Why have I gained 4 lbs?
kittlezkatz
Posts: 8 Member
I am down a deficit for this week that should be 2-3 lbs of loss and instead I am up 4. I did exercise 6 days burning between 5-780 calories each time. Could I be eating too little if I still only consume 1300-1400 calories on those days? Diet is great, salt consumption is under. ?
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Replies
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This is how weight loss works. Ups and downs. It is a living organism and a very complex one. Regardless of how strict your intake is, your weight (which depends on water too) will fluctuate significantly.5
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A bigger deficit isn't beneficial in the long run, may even be negative for you in the short run.
can't comment on calorie levels with no info, but if under 5 ft and over 50 yrs old - may not be a problem the level you ate.
Why you gained?
Bad weigh-in day.
Was yesterday a rest day eating normal sodium levels, not sore from last workout?
Was last weigh-in day the same sort of morning?
Any other day is going to have expected known water weight fluctuations - which 4 lbs is nothing to move.
And contrary to some thinking - the side effect of going to big amounts of exercise is weight gain - water weight.
Add stress to it - even more.5 -
Not hormone related, I rule that out.
I am on day 3 of being up the 4 lbs. If it was one day and had gone back down by now I would not be as frustrated. This is my first day without exercise, I might take another day off tomorrow too.
The calorie intake I have is based on trying to go down 2lbs a week, but with the exercise and only eating the same amount of 13-1400, I'm worried I'm not eating enough or exercising too much.0 -
Sometimes it takes 2 weeks for an extra weight to be gone for me. 3 days is nothing.0
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Well I mean there can be great many reasons, few that comes to mind directly:
- It might be simple water retention, weight fluctuates daily, I can gain over 5 lb's depending on the time of the day, my carb & sodium intake etc.
- You did not weigh your food correctly.
If you feel too stressed to even sleep, or feel like you can't do simple physical activities without feeling down, well thats a message your body is giving. Its hard to really "over work" your body though. People underestimate their potential often. I would eat a little more during workout days though. However I doubt under eating is the reason why you would gain weight either. I am sure its just simple water retention.1 -
Have you considered a change in your macronutrient intake from one day to the next? If you ate significantly more carbs the day before than you did on the previous days your body will hold more water. Water retention from glucose and sodium tends to be the biggest flucuations of weight. Either way, as long as you consistently stay in a deficit isn't nothing much to worry about. After all, it's just one metric of progress. Try adding in body measurements and track those over time. Just keep reminding yourself that there is no way you've gain 4 lbs of fat in one day. That's be an overconsumption of 14000 Calories! haha. Keep on tracking.4
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kittlezkatz wrote: »
Ok then let's put it another way. If you are certain you weighed your food correctly then there is nothing to worry about. The extra weight will eventually be gone. I assure you, there is no magic here. As to WHY it is not gone yet - well who knows. We certainly don't.
Don't worry, be happy. 0 -
How often do you weigh yourself?0
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Are you weighing your food? If not, you are probably not eating as little as you think you are. With the amount of exercise you are doing your deficit should be big enough to lose. That said, 2-3 pounds per week is not the best amount to try to lose. MFP recommends 2 pounds max. How much do you have to lose? Also, if you provide your stats and open your diary people can give you more helpful advice.1
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What you eat matters a lot.1
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nomorepuke wrote: »What you eat matters a lot.
Nope. What you eat has no direct effect on how much fat you gain or lose. It's all about how much you eat.3 -
kittlezkatz wrote: »Not hormone related, I rule that out.
I am on day 3 of being up the 4 lbs. If it was one day and had gone back down by now I would not be as frustrated. This is my first day without exercise, I might take another day off tomorrow too.
The calorie intake I have is based on trying to go down 2lbs a week, but with the exercise and only eating the same amount of 13-1400, I'm worried I'm not eating enough or exercising too much.
So side point to main discussion.
Use the program correctly.
That 1300-1400 was based on YOUR selection of non-exercise activity days - and probably like most - underestimated too.
