Super Frustrated At Weight Gain

MileHigh4Wheeler
MileHigh4Wheeler Posts: 67 Member
edited November 14 in Health and Weight Loss
Ok, so for the past 4 months I have really been working hard to get in better shape and lose weight. By about the 1st of November I was down 20 pounds and felt like I was on the right track. I'm following the guidelines on this site pretty strictly and I've cut pretty much all bread and processed sugar from my diet with the exception of the extremely occasional treat.

What's really frustrating is that every single day over the past week I have gained weight. Right now I weigh about one pound less than I did over two months ago even though I'm killing myself in exercise every day (at least 5 miles walking, 25 minutes elliptical, 30 minutes yoga and 15-25 minute strength training 3 times a week), drowning myself in 8 cups of water every day, eating smart and sticking to the plan set up by MyFitnessPal.

Don't get me wrong, I don't blame MFP or anyone for this, I'm just frustrated out of my mind for how I could possibly gain weight every damn day over the past week with no new "bad" change to my lifestyle. If anything I've ramped UP my activities over this week because I've had a lot of off time.

I was so upset about this that I told my wife "screw this, what is the point" and told her that I'm done, I see no point in working out anymore and no point in being so careful in my diet because, apparently, it makes no difference. I know this is not true, but it's how I feel.

I've worked so hard to get here to simply plateau and, worse yet, go backwards. I don't see how I can possibly work harder without just quitting my job and sitting in a gym all day because 1 to 1 1/2 hours A DAY in exercise is a lot.

HELP!
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Replies

  • queenliz99
    queenliz99 Posts: 15,317 Member
    How much weight do you need to lose? We need stats. Height, weight, age and goal?
  • bendis2007
    bendis2007 Posts: 82 Member
    1 week is not a plateau. Usually when you increase exercise there will be a fair amount of water retention due to increased muscle repair from the damage of the workout. I'm sure once your body adapts to the workout changes then the weight gain will dissipate fairly quickly. You will not lose weight consistently every single week - to expect such results is setting you up for disappointment.
    Try not to be discouraged - 20 pounds in 4 months is awesome, and I'm sure you've made great strides in your endurance and strength as well that you should be proud of and try to continue.
  • MileHigh4Wheeler
    MileHigh4Wheeler Posts: 67 Member
    TavistockToad wrote: »
    It's been 1 week.... you need to calm down and realise that weight fluctuates.

    Have you eaten something high sodium or increased your exercise recently?

    I do realize that, and my weight has been fluctuating but, at least for me, this has been over a 2-3 day period where I may gain 1 pound and lose 1 pound. Frustrating but this is the first time in 5 months that I've had a gain every single day for a week. Nothing major, but between 0.2 and up to a pound. Except for this recurring theme that every week or two I will, magically overnight, gain 1.5 pounds.

    You are right, I need to calm down, but I feel like I've given up so much to get here and I have been totally fine with the sacrifices because there was reward, once the reward is taken away the sacrifices seem so much a waste. Stupid thinking, and I know this, but I can't help being frustrated.

    I haven't eaten any more sodium than any other given day - which isn't all that much to start with. I usually hit or am just below my daily MFP goals. I have increased my exercise. I was doing just Yoga and walking mostly but have been hitting the elliptical for between 15-25 minutes a day (depends on if I'm throwing in weights too 3 times a week) and I've upped my walking from about 2.5 miles a day to 5+ miles a day.
    queenliz99 wrote: »
    How much weight do you need to lose? We need stats. Height, weight, age and goal?

    I'm 5' 9", 198.5 currently and 46 years old. My "healthy" weight is supposed to be around 175 but my goal is to get to about 185 or so, I feel like that is a healthy and achievable goal.

    As to the chart posted, I don't log everything I eat every day, I try to do as well as I can but it's a huge time sink for me to log every bite in exact detail. You guys use the system, sometimes you can't find the right item so you use what's close or have to create one so yesterday when I had a chicken and avocado taco-less taco I had to wing it.

