Gained 4 pounds overnight on 1200 calories?!

AlexisH1996
AlexisH1996 Posts: 9 Member
in Motivation and Support
I'm feeling so discouraged. I have been working on losing weight for almost 3 weeks now. My first week and a half I didn't count calories at all and was just mindful of what I was eating. I lost almost 10 pounds. This last week I started at 226 and I went down to 225 yesterday. Today I weighed myself first thing in the morning and I weigh 229, and the past week I've been really good about counting my calories and staying at or barely above 1200. What could I possibly be doing wrong?! My calorie deficit is 900 and I'm 22 years old!

Replies

  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Do the math...you didn't gain 4 Lbs of fat overnight. Body weight fluctuates up down and all around.
  • maronesax1972
    maronesax1972 Posts: 272 Member
    edited November 2018
    My reco, if you must, weigh yourself once a week, same time, same day. But stay away from the daily weigh-ins. Know that your scale isn’t perfect either. You can weight yourself 10 times in a row and I’m pretty sure the weight won’t be the same all 10 times.

    And clothes matter too. Along with water weight, menstrual cycle and a whole host of other variables. As others said, your goal is to lose fat. And just like losing it, you can’t gain 4lbs that fast as well. You will be okay. Continue to work on your caloric deficit, and stay off the scale but once a week. You will feel much better!
  • jaynee7283
    jaynee7283 Posts: 160 Member
    I do weigh myself every day, but I only track it on Monday mornings right before I hop in the shower to get ready for work. And I don't let my daily weigh-ins bother me anymore - if anything it proves that you can fluctuate a LOT from day to day. I'm pretty faithful about keeping to my calorie limit and macros, but there are just some weeks you won't show progress. And that's OKAY. It doesn't mean you are failing - it just means your body is making adjustments and is taking a while to catch up.

    Below is a graphic of my own personal spreadsheet I keep that shows my weekly progress over the past two months. The cells in GREEN are a loss (YAY!). The cells in RED are gains (BOO!). Each one of those weeks I met my nutrition goals (a range of 1300-1500 calories daily, and a range of 50-100 carbs daily). Despite this, two weeks out of the eight I had a gain. But I didn't let that stop me - I kept going, and the result is that OVERALL I have lost 16.8 pounds in 8 weeks. That's a WIN regardless of those two weeks in red. And so I continue.

    ut95yu70dcap.png

    And yes, as someone else said, eating too few calories is not good. 1200 is likely too low. I'm a bit heavier than you, and sticking to 1300-1500 is working well for me.

    And also, that 10 pounds you lost in the first week was likely almost all water weight. You can't expect to have big losses like that every week. 1.5-2 pounds a week is a great goal. 3-4 pounds weekly is rare and typical only for REALLY large people (at 226, I would not categorize you as REALLY large).

    Keep up the good work, add a few calories back into your diet, and BE PATIENT! It'll happen!
  • tcunbeliever
    tcunbeliever Posts: 8,219 Member
    When it's close to lucifer's waterfall I can put on 9 lbs in a day...female and hormones and water retention, great mix...no, just no.

    Keep up what you are doing and don't worry about the scale swings.
  • amy19355
    amy19355 Posts: 805 Member
    edited November 2018
    Start with a read of the articles about how to determine your calorie needs at the rate you want to lose. most advice recommends .5-1.5 pounds a week. More per week loss is risky to health, and more difficult to sustain.

    after 2 months on 1200 calories a day, I read up on the information that I just recommended you to find and read, and decided to increase my daily calories to 1500.

    It has done exactly what I hoped - instead of losing at a risky rate of 2 lbs per week, it's looking like i'll come in at 1 to 1.5 pounds per week, (still need a few more weeks to log and take the average).

    It was REALLY helpful for me to accept that weight loss is not a straight line. There are just too many factors at play that will alter my weight from one day to the next.

    I also remind myself regularly that it is unreasonable to expect to lose in 3 months or 6 months all the weight that I spent 10 years packing on, and, to sustain that loss at my target weight I need to establish a habit of eating that I can count on doing all the time forever.

