Month of April: Where did I go wrong?

krawhitham

I'm happy to hear constructive criticism about my month of April diet and exercise.

I *love* the reports function of this website because I'm a numbers *kitten*...I love tracking everything.

I bought a food scale in April and began using it as often as I could. I cook most of my own meals. I have no restrictive diet.

I have averaged 1853 calories per day (in April), and I exercised 15 out of 30 days (burning between 150-400 calories per workout)

My weight was dropping drastically in the beginning of the month (clearly from all the great work I did in March) But then started creeping up.

I'm now back up to about 162-164 pretty consistently when I step on the scale each morning for the past two weeks. I was at 158.8 every day for the first week of April.

I log every single thing I put in my mouth, every day. I try to make my exercise calories as accurate as possible. I usually log LESS exercise than I actually did, in order not to "cheat" myself. I cannot afford a heart rate monitor, so unless someone has an extra one they'd like to mail me for free, that's not an option.

Background:
January calories NET 1550 per day lost 4 lbs
February calories NET 1650 per day lost 1 lb
March calories NET 1570 per day lost 4 lbs
April calories NET 1853 per day gained ~3 lbs

I am 31 yo female 5'4" 162-164 lbs currently (but weighed 159 just a few weeks ago)

BMR: 1427
TDEE: 2,063

Chelsea89600

I think it is because you are eating more calories now. You may also be gaining muscle with your workouts- are you focusing on cardio? If you are still trying to lose weight, could you reduce your intake to the amount you were eating in the previous months?

Summer is coming- remember to stay hydrated! Don't eat too much salt, or you will retain your water. Is it possible you are drinking more liquids now?

krawhitham

1- I think it is because you are eating more calories now: I don't think so. I was losing 1 lb per week on over 1500 cals, and now I'm eating about 250 more cals a day, which means I'd start losing .5 lb per week (not gaining). I'm still WAY under my TDEE.

2- You may also be gaining muscle with your workouts- are you focusing on cardio: Yes, only cardio. I'm not gaining any muscle. If anything, I'm losing muscle.

3- Summer is coming- remember to stay hydrated! Don't eat too much salt, or you will retain your water. Is it possible you are drinking more liquids now: This might be an important factor. It is getting much hotter where I live, and I wasn't sure if I could be retaining 4 lbs of water because of the sudden change in temperature (it's like 10 degrees warmer)

susannamarie

It looks like you've only recently gotten the food scale -- is it possible that you were eating less than you thought before (i.e. rounding everything down just to make sure you weren't over) and have increased more than you thought?

amberlykay1014

Are you doing the same cardio workout? If so, your body may become adjusted to it and you aren't burning as many calories as you had been when it was new. Switch up your routine next month, and maybe add some strength training.

krawhitham

It looks like you've only recently gotten the food scale -- is it possible that you were eating less than you thought before (i.e. rounding everything down just to make sure you weren't over) and have increased more than you thought?

Yeah, to be honest, the food scale is pretty neat and fun to play with (bf and I have just put random objects from around the house on it because we're like ohhh what does *this* weigh!)

BUT it hasn't done much in the way of helping me with portions and calories. I think I was actually estimating MUCH more successfully, and apt to eat better, before the food scale.

What I really like it for is alcohol. Whenever I pour a drink for myself, you know it all gets measured to the exact ounce so I know how much I'm drinking. Other than that, I can estimate by myself really well.

krawhitham

Are you doing the same cardio workout? If so, your body may become adjusted to it and you aren't burning as many calories as you had been when it was new. Switch up your routine next month, and maybe add some strength training.

I'm not doing the same cardio, which actually may account for some water retention. When I first started working out I was told I'd retain water at first because of exercise. Now, when I switch exercise, it may have the same effect.

HaraldurB

Could be water retention. Do you measure yourself regularly? Sometimes the scale can "lie" to you but measurements never do.

krawhitham

Could be water retention. Do you measure yourself regularly? Sometimes the scale can "lie" to you but measurements never do.