    That being said, I do try. In fact I've gone ahead an pre-planned every meal this week trying to really put the numbers on the mark (a really challenging task by the way).
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
    Accuracy in logging will be a huge influence on success. Especially as you get closer to goal. On the days you are guesstimating more, decrease your calorie target a bit (stay under by 100 or so cals to allow for inaccuracies). Those are my suggestions anyways. Of course, I'm assuming you have a reasonable target to begin with. Are you consuming exercise calories?
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
    There's a difference between making the odd good guesstimate when eating out or you haven't prepared the meal and just not bothering to log anything.

    But I wouldn't call it a problem after a week. It's one week. You increased your activity. Some of us (me included) only see new lows once a month when losing slowly. That was my pattern all last year. So you need to get a handle on your emotions around what the scale says or you are in for a very painful process and maintenance will be a nightmare.
  • MileHigh4Wheeler
    MileHigh4Wheeler Posts: 67 Member
    callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »
    THAT RIGHT THERE IS THE PROBLEM. RIGHT THERE. IN BLACK AND WHITE.

    So you are saying that I need to weigh every single peanut I eat (in case the peanut is 1/100th of a gram off from a normal peanut) and somehow try to match every single macro and micro nutrient because nobody can lose weight reliably without doing that?

    I know it sounds really snarky but the all caps yelling at me says that "hard work, eating "right" and exercise will never be successful unless you weigh each grain of rice you eat".

    It just seems excessive. I appreciate that you lost 80 pounds, that's quite an achievement indeed, but I've been doing well up until recently I'm just not sure if my increase in exercise or maybe a lack of a major important nutrient is something I should be zooming in on here. I haven't weight each apple seed but you are implying that was just sheer luck because measuring out each oatmeal grain individually is the only way to get to my goal. Again, I glean this from the all caps yelling that my problem was staring me in the face.
  • auranya
    auranya Posts: 56 Member
    When I lost weight a couple of years ago on here, I had to click the goal tab every 10lbs or so in order for the calories to be adjusted that I could eat.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    You're not logging properly, you're eating more than you think...

    Stick to a calorie deficit consistently and you'll lose. A weight trend app might be useful too.
  • MileHigh4Wheeler
    MileHigh4Wheeler Posts: 67 Member
    nutmegoreo wrote: »
    Accuracy in logging will be a huge influence on success. Especially as you get closer to goal. On the days you are guesstimating more, decrease your calorie target a bit (stay under by 100 or so cals to allow for inaccuracies). Those are my suggestions anyways. Of course, I'm assuming you have a reasonable target to begin with. Are you consuming exercise calories?

    I try to log as accurately as I can and even over calculate when I'm in question. I'm not consuming my exercise calories normally. MFP put me at 1200 calories a day and I burn (according to my Apple Watch) about 600-950 a day depending on what I'm doing in active calorie burn.

    Should I be consuming the exercise calories actively? My problem is when I try to do something like that I then blow the fat/protein/carbs totally out of proportion.
    VintageFeline wrote: »
    There's a difference between making the odd good guesstimate when eating out or you haven't prepared the meal and just not bothering to log anything.

    But I wouldn't call it a problem after a week. It's one week. You increased your activity. Some of us (me included) only see new lows once a month when losing slowly. That was my pattern all last year. So you need to get a handle on your emotions around what the scale says or you are in for a very painful process and maintenance will be a nightmare.

    Again, I really try to make good guestimates. I've become pretty good at logging to excess, so I don't think I'm missing a lot but is it always accurate? Most of the time it is - that is to say that if I eat something totally new or custom I have to guess at it because a restaurant kitchen doesn't generally let me go in with a scale to weigh it out :).

    Maybe my problem is that I've seen such great losses over my time but now they are a lot slower. It just doesn't make sense why more activity + healthy eating doesn't equate to losses in weight. Two months ago I weighed what I weigh now.

