Gained weight with calorie deficit
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holankerri
Posts: 1 Member
I restarted myfitnesspal to lose weight. I am premeno so weight gain is reality. I have been entering food according to the food label on the products. I am also avid runner I run 6 times a week. My calories intake is much less than burn. At the end of the day I complete my diary with a notice saying If you day is like this you will weight ... It did not happened. I gained weight. Not impressed with this app then.
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Replies
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Well -
I lost 80 pounds in 2007-08. I've kept it off by logging food and weighing myself and adjusting as needed.
It's not the app, it's how you input info, log food, your personal accuracy and your ability to adapt and adjust.
If you didn't lose weight, eat less and try again.
This app and every other calculator on the planet is making an educated guess based on population averages. It's up to you to collect data and work your own experiment. I have to eat a whole lot more (like 400-500 calories per day more) than what the app tells me to eat. I figured that out by logging my numbers and adjusting.11 -
How long have you been at this calorie amount? If less than a month there can be water fluctuations.
This app or any app can be inaccurate between crowd sourced data entries, exercise calories burned being inflated, you picking the wrong activity level and\or under reporting calorie consumption. Product labels can be as much as 20% off. It's always best if you knew your weekly calorie amounts as a benchmark before going into a new program.
In the end, your body doesn't know numbers, only if it's being given calories to either gain mass, lose mass or maintain mass.1 -
holankerri wrote: »I restarted myfitnesspal to lose weight. I am premeno so weight gain is reality. I have been entering food according to the food label on the products. I am also avid runner I run 6 times a week. My calories intake is much less than burn. At the end of the day I complete my diary with a notice saying If you day is like this you will weight ... It did not happened. I gained weight. Not impressed with this app then.
I think you need to familiarize yourself with how a calorie deficit works. I will not give you the information here, as you won't listen anyway. But I suggest you research it a bit for yourself. Or, just decide you'll continue to be big. That's ok too.4 -
I’m perimenopause, and one of the biggest reliefs for me was finding out that weight gain “being inevitable” was a complete and utter myth. Huge relief right? This should give you some peace of mind.
So why isn’t weight loss working then, you’re wondering? Great question. Here’s a really basic recommendation, but if you tackle this for awhile you’ll be ready for the next steps after setting up your calorie goal on MFP.
1. Weigh and log everything you eat to the gram, consistently and accurately for 4-6 weeks
2. Weigh yourself at the same time daily and use a weight trending app for data
If you’re eating your goal calories (deficit of 250-500 calories a day) you should be losing between .5 and 1lb a week.
Weight varies for every person due to natural fluctuations, so you have to accept that food in your system, water, even flying, can effect it for days, so the trend is the validation or reality check you need to stay the coarse or make adjustments.
Remember, everything you do is being recorded, whether you want to admit it or not. So use your tools, like MFP, as accurately as you can and they can completely change your life.
Let me put it this way, if I don’t study for a test, and get an F, I can’t blame the text book I didn’t use. If you have questions how to use these tools more accurately we’re happy to help.9 -
Nobody gains weight in a calorie deficit.
If you take in fewer calories than you burn, where does the additional fat on your body come from?8 -
weight =/= fat3
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You didn't gain weight from calories unless you really didn't track what you ate. Water weight fluctuates people's weight on a daily basis based on many factors.
Also did you weigh the same time? If you weighed in the morning, and even ate in a calorie deficit and weighed later in the day, you'd likely weigh more.
The app works fine. It's usually people that make the error or sometimes your body just doesn't cooperate for awhile.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 35+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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weight =/= fat
That's a great point.
Loosely, weight is water, other lean tissue (muscle, bone, etc.), fat, food in transit, a surprising weight of some gut microbes not even genetically us (maybe up to 5 pounds-ish), and probably some small stuff I'm forgetting.
If a person is in an actual calorie deficit, they will lose weight in the form of fat or lean tissue. (An actual deficit is not synonymous with estimated amount of calories that MFP, a calculator or fitness tracker will spit out based on limited data. Those are statistical averages for similar people, and not everyone is average, though most (not all) are close.)
Muscle can be gained, but even under best circumstances so slowly that it will not outpace a meaningful fat loss rate achieved by a calorie deficit, as a practical matter. Bone weight can also change, but even more slowly. Gains in either of those don't happen by accident. (Losses may.)
Water weight is extra weird in its behavior, but very large amounts of it tend to be observable on the body. Water retention can be a symptom of some serious medical conditions, though: Edema/oedema.
If someone is in an actual deficit (not calculator theory), and they aren't losing weight over a multi-week period, a visit to the doctor would be a good plan, I think.
In a case like the OPs where she is seemingly feeling healthy (running multiple times a week for example) the much more likely explanation is logging errors or not being statistically average in calorie needs.
We all make logging errors along the way, so that's not a jab. And while it's rare, it's possible to be quite far from those statistical averages. (MFP's estimate and my good brand/model(s) of trackers are about 25-30% off in daily calorie estimates for me, for example, compared with almost 9 years of careful logging data . . . in my case, the estimate is hundreds of calories daily too low. The estimates can also be too low, but I don't know what the lower extreme would be in a healthy person.)
