I don't understand how I'm gaining weight
utomjordingen
Posts: 20 Member
Hello! I've been suffering for an eating disorder for years, but started eating about a year ago. I'm vegan and I eat the right amount. I also walk a minimum of 15.000s steps a day, average at 20 000. How can I be gaining weight despite this? I don't understand... I'm at a healthy weight. I'm 158 and weigh 56 now, and I'm 20 years old. I don't want to become overweight by eating healthy and exercising.
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Replies
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Over what period of time have you gained weight? Your maintenance isn't one specific weight it's usually a range, you will see normal fluctuations of a couple of pounds, particularly around TOM or if you've eaten something more sodium or carb heavy.4
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It could be due to gained muscle in legs from all the walking you do, like you walk a lot so I wouldn't be surprised as muscle weighs more than fat.56
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It could be due to gained muscle in legs from all the walking you do, like you walk a lot so I wouldn't be surprised as muscle weighs more than fat.
Muscle doesn't weigh more than fat, it's more dense and even with a progressive strength training program you wouldn't expect to see a particularly large gain on the scale for a female, let alone from walking.
A useful explanation of why this is one of the worst diet myths bandied about https://www.aworkoutroutine.com/weight-loss-plateau-myth-muscle-weighs-more-than-fat/11 -
tinkerbellang83 wrote: »It could be due to gained muscle in legs from all the walking you do, like you walk a lot so I wouldn't be surprised as muscle weighs more than fat.
Muscle doesn't weigh more than fat, it's more dense and even with a progressive strength training program you wouldn't expect to see a particularly large gain on the scale for a female, let alone from walking.
A useful explanation of why this is one of the worst diet myths bandied about https://www.aworkoutroutine.com/weight-loss-plateau-myth-muscle-weighs-more-than-fat/
To your previcious comment, I was at 42-45 kg a year ago. Since then I've gained to 56, where I am today. I thought that it would stop at about 52, but it just kept going.
The muscle things, I've been hoping it was that....but I still don't know or understand.3 -
If you've gained it over the year then you're eating just slightly over maintenance. Your previous eating disorder may have you at a lower TDEE than you might normally have for your stats.
You've gained just under a half pound per week which would be approximately 250 calories a day over maintenance.
Healthy eating doesn't necessarily imply weight management, you can still overeat healthy things, without knowing too much about your disorder I wouldn't want to suggest getting too obsessive with numbers or food, maybe just be mindful of any higher calorie "healthy" foods you're eating.
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The road to recovery is not an easy one. I'm so proud of you for your strength and determination. A few questions: how long have you been vegan? And what's your calorie intake average?
Be patient as your body heals. You have to continually remind yourself that it's okay to be kind to your body. It's only been a year since you've increased your calorie intake to healthy levels. After a period of limited calorie intake, your body will need to rebound, often seeing a period of weight gain before maintaining a stable weight. Have you seen a counselor/nutritionist? Part of recovery is rediscovering hunger cues. Perhaps consider setting the scale aside for a period and allowing your body to tell you what's normal. Most of this battle is mental.
All that being said, I know that it's incredibly frustrating. This is new ground and it's hard to tell if you've overshot as you recover. I'd love to give some input based on your answers to the above questions.
You're a rockstar!6 -
The road to recovery is not an easy one. I'm so proud of you for your strength and determination. A few questions: how long have you been vegan? And what's your calorie intake average?
Be patient as your body heals. You have to continually remind yourself that it's okay to be kind to your body. It's only been a year since you've increased your calorie intake to healthy levels. After a period of limited calorie intake, your body will need to rebound, often seeing a period of weight gain before maintaining a stable weight. Have you seen a counselor/nutritionist? Part of recovery is rediscovering hunger cues. Perhaps consider setting the scale aside for a period and allowing your body to tell you what's normal. Most of this battle is mental.
All that being said, I know that it's incredibly frustrating. This is new ground and it's hard to tell if you've overshot as you recover. I'd love to give some input based on your answers to the above questions.