    As for Christmas indulgences, I won't say there were none but they were pretty strictly monitored and logged and figured into my MFP. But that was a week ago, could some random candy cane I ate two days before Christmas explain a weigh gain this long afterwards?
  • Dnarules
    Dnarules Posts: 2,081 Member
    If there has been a change in type or intensity of exercise, that can certainly lead to water retention. If you truly believe you have been doing OK with your eating, then just stay the course and be more patient.

    When people stall, one of the most important things to look at is your logging. That's just the way it is for most of us, and it won't hurt to keep an open mind and consider the advice.
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
    It's not weight gain. That's the point we are trying to make. And it also sounds like you could be undereating if you're not eating any activity calories back at all. This will stress the body further exacerbating the water retention issue. With that now made clear, I'd suggest a diet break of a week or two where you eat at or close maintenance. Do not pay too much attention to the scale in that time because there will be a spike but like now, it's not fat gain.

    This will address cortisol levels and rebalance hormones. You can then return to your deficit and make sure this time to actually eat at least some of your calories back.
  • MileHigh4Wheeler
    MileHigh4Wheeler Posts: 67 Member
    TavistockToad wrote: »
    You're not logging properly, you're eating more than you think...

    Stick to a calorie deficit consistently and you'll lose. A weight trend app might be useful too.

    I totally understand that and won't disagree that I could probably work on my accuracy. But let me ask this: if I'm logging straight from the DB as I generally do (i.e., I'll have a can of soup and I'll log that exact soup from the DB, so I assume it's accurate because I tend to only use the green check marked items) and most of what I eat is in the database accurately, where could I be straying? But, for arguments stake, lets say I'm straying by as much as 400 calories a day (I find that hard to believe but I won't discount it), and then I'm burning twice that each day in exercise on an average day - should this not still equate to a calorie deficit?
  • MileHigh4Wheeler
    MileHigh4Wheeler Posts: 67 Member
    VintageFeline wrote: »
    It's not weight gain. That's the point we are trying to make. And it also sounds like you could be undereating if you're not eating any activity calories back at all. This will stress the body further exacerbating the water retention issue. With that now made clear, I'd suggest a diet break of a week or two where you eat at or close maintenance. Do not pay too much attention to the scale in that time because there will be a spike but like now, it's not fat gain.

    This will address cortisol levels and rebalance hormones. You can then return to your deficit and make sure this time to actually eat at least some of your calories back.

    I can do that. When you say to eat my maintenance, are you saying my rested + active calorie burn each day? That would be going from 1,200 calories under MFP to about 3,000+ calories a day. Seems like my body is going to rebel but I've considered that I might be under eating and my metabolism is messed up.
  • leanjogreen18
    leanjogreen18 Posts: 2,492 Member
    After a period of time folks get diet fatigue and the calories can creep up if your not vigilant. I lost weight at a rate of 2lbs a week for 3 months, then it slowed to 1 then 1/2 lb. by just eyeballing food. My trainer asked me to weigh my food for two weeks to "recalibrate" my eyeballing because I don't want to weigh food all the time if I can get away with it. It was eye opening, on some foods I was off on but I also noticed I had nibbles here and there I missed logging 200 calories add up fast.

    But I also agree it's been a week and you've changed up routines you will hold water weight. Especially if you are eating low carb then have a high carb day your water weight increases.

    If after 2 or 3 weeks no change in weight then you may want try weighing foods and logging everything.
  • emdeesea
    emdeesea Posts: 1,823 Member
    Yep. Log everything. Weigh everything.

    I weigh the 2 tablespoons of sugar for my morning coffee.

    Once it's in your diary, it's not so much of a time suck, and yeah, it's a pain in the *kitten* when you're starting.

    But over the long haul, all that charting adds up.
  • CafeRacer808
    CafeRacer808 Posts: 2,396 Member
    edited January 2017
    ibscas wrote: »
    TavistockToad wrote: »
    You're not logging properly, you're eating more than you think...

    Stick to a calorie deficit consistently and you'll lose. A weight trend app might be useful too.