And then your deficit is taken to cause your desired weight loss.
You do more than planned (like exercise) - you eat more. Same deficit is in place as before.
Except your body now has something to work with for the extra energy expenditure, and if a good workout (eating that little) - perhaps making it stronger during recovery (if you are resting for it).
Feed your workouts if you want the max from them.
And why waste time on them frankly if not getting the most from them.
That would be like wanting to take a walk to de-stress from the day's activities and worries - and then spend the time on work email and crazy inlaw drama while walking - getting all stressed out!3 -
Thanks everyone!
I have lost over 90lbs so far, it has taken years and I have had a number of setbacks here and there. For the past year or so I have maintained.
When I have tried to drop weight before, I have eaten the same calorie intake and exercised at the same intensity I am now and had no problem dropping weight. When I would plateau a couple days, I would eat a normal days worth of calories and within a couple days would be back on track. For whatever reason, the formula that has worked in the past very well for me is not quite working now. I am back down 2lbs this morning, which is promising, but I need to stay off the scale for a while and focus on logging. It's too frustrating because I am feeling better and know I am doing more things correct for weight loss than wrong, it just needs tweaked.
I have not looked at exercise as a way to eat more, but I am going to change that this week and see how my body responds. I do weigh my food, I cook the majority of what I eat so I know what all goes into it. (Loving "Stir Frying To The Sky's Edge" cookbook, it rocks!) I'll get there, I just need to keep grinding away and see where it takes me. 0 -
This is probs gross/tmi but... have you pooped? One time I lost 8 lbs because of that... so yeah...0
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if you weigh all your food on scales and are sticking to 1300 cals, its water.0
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This sounds counter-intuitive, but you could try eating at maintenance (or a little over) for a day or two. This can induce a "whoosh" where you lose the water weight you might be storing from eating at a deficit and exercising a lot. Google "dieter's edema". This trick has worked for me a few times. It just means you could have water weight gain that is masking your fat loss.0
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I find my weight goes up and down on a day to day basis sometime staying high for a few days before dropping down again then rising again. Like a wave but the trend is downwards.
I just like to think of it as my body just getting use to its new weight in a "oh we going down to that weight now I thought we were staying here a while, OK I'll get that sorted out for you then" - like giving it a series of little wake up calls. No science in that, just the way I rationalise it 1 -
CafeRacer808 wrote: »nomorepuke wrote: »What you eat matters a lot.
Nope. What you eat has no direct effect on how much fat you gain or lose. It's all about how much you eat.
I also used to think that way. That sounds very logical.
Imagine that the entrance hall of a movie theater is full of people. These people are all there because they’re going to watch a very popular movie that just came out.
If you would ask… “why is this entrance hall full of people?” and someone were to answer with “because more people are entering it than leaving it” – then you’d think it was a fairly ridiculous answer, right?
It tells you nothing about the cause of the entrance hall being full, it is simply stating the obvious.
Saying that weight gain is caused by excess calories is just as ridiculous as saying that the entrance hall is so crowded because more people are entering than leaving.
Excess eating causes weight gain which is absolutely true. However, what causes us eat more or want more? All the types foods we eat could be used as energy?
Let's put it this way, hypothetically one pound of meat equals a piece of candy in calories. Would you want to eat more after eating a pound of meat? Probably not.
Would you want to eat more in a little bit after eating a piece of candy? Probably yes.
Protein, carbohydrates, fiber, saturated fat..etc have their own jobs to do when they enter our intestines.
We often forget about our health when it comes to CICO as long as we lose weight. Well, it's easy to ignore when you're younger. The older we get it's harder to lose weight, even by consuming the lowest calories as possible. Foods affect our health. Eating junk food, donuts, drinking soda every day CAN make you lose weight as long as it fits in your daily deficit. But it will destroy your health on the long run. Without good health, your body won't burn fat as it used to when you were younger.
