Weight gain with new exercise. Too many calories?

hollyarule

Hello all!

Since January, I've been counting calories/macros and have lost about 25 lbs just from that.

In the last month I've started running (9 miles a week) and kickboxing (3 hours a week).

I try to only eat 1200 - 1500 calories even on hard workout days. I've just gained 3 full pounds the last week.

Am I consuming too much on my high intensity days? I just follow the app so maybe I don't need to "eat back" my calories?

Or am I really just gaining muscle/water retention?

harper16

It's likely water weight from the increase in exercise, and MFP is designed for you to eat back your exercise calories.

Terytha

Water. Increased exercise = increased muscle damage = increased water retention.

Give it 4-6 weeks before making any big changes. Never eat less than 1200. Eating 1200 on hard workout days is bad enough.

psychod787

No! Its aliens! They come into your room at night and implant fat!.... Not really... its body water.

AnnPT77

hollyarule wrote: »

Hello all!

Since January, I've been counting calories/macros and have lost about 25 lbs just from that.

In the last month I've started running (9 miles a week) and kickboxing (3 hours a week).

I try to only eat 1200 - 1500 calories even on hard workout days. I've just gained 3 full pounds the last week.

Am I consuming too much on my high intensity days? I just follow the app so maybe I don't need to "eat back" my calories?

Or am I really just gaining muscle/water retention?

I agree with the others, probably water weight gain from the new exercise, masking fat loss on the scale.

Only one set of caveats/questions: What are your estimates for running a mile (or other specified distance)? What's your estimate for an hour of kickboxing? And to help us evaluate the realism of those estimates, what's your current bodyweight?

hollyarule

I use the Map My Run app to track my mileage, and I follow a YouTube video that's 65 minutes of nearly non stop kickboxing/cardio. So I really just go off those things and round down my calories.

My weight before starting exercise was 132.6. Just shy of my 130 goal 😁

This week my lightest was 135. I eat very clean, no sugar, lots of water. Mostly veggies and lean meat.

glassyo

psychod787 wrote: »

No! Its aliens! They come into your room at night and implant fat!.... Not really... its body water.

Doctor Who has had alien water.

Just sayin'

psychod787

glassyo wrote: »

psychod787 wrote: »

No! Its aliens! They come into your room at night and implant fat!.... Not really... its body water.

Doctor Who has had alien water.

Just sayin'

MIND BLOWN!

quiksylver296

Read this article, OP. It will probably help prevent future scale weight freak-outs.

http://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations

hollyarule

quiksylver296 wrote: »

Read this article, OP. It will probably help prevent future scale weight freak-outs.

http://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations

Awesome, Thanks! My brain understands the science of it all, but I was just a little disheartened to get so close to my goal and then run far away from it lol. Just wanted to be sure I wasn't inadvertently sabotaging myself 😅

quiksylver296

You're never going to have a steady scale weight. Set up a weight range that you consider goal, 140-145 (random numbers to use as example). Water weight fluctuations will prevent you from being one number every day. As long as you're within that range, you're at your goal.

AnnPT77

hollyarule wrote: »

I use the Map My Run app to track my mileage, and I follow a YouTube video that's 65 minutes of nearly non stop kickboxing/cardio. So I really just go off those things and round down my calories.

My weight before starting exercise was 132.6. Just shy of my 130 goal 😁

This week my lightest was 135. I eat very clean, no sugar, lots of water. Mostly veggies and lean meat.

If you're not eating back the exercise, it's almost certainly water weight. In this short a time, with that routine, and while in a calorie deficit, sadly it isn't muscle, or at least not enough muscle to mask fat loss on the scale. The link quiksylver posted: I definitely recommend it.

I don't use MapMyRun; I know that others here have said it over-estimates. But gaining 3 pounds of fat in a week would require eating 10,500 calories over your maintenance calories (or moving that much less) . . . I think you'd realize if you'd done that! Sudden gain, especially quick gain without major overeating, is almost always water retention. And water retention is just part of how a healthy body functions. You'll see more of it in maintenance, because the backdrop is (we all hope ) a steady weight trend, rather than a dropping weight trend (the latter can hide some water fluctuations).

The water retention could be from the exercise, but since you've been dieting fairly extremely for someone of your weight, stress (physical stress) could be a contributor as well. (I'm about your weight, BTW, 127 this morning, and started MFP in the mid-150s (a long time ago ), too.)

If you weren't so close to goal, a maintenance break or refeed might be an option, but given how close you are, I'm not sure there's a point. Refeed, maybe, if you haven't experimented with that. (This would be the thread about reasons to take a maintenance break or refeed. http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10604863/of-refeeds-and-diet-breaks/p1)

You're at the point where accuracy in food logging looms larger, with narrower tolerances closer to goal, and many/most people find weight loss slows at that point. But given all the details you've usefully given, I'm going to re-endorse the water retention theory. So, I'd say to stay the course, at your current intake, maybe take some extra steps to ensure your logging is spot-on accurate, if you want to be sure.

Best wishes in dropping those last few pounds: Betting you'll see it happen, and in the not-too-distant future.