posts: 58 Member


    Don't give uo though ,don't let it disappoint you even if you don't have to loo kat the stupid scale for a month or two just do it .(i personally do this)

    ***You don't have to follow my advice,it's just my way.***
    Cheers!
  • minniestar55
    minniestar55 Posts: 350 Member
    Suggestions:

    Stop weighing every day. Weigh in weekly instead. No way to see real trends if you are staring at scale daily. Weight fluctuates, that's a fact...hydration, if you've had a bowel movement, if your muscles are holding water, if you've eaten salty foods.

    Make certain you are accurately weighing/measuring/tracking your food. Do not guess if you can possibly help it.

    I didn't see how you were measuring exercise calories, but I use a FitBit + a separate HRM & find my FitBit is fairly accurate; I use that to log exercise calories. However, I am suspicious about the number of calories earned by exercise...so I eat at most a third of them.

    Like above...just suggestions, how I reached & surpassed my goal.
  • xvolution
    xvolution Posts: 721 Member
    If you're dead set on weighting every day, I would use a program that focuses on weight trends instead of day to day weight [like TrendWeight]. It adjusts weight to compensate for those ups and downs and just shows the trends. It helped me to realize that even with my ups and downs, the peaks of the ups keep going down steadily so I am losing weight.
  • babypunkprincess
    babypunkprincess Posts: 109 Member
    Everyone is saying that a new exercise program can lead to some weight gain due to water retention. Good to know!! My weight went up a couple pounds this last week since I started working out...now it's coming off again.
  • thiosulfate
    thiosulfate Posts: 262 Member
    it's 2 days. chill
  • hjlourenshj
    hjlourenshj Posts: 66 Member
    Do not eat the extra calories 'earned' with exercise because in your calorie goal in MFP you already put how active you are. It would be double
  • daniip_la
    daniip_la Posts: 678 Member
    edited July 2016
    hjlourenshj wrote: »
    Do not eat the extra calories 'earned' with exercise because in your calorie goal in MFP you already put how active you are. It would be double

    @hjlourenshj This is false. MFP's activity level takes normal, everyday activity into account. It does not factor in exercise. If the OP is exercising, OP should be eating some, if not all, of those earned calories back.
  • hjlourenshj
    hjlourenshj Posts: 66 Member
    daniip_la wrote: »
    hjlourenshj wrote: »
    Do not eat the extra calories 'earned' with exercise because in your calorie goal in MFP you already put how active you are. It would be double

    @hjlourenshj This is false. MFP's activity level takes normal, everyday activity into account. It does not factor in exercise. If the OP is exercising, OP should be eating some, if not all, of those earned calories back.

    in every formula to calculate TDEE an active lifestyle is a simple multiplier factor and does include exercise
  • daniip_la
    daniip_la Posts: 678 Member
    edited July 2016
    hjlourenshj wrote: »
    daniip_la wrote: »
    hjlourenshj wrote: »
    Do not eat the extra calories 'earned' with exercise because in your calorie goal in MFP you already put how active you are. It would be double

    @hjlourenshj This is false. MFP's activity level takes normal, everyday activity into account. It does not factor in exercise. If the OP is exercising, OP should be eating some, if not all, of those earned calories back.

    in every formula to calculate TDEE an active lifestyle is a simple multiplier factor and does include exercise

    @hjlourenshj MFP does not calculate calorie goals via the TDEE method.
  • JustMissTracy
    JustMissTracy Posts: 6,338 Member
    hjlourenshj wrote: »
    Do not eat the extra calories 'earned' with exercise because in your calorie goal in MFP you already put how active you are. It would be double

    Wrong. Exercise is not factored in, your regular daily activity (walking around office, making dinner, cleaning etc) is factored in. OP, I'd suggest eating back 1/2 your exercise calories burned to start with...then adjust after a few weeks of following your trends.
  • Gena575
    Gena575 Posts: 224 Member
    hjlourenshj wrote: »
    daniip_la wrote: »
    hjlourenshj wrote: »
    Do not eat the extra calories 'earned' with exercise because in your calorie goal in MFP you already put how active you are. It would be double

    @hjlourenshj This is false. MFP's activity level takes normal, everyday activity into account. It does not factor in exercise. If the OP is exercising, OP should be eating some, if not all, of those earned calories back.

    in every formula to calculate TDEE an active lifestyle is a simple multiplier factor and does include exercise


    Too bad MFP uses NEAT method or else your assumption would be correct.

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