Put on weight despite caloric deficit

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J_Rod92
J_Rod92 Posts: 13 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I’ve put on 2.6lbs within the last 10-12 days despite maintaining a daily caloric deficit of 500 cals. I don’t think it’s muscle as I am severely overweight for my height. I’m beginning to wonder if the science behind calorie counting is flawed and maybe I’m not maintaining a big enough deficit. I log. I weigh my food. I drink lots of water. I exercise 3-4 times per week.

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  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,122 Member
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    Some questions to pinpoint possible issues:
    - you say you are weighing your foods. Are you making sure you are using accurate database entries? The database is crowdsourced and contains many wrong entries. If you open your diary, we might spot some errors.
    - what exercise are you doing and is this new? New exercise can cause water retention for muscle repair, masking fat loss on the scale
    - did you start your weight loss journey 10-12 days ago? Or were you losing weight before and you started gaining weight 10-12 days ago?
  • J_Rod92
    J_Rod92 Posts: 13 Member
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    .
    Lietchi wrote: »
    Some questions to pinpoint possible issues:
    - you say you are weighing your foods. Are you making sure you are using accurate database entries? The database is crowdsourced and contains many wrong entries. If you open your diary, we might spot some errors.
    - what exercise are you doing and is this new? New exercise can cause water retention for muscle repair, masking fat loss on the scale
    - did you start your weight loss journey 10-12 days ago? Or were you losing weight before and you started gaining weight 10-12 days ago?

    Started it 10-12 days ago. Yea I weigh the food and/or match the nutrition facts labels. I’m doing intense workouts that take about an hour long or so
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 33,962 Member
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    The science is not wrong, your number of calories could be.

    How did you come up with your current goal (calories?) If you've only been at it 12 days, that's not long enough to get sufficient trending data.

    Calories in < Calories out = weight loss

    So track consistently for 4-6 weeks, then adjust. If you got your calorie goal from some online calculator just be aware that they are all guesses...based on people your size and age and gender and activity level. We all have to make adjustments as we go along.

    For instance, all the calculators tell me to eat 500 calories LESS than what I personally need to maintain my current weight. I found that out by doing long-term tracking of my own food and exercise.
  • DFW_Tom
    DFW_Tom Posts: 218 Member
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    I don't think it unusual to gain a few pounds when starting a new diet and exercise regime. Water retention adds up quickly. So does fat tissue in our bodies being converted to denser lean muscle tissue. Fat loss and weight loss are two different things. Look for those "Non-Scale Victories" (NSV's) like overall health, or reduction in waist, thigh, and bicep circumference. Keep on logging and weighing. It helps.

    For what it's worth, it took over two weeks for me to lose my first pound when I changed my diet and activity level 5 months ago. Now down 16% of my body weight (close to 50 lbs) and very glad I stayed with it. While it is true that fat loss = calories in minus calories out, it does not take into account the short term weight gained in retained water from eating too many carbohydrates.
  • WailingDusk
    WailingDusk Posts: 58 Member
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    Jerrod_Ainsworth wrote: »
    I’ve put on 2.6lbs within the last 10-12 days despite maintaining a daily caloric deficit of 500 cals. I don’t think it’s muscle as I am severely overweight for my height. I’m beginning to wonder if the science behind calorie counting is flawed and maybe I’m not maintaining a big enough deficit. I log. I weigh my food. I drink lots of water. I exercise 3-4 times per week.

    If you're truly in a caloric deficit, you will lose *fat*. However, your weight is not going to be a steady downward slope. Weds I weighed 200 pounds. Friday I weighed 189. Saturday I weighed 193. That's not fat, that's water (I was also on prednisone last week, which only made it worse).

    If you just started it 10-12 days ago and you are in a 500 (daily?) caloric deficit, you're probably losing about a half a pound to a pound of fat a week (depending on your BMR it could be more or less), which you will not see on the scale in just two weeks. You would if you were morbidly obese, but not if you're simply overweight. Your water weight will fluctuate hourly. If you weigh yourself weekly (at the same time, same day every week) you will start to see the average go down. We all want things to happen quickly, but this is something you're not going to be able to rush. Keep up the calorie deficit and the exercise and you will lose body fat (and eventually 'weight').

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