I keep GAINING weight instead of LOSING!!

csbeesley
csbeesley Posts: 2 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Okay,
I need some help.. pointers, anything.... for 27 days now i have ate my goal of 1350 calories or less.. and worked out about 5 days per week... I haven't gotten on a scale bc I didn't want to be too hard on myself... so today (after 27 days) I got on the scale and according to it I've GAINED 6 pounds!!! This is the most discouraging, confusing thing I've ever had to deal with....

Please help.. any pointers or advice is appreciated.
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Replies

  • clambert1273
    clambert1273 Posts: 840 Member
    Stella3838 wrote: »
    The first thing most people will ask is are you using a food scale to log all your foods? 9.9/10 people are eating more than they think.

    agree with this... food scale is my biggest weapon
  • cathipa
    cathipa Posts: 2,991 Member
    Besides the food scale and logging everything you eat/drink - how close are you to TOM? It's been 27 days. This could be a factor. Also take pics and measurements.
  • leanjogreen18
    leanjogreen18 Posts: 2,492 Member
    If you are using a food scale, you're weighing first thing in am after using the restroom in the same thing as your first weigh in...

    TOM, high sodium foods the day before or a new workout routine could also account for water retention.


  • CattOfTheGarage
    CattOfTheGarage Posts: 2,745 Member
    How are you recording your exercise, and are you eating back the exercise calories? You should eat them, but be careful you're not overestimating them. This can happen with any method but it seems to be particularly a problem with the Fitbit or similar.
  • cchhiipp22
    cchhiipp22 Posts: 37 Member
    If you're exercising 5 days a week, how accurate are you measuring calories spent exercising? And are you eating all those calories back? Because if you're overestimating exercise and eating those calories back, you could be at a calorie surplus due to that.
  • Finally1502016
    Finally1502016 Posts: 26 Member
    If you have been working out 5x's a week it may just be muscle. Check your measurements.
  • Seffell
    Seffell Posts: 2,244 Member
    Finally1502016 wrote: »
    If you have been working out 5x's a week it may just be muscle. Check your measurements.

    Muscle mass/weight comes from food too. It doesn't appear out of thin air. You need to eat above maintenance to gain muscle weight (i.e. to gain these 6lbs in the form of muscle... Or in the form of whatever really).
  • csbeesley
    csbeesley Posts: 2 Member
    I haven't been using a food scale, I will start that.
    I've been using a scale that I've had for years, so maybe I should buy a new one.

    Thanks for some insight
  • pineapple_peach10
    pineapple_peach10 Posts: 239 Member
    Is your scale tared? If my scale is moved at all I need to reset it. (Body weight scale, not food scale)
  • JayZ1488
    JayZ1488 Posts: 258 Member
    Uh uh
  • animatorswearbras
    animatorswearbras Posts: 1,001 Member
    edited February 2017
    Also check that your bathroom scale isn't broken or needs new batteries, 6 pounds in a month seems a lot considering you'd have to eat 700cals above maintenance every single day and you're exercising so much. Also worth noting if the exercise is a new thing your aching muscles could be storing a lot of fluid for repair, is there anything else that could be effecting your water weight? Hormones? Has the diet made you bloated with irregular BMs?

    But as others have said accurately weighing everything you consume including condiments, cooking oil and drinks (especially alcohol) is first priority.
  • courtneyfabulous
    courtneyfabulous Posts: 1,863 Member
    Could be sodium intake too- did you happen to eat out the night before you weighed in?
  • size102b
    size102b Posts: 1,370 Member
    edited February 2017
    You can't eye food weight
    The key to calorie counting isn't exercise its weighing soilds on a good food scale digital one and measuring liquids in a jug

    It's really easy to eat double or treble your calories from eye only

    I got my step daughter to show us how much cereal she eats at her mums house as she's gaining weight fast she's 10 her mum doesn't 'mind' what her children eat where as we are more aware of health and weight ( her mum has diabetes 2) my stepdaughter put in 3 times the amount I eat and we can see how she's gaining weight she's having 600 calories of cereal

    If your working out that much you'd see a weightloss or inch loss on a weighed and measured 1350 calories