    I totally understand that and won't disagree that I could probably work on my accuracy. But let me ask this: if I'm logging straight from the DB as I generally do (i.e., I'll have a can of soup and I'll log that exact soup from the DB, so I assume it's accurate because I tend to only use the green check marked items) and most of what I eat is in the database accurately, where could I be straying? But, for arguments stake, lets say I'm straying by as much as 400 calories a day (I find that hard to believe but I won't discount it), and then I'm burning twice that each day in exercise on an average day - should this not still equate to a calorie deficit?

    You stated upthread that you "don't log everything you eat every day". That's where you've strayed. It may seem like a time suck or whatever to log down to the exact gram, but you'd be surprised at how quickly "a couple of grams here, a couple of foods not logged there" adds up. Water retention and normal weight fluctuations notwithstanding, I suspect if you really focus on accuracy in your logging for the next couple of weeks you'll see the numbers on the scale start to move in the right direction.
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    OP just want to make sure I've read the previous posts correctly:

    You are male, 5'9, currently 198.5, have steadily lost about 20 lbs in past 5 months but recently have stalled/fluctuated during the holidays, your goal is to lose another 15-25 lbs, you exercise daily and have been eating 1200 cals even though your Apple Watch estimates your total calorie burn is nearly 3000 cals, you don't weigh your food currently, you believe you overestimate your logging to account for any inaccuracies.

    Is all that correct?
  • MileHigh4Wheeler
    MileHigh4Wheeler Posts: 67 Member
    I'll work on logging more accurately to the best of my ability and ditch the diet for a week or two to see if my body can resettle. I'm still not sure if I should be eating 100% of what I burn or not, but I'm assuming that's a good place to start. It's going to suck because I know that I'll probably gain 5+ pounds when my body totally freaks out at the massive calorie intake.

    I appreciate the comments!
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    ibscas wrote: »
    I'll work on logging more accurately to the best of my ability and ditch the diet for a week or two to see if my body can resettle. I'm still not sure if I should be eating 100% of what I burn or not, but I'm assuming that's a good place to start. It's going to suck because I know that I'll probably gain 5+ pounds when my body totally freaks out at the massive calorie intake.

    I appreciate the comments!

    What calorie goal does MFP provide you when you enter your current stats and a goal of losing 0.5 lb/week? With 25 lbs or less to lose that's the optimal rate of loss, and it is likely to be significantly more than what you are eating now, you may want to gradually up it over the next few weeks rather than all at once.
  • Sgries
    Sgries Posts: 1 Member
    callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »
    ibscas wrote: »
    callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »
    THAT RIGHT THERE IS THE PROBLEM. RIGHT THERE. IN BLACK AND WHITE.

    not to mention, your caloric needs and deficit have changed since losing weight. i could eat more and lose before i lost. you have to recalibrate the information to take into account you are no longer the size you were.

    Thanks for this information - I'm down 18 lbs and just went into my goals to check that out and lost 30 calories a day. :\ But that does make sense. I'm carrying around 18 lbs less, I need less fuel. So the thanks is sincere.
  • leanjogreen18
    leanjogreen18 Posts: 2,492 Member
    ^^^listen to this!!!
  • MileHigh4Wheeler
    MileHigh4Wheeler Posts: 67 Member
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    What calorie goal does MFP provide you when you enter your current stats and a goal of losing 0.5 lb/week? With 25 lbs or less to lose that's the optimal rate of loss, and it is likely to be significantly more than what you are eating now, you may want to gradually up it over the next few weeks rather than all at once.

    Yea, I was just doing that exact thing right after my previous post. I set it to .5 a week and it ramped me up from 1,200 calories to 2,000 calories a day. Heck, at this point I'm not sure I know HOW to eat that many calories a day without being stupid and eating cheeseburgers every day.

