Weight gain -- why

Katen244
Katen244 Posts: 3 Member
in Motivation and Support
I successfully lost 25+ pounds. I took a break, but I'm ready to start dieting again. I gained 3 pounds during my break, probably partial water weight. I've been calorie counting and diligently excercising (HIIT, cardio, barre, weights) for over a week and the scale has gone UP. Feeling super down as now I've gained 6 pounds. Anything similar happen out there? Hard to stay motivated

Replies

  • countcurt
    countcurt Posts: 593 Member
    If I read this correctly, you've gained three pounds in the past week. I'd agree that if you're exercising fairly aggressively you might gain some weight, but at three pounds, you need to at least ask yourself some serious questions about your eating. Such as...


    Am I calorie counting as diligently as I am exercising?
    Am I keeping track of what I'm eating? As in everything?
    Am I using the correct information in my calorie calculation (both on the food I'm eating and on my target intake)?


    If the answer is yes, you can ride it out a bit longer. If you're still gaining weight or not losing, time to start eating less.
  • Katen244
    Katen244 Posts: 3 Member
    Thank you! I think I'll be extra diligent and see what happens. I think this means less restaurants for me. Hopefully it's water weight... Hard to imagine if I'm counting I'd have a margin of error of hundreds of calories each day.
  • countcurt
    countcurt Posts: 593 Member
    edited September 2018
    Katen244 wrote: »
    Thank you! I think I'll be extra diligent and see what happens. I think this means less restaurants for me. Hopefully it's water weight... Hard to imagine if I'm counting I'd have a margin of error of hundreds of calories each day.

    If you're spending a lot of time in restaurants, it's not hard to imagine a huge margin of error at all.



    How do you count your calories when you dine out?
  • vingogly
    vingogly Posts: 1,785 Member
    countcurt wrote: »
    If you're spending a lot of time in restaurants, it's not hard to imagine a huge margin of error at all.

    Chain restaurants usually offer nutritional information for their meals, which is probably somewhat inaccurate but better than nothing. Independent restaurants are worse, because you don't know what you're getting. This article mentions a research project that found a serving of tandoori chicken at Indian restaurants ranged from 1200 to 3000 calories - a huge range:

    http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/health/worse-fast-food-meals-independent-restaurants-pack-caloric-punch-article-1.1342837

  • cmcollins001
    cmcollins001 Posts: 3,472 Member
    One question I haven't seen asked, but, are you eating back your exercise calories? If so, how are you tracking those calories? Between not accurately counting food intake, not accurately calculating exercise burns, starting "over" with an exercise routine...well, let's just say that the scale may not reflect too kindly.

    Also, are you weighing at the approximately the same time and under the same conditions each time? For instance, if you weigh one day in the morning after you wake up and the next time you're weighing sometime in the evening, you will show weight gain.

    Finally, the scale isn't going to be as accurate as you want it to be. It should only be used for trending over longer periods of time. One week isn't going to give you the data you need to determine if you need to make any adjustments at this point. I have both gained and lost as much as a pound, according to the scale, just taking a shower. No, I didn't really gain a pound nor did I really lose a pound just taking a shower.

    Bottom line, there are a whole lot of factors at play here. Give it time. Accurately weigh and measure and log your calorie intake as best you can. Be consistent in how you measure (food scales are the best). Use a fitness watch or smartwatch or heart rate monitor to track calorie burns during exercise. If you do eat back your exercise calories, eat about half so you run less of a risk of over calculations. Track, trend, monitor, adjust, rest, repeat.
  • vingogly
    vingogly Posts: 1,785 Member
    edited September 2018
    Something else to consider - a weight trending app will smooth out the day-to-day "noise" in your weight data. It's highly unlikely you actually gained 6 lbs over the course of a week - that would mean a daily excess of 3000 calories PER DAY over maintenance (3500 calories per pound). A trending app smooths out the daily "noise" and shows the trend up and down with a line, and the individual data points. I use Happy Scale, which is available for iPhones and Android phones; Libra for Android looks to be similar.

    https://happyscale.com/

    Another option is the TrendWeight site, which works well if you have a wifi scale or fitbit, but can be used by manually entering weight into the fitbit site.
  • tlpina82
    tlpina82 Posts: 229 Member
    There's also the possibility of inflammation. I don't know how long you;ve been on a break, but coming back straight into all of that may have caused your muscles and joints to inflame. Which usually makes them fill up with water.
  • Katen244
    Katen244 Posts: 3 Member
    Thank you everyone! The 3 pounds went away — think it was inflammation. From now on, I’m doing 1,500 calories a day and NOT eating back my calories
  • psychod787
    psychod787 Posts: 4,099 Member
    I ditto the weight trending app... I will use the last 4 days of my weigh in as an example of flux... 173, 4 days ago, then the next 177, today 174.... wide range of movements. I am personally in a surplus right now, so the trending app allows me to smooth it our a little to get a rough idea how much.

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