Doing everything right but gaining weight?!

iwillbeoneday

I’ve been working out 6 days a week and eating healthy, yet I am gaining weight. I recently quit smoking (7 weeks ago). I don’t know if it’s my metabolism adjusting or what. Has anyone experienced this or have any recommendations on reversing this cycle? It doesn’t make sense to me and it’s becoming defeating.

nomeejerome

Calorie deficit for weight loss and exercise for fitness. If you are not losing weight, there is a miscalculation somewhere along the line.

ETA: Do you log accurately? Do you weigh everything? would you be willing to open diary?

jacksonpt

How long have you been exercising and eating healthy?

Your diary is locked, so we can't really help you much, but generally speaking if you aren't losing weight you aren't doing everything right - you're probably eating too much.

Holly_Roman_Empire

It's not your metabolism. Move more or eat less. How long have you been gaining weight? How much weight have you gained?

rosemary98

I can relate. But I started to find out the things I was eating were actually a bit more calories than i thought. It is also easy to underestimate serving size. i used to think a cucumber roll was 110 calories (because someone on MFP has that listed as such)...In actuality, it is more like 140 calories. maybe not a big discrepency, but it adds up if you are miscalculating a number of items.

iwillbeoneday

I've opened up my diary. I've just recently started listing what I've been eating so I apologize if it's not enough information to help assist. Let me take back when I said I was doing everything right... i'm trying to make the right choices. I think my sugar intake might be too high (fruits and random items). I'd say I've been gaining for the past 5-6 weeks and it's probably been about 10 pounds. That's why I am now trying to truly track what I'm eating and working off. Would like to know your thoughts!

Thank you!

Mokey41

I've opened up my diary. I've just recently started listing what I've been eating so I apologize if it's not enough information to help assist. Let me take back when I said I was doing everything right... i'm trying to make the right choices. I think my sugar intake might be too high (fruits and random items). I'd say I've been gaining for the past 5-6 weeks and it's probably been about 10 pounds. That's why I am now trying to truly track what I'm eating and working off. Would like to know your thoughts!

Thank you!

Doesn't matter what you eat as long as you stay in a calorie deficit. Eating "healthy" isn't a recipe for weightloss nor is exercise. I can over eat just as easily on "healthy" foods as I can on junk and there's no amount of exercise that will out do eating too much.

Set yourself a reasonable calorie budget, stick to it by weighing and measuring everything and weight will come off.

_Zardoz_

Looking at your diary I think your eating more than you think. Quite a few items are down as a serving or non liquid items down as cups. Cups are only accurate for liquids everything else needs to be weighed. A cup of broccoli for example will depend on how small you chop the broccoli where as the weight is constant. Get the small things correct.

iwillbeoneday

i tend to under eat. And I try to not eat 3 hours before going to bed. I will say that the first 2-3 weeks of quitting smoking, I was care-free with eating to distract from smoking. (I did not go crazy in the amount of food I was eating but i didnt restrict.) So it's been about the past month I've been watching intake and exercising frequently.

SLLRunner

Ddi you just start here? I ask because there is not a whole lot of logging in your diary. What is logged, I suspect is pretty inaccurate because nobody eats 700-900 calories a day and gains weight. That's just not the way it works.

My suggestion is to log consistently and accurately and, as my boyfriend's doctor says, "If you bite it you write it!" Yep, that's every single bite.

I had a habit of forgetting I ate something if I don't log it in. Believe me, it's easy to do.

nomeejerome

Set reasonable goals.
Log accurately.
Weigh everything.
Be patient.

Idka81

Eating healthy doesn't mean that you're eating correctly for your needs. How many calories are you eating? What is your BMR? How many calories do you need to eat to maintain your current weight at your level of exercise? How often do you eat during the day? What is exercising 6 days a week? How many hours? Is it all cardio or do you strength train as well? If you're gaining weight and exercising you could be eating too much, or not enough. Not enough is actually more common than people think. There are some great tools to figure all of this out, but it requires sitting down and determining a few things so that you can adjust your nutrition accordingly.

I just looked at your diary and I see lots of mistakes. 140 calorie yogurt and a splenda is not breakfast for someone who is working out 6 days a week. Also, one of your days shows that you only consumed 950 calories of your 1700 calorie allotment for the day. If this is what you are doing every day, you are setting yourself up for a huge disappointment. You might loose a pound or two at first, but it will all come back with a vengeance once you binge (and you will do this at a near 50% caloric restriction that you are doing). Even people who train to be fitness models don't restrict themselves like this). You must eat and you must eat according to your needs to see results. But you need to figure out your goal. Then what you need to eat to achieve it.

3foldchord

Set reasonable goals.
Log accurately.
Weigh everything.
Be patient.

Ditto

And to clarify a bit more:

'Be patient' can mean 'give it up to 6-8 weeks to work itself out, then re-adjust if needed and give it another 6 weeks.....etc'

Brige2269

I agree with everyone here, what you do have listed in diary seems to be way less than what your probably eating.

Get a digital scale and way everything. It will make a huge difference. I did it, there was so many things I was over eating on because I was eyeballing it or using a cup to measure.

Give it time. Good luck.

jwdieter

OP has logged for 2 days. Not enough time for anything notable to happen, regardless of intake. Anyway, OP should check this out:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants