Increased cals from 1200 to 1500 and have gained significantly every day since
purple4sure05
Posts: 287 Member
Hey guys, really stressed at the moment and not sure what to do. I've been eating 1200 calories gross for 3 months. I work out for over an hour 6 days a week running two and a half miles, walking quickly at an incline, and strength training. I'm 5'6 and around 131 pounds.
I decided I needed to increase my calories and start slowing down my weight loss as I transition to maintenance, so I went up to 1500 after a "cheat" meal which was all logged and left me around 1500 cals net. So nothing too crazy.
The day after my cheat meal I was 59.3 kg (1 kg is 2.2 pounds)
The next day 59.7
Then 59.8
Then 59.8
Then 60
Now today I'm in at 60.4?!
I need to add that my weight never fluctuates like this. I've seen it go up a maximum of .2 kg ever.
Yes I weigh every single thing I eat on a scale. Including oil. My diet has stayed almost identical with an addition of a couple wafer cookies and popcorn or a small portion of spring rolls.
This is 1500 gross as well which means 1200 net at the most with exercise cals.
What am I doing wrong
I want to just go back to 1200 before I ruin all my hard work. I was losing 1.5 to 2.2 pounds a week before and now I've gained every day for almost a week.
I decided I needed to increase my calories and start slowing down my weight loss as I transition to maintenance, so I went up to 1500 after a "cheat" meal which was all logged and left me around 1500 cals net. So nothing too crazy.
The day after my cheat meal I was 59.3 kg (1 kg is 2.2 pounds)
The next day 59.7
Then 59.8
Then 59.8
Then 60
Now today I'm in at 60.4?!
I need to add that my weight never fluctuates like this. I've seen it go up a maximum of .2 kg ever.
Yes I weigh every single thing I eat on a scale. Including oil. My diet has stayed almost identical with an addition of a couple wafer cookies and popcorn or a small portion of spring rolls.
This is 1500 gross as well which means 1200 net at the most with exercise cals.
What am I doing wrong
I want to just go back to 1200 before I ruin all my hard work. I was losing 1.5 to 2.2 pounds a week before and now I've gained every day for almost a week. 0
Replies
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Just a thought here but could it be partially increased waste in your system? You are likely eating more quantity and unless you are using the restroom more often that would definately increase what is in your digestive system. The next thought is water due to increased intake - just your body reacting to it? You haven't really gained a substantial amount but I understand that the 60 vs 59 seems like a huge jump. I would give it some time and just wait to see if your body settles.18
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I don't think that's significant weight gain, but normal fluctuations and gain from increasing your calories/carbs.25
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That's not significant weight gain. You're eating more, so you're going to have more inherent waste in your system. You're also replenishing glycogen and holding onto more water. Nobody with your stats and workout routine is gaining weight (fat) on a measly 1500 calories.21
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I go up and down 2-3 lbs pretty routinely. A trend app like Libra (Android) or Happy Scale (IOS) will keep you sane. It can be any number of things but highly unlikely to be real gain at this point.3
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If you were losing .5 to 1 kg a WEEK, then you were eating at a deficit of 3500 to 7500 calories a WEEK. Upping your calories 1500 in a week from that amount of deficit will merely slow your rate of loss over time. Gaining a few pounds scale weight in this scenario has nothing to do with fat.15
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Just for comparrison, I am 5ft5 and 133lbs and I maintain on net 2100 cals.
You're not gaining fat on 1500 calories.18 -
cheryldumais wrote: »Just a thought here but could it be partially increased waste in your system? You are likely eating more quantity and unless you are using the restroom more often that would definately increase what is in your digestive system. The next thought is water due to increased intake - just your body reacting to it? You haven't really gained a substantial amount but I understand that the 60 vs 59 seems like a huge jump. I would give it some time and just wait to see if your body settles.
I really hope it's just waste. I just feel like the extra food has been so light. I'm trying to not overreact but in the last three months my weight has never gone up more than .2 at a time so after 5 days of this I'm starting to worry. I'll try to ignore it a few more days but it's hard! Haha.3 -
TavistockToad wrote: »I don't think that's significant weight gain, but normal fluctuations and gain from increasing your calories/carbs.
I've just checked and my carbs are about 50g higher a day from 150 to 200. Is that enough to retain water? I didnt feel like it was much since I wasnt loadung up on bread or pasta, didnt really consider it.6 -
purple4sure05 wrote: »TavistockToad wrote: »I don't think that's significant weight gain, but normal fluctuations and gain from increasing your calories/carbs.
I've just checked and my carbs are about 50g higher a day from 150 to 200. Is that enough to retain water? I didnt feel like it was much since I wasnt loadung up on bread or pasta, didnt really consider it.
The scales say yes :laugh:8 -
purple4sure05 wrote: »TavistockToad wrote: »I don't think that's significant weight gain, but normal fluctuations and gain from increasing your calories/carbs.
I've just checked and my carbs are about 50g higher a day from 150 to 200. Is that enough to retain water? I didnt feel like it was much since I wasnt loadung up on bread or pasta, didnt really consider it.
Every gram of carbohydrate holds about 3-4 grams of water.6 -
I'd predict you'll lose at the 1500, too, if you hang in there (partly the math above, partly experience being near your height/weight, less active athletically, and several decades older).
Transitioning to higher calories can involve some roller-coaster scale weights; you could see even bigger weirdness if you hit your menstrual cycle fluctuations just wrong if you're premenopausal (fluctuations that could've been masked a bit by your very fast loss rate before this); and your cheat day may've introduced some extra carb/salt water weight craziness into the picture just to make things more confusing (even without going over goal).
Take a deep breath, don't do anything dramatic, hang in there for a few weeks. Odds are excellent that you'll be just fine.8 -
My weight always goes up when I increase my daily average. It’s temporary. You’re still losing fat.4
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That’s two pounds, right? I wouldn’t call that significant! I actually tried to lose a few lb under my goal because I knew that would happen on maintenance. Mathematically, it cannot be fat.7
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That’s two pounds, right? I wouldn’t call that significant! I actually tried to lose a few lb under my goal because I knew that would happen on maintenance. Mathematically, it cannot be fat.
Yeah I more so meant its significant for me because my weight doesn't fluctuate as much as most people. I haven't experienced much water weight gain after high carb meals or heavy workouts with sore muscles, TOM, etc. I understand though. I can see it's common and things are different for me now with the extra 300 calories. It makes sense that my weight might go up. 5 days in a row though really threw me for a loop haha.
Thanks for the tips though everyone! I feel a little better now despite the woos for just asking questions and taking feedback 😅4 -
purple4sure05 wrote: »That’s two pounds, right? I wouldn’t call that significant! I actually tried to lose a few lb under my goal because I knew that would happen on maintenance. Mathematically, it cannot be fat.
Yeah I more so meant its significant for me because my weight doesn't fluctuate as much as most people. I haven't experienced much water weight gain after high carb meals or heavy workouts with sore muscles, TOM, etc. I understand though. I can see it's common and things are different for me now with the extra 300 calories. It makes sense that my weight might go up. 5 days in a row though really threw me for a loop haha.
Thanks for the tips though everyone! I feel a little better now despite the woos for just asking questions and taking feedback 😅
You barely experienced weight fluctuations? I am sure that is cheating!!
I am glad you got your answer even if you cost you a few woos.
3 -
You barely experienced weight fluctuations? I am sure that is cheating!!
I am glad you got your answer even if you cost you a few woos.
Maybe I'm just lucky! Before I lost weight my scale was always 157.8 to 158.3 pounds when I decided to check, and my food intake varied a LOT back then. During my weightloss the last three months it would go down .1 or .2 kg per day (new country), sometimes stay the same, and only ever went up by .1 and then back down immediately the next day. It always correlated with leg day at the gym. Only went up by .2 one time in three months haha.
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Also bear in mind that if you're gaining muscle, the scale will show a weight gain even if you're actually "losing" weight. I mean to say, you may be losing fat and gaining muscle, you'll be leaner, but the scale won't show it, it will actually show more Kg but you'll be losing fat anyway.
You should also be monitoring body fat % and the sort, and not only weight. That way you can really know if you're "gaining weight" or if you're gaining in muscle.
By the way, as everyone is saying, if you're taking in 1500 kcal per day there's no way you're gaining weight. Not fat weight anyway. Most probably it's just water or waste, or, as I said above, lean tissue (muscle), so the kilograms would be higher but you'll actually be "slimmer".21 -
Remember that for a given volume, the same volume of muscle weighs more than the same volume of fat.4
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purple4sure05 wrote: »
You barely experienced weight fluctuations? I am sure that is cheating!!
I am glad you got your answer even if you cost you a few woos.
Maybe I'm just lucky! Before I lost weight my scale was always 157.8 to 158.3 pounds when I decided to check, and my food intake varied a LOT back then. During my weightloss the last three months it would go down .1 or .2 kg per day (new country), sometimes stay the same, and only ever went up by .1 and then back down immediately the next day. It always correlated with leg day at the gym. Only went up by .2 one time in three months haha.