You're a rockstar!
Thank you so much for your kind comment...it means a lot to me, really. I've been vegan for about 8 months, vegetarian for all my life. Myfitnesspal says that I should be eating 2000 with the exercise I'm doing, so I eat about 1500-1700-ish. I set the scale for a while, but was so frustrated once I stepped on it again
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tinkerbellang83 wrote: »If you've gained it over the year then you're eating just slightly over maintenance. Your previous eating disorder may have you at a lower TDEE than you might normally have for your stats.
You've gained just under a half pound per week which would be approximately 250 calories a day over maintenance.
Healthy eating doesn't necessarily imply weight management, you can still overeat healthy things, without knowing too much about your disorder I wouldn't want to suggest getting too obsessive with numbers or food, maybe just be mindful of any higher calorie "healthy" foods you're eating.
But Myfitnesspal says that I should be eating 2000 with the exercise I'm doing, so I eat about 1500-1700-ish, so I shouldn't be gaining weight...Some weeks I eat less and I gain more weight those weeks than the weeks I eat 1700! I just dont get it...1 -
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A few more questions:
1) Do you mind sharing what types of foods you eat on a regular basis? Since you're vegan, your food groups are limited -- do you focus on whole foods more (grains, fruits, nuts, beans) -- or do you use a lot of prepared/processed foods? Perhaps a balance of both? And do you limit fats at all?
You're bound to get several people insisting that CICO is king, but I firmly believe that food type is incredibly important in fat assessment. This is speaking from 140 lbs loss experience.
2) Do you take measurements as well as scale readings? This will help you as you wonder about muscle/fluid/fat gain. Remember that even your bones will increase in density, as your body is healing from the "years," as you've described it, of eating less than your body needs.
3) Just out of curiosity, your average step intake: is that due to your daily movement or added exercise? How many steps do you normally get without added exercise?
4) Perhaps TMI, how regular are your bowel movements?24 -
First off, you're 20, so the possibility exists that you're still gaining because you're still growing.
At 120 lbs, you're probably burning a lot less than the step counter estimate that MFP is using. If your only activity is the 15-25k walking steps a day, that's 7-12 miles. and so 400-800 calories per day. with and estimated BMR of around 1300, that puts you to maintain at 1700-2200.
Acknowledging that you're coming from and ED background and not knowing what might trigger recurrence, it's difficult to make good suggestions other than to point out that you're probably underestimating how much you're eating... as others have said.
It doesn't matter how or what you eat. It only matters how much. You can become overweight as a vegan, keto, IF, etc.
For you, I would suggest adding or adjusting your activity to have a bit more variety and a bit of strength training. Bodyweight is fine for now. Pushups, pullups, squats, dips, etc.
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A few more questions:
1) Do you mind sharing what types of foods you eat on a regular basis? Since you're vegan, your food groups are limited -- do you focus on whole foods more (grains, fruits, nuts, beans) -- or do you use a lot of prepared/processed foods? Perhaps a balance of both? And do you limit fats at all?
You're bound to get several people insisting that CICO is king, but I firmly believe that food type is incredibly important in fat assessment. This is speaking from 140 lbs loss experience.
2) Do you take measurements as well as scale readings? This will help you as you wonder about muscle/fluid/fat gain. Remember that even your bones will increase in density, as your body is healing from the "years," as you've described it, of eating less than your body needs.
3) Just out of curiosity, your average step intake: is that due to your daily movement or added exercise? How many steps do you normally get without added exercise?
4) Perhaps TMI, how regular are your bowel movements?
1) For breakfast I usually eat fruit, oats or cereal. Maybe a toast with pb & tomato if there's nothing else, but i prefer oats or cereal. I never eat lunch because I'm just not hungry in the middle of the day, but I'll have a fruit or some nuts or something like that. Dinner is usually some kind of carb like potatoes with vegan meat (brand anamma right now because we've got the whole freezer full haha!) but sometimes I have breakfast for dinner. In the evening I'll often have some chocolate or maybe crisps if my boyfriend also has some. I snack some too during the days but often on some dry cereal or fruit, but I keep track.
