Why am I gaining weight from more nutritious food?

vingogly

lavapixie wrote: »

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EDIT: I also feel like I should tell you that I take the antidepressant Fluoxetine everyday, approx. 20 mg a day since 2015 if I remember correctly. I have been forgetting to take it a lot the past week so maybe that is connected but I doubt it.

I doubt it, too, but you should be discussing your forgetting to take it "a lot" with your psychiatrist because it's not a drug you should stop taking without medical supervision (also, you need to discuss with him/her or your therapist why you're missing so many doses lately). The printed warnings that come with the drug will have instructions for what to do if you miss a dose. You should also discuss any and all over the counter as well as prescription drugs with your psychiatrist since there can be a lot of interactions with fluoxetine.

1houndgal

lavapixie wrote: »

Hey there! This is a bit silly but here goes. I'm 21, female and I'm about 170 cm in height (5'7?). I'm currently 80 kg (176 lbs) I've been using MFP since May of last year and so far I've lost 15 kg (about 33 lbs I think). I started eating better and I went swimming about 3 times a week and took walks. I've stopped the swimming for a while now because it's gotten very very cold where I live, and when I was walking home, my hair always froze and I got a nasty cold.

Anyway, last week I wasn't eating so well. I was too lazy to cook my own meals, so I just ate some protein bars, a few corny bars, some dark chocolate and whatever was for dinner. I was losing at least 200 gr (half a pound) per day and I was really happy about it, but I knew that I couldn't just keep eating like that because it wasn't nutritious enough. So I made a change this week.

Now I'm eating more "real" food, some nice all bran in the mornings, a bit of Greek yogurt with granola, honey and nuts, some protein bars still and what may be for dinner again. I always try to stay within my calorie goal, but sometimes I do go like 50 calories over. I'm pretty much eating again like I did before Christmas rolled around, just normal food and some nice protein.

I am doing some more intense exercises lately, been watching some videos on how to tone my abs and my legs. I don't get that sore afterwards but I do sweat a lot after these which I consider a good thing.

But for the last two days I've been gaining weight. 200 grams per day, 400 grams in total, which is 1 lb. I'm getting very frustrated, and it feels like it's ruining my progress. Am I making a big fuss out of this? I weigh myself everyday, I just have to because I'm scared that I will forget to later and I'll gain weight. It just works for me. I must admit I am a bit obsessed with it though because I weigh myself in the evenings too and well, pretty much everytime I go to the bathroom I weigh myself because I just have to know.

Does anyone else have this problem? It's really depressing. Thanks in advance!

EDIT: I also feel like I should tell you that I take the antidepressant Fluoxetine everyday, approx. 20 mg a day since 2015 if I remember correctly. I have been forgetting to take it a lot the past week so maybe that is connected but I doubt it.

Yes. You could be more OCD when you go off your meds. I suggest you first step is to get back to your routine of taking your meds.

Then talk with a counselor or physician about your diet And excercise plan. Hugs

karahm78

Poisonedpawn78 wrote: »

amusedmonkey wrote: »

Poisonedpawn78 wrote: »

stanmann571 wrote: »

Poisonedpawn78 wrote: »

tinkerbellang83 wrote: »

Poisonedpawn78 wrote: »

tinkerbellang83 wrote: »

Normal weight fluctuations can be up to 5lb per day, particularly for women, you've made changes to both your diet and exercise this week which will impact water retention.

Your relationship with the scale isn't healthy, you don't need to be weighing everytime you go to the bathroom, all that is going to tell you is how much you've urinated or excreted - not about any fat loss, so it's not helpful.

If you really must weigh daily be consistent, weigh first thing in the morning, after using the bathroom and before eating and use a trendweight app such as Libra or Happyscale which will help you see if your weight is trending in the right direction which is what matters, the day-to-day weight doesn't.

You contradict yourself and I also disagree. The exact reason you would weigh yourself multiple times a day after you do things that would change your weight is to understand exactly what your Normal weight fluctuation is. It can differ from person to person and depending on your current weight as it will change as you lose.

OP, There is nothing wrong with it at all. Just do NOT put any emotional attachment to the numbers. Use them to understand what is happening logically. If you just drank a liter of water and then weigh yourself and now you are up 2lbs. you dont need to panic and freak out because you KNOW its just the water. Water is not fat.

Make sure you are staying accurate with your calorie logging, tighten it up if you think your weight vs loss doesnt make sense , doing this so that you are accurate in your deficit. If you are accurate and you gain weight, you KNOW its not fat. Its not possible for it to be fat. You just need to give your body time to flush out what it needs to and since it is not linear it could be several days or weeks for it to show.

Also if you are female, look up and understand how your TOM affects your weight so that you do not freak out about it.

What exactly is contradictory?

The OP's relationship isn't healthy with the scale, in her own words weighing multiple times per day is "obsessed", "scared" and "frustrated" by doing so, these don't imply what might have been a healthy curiosity.

I stated weighing every time you go to the bathroom doesn't really help, because lets be honest that doesn't help you understand your fluctuations from hormones, sodium, macro changes or exercise, it basically just tells you have heavy your *kitten* was.

You provided a generalize piece of information like 5lbs which is the same as saying she should eat x calories without knowing stats. You then say how unhelpful it is to know this information.

No a scale isnt perfect but its a tool to help you understand. If its useless for weight then its useless for calories too since not every piece of brocolli and chicken are the exact same.

Unless you plan on being an all knowing omnipotent being you use what you have.

5 lbs is a good general answer for 90% of people who weigh between 100 and 250 lbs.

Normal daily water weight fluctuations are 2-5% of bodyweight.

Thus 5 lbs is a good general answer for how much is normal.

The difference between 5 and 12.5 lbs is enought to make some people quit. If you have a tool to use to understand what your normal is or take a generalized answer on the internet.. which makes more sense?

How is this line of conversation helping OP? I'm all for debate, but this is plain disagreeing for the sake of disagreeing. For most people without extreme water weight manipulation 5 lb is a pretty good number. Weighing multiple times every day outside the realm of curiosity is unnecessary to understand fluctuations and is harmful advice for someone who is already obsessed with the scale. Telling her to keep hopping on the scale every time she visits the bathroom but not to place any emotional attachment to it is like telling someone with depression to "snap out of it". You can't help obsession by telling someone to "stop obsessing". She needs a plan.

For example, she can create a routine of weighing herself once a day at the same time every day and recording her weight in a weight trend app. Gradually seeing how the numbers are behaving in relation to other numbers is helpful and may help shift the obsession away from the singular number value in a singular bathroom moment.

Another option would be to focus more on other parameters.

Some people may even need to ditch the scale altogether for a while if it's creating a dangerously disordered pattern.

Knowledge and understanding remove fear and panic. If she learns and knows what to expect the emotional response is likely to be proper.
Not everyone has an eating disorder despite what these forums think.

The OP said that she knew what she was doing was unhealthy and was working with her relationship with food. Not sure why you continue to beat this horse. If she is struggling with it, encouraging the behavior would be irresponsible on our parts.

ETA: Hugs to you OP. I do think that understanding the process and what is normal is important. A trending app could be helpful if you want to continue to weight once a day to track the patterns. It personally smoothed out things for me and made me less obsessive about the scale. The trend is what I look at, green is good and I don't worry if I go up/down from one day to the next.