Pounds creeping back when transitioning to maintainence
rosewolf13
Posts: 12 Member
I have been between 108-110 for 4 months, it is where I felt healthiest, most confident etc.
For the 4 months it was relatively easy to maintain, but suddenly, almost overnight I began seeing weight creep back. My diet has not changed, I eat the same foods with 1 cheat day a week, similar calorie intake, similar exercise, I even keep track of when I eat my meals.
I am now at 113.5 and still seeing a steady gain of about a half lb a day.
Should I be concerned? Or is this all part of my body and my metabolism figuring itself out?
For the 4 months it was relatively easy to maintain, but suddenly, almost overnight I began seeing weight creep back. My diet has not changed, I eat the same foods with 1 cheat day a week, similar calorie intake, similar exercise, I even keep track of when I eat my meals.
I am now at 113.5 and still seeing a steady gain of about a half lb a day.
Should I be concerned? Or is this all part of my body and my metabolism figuring itself out?
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Replies
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rosewolf13 wrote: »I am now at 113.5 and still seeing a steady gain of about a half lb a day.
Half a pound a DAY?? Did you mean a week?
No it's not your metabolism.
Yes you should be concerned assuming this is a steady trend over a period of more than a month. Just simply make a small adjustment to your calorie balance.
Most likely just portion creep or small differences in your exercise or day to day activity.6 -
Yes, I meant a day. I was 108 3 weeks agorosewolf13 wrote: »I am now at 113.5 and still seeing a steady gain of about a half lb a day.
Half a pound a DAY?? Did you mean a week?
No it's not your metabolism.
Yes you should be concerned assuming this is a steady trend over a period of more than a month. Just simply make a small adjustment to your calorie balance.
Most likely just portion creep or small differences in your exercise or day to day activity.
Weighed in at 115 this morning.
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A 7 pound gain over 3 weeks certainly sounds like something is off.
Are you weighing your foods carefully? Logging everything? That data is your friend! :-)
Whatever you do, try making a small adjustment, and then watching the results over time.4 -
rosewolf13 wrote: »
Yes, I meant a day. I was 108 3 weeks agorosewolf13 wrote: »I am now at 113.5 and still seeing a steady gain of about a half lb a day.
Half a pound a DAY?? Did you mean a week?
No it's not your metabolism.
Yes you should be concerned assuming this is a steady trend over a period of more than a month. Just simply make a small adjustment to your calorie balance.
Most likely just portion creep or small differences in your exercise or day to day activity.
Weighed in at 115 this morning.
Blimey!
Well you know for sure that you haven't suddenly starting eating over maintenance by 1,750 cals a day so that's not fat gain.
Which really leaves looking for reasons why you have started to retain water.
(Or constipation, or broken bathroom scales....)10 -
If it doesn't resolve itself in two weeks or so, take yourself off to a doctor - especially if it's accompanied by other symptoms.
I'm just now dropping the 20 lbs of fluid/etc that I put on over two months of that kind of thing, after taking myself off to *multiple* doctors.
Be honest with yourself about how your diet and exercise have been. If you *are* honest and *know* you've not changed anything, (if nothing else, MFP tends to help you understand your body much better than the average bear) then there absolutely can be something wrong, but no one here is going to be able to diagnose it for you. Even your doctor will often need some blood tests to figure it out.
1/2 lb a day is a lot, and you should keep an eye on it, but don't beat yourself up if you know you're doing things correctly. Take notes and then go to the doctor.5 -
Most likely just portion creep or small differences in your exercise or day to day activity.
^This.
Happens to me as well. When I hit a weight that I like (175lbs) I stop tracking. Once my weight consistently stays above 180lbs, I tighten up and track until I am back at 175lbs...
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When you say cheat day, what does that involve food wise?7
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this is why I didn't maintain my weight loss the last 3 times I dieted down to my ideal weight...
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I kind of agree with where "cupcakes" is headed... Those "cheat" days. Do you log? In maintenance I know that I have to account for all the cals. I could put on 7 pounds in 3 weeks pretty easily I think. Half might be water weight etc...
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check your water intake you may be retaining fluid because you arent drinking enough plus instead of a cheat day make it a cheat meal3
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How often do you weigh yourself? This might be a normal fluctuation due to high sodium cheat day or where you are in your monthly cycle.3
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cupcakesandproteinshakes wrote: »When you say cheat day, what does that involve food wise?
Cheat day is typically Sunday. I have a healthy breakfast and a stack of 3-4 pancakes for lunch with whipped cream and 100% maple syrup, fruit. Then a small dinner..I still stay within calorie goals but the extra sugar makes me feel nasty. I call it a cheat day because I consistently splurge on pancakes every sunday.1 -
rosewolf13 wrote: »cupcakesandproteinshakes wrote: »When you say cheat day, what does that involve food wise?
Cheat day is typically Sunday. I have a healthy breakfast and a stack of 3-4 pancakes for lunch with whipped cream and 100% maple syrup, fruit. Then a small dinner..I still stay within calorie goals but the extra sugar makes me feel nasty. I call it a cheat day because I consistently splurge on pancakes every sunday.
So you aren't going over your calories by the sound of that, and even if you weren't tracking the calories in that one 'cheat' meal accurately it wouldn't account for that much gain.
Have you started a new activity? are you stressed? not sleeping well? something must have changed and as the others say, perhaps you are aren't tracking as religiously so your food intake has increased.....0 -
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I'm with sijomial that if you were eating enough extra calories to account for your short-term gain, or being enough less active to account for it, you'd notice. That makes it likely to be water weight.
