Gaining weight somehow, but eating very well and walking miles

sd225303

Help! I keep gaining weight even though I have been eating very well (and variations like salad and protein). I've been walking miles a day and there hasn't been a day in the last week I havent at least made my 10,000 step goal on my Fitbit. I eat about 1,000 calories a day. I am 5'3" and 140. I am desperately trying to get back to 130 as Ive gained 10 pounds over the last year. I thought I'd at least have lost a few ounces, but when I weighed myself today I gained weight. I'm so frustrated. Any suggestions?

livingleanlivingclean

How are you determining how many calories you're eating?

Weighing? Measuring? Eyeballing?

diannethegeek

How much weight have you gained and over what period of time?

Your diary is closed to us, so no clues there.

Generic advice:

1. If it's been less than 3 weeks or so, don't sweat it! Normal fluctuations happen and unfortunately sometimes we stall for a week or two even when we're doing everything right. Give your body some time to catch up with the changes you're making.

2. If you aren't already, be sure that you're logging everything. Sometimes people forget about things like veggies, drinks, cooking oils, and condiments. For some people these can add up to enough to halt your weight loss progress.

3. Consider buying a food scale if you don't already have one. They're about $10-$20 dollars in the US and easily found at places like Amazon, Target, and Walmart. Measuring cups and spoons are great, but they do come with some degree of inaccuracy. A food scale will be more accurate, and for some people it makes a big difference.

4. Logging accurately also means choosing accurate entries in the database. There are a lot of user-entered entries that are off. Double-check that you're using good entries and/or using the recipe builder instead of someone else's homemade entries.

5. Recalculate your goals if you haven't lately. As you lose weight your body requires fewer calories to run. Be sure you update your goals every ten pounds or so.

6. If you're eating back your exercise calories and you're relying on gym machine readouts or MFP's estimates, it might be best to eat back just 50-75% of those. Certain activities tend to be overestimated. If you're using an HRM or activity tracker, it might be a good idea to look into their accuracy and be sure that yours is calibrated properly.

7. If you're taking any cheat days that go over your calorie limits, it might be best to cut them out for a few weeks and see what happens. Some people go way over their calorie needs without realizing it when they don't track.

8. If you weigh yourself frequently, consider using a program like trendweight to even out the fluctuations. You could be losing weight but just don't see it because of the daily ups and downs.

9. Some people just burn fewer calories than the calculators predict. If you continue to have problems after 4-6 weeks, then it might be worth a trip to the doctor or a registered dietitian who can give you more specific advice.

malibu927

If it's only been a week or two, it's likely just water weight. If it's been longer, you're probably eating more than you think (and you shouldn't be eating only 1000 calories anyway).

melissawill2017

I think you should increase your calorie count. 1000 calories is too little and not sustainable. A female should never eat below 1200 calories a day. Think of your body like a furnace, if you don't give it enough fuel then it can't burn calories efficiently. I would try increase my calorie intake and seeing if that helps. I increased mine from 1200 to 1600 a day and actually started to lose weight again!

janejellyroll

melissawill2017 wrote: »

I think you should increase your calorie count. 1000 calories is too little and not sustainable. A female should never eat below 1200 calories a day. Think of your body like a furnace, if you don't give it enough fuel then it can't burn calories efficiently. I would try increase my calorie intake and seeing if that helps. I increased mine from 1200 to 1600 a day and actually started to lose weight again!

There are many good reasons not to eat 1,000 calories a day, but your body being like a furnace isn't one of them. If OP is gaining weight, she isn't eating 1,000 calories a day. There is an error in her logging somewhere.

diannethegeek

janejellyroll wrote: »

melissawill2017 wrote: »

I think you should increase your calorie count. 1000 calories is too little and not sustainable. A female should never eat below 1200 calories a day. Think of your body like a furnace, if you don't give it enough fuel then it can't burn calories efficiently. I would try increase my calorie intake and seeing if that helps. I increased mine from 1200 to 1600 a day and actually started to lose weight again!

There are many good reasons not to eat 1,000 calories a day, but your body being like a furnace isn't one of them. If OP is gaining weight, she isn't eating 1,000 calories a day. There is an error in her logging somewhere.

Or it's been too little time to tell. It sounds like the op had only one bad weigh-in to me. This could be a patience issue rather than a logging issue. We won't have enough info to tell unless the op comes back to answer questions.

samuelgina91

I agree with what most people are saying above about accurately logging, but honestly it is just a number on a scale. Are your clothes fitting differently? Are things becoming snug? It could just be water weight, or bloating due to your cycle, so either weigh daily during the week after your morning routines and average them/ or once a month. Finally if you are putting on muscle it will weigh more, so the best method is taking measurements of the hips, waist, and thighs (at an easily reproducible areas like 10 cm above both knees) and comparing that month to month. It is easy to get caught in fixating on numbers on a scale, but a tape measure shows the progress a lot clearer. Also a 1000 calorie a day is how a 10 year old would eat, so aim for a minimum 1200 calories to get used to it, just because you are on the shorter side (me too) anywhere from 1200-1500 would be enough for your daily calorie needs (depending on your level of activity).