2) I do, and it says that my body fat is lkie 22 or 21% if I remember correctly.
3) I usually just walk alot with my boyfriend, out here on the country where we live or in city with friends and it adds up to about 20 000 steps and it says on my step counter that I burn about 600-1200 calories from it depending on how fast I walk. The other day we walked 45 000 and ofc that was alot!
4) Every other day I think, sometimes less if I eat less, sometimes daily when I eat more3 -
Your body has to recover. Let it. IMHO....10
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utomjordingen wrote: »tinkerbellang83 wrote: »If you've gained it over the year then you're eating just slightly over maintenance. Your previous eating disorder may have you at a lower TDEE than you might normally have for your stats.
You've gained just under a half pound per week which would be approximately 250 calories a day over maintenance.
Healthy eating doesn't necessarily imply weight management, you can still overeat healthy things, without knowing too much about your disorder I wouldn't want to suggest getting too obsessive with numbers or food, maybe just be mindful of any higher calorie "healthy" foods you're eating.
But Myfitnesspal says that I should be eating 2000 with the exercise I'm doing, so I eat about 1500-1700-ish, so I shouldn't be gaining weight...Some weeks I eat less and I gain more weight those weeks than the weeks I eat 1700! I just dont get it...
Myfitnesspal can only do an estimate based on your stats, it can't take into account any damage you have done to your metabolism as a result of your eating disorder, and even without that it's still only a loose estimate and you have to adjust based on real world data.
It's quite easy to underestimate food intake and overestimate calorie burns. But the weight trend is the true reflection of what you're doing and gaining 24lbs over a period of around 52 weeks is just under a half pound per week, which means you're eating more than you're burning - simple.
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psychod787 wrote: »Your body has to recover. Let it. IMHO....
I guess so....I just don't want to get overweight by keeping this up.6 -
tinkerbellang83 wrote: »utomjordingen wrote: »tinkerbellang83 wrote: »If you've gained it over the year then you're eating just slightly over maintenance. Your previous eating disorder may have you at a lower TDEE than you might normally have for your stats.
You've gained just under a half pound per week which would be approximately 250 calories a day over maintenance.
Healthy eating doesn't necessarily imply weight management, you can still overeat healthy things, without knowing too much about your disorder I wouldn't want to suggest getting too obsessive with numbers or food, maybe just be mindful of any higher calorie "healthy" foods you're eating.
But Myfitnesspal says that I should be eating 2000 with the exercise I'm doing, so I eat about 1500-1700-ish, so I shouldn't be gaining weight...Some weeks I eat less and I gain more weight those weeks than the weeks I eat 1700! I just dont get it...
Myfitnesspal can only do an estimate based on your stats, it can't take into account any damage you have done to your metabolism as a result of your eating disorder, and even without that it's still only a loose estimate and you have to adjust based on real world data.
It's quite easy to underestimate food intake and overestimate calorie burns. But the weight trend is the true reflection of what you're doing and gaining 24lbs over a period of around 52 weeks is just under a half pound per week, which means you're eating more than you're burning - simple.
I usually overestimate on my calorie counter just to make sure. Like if I've had a cup of crisps I'll write that I had 2 cups just to be sure I didn't count more than I had ...So it shouldn't be that?
Will my metabolism never be okay? Do I have to like live of 800 calories just not to gain weight because of my ed in the past? 6 -
utomjordingen wrote: »psychod787 wrote: »Your body has to recover. Let it. IMHO....
I guess so....I just don't want to get overweight by keeping this up.