I'd give the edge to some kind of logging issue, based on my subjective estimate of probability.0 -
Are you using a scale to measure your food or eyeballing it?0
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gaining fat is not the same thing as gaining a few numbers on the scale. those are related but not the same.0
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Your “join” date is April 24, and are here on April 24th complaining the app isn’t working for you.
On what planet does this make any sense?
I’m not impressed, either. With the effort you’ve put in.3 -
springlering62 wrote: »Your “join” date is April 24, and are here on April 24th complaining the app isn’t working for you.
On what planet does this make any sense?
I’m not impressed, either. With the effort you’ve put in.
Be careful not to confuse the date they joined the community with the date they joined MFP...
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Thanks for the save. When I look at user and even when I drill down to profile , it gives me the newer date. 🤦🏻♀️springlering62 wrote: »Your “join” date is April 24, and are here on April 24th complaining the app isn’t working for you.
On what planet does this make any sense?
I’m not impressed, either. With the effort you’ve put in.
Be careful not to confuse the date they joined the community with the date they joined MFP...
Apologies to OP.1 -
Several factors. The calculation is strictly based on calories in vs calories out. Unfortunately that’s flawed science as every body has variables that complicate that.
First question would be: are you weighing your food as you log. Packages are often very misleading about a serving. Example: it may say a serving is 1/2 cup or x amount of grams. When you weigh out in grams (which is what all on their calculations are based off of) it often times isn’t a full half cup. My vegan butter was an example. It said a serving was a tablespoon or x number of grams. For years I just measured with a tablespoon. When I got really serious about counting macros I weighed out the amount of grams that a serving was and it was HALF a tablespoon. At 100 calories a serving I was getting double as the calories the package said I was getting.
Second question: how many calories are you eating? You may not be eating nearly enough calories for the amount of exercise you are doing. How many grams of protein are you getting? With the amount of exercise you are doing you need a gram per pound of ideal body weight at a MINIMUM. I have to eat 180g a day to keep my protein lab in normal range.
Third question: do you weight train at all? As we get older we really need to hit the weights for a multiple of reasons. I lift so heavy that I can never do more than 8-10 reps. If I can do 10 I add 5 pounds. That extra muscle mass makes our RMR higher and burns more calories overall (not to mention the rest of the benefits as we age).
Last question: how often are you weighing yourself? It’s normal for our weight to fluctuate 3-5 pounds daily. I always weigh first thing in the morning, nude and preferably after a bowel movement. (I’ve literally pood 3 pounds before). If you happen to weigh on a day that your weight is up, you’ll think you had a gain…when reality you didn’t. I weigh every morning and then I take the weekly average. That shows an accurate trend. My weight goes up 3 pounds after leg day. I will stay up 3 pounds for 2-3 days. It’s fluid retention from the tearing of muscle fibers. If you are sore, you are tearing muscle fibers (which is necessary to gain muscle) if I eat tacos, the sodium will put me up a pound or two for at least a day. Fluctuating is totally normal.
Hope this helps.2 -
OP posted once and apparently never came back.2
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Retroguy2000 wrote: »OP posted once and apparently never came back.
It's been four days...
::shrug::1 -
please elaborate why CICO is flawed science regarding Fatloss.NCGOALIEMOM wrote: »Several factors. The calculation is strictly based on calories in vs calories out. Unfortunately that’s flawed science as every body has variables that complicate that.
First question would be: are you weighing your food as you log. Packages are often very misleading about a serving. Example: it may say a serving is 1/2 cup or x amount of grams. When you weigh out in grams (which is what all on their calculations are based off of) it often times isn’t a full half cup. My vegan butter was an example. It said a serving was a tablespoon or x number of grams. For years I just measured with a tablespoon. When I got really serious about counting macros I weighed out the amount of grams that a serving was and it was HALF a tablespoon. At 100 calories a serving I was getting double as the calories the package said I was getting.
Second question: how many calories are you eating? You may not be eating nearly enough calories for the amount of exercise you are doing. How many grams of protein are you getting? With the amount of exercise you are doing you need a gram per pound of ideal body weight at a MINIMUM. I have to eat 180g a day to keep my protein lab in normal range.
Third question: do you weight train at all? As we get older we really need to hit the weights for a multiple of reasons. I lift so heavy that I can never do more than 8-10 reps. If I can do 10 I add 5 pounds. That extra muscle mass makes our RMR higher and burns more calories overall (not to mention the rest of the benefits as we age).
Last question: how often are you weighing yourself? It’s normal for our weight to fluctuate 3-5 pounds daily. I always weigh first thing in the morning, nude and preferably after a bowel movement. (I’ve literally pood 3 pounds before). If you happen to weigh on a day that your weight is up, you’ll think you had a gain…when reality you didn’t. I weigh every morning and then I take the weekly average. That shows an accurate trend. My weight goes up 3 pounds after leg day. I will stay up 3 pounds for 2-3 days. It’s fluid retention from the tearing of muscle fibers. If you are sore, you are tearing muscle fibers (which is necessary to gain muscle) if I eat tacos, the sodium will put me up a pound or two for at least a day. Fluctuating is totally normal.