I will hate you forever now.
But really weight fluctuations are no big deal once you tell yourself they are no big deal and watch enough of them go by. I don't love that they happen but I care a lot less now than when I started. It also helps to keep the math in your head of 3500 calories to gain or lose a pound of fat to know some of them are impossible fat-wise.2 -
Also bear in mind that if you're gaining muscle, the scale will show a weight gain even if you're actually "losing" weight. I mean to say, you may be losing fat and gaining muscle, you'll be leaner, but the scale won't show it, it will actually show more Kg but you'll be losing fat anyway.
You should also be monitoring body fat % and the sort, and not only weight. That way you can really know if you're "gaining weight" or if you're gaining in muscle.
By the way, as everyone is saying, if you're taking in 1500 kcal per day there's no way you're gaining weight. Not fat weight anyway. Most probably it's just water or waste, or, as I said above, lean tissue (muscle) , so the kilograms would be higher but you'll actually be "slimmer".
If someone could give me the recipe for gaining 1kg of muscle in 5 days, and it didn't involve HGH or other PEDs, i'd love them forever.
Just saying...
Takes YEARS of eating at a surplus for females to gain significant muscle without turning to the juice.
So OP - most likely the water from the carbs.
And it's not a significant gain, as others above have said, but I know how you feel because scales suck!!
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I agree that is not a significant fluctuation. But definitely hang in there bc I’m typically 5’2 115 lbs and exercise an hour a day with one rest day and maintain easily on 2200-2300 so there’s no way you’re gaining fat on 1500. You need to give your body a chance to tolerate the increased food as your digestion has likely slowed significantly with how little you have been eating and now your system is like “how do I process this?” I personally think you should be eating at least 1700-1800 cals per day. I spent YEARS trying to eat 1200-1500, which lead to binges, and you know how much I weighed then? Around 115 lbs as well. So I’m very anti super low cal diets. At the very least I would take maintenance refeed weeks regularly so you don’t continue to destroy your metabolism.3
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Cahgetsfit wrote: »If someone could give me the recipe for gaining 1kg of muscle in 5 days, and it didn't involve HGH or other PEDs, i'd love them forever.
Just saying...
Takes YEARS of eating at a surplus for females to gain significant muscle without turning to the juice.
So OP - most likely the water from the carbs.
And it's not a significant gain, as others above have said, but I know how you feel because scales suck!!
That's not always the case. For example, I've been extremely active almost my whole life; at one point (some 10 years ago) I was at the elite athlete level, playing three sports and training over 3/4 hours per day and then plus gym. Then I grew old and when I stopped training and didn't immediately lower my intake I obviously gained weight, quite a lot at one point --- I gained 25 Kg in the first 4 years and then I lost 27 Kg in 2014 when I started training and watching my intake again. Then I quit training again and not caring for what I eat and in the past three years I gained back around 12 Kg. So now I started again with my meal program and training so I can lose that again, this time I'll try to maintain it.
Whenever I start again with a training & eating program, I start gaining muscle weight almost immediately, usually within the first week. The body has an incredible muscle memory and if your body is used to gaining muscle weight, it will start doing it surprisingly quickly.
21 -
I agree that is not a significant fluctuation. But definitely hang in there bc I’m typically 5’2 115 lbs and exercise an hour a day with one rest day and maintain easily on 2200-2300 so there’s no way you’re gaining fat on 1500. You need to give your body a chance to tolerate the increased food as your digestion has likely slowed significantly with how little you have been eating and now your system is like “how do I process this?” I personally think you should be eating at least 1700-1800 cals per day. I spent YEARS trying to eat 1200-1500, which lead to binges, and you know how much I weighed then? Around 115 lbs as well. So I’m very anti super low cal diets. At the very least I would take maintenance refeed weeks regularly so you don’t continue to destroy your metabolism.
My plan was to increase to 1700 after this, so I'm on my way there Hopefully I'm not cursed and my maintenance calories aren't actually 1500 lol. I'm hoping to do 1500 during the week and 2100 on weekend days eventually. I thought it would work based on calculating my TDEE from intake/weight loss over the last 4 weeks, 6 weeks, and 3 months for reference, but now I'm feeling skeptical. 2 -
Cahgetsfit wrote: »If someone could give me the recipe for gaining 1kg of muscle in 5 days, and it didn't involve HGH or other PEDs, i'd love them forever.
Just saying...
Takes YEARS of eating at a surplus for females to gain significant muscle without turning to the juice.
So OP - most likely the water from the carbs.
