1400, lifting and gaining weight

Ereberi
Ereberi Posts: 4 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello!

I'm eating 1400 calories, weight lifting and I've gained about 10lbs in the last 5 weeks.

I used to be at 1200 and I've tried to fix what I diagnosed as a "starved metabolism" by increasing daily calories by 50-100 each 7-10 days. I've scoured internet/forums and know that a lot of people report water weight. But 10 lbs in 5 weeks!? I'm starting to not fit into my clothes and my body looks different so I know it's not muscle gain.

Help please. I'm considering going back to 1200 to lose this weight, but I'm worried that won't even work!

Thank you so much!
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Replies

  • Maxxitt
    Maxxitt Posts: 1,281 Member
    In addition to stats, what kind of lifting program/frequency of lifting have you been doing?
  • FlyingMolly
    FlyingMolly Posts: 490 Member
    I second all of the above, and especially the food-scale question.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,053 Member
    Please change your Diary Sharing settings to Public: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings
  • Ereberi
    Ereberi Posts: 4 Member
    Thank you so much for the responses! My log is pubic now. It feels very vulnerable to share something like this in public! But I’m grateful for all your time and help :)


    Answers to the question:
    Yes I use a food scale.
    Last I weighted myself (on Thursday) I was 152, 5’5 (I don’t track my weight on MFP, so that information if you can see it isn’t reliable)
    I gained the 10lbs steadily over 5 weeks (great question, didn’t think of that!)

    I think I have a starved metabolism because eating 1200 (going hungry) and exercising I’m still not getting leaner. I think I'm not eating enough for how much I exercise, I even feel lightheaded at times when I eat 1200 for more than 1 day, but going higher leads to gains.

    Exercise: Right now I’m doing a mix of plyometrics, heavy weight lifting, and HIIT. 4 days a week for one hour, 1 day a week for 30mins.

    Thank you again!
  • Ereberi
    Ereberi Posts: 4 Member
    Also, for context this isn't the first time I try to increase my caloric intake. I did it earlier this year and went from 131 to 139. I wondered if
    1: I had increased my caloric intake too much (I got up to 1800 net calories)
    2: I didn't increase it slowly enough
    3: I didn't workout the right way.

    So this time around I:
    1: Increased calories more slowly
    2: I'm following Natacha Oceane's CUT workout program
    3: I'm still at a max of 1450 net calories.

    Thanks!
  • cerise_noir
    cerise_noir Posts: 5,468 Member
    edited October 2018
    nutmegoreo wrote: »
    cerise_noir wrote: »
    I just took a peek at your diary.. I see a lot of cups and spoon measurements for foods such as cheese, peanut butter, oatmeal, grains. Weigh your eggs. Weigh everything that isn’t a liquid/can be poured. Spoons and cups for liquids only. Weigh everything, even the bread slices and prepackaged foods.

    Just to add to this, I would even weigh the olive oil. It is calorie dense at 9 calories per gram. It doesn't take much to get way off. The only stuff I don't weigh is water, milk, and soda pop.
    Very true! I have an atomizer so I weigh the bottle before and after sprays.
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    cerise_noir wrote: »
    I just took a peek at your diary.. I see a lot of cups and spoon measurements for foods such as cheese, peanut butter, oatmeal, grains. Weigh your eggs. Weigh everything that isn’t a liquid/can be poured. Spoons and cups for liquids only. Weigh everything, even the bread slices and prepackaged foods.

    It was a sad, sad day when I started weighing peanut butter :'(

    gg63lox34cp1.jpg
    I know, right?

    Also, oatmeal and other grains. It’s nuts (pun intended).
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
    cerise_noir wrote: »
    nutmegoreo wrote: »
    cerise_noir wrote: »
    I just took a peek at your diary.. I see a lot of cups and spoon measurements for foods such as cheese, peanut butter, oatmeal, grains. Weigh your eggs. Weigh everything that isn’t a liquid/can be poured. Spoons and cups for liquids only. Weigh everything, even the bread slices and prepackaged foods.