    Remember EVERY SINGLE THING YOU CONSUME FOOD OR DRINKS need to be logged it's easy to pick at foods without realising sauces contain mounds sugar calories and drinks are high in calories too
  • cheryldumais
    cheryldumais Posts: 1,907 Member
    I will confess that I was guestimating alot of my foods. I have started weighing them in grams to find out what they really are. Well! That was an eye opener. The closer you are to goal the less room you have for error. I was guessing my morning cream cheese at 2 tablespoons (60 cals) and ended up with 92 calories by weight. Yeah it's only 32 calories but every day I was under and that is just one example. As much as the scale is a pain it is also much more accurate. The other thing I was guilty of was a bite of this or that here and there. Cooking and tasting was one of my issues. My husband isn't dieting so I cook things for him I don't eat and of course I would taste more than necessary. All those little bites add up. You may not be guilty of any of these things but just throwing it out there in case.
  • firef1y72
    firef1y72 Posts: 1,579 Member
    Personally I'd not only weigh everything you eat but would also weigh yourself more often. I weigh myself daily but only record lowest weights. I'm currently 3lb up on my lowest recorded weight, but I'm pretty sure it's not fat. In fact I know it's a combination of approaching ToM and last week being the heavy week of my lifting cycle. All sorts of things can affect your weight, exercise, monthly cycle, sodium, etc. It's highly unlikely that it's muscle gains though, it is possible to gain a little muscle on a deficit but it takes a lot of work and it is only a little (taken me 3 months to start seeing any results in my shoulders/chest, and I've been working them really hard).
  • readytobeatfat54
    readytobeatfat54 Posts: 91 Member
    The other thing you could ask yourself is to look at what you are eating. If you eat a high fiber meal, say a nice leafy green salad full of different vegetables and just a little bit of dressing, really the only thing you need to know is the types of vegetables in the salad and how much dressing you took in. Fiber will fill you up, is not calorie dense, and for most types of fiber in a meal you don't need to scale.
  • RachaelIsLosingIt
    RachaelIsLosingIt Posts: 15 Member
    What kind of exercise have you been doing? In 6 weeks, cardio will start to lose its effect. If you've been doing weights and hiit workouts, you can gain muscle and lose fat keeping the scales the same.
    I'd highly recommend doing measurements rather than looking at the scales - They can really make you lose your motivation. However, if you going to weigh yourself, do it at the same time each week.
  • joaniebalonie088
    joaniebalonie088 Posts: 93 Member
    Also helps to weigh at the same time under the same conditions. First thing in the morning, after using the restroom, and before I hop in the shower works for me! Definitely the lowest number I'll see all day, so it is good for my sanity ;)
  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
    RachaelIsLosingIt wrote: »
    What kind of exercise have you been doing? In 6 weeks, cardio will start to lose its effect. If you've been doing weights and hiit workouts, you can gain muscle and lose fat keeping the scales the same.
    I'd highly recommend doing measurements rather than looking at the scales - They can really make you lose your motivation. However, if you going to weigh yourself, do it at the same time each week.

    not happening if she is eating in a deficit. 6 lbs of muscle in a month isnt going to happen,even with slight newbie gains. it would be hard to build that much muscle in a surplus.shes not going to lose 6lbs of fat and gain 6lbs of muscle. muscle is not built that easily especially in females
  • try2again
    try2again Posts: 3,562 Member
    Just want to point out that your title said you *keep* gaining, when you've actually only been on the scale once. Many of us can experience water weight fluctuations of 5-6 lbs from one day to the next. You may have actually had a decent loss this month and just got on the scale at a bad time. I get wanting to stay away from the scale, but it does help us understand our body's natural fluctuations better.
  • Jruzer
    Jruzer Posts: 3,501 Member
    Also: 2 measurements of weight, 1 month apart, pretty much tells you nothing.
  • Erfw7471
    Erfw7471 Posts: 242 Member
    courtneyfabulous wrote: »
    csbeesley wrote: »
    I haven't been using a food scale, I will start that.
    I've been using a scale that I've had for years, so maybe I should buy a new one.

    Thanks for some insight

    You're going to be quite surprised the difference in portions once you start using a food scale to weigh all your food. That's probably the problem.

    I agree with this. People can log log log all the live long day, but if you're logging 30 grams when you're actually eating 50, then it's wrong. IMO the only way to actually know how much you're consuming is to properly weigh & measure.

    There are YouTube videos showing the importance of accurately measuring, and I'm sure someone here can maybe link. It's so eye-opening!
  • mustb60
    mustb60 Posts: 1,090 Member
    Have you taken pics during this month? Sometime pictures and measuring tell better about the physical changes then the weight scale.
  • Lounmoun
    Lounmoun Posts: 8,423 Member
    Weigh in more regularly so you have more data to compare. Weight fluctuates. Never freak out over one weigh in. Compare weight change over 3-4 weigh ins.
    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10084670/it-is-unlikely-that-you-will-lose-weight-consistently-i-e-weight-loss-is-not-linear/p1
    You may have hit on a day of the month where you are retaining water. If you are a woman be aware that it is common to retain water due to ovulation/period.
    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10359984/women-menstrual-cycle-weight-and-fitness-matters/p1

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