And it's not a significant gain, as others above have said, but I know how you feel because scales suck!!
That's not always the case. For example, I've been extremely active almost my whole life; at one point (some 10 years ago) I was at the elite athlete level, playing three sports and training over 3/4 hours per day and then plus gym. Then I grew old and when I stopped training and didn't immediately lower my intake I obviously gained weight, quite a lot at one point --- I gained 25 Kg in the first 4 years and then I lost 27 Kg in 2014 when I started training and watching my intake again. Then I quit training again and not caring for what I eat and in the past three years I gained back around 12 Kg. So now I started again with my meal program and training so I can lose that again, this time I'll try to maintain it.
Whenever I start again with a training & eating program, I start gaining muscle weight almost immediately, usually within the first week. The body has an incredible muscle memory and if your body is used to gaining muscle weight, it will start doing it surprisingly quickly.
Don't mistake neuromuscular adaptation for muscle fiber gain, nor confuse the process of strength regain as being the same as gaining brand new strength or muscle mass.
For a woman, a quarter pound of new muscle mass gain per week would be a very good result under optimal conditions (which include a calorie surplus), or half a pound for a man. Strength gain, and even visually-perceived "tone", can happen faster.
On the other hand, half a pound per week is about the slowest perceivable fat loss rate, over anything less than a multi-month observation period.
Sadly.13 -
I started training again 7 weeks ago. Obviously I'm not training as much as I did 10 years ago, but I'm trying to exercise at least 1:30 hours per day, sometimes 2, alternating between training only one sport , going to the gym and walking (What with work and college and everything else, I don't have the time or energy anymore to do everything I did when I was younger -- I'm 37 and my body knows it!). Right now I'm only doing ice hockey on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays, gym on Wednesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, and whenever I finish early I walk home, and that's around a 5km walk. On Sundays I rest, although if I'm not that tired I might walk a while or go for a short run.0
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Sorry, my last comment got too separated from the other, this is my first time chipping in here and didn't realize everyone answered back so quickly!!
Greetings from Buenos Aires! 5 -
Cahgetsfit wrote: »If someone could give me the recipe for gaining 1kg of muscle in 5 days, and it didn't involve HGH or other PEDs, i'd love them forever.
Just saying...
Takes YEARS of eating at a surplus for females to gain significant muscle without turning to the juice.
So OP - most likely the water from the carbs.
And it's not a significant gain, as others above have said, but I know how you feel because scales suck!!
That's not always the case. For example, I've been extremely active almost my whole life; at one point (some 10 years ago) I was at the elite athlete level, playing three sports and training over 3/4 hours per day and then plus gym. Then I grew old and when I stopped training and didn't immediately lower my intake I obviously gained weight, quite a lot at one point --- I gained 25 Kg in the first 4 years and then I lost 27 Kg in 2014 when I started training and watching my intake again. Then I quit training again and not caring for what I eat and in the past three years I gained back around 12 Kg. So now I started again with my meal program and training so I can lose that again, this time I'll try to maintain it.
Whenever I start again with a training & eating program, I start gaining muscle weight almost immediately, usually within the first week. The body has an incredible muscle memory and if your body is used to gaining muscle weight, it will start doing it surprisingly quickly.
As mentioned by @AnnPT77 neuromuscular adaptation. Not actual full on proper "gainz". OP can't have gained 5kg of muscle on 1500 calories over 5 days. Just not physically possible.
She did gain glycogen in her muscles due to upping her carbs tho.
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This can freak out dieters trying to transition to weight maintenance or smaller deficit. What you think of as your weight is a range, not a number, so 59 is about how much you weigh right now when you eat 1200 calories. 60 is about how much you weigh right now when you eat 1500 calories.
That's why some dieters get frustrated when they transition to maintenance and think they "broke their metabolism". When you lose weight and achieve a certain weight then transition to maintenance (smaller deficit in your case), it's almost inevitable that you will be maintaining a weight that is higher than what you used to weigh when you were dieting (will start to lose from a higher starting point in your case). Food volume, glycogen...etc. It's not exactly "excess water", it's more like your new average water/glycogen/food weight. Of course, it may have coincided with actual water retention, but my point is, expect to be at a slightly higher weight for a while.5 -
There are a lot of numbers between 1200 and 1500. Pick one of them.7
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There are a lot of numbers between 1200 and 1500. Pick one of them.
I'm 5 ft 6 and exercise heavily for an hour and a half 6 days a week. I'm transitioning into maintenance. According to my weight loss trends, online estimates, and common sense I shouldn't have to reduce my calories below 1500 to maintain.8
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