Of course not. But right now you’re at a healthy weight for your height, so breathe. This is a process, and it’s going to be a long one. You have thousands of weeks ahead of you. There will be plenty of time to try things, learn things, make mistakes, and make adjustments. It’s not going to just stop and let you go on autopilot the second you’ve reached a number you can tolerate seeing on the scale, and it’s also not going to suddenly stop the second you go over. Your body, its quirks, its needs, and its changes are yours for life.
For now, your focus needs to be on convincing it, in all good faith, that it is safe. I know you’re doing really difficult things against your instincts and that’s a strain, but you have to keep it up. Stop trying to overestimate your food and start measuring it. Eat it all. Take a rest now and then. Rebuild your body’s trust, and it will be better able to respond.4 -
utomjordingen wrote: »tinkerbellang83 wrote: »utomjordingen wrote: »tinkerbellang83 wrote: »If you've gained it over the year then you're eating just slightly over maintenance. Your previous eating disorder may have you at a lower TDEE than you might normally have for your stats.
You've gained just under a half pound per week which would be approximately 250 calories a day over maintenance.
Healthy eating doesn't necessarily imply weight management, you can still overeat healthy things, without knowing too much about your disorder I wouldn't want to suggest getting too obsessive with numbers or food, maybe just be mindful of any higher calorie "healthy" foods you're eating.
But Myfitnesspal says that I should be eating 2000 with the exercise I'm doing, so I eat about 1500-1700-ish, so I shouldn't be gaining weight...Some weeks I eat less and I gain more weight those weeks than the weeks I eat 1700! I just dont get it...
Myfitnesspal can only do an estimate based on your stats, it can't take into account any damage you have done to your metabolism as a result of your eating disorder, and even without that it's still only a loose estimate and you have to adjust based on real world data.
It's quite easy to underestimate food intake and overestimate calorie burns. But the weight trend is the true reflection of what you're doing and gaining 24lbs over a period of around 52 weeks is just under a half pound per week, which means you're eating more than you're burning - simple.
I usually overestimate on my calorie counter just to make sure. Like if I've had a cup of crisps I'll write that I had 2 cups just to be sure I didn't count more than I had ...So it shouldn't be that?
Will my metabolism never be okay? Do I have to like live of 800 calories just not to gain weight because of my ed in the past?
It may just be down to the entries you're choosing in the database, or the exercise you're logging, if you're eating around 1500-1700ish then no you don't need to live off 800, you're only a little way over maintenance not a 1000 calories over it. You're still bang in the middle of a healthy weight range at the moment so no need to panic.
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i recommend you reach out to your treatment team and talk to them - you are always in recovery from an ED, and they can potentially help you with some of the conflicting thoughts going on in your mind22
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I may be way out of line here Tinkerbelle, but perhaps logging calories after years of an eating disorder is maybe not such a good thing to be doing? It might be more beneficial to just try to eat 3 times a day, healthy food and don't worry about the scales/calories for a bit.7
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sorry - I got your name wrong! Doh.0
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Pipsqueak1965 wrote: »I may be way out of line here Tinkerbelle, but perhaps logging calories after years of an eating disorder is maybe not such a good thing to be doing? It might be more beneficial to just try to eat 3 times a day, healthy food and don't worry about the scales/calories for a bit.
@Pipsqueak1965 I never suggested logging the calories, OP is already doing that, if you refer back up in the thread, I've already said that OP should be careful of becoming obsessive about numbers and food given her background. I have just explained how she is gaining weight.2 -
utomjordingen wrote: »psychod787 wrote: »Your body has to recover. Let it. IMHO....
I guess so....I just don't want to get overweight by keeping this up.
When you come out of calorie restriction, it's common to have a weight gain at first -- and sadly, you can't do anything about it except try to accept it, and talk to your treatment team about how it feels, and let them work with you. (And I know I'm like the pot and the kettle with this one.)
My GP has cautioned me that I may experience another five-pound gain before everything gets settled out. Trust me when I say I've had lots and lots of crying and swearing over this one. It sucks. I know it sucks.