If you're trying to lose weight fast for an especial occasion like wedding, by all means lower your daily calories and burn it out. But it won't work for the long run. We will have to think about what we eat before our body gets worn out.
So yes, what you eat matters a lot!0 -
nomorepuke wrote: »CafeRacer808 wrote: »nomorepuke wrote: »What you eat matters a lot.
Nope. What you eat has no direct effect on how much fat you gain or lose. It's all about how much you eat.
I also used to think that way. That sounds very logical.
Imagine that the entrance hall of a movie theater is full of people. These people are all there because they’re going to watch a very popular movie that just came out.
If you would ask… “why is this entrance hall full of people?” and someone were to answer with “because more people are entering it than leaving it” – then you’d think it was a fairly ridiculous answer, right?
It tells you nothing about the cause of the entrance hall being full, it is simply stating the obvious.
Saying that weight gain is caused by excess calories is just as ridiculous as saying that the entrance hall is so crowded because more people are entering than leaving.
Excess eating causes weight gain which is absolutely true. However, what causes us eat more or want more? All types foods we eat could be used as energy?
Let's put it this way, hypothetically one pound of meat equals a piece of candy in calories. Would you want to eat more after eating a pound of meat? Probably not.
Would you want to eat more in a little bit after eating a piece of candy? Probably yes.
Protein, carbohydrates, fiber, saturated fat..etc have their own jobs to do when they enter our intestines.
We often forget about our health when it comes to CICO as long as we lose weight. Well, it's easy to ignore when you're younger. The older we get it's harder to lose weight, even by consuming the lowest calories as possible. Foods affect our health. Eating junk food, donuts, drinking soda every day CAN make you lose weight as long as it fits in your daily deficit. But it will destroy your health on the long run. Without good health, your body won't burn fat as it used to when you were younger.
If you're trying to lose weight fast for an especial occasion like wedding, by all means lower your daily calories and burn it out. But it won't work for the long run. We will have to think about what we eat before our body gets worn out.
So yes, what you eat matters a lot!
You're talking about two separate things: weight loss and nutrition. I'll obviously concede that the satiety of specific foods has an indirect effect on weight loss, which is why I worded my comment to read "What you eat has no direct effect on how much fat you gain or lose," which is absolutely true. A caloric deficit is what matters. Many find that eating more satiating foods helps them maintain a deficit, but it's the deficit that leads to a loss of fat, not the food itself.
Good nutrition is also obviously important. But at the end of the day, nutrition and weight loss - the biological process by which the body reduces its fat stores - are separate matters.
The reason why I corrected you is that countless people come to MFP with the idea that the only way to lose weight is to "eat clean" and to eliminate all of the foods that they perceive as bad, because they've conflated healthy eating with weight loss. Your vague comment above directly feeds into that notion and doing so can be very counter productive, particularly for those who don't like to eat clean but feel like they have to in order to lose weight.
One final point: individual foods are not inherently healthy or unhealthy. Overall diets are. As someone who's been on a mostly whole food diet for almost a decade (and who gained 15 lbs on that diet), I will happily eat an occasional donut, potato chips, some cookies, a piece of cake, a burger and fries from a fast food chain, etc. in moderation. Of course eating a diet composed of only those things would be horrible for your health. But neither I nor anyone here actually advises someone take that approach.6 -
nomorepuke wrote: »What you eat matters a lot.
No, according to the actual science of weight loss, it does not. If it did, I wouldn't be 100lbs down. Please stop spreading misinformation.4 -
cerise_noir wrote: »nomorepuke wrote: »What you eat matters a lot.
No, according to the actual science of weight loss, it does not. If it did, I wouldn't be 100lbs down. Please stop spreading misinformation.
This one is one of those that just won't die, like starvation mode. @CafeRacer808 said it very nicely.5 -
I bet it's water retention for muscle repair after the sudden influx of gigantic workouts...it'll come down. (Although 2 weeks into your cycle you are actually ovulating which can also cause water retention)0
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