There are a lot of things that can increase water weight, such as minor illnesses or injuries (even things like sunburn, a virus/infection, cold or allergies), unusually hot weather, extra exercise, flying on airplanes, and more. Usually, it's temporary, like 5-7 days or until the cause (such as illness) passes.
It's probably nothing important, but if it sticks around for several weeks, go see your doctor, and take your food diary and scale-weight logs with you. Meantime, that advice to log every day, even cheat days (and BLT - bites, licks, tastes), is good advice.6 -
Most likely culprits in no particular order
Water weight
Broken scale or needs new battery
Inaccurately self reporting of calorie intake/output
Portion creep.
I would go back to basics for a few weeks. Change scale battery. Log tightly and more accurately than you have been doing. Don’t change anything else meantime.
You may get a woosh fingers crossed and then u know it was water.
If yr really concerned you could see the doctor but I would wait a few more weeks personally5 -
You need to weigh your foods, not choose a size like medium for an entry. You might be off by hundreds of calories per day.4
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You need to weigh your foods, not choose a size like medium for an entry. You might be off by hundreds of calories per day.
^^This.
I looked at your food diary and every item in there is "0.33 serving" "1 tsp" - what is the 1.98 portions of the wings for 200 calories? How did you compute those pancakes to be 4.91 every time? How is your turkey exactly one two ounce portion every time? I find that very suspicious. A 200 calorie breakfast and then a 280 calorie dinner that includes those items could be off by several hundred calories.
Assignment #1: tighten up your logging. You have zero room for logging errors in Maintenance. It's not about what you're eating (pancakes with maple syrup is fine!) it's about how much. I would highly recommend you spend $15 on a food scale and use it.4 -
I don't know why we bumped up this thread today @LyndaBSS...I hope she has figured it out by now...3
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cmriverside wrote: »I don't know why we bumped up this thread today @LyndaBSS...I hope she has figured it out by now...
She’s recent on my friends list and I want to help her. She hasn’t figured it out yet.
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cmriverside wrote: »I don't know why we bumped up this thread today @LyndaBSS...I hope she has figured it out by now...
She’s recent on my friends list and I want to help her. She hasn’t figured it out yet.
Ah! You're a good friend.
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rosewolf13 wrote: »cupcakesandproteinshakes wrote: »When you say cheat day, what does that involve food wise?
Cheat day is typically Sunday. I have a healthy breakfast and a stack of 3-4 pancakes for lunch with whipped cream and 100% maple syrup, fruit. Then a small dinner..I still stay within calorie goals but the extra sugar makes me feel nasty. I call it a cheat day because I consistently splurge on pancakes every sunday.
That sure doesn't sound like a staying within calorie goals kind of day. I'm not sure what your calorie goals are but my calorie goal right now is around 2000 and that type of lunch would blow it by a mile for me if I ate a "hearty" breakfast and any dinner at all that same day.
"Since the average American prefers to enjoy pancakes with syrup and butter, this must also be factored into the equation. One pancake with 2 tbsp. of syrup and 2 tbsp. of butter makes the calorie count climb to 355. The calories from carbohydrates and protein have been reduced while the calories from fat have increased to 34 percent." per the USDA.
That puts that lunch at more than half my whole days calorie expectation (1065-1420) and thats without any type of non water drink, throw in a full hearty breakfast and any dinner at all, divide that overage by the week it's not so tight of a calorie count anymore. I suspect this cheat day is more damaging than you expect. Although I don't see a .5lb gain a day climb out of it, but I could easily see weight creep in general from it.
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If weight is still climbing as rapidly as before, and you're sure of yourself, it's time to hit up the doctor for some labs. Are there any other symptoms developing? Some of them can seem really weird and not possibly related like mysteriously bruised knuckles and an uptick in headaches. That kind of thing.2
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Wow.
Not figured out?
How much weight gain are we talking?
Un-supported by data (and thus unexplained) weight gain of several pounds over almost two months now while logging carefully should be taken to a doctor for investigation of minor to potentially major health issues that could be causing it.
Seriously. Time to see your doctor to at least rule out health challenges as the driver.5 -
gemiller87 wrote: »rosewolf13 wrote: »cupcakesandproteinshakes wrote: »When you say cheat day, what does that involve food wise?
Cheat day is typically Sunday. I have a healthy breakfast and a stack of 3-4 pancakes for lunch with whipped cream and 100% maple syrup, fruit. Then a small dinner..I still stay within calorie goals but the extra sugar makes me feel nasty. I call it a cheat day because I consistently splurge on pancakes every sunday.
That sure doesn't sound like a staying within calorie goals kind of day. I'm not sure what your calorie goals are but my calorie goal right now is around 2000 and that type of lunch would blow it by a mile for me if I ate a "hearty" breakfast and any dinner at all that same day.
"Since the average American prefers to enjoy pancakes with syrup and butter, this must also be factored into the equation. One pancake with 2 tbsp. of syrup and 2 tbsp. of butter makes the calorie count climb to 355. The calories from carbohydrates and protein have been reduced while the calories from fat have increased to 34 percent." per the USDA.
That puts that lunch at more than half my whole days calorie expectation (1065-1420) and thats without any type of non water drink, throw in a full hearty breakfast and any dinner at all, divide that overage by the week it's not so tight of a calorie count anymore. I suspect this cheat day is more damaging than you expect. Although I don't see a .5lb gain a day climb out of it, but I could easily see weight creep in general from it.
She said 'healthy' breakfast, not 'hearty.'1
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