Gaining Weight Rapidly after Successfully Maintaining

harrylovesginny

Okay, my story is a bit of a long one, and it's probably been posted by others before, but I'd appreciate if you bear with me and give me some advice!

My whole life I was moderately overweight. Two years ago when I left for college I was determined not to gain the freshman 15. I worked out 1-2 hours a day (only cardio at that point) and cut back drastically on my food intake. The weight came off easily and quickly. I probably wasn't eating enough at one point, but I started to learn about nutrition and healthy eating and changed my lifestyle again to fit all my research. I finally leveled off at about 118 (I'm 5'6'', small frame) in May of 2012. I stayed there until this past February when I decided to see a nutritionist to gain a bit of weight (I honestly felt healthy at this weight, but was experiencing secondary amenorrhea). I gained some weight, but was staying around 125 where I was comfortable, and in the healthy range.

This weight gain did surprise me a bit, because it happened so quickly, but I accepted that my body needed more. However, I've suddenly (in the past few weeks) shot up four more pounds. I don't want to be 10 pounds heavier than where I feel my best, and I don't understand why I've gained so much so quickly. I have lowered my exercise some this summer due to limited gym access, (normally I do about 3 hours of cardio and 2 hours of strength a week) but I haven't eaten above maintenance (as far as I can tell) and in fact have been trying to eat in a deficit the past few weeks to get my weight back under control.

Any advice you can give would be greatly appreciated. I have been eating about 1600 calories the past few weeks, and before that was eating around 1900-2000 a day. Thank you!

pkw58

I think you are doing it right - monitoring your weight and adjusting calories in up or down as needed. I have had the sudden ups on the scale and just go back to setting my calories at sedentary, lose 1/2 a pound a week till I am about a pound below consistently. Then I reset to adding back or my maintenance level. I have a desk job so I consider my lifestyle sedentary and have to add every exercise calorie up so I weqr a nike fuel band to get a read on what I am burning. I don't eat it all back as it is all estimates.

I will say the more I exercise at my goal weight the more the weight goes up and down a pound or two. I just don't let it bother me. My clothes are looser so I need to have some one help me remeasure. Muscle is much more dense than fat, so even at the same weight my clothes are getting looser.