Staying in calories and exercising but still gained 2 pounds this week?

VictoriaLWill

Hello. I'm in my first month on MFP and getting frustrated. Lost weight at first but this week gained 2 pounds. I know if you work out a lot you can gain muscle and still get smaller that way but I don't think that's the case. All I do is elliptical for 20 minutes a day. Have stayed in my calories this week had a great week was excited to get on the scale only to see it go up two pounds! Does this happen to anyone else that doesn't work out a lot?

WinoGelato

Lots of possibilities, except not gaining muscle. That's actually quite hard to do and surely didn't happen in a couple weeks time.

More likely things to consider:
Weight loss isn't linear. It often stalls, and even goes up, based on a number of factors, instead of a linear downward trend like we all hope for.

Some reasons it may fluctuate: water weight retention from menstrual cycle, stress, hormones, increased sodium or carb consumption, and starting a new exercise routine...

Also, to help with weight loss, accurate logging is extremely helpful to ensure you are in a calorie deficit. Are you using a food scale for all your solid foods, and are you logging everything you eat?

Are you eating back exercise calories when you do exercise? MFP is designed that you should do that, but some people find the calorie burn estimates to be inflated so they only eat back 50-75% if their calories burned until they get on a more predictable pattern of weight loss and know better how much they are burning.

It's also important to be patient and have reasonable expectations. How much weight are you trying to lose, what rate of loss did you select, and what calorie goal did MFP provide you?

TimothyFish

Actually, that's just one of those things that people say as a way to encourage their friends to keep trying to lose weight. Muscle weight increases much more slowly than fat. It is more likely that you are retaining water for some reason. Keep eating at a deficit and give it a few more weeks before you start worrying about it. Most likely the weight will drop back to where you are expecting it to be.

spas2k

I'm in somewhat the same boat. I have been loosing about a pound a week for a while now, but didn't lose a pound last week after stepping on the scale yesterday. Got a little frustrated and had a cheat day complete with pizza and wings (oh the joy). Well low and behold I stepped on the scale the next day and I was down a pound, even after the cheat day. Go figure...

The best way to think of it is as a lifestyle change and not necessarily a sport where you win or lose by stepping on the scale often. If you retain water you are going to weigh more period. Water weighs a ton, but it will pass.

If you want to increase your calorie burn change that elliptical for 30 min of HIT(high intensity - 2 min slow - 2 min fast and higher). You'll definitely see results then.

VictoriaLWill

Thank you all for the input, I feel better and will keep going forward. Clothes are fitting better so that is encouraging.

serindipte

This is why I prefer to weigh daily. I don't want to miss that dip on the chance that I'm up on "weigh day". I know it's going to be more of a "two steps forward, one step back" to get there, and I want to see the two steps forward.

Floatingpencil

Apologies if this info is out of date, but the last time I signed up for MFP to try to lose weight everyone was big on the 'Are you drinking enough?' thing and saying that being dehydrated could cause issues. Maybe track your water intake as well for a while if you're not doing so already just to make sure?

annacole94

serindipte wrote: »

This is why I prefer to weigh daily. I don't want to miss that dip on the chance that I'm up on "weigh day". I know it's going to be more of a "two steps forward, one step back" to get there, and I want to see the two steps forward.

I also weigh daily, and track it in something that gives me a trendline (I use google fit, because i'm using it to track steps, but there are other options too like Happy Scale if you've got an iPhone).

My weight is up and down day to day, but over time, my high days and low days are falling lower.