Hope this helps.
Also a pound of muscle only burns around 6-8 calories a day and many people overestimate that figure in regards to added muscle as a fat burning tool.
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tomcustombuilder wrote: »
please elaborate why CICO is flawed science regarding Fatloss.NCGOALIEMOM wrote: »Several factors. The calculation is strictly based on calories in vs calories out. Unfortunately that’s flawed science as every body has variables that complicate that.
First question would be: are you weighing your food as you log. Packages are often very misleading about a serving. Example: it may say a serving is 1/2 cup or x amount of grams. When you weigh out in grams (which is what all on their calculations are based off of) it often times isn’t a full half cup. My vegan butter was an example. It said a serving was a tablespoon or x number of grams. For years I just measured with a tablespoon. When I got really serious about counting macros I weighed out the amount of grams that a serving was and it was HALF a tablespoon. At 100 calories a serving I was getting double as the calories the package said I was getting.
Second question: how many calories are you eating? You may not be eating nearly enough calories for the amount of exercise you are doing. How many grams of protein are you getting? With the amount of exercise you are doing you need a gram per pound of ideal body weight at a MINIMUM. I have to eat 180g a day to keep my protein lab in normal range.
Third question: do you weight train at all? As we get older we really need to hit the weights for a multiple of reasons. I lift so heavy that I can never do more than 8-10 reps. If I can do 10 I add 5 pounds. That extra muscle mass makes our RMR higher and burns more calories overall (not to mention the rest of the benefits as we age).
Last question: how often are you weighing yourself? It’s normal for our weight to fluctuate 3-5 pounds daily. I always weigh first thing in the morning, nude and preferably after a bowel movement. (I’ve literally pood 3 pounds before). If you happen to weigh on a day that your weight is up, you’ll think you had a gain…when reality you didn’t. I weigh every morning and then I take the weekly average. That shows an accurate trend. My weight goes up 3 pounds after leg day. I will stay up 3 pounds for 2-3 days. It’s fluid retention from the tearing of muscle fibers. If you are sore, you are tearing muscle fibers (which is necessary to gain muscle) if I eat tacos, the sodium will put me up a pound or two for at least a day. Fluctuating is totally normal.
Hope this helps.
Also a pound of muscle only burns around 6-8 calories a day and many people overestimate that figure in regards to added muscle as a fat burning tool.
Interesting, I've read 40 calories per pound of muscle mass. Forgot where I read that.0 -
Sounds legit, we need to rewrite science though.
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lol,I wish it was 40.tomcustombuilder wrote: »
please elaborate why CICO is flawed science regarding Fatloss.NCGOALIEMOM wrote: »Several factors. The calculation is strictly based on calories in vs calories out. Unfortunately that’s flawed science as every body has variables that complicate that.
First question would be: are you weighing your food as you log. Packages are often very misleading about a serving. Example: it may say a serving is 1/2 cup or x amount of grams. When you weigh out in grams (which is what all on their calculations are based off of) it often times isn’t a full half cup. My vegan butter was an example. It said a serving was a tablespoon or x number of grams. For years I just measured with a tablespoon. When I got really serious about counting macros I weighed out the amount of grams that a serving was and it was HALF a tablespoon. At 100 calories a serving I was getting double as the calories the package said I was getting.
Second question: how many calories are you eating? You may not be eating nearly enough calories for the amount of exercise you are doing. How many grams of protein are you getting? With the amount of exercise you are doing you need a gram per pound of ideal body weight at a MINIMUM. I have to eat 180g a day to keep my protein lab in normal range.
Third question: do you weight train at all? As we get older we really need to hit the weights for a multiple of reasons. I lift so heavy that I can never do more than 8-10 reps. If I can do 10 I add 5 pounds. That extra muscle mass makes our RMR higher and burns more calories overall (not to mention the rest of the benefits as we age).
Last question: how often are you weighing yourself? It’s normal for our weight to fluctuate 3-5 pounds daily. I always weigh first thing in the morning, nude and preferably after a bowel movement. (I’ve literally pood 3 pounds before). If you happen to weigh on a day that your weight is up, you’ll think you had a gain…when reality you didn’t. I weigh every morning and then I take the weekly average. That shows an accurate trend. My weight goes up 3 pounds after leg day. I will stay up 3 pounds for 2-3 days. It’s fluid retention from the tearing of muscle fibers. If you are sore, you are tearing muscle fibers (which is necessary to gain muscle) if I eat tacos, the sodium will put me up a pound or two for at least a day. Fluctuating is totally normal.
Hope this helps.
Also a pound of muscle only burns around 6-8 calories a day and many people overestimate that figure in regards to added muscle as a fat burning tool.
Interesting, I've read 40 calories per pound of muscle mass. Forgot where I read that.
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