Overshoot may happen. At your stats, though, you are *perfectly* in the realm of a normal, healthy weight. It just feels overweight because you are used to being smaller.
My docs keep trying to tell me that trying to fight it just makes it worse. But you need to know that this is water, not fat, and in time, it'll sort itself out. They also have told me that in time, if I let myself heal now, it'll be easier to get this water weight and measurement increases off in time -- but I have to be patient and work with them first.
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deannalfisher wrote: »i recommend you reach out to your treatment team and talk to them - you are always in recovery from an ED, and they can potentially help you with some of the conflicting thoughts going on in your mind
This so very much. If you're in recovery/recovered from an ED, concerns regarding any weight gain or loss should be directed to your treatment providers. If your weight is a concern and you are not actively in therapy, set up an appointment with a professional who can provide guidance.6 -
fitoverfortymom wrote: »deannalfisher wrote: »i recommend you reach out to your treatment team and talk to them - you are always in recovery from an ED, and they can potentially help you with some of the conflicting thoughts going on in your mind
This so very much. If you're in recovery/recovered from an ED, concerns regarding any weight gain or loss should be directed to your treatment providers. If your weight is a concern and you are not actively in therapy, set up an appointment with a professional who can provide guidance.
I completely agree. I think it's time to reach out to your treatment team (or GP if you don't currently have a team) to discuss how you are feeling and what your body is doing. You sound pretty stressed about it, and it sounds like you are trying to limit your food by over-logging what you are consuming. They will be able to give you the best advice, as professionals who understand the process.
Take good care of yourself!
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collectingblues wrote: »utomjordingen wrote: »psychod787 wrote: »Your body has to recover. Let it. IMHO....
I guess so....I just don't want to get overweight by keeping this up.
When you come out of calorie restriction, it's common to have a weight gain at first -- and sadly, you can't do anything about it except try to accept it, and talk to your treatment team about how it feels, and let them work with you. (And I know I'm like the pot and the kettle with this one.)
My GP has cautioned me that I may experience another five-pound gain before everything gets settled out. Trust me when I say I've had lots and lots of crying and swearing over this one. It sucks. I know it sucks.
Overshoot may happen. At your stats, though, you are *perfectly* in the realm of a normal, healthy weight. It just feels overweight because you are used to being smaller.
My docs keep trying to tell me that trying to fight it just makes it worse. But you need to know that this is water, not fat, and in time, it'll sort itself out. They also have told me that in time, if I let myself heal now, it'll be easier to get this water weight and measurement increases off in time -- but I have to be patient and work with them first.
Thank you so much...I've heard that it's "water weight" before, but could it really be just water weight, after a full year of recovery? I've had my ups and downs but mostly ups... I am aware that I'm bigger than before, and that I feel huge compared to before, but that I'm really not.
It's just strange because I'm just a few kilos away from overweight, but I don't think I look that big, so that's why I was wondering if it might be muscle from walking so much, but I guess it could be water weight? If it's possible after a year of recovery, that is.0 -
Katiebear_81 wrote: »fitoverfortymom wrote: »deannalfisher wrote: »i recommend you reach out to your treatment team and talk to them - you are always in recovery from an ED, and they can potentially help you with some of the conflicting thoughts going on in your mind
This so very much. If you're in recovery/recovered from an ED, concerns regarding any weight gain or loss should be directed to your treatment providers. If your weight is a concern and you are not actively in therapy, set up an appointment with a professional who can provide guidance.
I completely agree. I think it's time to reach out to your treatment team (or GP if you don't currently have a team) to discuss how you are feeling and what your body is doing. You sound pretty stressed about it, and it sounds like you are trying to limit your food by over-logging what you are consuming. They will be able to give you the best advice, as professionals who understand the process. Take good care of yourself!