    In all of life, there is this truism that can be applied to a challenging prospect: Different results come from different actions. In other words, keep on doing the same things and there is no reason to expect a different result.

    Short quick weight loss programs that are overly restrictive are a prime reason behind many who suffer from the yo-yo or serial-starter diet syndrome.

    I suggest eat more and be patient.
    Here's my weight loss line graph for the last 2+ months to illustrate what a steady calorie diet looks like on the weigh-in chart.seppnvxmthcv.jpg

    good luck to you.

  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    Why are you eating so little?
  • AlexisH1996
    AlexisH1996 Posts: 9 Member
    According to multiple websites/weight loss calculators I should be eating 1200 to 1100 to lose 2 pounds a week. I'm short, I'm only 5'2" and I've tried losing weight eating around 1600 but I ended up hardly budging on my weight at all. I'm only eating 900 calories below maintenance. My maintenance is 2100. I've always seen that a rate of 1-2 pounds a week is desirable for weight loss... and since cutting 1000 calories per day will generally equal 2 pounds a week I'm actually eating enough to where I should quite hit 2 pounds per week.

    But thank you everyone for your input... I'm thinking it is a water retention issue. Still crazy to think I could gain 4 pounds overnight, that's a lot! But I think I might have skimped myself a bit on my water intake yesterday and that might have contributed. I'm trying to drink a lot more today. Crossing my fingers!
  • AlexisH1996
    AlexisH1996 Posts: 9 Member
    v221ezsdeurx.png
    This is what multiple weight loss calculators have given me! Being short and not having time for exercise does not leave me with very many calories if I want to lose weight. It recommends less than 1100 calories to lose 2 pounds a week! I'm eating 1200-1300. I don't get what the issue is.
  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
    going below 1200 is potentially going to compromise your health - is that worth it?

    also look at ways you can increase your LISS (walking steps etc) that will give you some additional calories to eat
  • AlexisH1996
    AlexisH1996 Posts: 9 Member
    How is that going to compromise my health? I'm only cutting 900 calories a day. I literally have no time to exercise. I have class all day and then study until 8-9 at night. I barely get a full 8 hours of sleep per night. So I don't eat extra calories because of that. Why is it such a big deal that I'm eating 1200 calories? I'm short and have a small frame, I have to create a deficit to lose weight.
  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
    Getting less than 1200 calories can put getting required nutrition at risk...the. Minimum for any female is 1200 and 1500 for men
  • AlexisH1996
    AlexisH1996 Posts: 9 Member
    I've been eating 1200-1300 calories a day, not less than 1200.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,463 Member
    I can gain 3 lbs between 8am and noon.
  • sarahlucindac
    sarahlucindac Posts: 235 Member
    deannalfisher wrote: »
    maronesax1972 wrote: »
    My reco, if you must, weigh yourself once a week, same time, same day. But stay away from the daily weigh-ins. Know that your scale isn’t perfect either. You can weight yourself 10 times in a row and I’m pretty sure the weight won’t be the same all 10 times.

    And clothes matter too. Along with water weight, menstrual cycle and a whole host of other variables. As others said, your goal is to lose fat. And just like losing it, you can’t gain 4lbs that fast as well. You will be okay. Continue to work on your caloric deficit, and stay of the scale but once a week. You will feel much better!

    or weigh daily so you can see how weight fluctuations are completely normal and nothing to freak out about

    I stopped my cycle of weekly anguish by weighing daily and using happy scale. Now I know and understand my weight fluctuations. I barely bat an eye when I see my weight bounce around from day to day. In the long run, it’s a downward trend as long as you keep going and doing your best.
  • sarahlucindac
    sarahlucindac Posts: 235 Member
    tcunbeliever wrote: »
    When it's close to lucifer's waterfall I can put on 9 lbs in a day...female and hormones and water retention, great mix...no, just no.

    Keep up what you are doing and don't worry about the scale swings.

    Lucifer’s waterfall 😂

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