    I've learned a lot in this thread, and I've learned a lot taking information from this thread and researching it online a bit too. It sounds like I have several things that are a problem here:
    • Not logging accurately enough. This will be difficult but I'm going to work harder on this
    • Unrealistic goal of 2lbs per week is still active, my body is used to the 1,200 calories per day intake and my metabolism may be in starvation mode
    • Extra exercising leading to water retention
    • Cortisol levels out of balance (this explains my generally sh*tty mood lately)
    • Lower carb diet means any carbs can throw things off - yesterday I had a potato, maybe that's part of the spike today
    • Eating less than I should be for the calorie burn that I'm achieving each day

    I guess I hadn't ever equated "more exercise" to "gain weight" other than muscle weight (which I know weighs more than fat weight).

    I have to be honest that I dread putting everything I eat on a scale, I just don't see that as "quality of life" when you have to weigh every peanut because you are so preoccupied with being that ideal weight that you forget that life is to be enjoyed. I suppose I understand it when you are a body builder or when you are 200+ pounds overweight and trying to bring it in, but for someone who is just a bit overweight it seems like a lot. I'm going to do it and see what happens, but it's kicking and screaming that I go there :).
  • daniwilford
    daniwilford Posts: 1,030 Member
    If I do not weigh and log every bite I put in my mouth, I gain weight. 11 months of inconsistent logging resulted in a gain of 35 pounds of the 65 I originally lost. I continued to exercise, strength and cardio, I even picked up a Zumba class. I just have to accept the fact that I suck at intuitive eating. After reading two years worth of MFP posts, I have found: not logging + gaining weight = eating more than I think! Learn from your frustration.
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
    Damn you're male?! This changes things again. You have been chronically undereating, I wouldn't be suprised if your fat loss is actually more than the 20lbs the scale is saying due to the extraordinary stress your body is under. Eat more, immediately but make sure your logging is as tight as possible, at least for the next two weeks during your break.

    You WILL gain most likely but it won't be fat. I would bet it will whoosh off pretty quickly when all those stress hormones dissipate a bit.
  • cerise_noir
    cerise_noir Posts: 5,468 Member
    edited January 2017
    Wait...you're male and mfp gave you 1200? That does not sound right. Men should not eat below 1500. Clean up your logging first, and if you're still eating below 1500, change your weight loss goal to half a pound to 1 pound a week and eat at that number.

    You also just increased exercise, right? This will cause water weight to creep on.
    ibscas wrote: »
    TavistockToad wrote: »
    You're not logging properly, you're eating more than you think...

    Stick to a calorie deficit consistently and you'll lose. A weight trend app might be useful too.

    I totally understand that and won't disagree that I could probably work on my accuracy. But let me ask this: if I'm logging straight from the DB as I generally do (i.e., I'll have a can of soup and I'll log that exact soup from the DB, so I assume it's accurate because I tend to only use the green check marked items) and most of what I eat is in the database accurately, where could I be straying? But, for arguments stake, lets say I'm straying by as much as 400 calories a day (I find that hard to believe but I won't discount it), and then I'm burning twice that each day in exercise on an average day - should this not still equate to a calorie deficit?

    The green check mar items are not always accurate. They're they when 3 or more mfp users 'verify' the data, so it might not be accurate.

    Usually '1 can', '1 cup', '2/3 sandwich' are not accurate. Weigh everything. You don't have to weigh every little peanut...weigh the handful, record the grams then log it. It really isn't that much extra time. I tend to make my salads and sandwiches right on the scale on a plate and tare or zero the scale for different ingredients. Cups and spoons should only be used for liquids. If you want to lose weigh, you need to take a bit more time to be a little more accurate for the results that you require.

    I do not understand how weighing food is so difficult. Sometimes I prelog and preweigh my food for the next day when I have a little time, and others I just weigh as I go along. It really is't all that time consuming. It helps with mindful eating. Place the plate or bowl you want to eat from on the scale and write down the food and weigh on a mini whiteboard/chalk board or with pencil on paper...it really just takes an extra few seconds. Then you can enter the food into mfp when you have a little time to sit down.

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