4th week and I’ve gained weight

courtneygallego

Hey guys,
Just reaching out for a few questions. I’m going on my fourth week of exercise and a healthy eating lifestyle. I track my foods usually everyday. ’m 5’9 and I weight roughly 176. Since working out and eating right I’ve gained 6-7 lbs. I drink plenty of water, I do weights 5 days a week followed by 30-40 mins of stair intervals. MyFitnessPal says I should eat around 1,500, I usually do that and burn about 300-400 calories on cardo 4-5x a week. I haven’t lost any inches as well, and my cloths feel the same. Every now and then I’ll have a cookie or two but besides that I don’t eat much breads or anything. How long is it going to take me to achieve weight loss/inch loss?

quiksylver296

How are you tracking your food? Weight loss is about your calorie intake, not your exercise.

courtneygallego

Yes I track every day

quiksylver296

courtneygallego wrote: »

Yes I track every day

Do you use a food scale?

This thread shows why a food scale is a powerful weight loss tool:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10634517/you-dont-use-a-food-scale/p1

Marilyn0924

You track, but are you using a digital scale to weigh all solids/semi-solids, measuring all liquids or are you eyeballing the measurements?

courtneygallego

I use a food scale and measuring cups

quiksylver296

courtneygallego wrote: »

I use a food scale and measuring cups

No skipping, cheating, forgetting or cheat meals? You are logging drinks, cooking oils, condiments, etc? (I'm not trying to be snarky. Just trying to help diagnose. )

Is it TOM?

If your food diary was set to public, we could help more by looking at that.

Also, new-to-you exercise causes your body to retain water to repair your muscles. That usually doesn't last 4 weeks, but it could.

Marilyn0924

OP, if you open your diary we can take a peek and perhaps offer some advice.

diannethegeek

Has your weight gone down at all or just up? If it's fluctuated up and down you might be seeing a heavy week due to water weight from things like muscle repair, TOM, hormones, ovulation, etc. But if it hasn't gone down at all in the last 4 weeks then something is up, either with your logging (thinks like really bad entries in the food database or forgetting things like cooking oils or trusting labels too much or eating back too many exercise calories) or with the goal you've been set.

It's usually useful to have some back and forth here to see what might be up, but the flowchart is a good starting point if you're able to see it (I realize people using screen readers or who have images off wouldn't be able to read it).

More info is usually helpful, but you kind of have three options: 1. wait a little while longer and see if it tapers off, 2. scrutinize your logs to be sure you aren't hitting any of the classic mistakes, or 3. reduce your calorie goal by 100/week until you start losing again.

Ceegrams2003

You may be gaining muscle, not fat. Muscle weighs more than fat. You said you are using weights, so that may be what's going on. Get yourself a digital weight scale with a BMI reading. That will tell you if you are losing fat. If you are losing fat and still gaining - you are adding muscle

dinadyna21

OP looking at your diary from yesterday there were several things, specifically the produce and rice, that were not measured in ounces or grams. I find grams to be more accurate but you have to weigh everything on your scale including fruit and veg. Using cups to measure increases the risk of underestimating intake.
I also noticed that your coffeemate creamer is shown as 50 calories for 2 tablespoons. This is an inaccurate database entry as each tablespoon is actually 35 calories per serving or 70 for 2 tablespoons. This may like a small thing but it adds up, especially if you have a low TDEE.
Edit: words

courtneygallego

I actually don’t use any cooking oil, unless I pop popcorn kernels which I’ve only done once. I opened my diary. I’ve fluctuated usually at a 2lb range, but not more than that. Usually on weekends I eat what I eat throughout the week but I’ll work on being more consistent for logging on the weekends. I’ve only had one cheat day that someone recommended me to do. I only had a slice of pizza and two scoops of ice cream. I typically just use herbs from my garden to season things rather than using sauces. Maybe I’m eating foods that aren’t as healthy as I believe they are?

quiksylver296

Ceegrams2003 wrote: »

You may be gaining muscle, not fat. Muscle weighs more than fat. You said you are using weights, so that may be what's going on. Get yourself a digital weight scale with a BMI reading. That will tell you if you are losing fat. If you are losing fat and still gaining - you are adding muscle

This is a popular fallacy. Women cannot easily add muscle. Doing everything exactly right, including heavy weight lifting and really good diet, including on-point macros, a woman can add about .25 lbs of muscle a week.

dinadyna21

courtneygallego wrote: »

I actually don’t use any cooking oil, unless I pop popcorn kernels which I’ve only done once. I opened my diary. I’ve fluctuated usually at a 2lb range, but not more than that. Usually on weekends I eat what I eat throughout the week but I’ll work on being more consistent for logging on the weekends. I’ve only had one cheat day that someone recommended me to do. I only had a slice of pizza and two scoops of ice cream. I typically just use herbs from my garden to season things rather than using sauces. Maybe I’m eating foods that aren’t as healthy as I believe they are?

Eating 'healthy' has no bearing on whether or not you lose weight, it's important to have a nutritious diet for overall health but a calorie deficit is all that's needed to lose weight. 2lb fluctuations are normal, I have them myself. Have you lost anything since you started?

Marilyn0924

Ok, quick glance shows me that you are using a lot of generic entries for food items. Try to use the USDA entries for fruits/veggies/meats, and use the scale to measure everything. Brand names for bakery/foodstuffs, and again weigh on the scale.

quiksylver296

Do an experiment, @courtneygallego. Get your food scale. Put your peanut butter jar on the scale. Turn the scale on, or push the tare button, so the weight says zero. Scoop out what you think is 2 tablespoons, like you are logging. How many grams did you get? (It will show a negative number, FYI.)

Two tablespoons of my peanut butter is 32 grams - 190 calories.

courtneygallego

I’ll refinery try that. I use my measuring spoon and level it out with a knife, but perhaps weighing it will be better

quiksylver296

courtneygallego wrote: »

I’ll refinery try that. I use my measuring spoon and level it out with a knife, but perhaps weighing it will be better

Let us know! I'm curious.

dinadyna21

Try using this website, https://ndb.nal.usda.gov/ndb/search/list, to look up your entries so you know you're choosing the right one in the MFP database.

diannethegeek

Use your food scale for all solids. Oats, bananas, peanut butter, chicken breast, rice, etc. You don't have to do it forever, but try it for a couple of weeks and see if anything stands out.

Make sure that whether you're weighing your food raw or after cooking matches up with the entry you use. A lot of the entries in your diary don't specify raw or cooked, so I just want to be sure you know there's a difference.

And try to log every day if you can. Unfortunately, calorie creep can happen when we aren't logging.

diannethegeek

quiksylver296 wrote: »

courtneygallego wrote: »

Yes I track every day

Do you use a food scale?

This thread shows why a food scale is a powerful weight loss tool:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10634517/you-dont-use-a-food-scale/p1

^definitely check out this thread. Some really interesting videos there that might help you out.