Ive been drastically gaining weight since I started working out

Zodikosis

It may be your cycle. I gain 5-8 lbs about 1 week before my period and then drop it as soon as it's over. Keep on keepin' on.

AllOutof_Bubblegum

4 lbs is hardly drastic.

TR0berts

jflongo wrote: »

For all of you that keep mentioning sodium, give this a watch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbKk9tbNrfQ

You do realize he said that high-sodium intake will increase your weight temporarily, right? Which is what others have said that you're arguing against.

ShaeSweetness

How many calories are you eating per day? Im 5 foot 11, 197lbs and workout a couple times a week and i never go about 1800. If you are eating above that amount, it could simply be that you arent at the deficit that your body needs. You should go to various calorie calculator websites and check how many cals you need.

ShaeSweetness

Just saw your updated post, im a little late. Its definitely the eye balling of the food and the going out on the weekends that is killing it for you. You need to deficit i think 500 calories per DAY to lose 1lb per week (3500 cal deficit per week) so if you do great monday-friday and over eat saturday and sunday, you wont hit that 3500 deficit that youre going for thus not losing any weight. Also eye balling is terrible. I just got a friend into MFP who was "eye balling" his food and turns out he was unknowingly eating 3000 cals a day almost! Dont trust the eye ball, get a food scale when it asks for things like ounces and make sure youre checking the calories per serving and correct serving size on your log ins!

Aaron_K123

When you start a new exercise routine your body isn't used to there is a lot of water recruited to muscle tissue for repair and storage of glycogen. Whenever I start a new routine I expect to gain about 6 pounds or so from water retention. Yeah that can easily last three weeks or even 6 weeks. It is water weight, exercise doesn't just create fat. Also I wouldn't call four pounds "drastic" I think you are being a bit dramatic there....that is like 2% of your body weight.

If you are going from eating without control to eating in a controlled way plus exercising have some faith that your health will improve not get worse as a result.

ashliedelgado

moosmum1972 wrote: »

kshama2001 wrote: »

Amateur. I gained 7 pounds when I started working out again Took a few weeks to come back off.

Where are you in your menstrual cycle? Being premenstrual could mask some losses.

She doesn't weigh or measure just eyeballs. .....that's her problem

I don't think that's entirely what is happening here. 1, depending on how much you have to lose, eyeballing is fine. I lost my first 50lbs eye balling before I bought a scale. I think yes, she should tighten up by weighing and accurately logging, however, there are more things that come into play. Water retention for muscle repair. OP is of child bearing age from the looks of her picture, and therefore likely menstrating. I see a 6-8lb right before my period each month. Lets also not forget that 5lbs is considered a normal daily fluctuation.

OP, I apologize if I missed it, how often are you weighing yourself? I personally am not a fan of once a week, because there are so many variables. You may get an abnormally high weigh in because of your cycle or how much sodium you ate, or how intense you worked out. You may get an abnormally low one. If you're not inclined to stress over daily numbers, I like to weigh in daily and put it in a trending format. So even when I get that huge jump each month, I can see that my overall trend is still going down. I also find that I know more about what to expect each month doing this as well. IOS users tend to recommend Happy Scale, I use Libra on Android.

wizzybeth

jflongo wrote: »

wizzybeth wrote: »

jflongo wrote: »

ken_vane wrote: »

Here is what I would recommend: Weight everything using a gram scale. Check your food diary and see if the reference data is wrong. The food database has mistakes, so check. Are you getting at least 10 minutes of 80% your Max Heart rate during your workouts? What does your exercise routine add to your calories? How much water are you drinking? If you are eating food from a restaurant or cafeteria, stop and bring your own food. Many food places are as much as +30% off the actual calories on the plate. Check your Sodium intake.

Sodium does NOT matter :-) That is a myth.

Sodium does to matter... An increase in sodium can lead to water retention. That's basic info there

That is why you weigh yourself in the morning, after using the bathroom. Does more sodium get your drink more water yes, other than that, it does nothing.

I still gain water weight if I consume too much sodium and don't drink enough water to countermand it. I don't know why that is so hard for you to grasp. I
Also know when and how to weigh myself thank you.

CoachJen71

My Fitbit lies to me when it is set for my real height. I had to make myself shorter on my profile to get the burns to come closer to my data, and even then since it isn't consistently wrong/right, I still can't use MFP as a NEAT system. Switched to tdee instead.

Colorscheme

CoachJen71 wrote: »

My Fitbit lies to me when it is set for my real height. I had to make myself shorter on my profile to get the burns to come closer to my data, and even then since it isn't consistently wrong/right, I still can't use MFP as a NEAT system. Switched to tdee instead.

I've found that my fitbit overestimates. it would tell me a tdee of 2000 something but my gear fit pro gives me a tdee of 1800ish for the same amount of effort. and 1000 steps on my gear fit pro burns 40 calories while fitbit says 60 calories. I trust the gear fit more, tbh.

CoachJen71

@Colorscheme Yeah, I read my phone pacing up and down my hall, and my Fitbit will say I burned 5 cals a minute instead of 2.5. Big difference, especially since I do it several times a day!

takemetosingapore19

I see threads like this all the time... but a few weeks of retaining water means something must be wrong. I lift weights almost every day and do an hour of cardio everyday and I never retain water. Not more than 1-2lb for a day or two. Never any longer or any more weight than that. Up your water intake and cut calories. Watch sodium. See a doctor.

scottydewwannalosewt

I've lost 37 pounds and it's in part to several things. Drinking half of your body weight in water per day. Use MFP to determine your total fat and look at the total fat on the food labels. Exercise a minimum of 30 minutes per day. Walk every day and shoot for an active lifestyle of 10,000 steps per day. I hope this helps.

SoLongAndThanksForAllTheFish

When you are hitting a wall especially (and in theory always) you need to: weigh your foods, accurately log and track all the foods, evaluate what burns you are being told you get exercising honestly (300 cals is probably a large amount of activity for a girl, not as much for a large male for example), realize that weight doesn't come off as quickly once you start weight training on average, and then give it a month.

Eyeballing has huge inaccuracies involved unless you have been training yourself for a long time, and then its just relatively large inaccuracies. If you are thinking you are eating say 1.5k cals with foods that you "ate before" when you were gaining...well firstly you've proven eating those foods you tend to gain, and I'd guess an eyeballed total could easily be more like 2k cals, which may not be a great loss range for you (depends on size/activity, big loss range for me and you dont give data on your height, weight or muscle mass).

Next you note hiking on the weekend for a couple hrs, you are counting as 500-1000 calories. Lets compare here to check if its probable: I'm going to guess that I am larger, heavier and more muscled as a taller male semi regular strength training lifter, and when I do a two hour hike, I tend to go up and down a good amount of incline with at least 15lbs pack before I'll log about 1,000 calories on my Garmin. I also got about 330 some calories added credit to eat for about 16,000 steps the other day. I also tend to only get about 300-500 calories credit on my lifting sessions, but in most cases I'm moving between 250-900+lbs during lifts. So looking at what I can know from what you've posted, I'm going to guess your burns are over estimated, unless you are close to my body size/composition/activity intensity. I also am not losing at the rate I'd like, so my rates are probably pretty close or possibly over estimated.