    Just to add to this, I would even weigh the olive oil. It is calorie dense at 9 calories per gram. It doesn't take much to get way off. The only stuff I don't weigh is water, milk, and soda pop.
    Very true! I have an atomizer so I weigh the bottle before and after sprays.
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    cerise_noir wrote: »
    I just took a peek at your diary.. I see a lot of cups and spoon measurements for foods such as cheese, peanut butter, oatmeal, grains. Weigh your eggs. Weigh everything that isn’t a liquid/can be poured. Spoons and cups for liquids only. Weigh everything, even the bread slices and prepackaged foods.

    It was a sad, sad day when I started weighing peanut butter :'(

    gg63lox34cp1.jpg
    I know, right?

    Also, oatmeal and other grains. It’s nuts (pun intended).

    I place the container on the scale, spray or pour (depending on which I'm using) and then place container back on the scale. I'm as lazy as can be. :laugh:

    And yes, peanut butter is the saddest thing ever.
  • cerise_noir
    cerise_noir Posts: 5,468 Member
    gdhanoa4977 wrote: »
    Surely you are not carefully measuring your macros. Do you know what's your maintenance macro? if you want to loose fat you need to be in deficit, unfortunately there is nothing as slow/ starved metabolism.

    It appears OP isn’t weighing some of their solid foods in grams. It’s true that to lose fat, one has to be in a calorie deficit, but macros are purely individual.

  • Cahgetsfit
    Cahgetsfit Posts: 1,912 Member
    ahhh olive oil... yeah ages ago when I started my weight loss, I'd pour on olive oil on my salad and not log it because I had no idea that olive oil was a massive calorie bomb - like seriously - I had NO IDEA. I was still losing weight (i was on a plan that a coach gave me, and I didn't log everything all the time anyway coz it was a meal plan with options like eat x grams of this, this or this for meal #1, etc).

    Anyway, I was losing but nowhere near as much as the coach was predicting - which wasn't huge btw, it wasn't one of those starve and lose 20kg in 12 weeks things, but i'd see her at my month check-in and sometimes I wouldn't have lost my 1-2 kilos or whatever that I was meant to have lost.

    So after I realised that one tablespoon of olive oil is a billion calories and stopped actually using it on my salad (or else just using ONE tablespoon measure out instead of tipping the bottle upside down and swirling it around), I actually started losing weight at the predicted rate.

    And the peanut butter thing too... sad sad day when you realise one tablespoon of peanut butter is actually NOT a tablespoon of peanut butter!!!
  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
    Ereberi wrote: »
    Thank you so much for the responses! My log is pubic now. It feels very vulnerable to share something like this in public! But I’m grateful for all your time and help :)


    Answers to the question:
    Yes I use a food scale.
    Last I weighted myself (on Thursday) I was 152, 5’5 (I don’t track my weight on MFP, so that information if you can see it isn’t reliable)
    I gained the 10lbs steadily over 5 weeks (great question, didn’t think of that!)

    I think I have a starved metabolism because eating 1200 (going hungry) and exercising I’m still not getting leaner. I think I'm not eating enough for how much I exercise, I even feel lightheaded at times when I eat 1200 for more than 1 day, but going higher leads to gains.

    Exercise: Right now I’m doing a mix of plyometrics, heavy weight lifting, and HIIT. 4 days a week for one hour, 1 day a week for 30mins.

    Thank you again!

    no such thing as a starved metabolism what it could be is adaptive thermogenesis but since you arent weighing everything, then you are eating more than you think.10lb in 5 weeks is 2lbs a week which means you are eating 1000 calories over your maintenance calories. some of it MAY be water weight though but dont think all of it would be.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,143 Member
    edited October 2018
    nutmegoreo wrote: »
    cerise_noir wrote: »
    I just took a peek at your diary.. I see a lot of cups and spoon measurements for foods such as cheese, peanut butter, oatmeal, grains. Weigh your eggs. Weigh everything that isn’t a liquid/can be poured. Spoons and cups for liquids only. Weigh everything, even the bread slices and prepackaged foods.

    Just to add to this, I would even weigh the olive oil. It is calorie dense at 9 calories per gram. It doesn't take much to get way off. The only stuff I don't weigh is water, milk, and soda pop.

    I weigh my milk :) I also note that olive oil weighs a bit less than 1g per ml, so it is closer to 11ml for 10g :)


    And the rest of the wise observations above.

    Condiments and some zero calorie products too are worth watching. Non US based entries often have 100g values which present a different reality for my 50g portion as compared to the "zero calories" for a 1.7g portion food label.

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