Thank you so much for being so caring. I don't have one, but it costs money here in Sweden when you're over 20, and I really, really can't afford that, having no job at the moment. I've been recovering on my own (with my lovely boyfriend, he is the best support) and it's been alright...It's just frustrating when things like this happens, and I have no one with answers4 -
utomjordingen wrote: »collectingblues wrote: »utomjordingen wrote: »psychod787 wrote: »Your body has to recover. Let it. IMHO....
I guess so....I just don't want to get overweight by keeping this up.
When you come out of calorie restriction, it's common to have a weight gain at first -- and sadly, you can't do anything about it except try to accept it, and talk to your treatment team about how it feels, and let them work with you. (And I know I'm like the pot and the kettle with this one.)
My GP has cautioned me that I may experience another five-pound gain before everything gets settled out. Trust me when I say I've had lots and lots of crying and swearing over this one. It sucks. I know it sucks.
Overshoot may happen. At your stats, though, you are *perfectly* in the realm of a normal, healthy weight. It just feels overweight because you are used to being smaller.
My docs keep trying to tell me that trying to fight it just makes it worse. But you need to know that this is water, not fat, and in time, it'll sort itself out. They also have told me that in time, if I let myself heal now, it'll be easier to get this water weight and measurement increases off in time -- but I have to be patient and work with them first.
Thank you so much...I've heard that it's "water weight" before, but could it really be just water weight, after a full year of recovery? I've had my ups and downs but mostly ups... I am aware that I'm bigger than before, and that I feel huge compared to before, but that I'm really not.
It's just strange because I'm just a few kilos away from overweight, but I don't think I look that big, so that's why I was wondering if it might be muscle from walking so much, but I guess it could be water weight? If it's possible after a year of recovery, that is.
It definitely could be. You put your body through a lot, and it takes time to recover and heal. A year certainly wouldn't be unheard of.
You've got another 6.5 kilos before hitting an overweight BMI. That's not "a few" and I think you know that.5 -
tinkerbellang83 wrote: »It could be due to gained muscle in legs from all the walking you do, like you walk a lot so I wouldn't be surprised as muscle weighs more than fat.
Muscle doesn't weigh more than fat, it's more dense and even with a progressive strength training program you wouldn't expect to see a particularly large gain on the scale for a female, let alone from walking.
A useful explanation of why this is one of the worst diet myths bandied about https://www.aworkoutroutine.com/weight-loss-plateau-myth-muscle-weighs-more-than-fat/
For the same volume, muscle does weigh more than fat. I’m pretty sure that’s what most people mean when they say muscle weighs more than fat, and Andia didn’t say a pound of muscle weighs more than a pound of fat. There are countless posts on MFP about how people who have gained muscle have smaller measurements despite not being at a lower weight, because muscle does weight more than fat at the same dimensions.
The problem with Andia’s post is that a lot of walking isn’t likely to build enough muscle to account for weight gain.
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tinkerbellang83 wrote: »It could be due to gained muscle in legs from all the walking you do, like you walk a lot so I wouldn't be surprised as muscle weighs more than fat.
Muscle doesn't weigh more than fat, it's more dense and even with a progressive strength training program you wouldn't expect to see a particularly large gain on the scale for a female, let alone from walking.
A useful explanation of why this is one of the worst diet myths bandied about https://www.aworkoutroutine.com/weight-loss-plateau-myth-muscle-weighs-more-than-fat/
For the same volume, muscle does weigh more than fat. I’m pretty sure that’s what most people mean when they say muscle weighs more than fat, and Tinkerbell didn’t say a pound of muscle weighs more than a pound of fat. There are countless posts on MFP about how people who have gained muscle have smaller measurements despite not being at a lower weight, because muscle does weight more than fat at the same dimensions.
The problem with Tinkerbell’s post is that a lot of walking isn’t likely to build enough muscle to account for weight gain.
@utahjulia it wasn't my post suggesting that walking would build muscle. I was responding to the poster who made that comment.
In most cases people assume weight gained when they incorporate new strength training exercise is muscle when realisticaly maybe 0.25lbs is muscle and the rest is water retention.3
This discussion has been closed.
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