I haven't measured myself in a while and I *just* had two beers, but I really love this suggestion. I will measure myself in the morning! Thank you!

amberlykay1014

Are you doing the same cardio workout? If so, your body may become adjusted to it and you aren't burning as many calories as you had been when it was new. Switch up your routine next month, and maybe add some strength training.

I'm not doing the same cardio, which actually may account for some water retention. When I first started working out I was told I'd retain water at first because of exercise. Now, when I switch exercise, it may have the same effect.

I wasn't talking about water retention, although that's possible. I just meant that if you're getting better at the cardio you are doing, your heart rate won't be up as high and you may need to work harder to get the same calories burned. You may be growing a tolerance to your routine. If you're always switching it up, I don't know then.

Either way, 3 lbs is only about 2% of your total body weight. I honestly wouldn't worry about that little of a fluctuation. You may be down 3-4 lbs next week. Good luck to you!

Aussie_in_PA

Have you considered also tracking some measurements like chest, waist, hips, thighs etc? That way you can see if your weight changes relate to LBM.

Also, those extra calories are around 4500 extra for the month which is more than 1 lb of gain compared to when you lost a pound. Extra carbs also help you retain water for additional weight, but nothing to fear

Koldnomore

I'm happy to hear constructive criticism about my month of April diet and exercise.

I *love* the reports function of this website because I'm a numbers *kitten*...I love tracking everything.

I bought a food scale in April and began using it as often as I could. I cook most of my own meals. I have no restrictive diet.

I have averaged 1853 calories per day (in April), and I exercised 15 out of 30 days (burning between 150-400 calories per workout)

My weight was dropping drastically in the beginning of the month (clearly from all the great work I did in March) But then started creeping up.

I'm now back up to about 162-164 pretty consistently when I step on the scale each morning for the past two weeks. I was at 158.8 every day for the first week of April.

I log every single thing I put in my mouth, every day. I try to make my exercise calories as accurate as possible. I usually log LESS exercise than I actually did, in order not to "cheat" myself. I cannot afford a heart rate monitor, so unless someone has an extra one they'd like to mail me for free, that's not an option.

Background:
January calories NET 1550 per day lost 4 lbs
February calories NET 1650 per day lost 1 lb
March calories NET 1570 per day lost 4 lbs
April calories NET 1853 per day gained ~3 lbs

I am 31 yo female 5'4" 162-164 lbs currently (but weighed 159 just a few weeks ago)

BMR: 1427
TDEE: 2,063

I'm right about where you are in terms of having not too much farther to go to the goal weight so I can share your pain. At this point, it's all about the number of calories. Your deficit is very tiny and it's super easy to lose all of it by either eating more than you think or by over estimating the calories you burn or sometimes it's just because you are eating too much.

I looked at a few random days of your diary in the last few weeks and even though you mentioned that you have a scale, there's way too many unweighed foods in there. You are still using cups/spoons, slices etc..You're eating more than you think for absolute certainty.

I'm curious about why you added almost 200 calories to each day when you were practically losing the perfect amount of weight for the past few months? I would wager that you have just eliminated any deficit that you did have and are now quite possibly eating at a slight surplus. Combined with meals out (which inherently introduced more uncertainty in your intake).

The last pounds are always the hardest. You can't have any deviations, you need to be eating exactly what you need, weighing absolutely EVERYTHING. You can't reach your goal weight by accident, it takes a lot of work.

Hope that helps

krawhitham

I'm happy to hear constructive criticism about my month of April diet and exercise.

I *love* the reports function of this website because I'm a numbers *kitten*...I love tracking everything.

I bought a food scale in April and began using it as often as I could. I cook most of my own meals. I have no restrictive diet.

I have averaged 1853 calories per day (in April), and I exercised 15 out of 30 days (burning between 150-400 calories per workout)

My weight was dropping drastically in the beginning of the month (clearly from all the great work I did in March) But then started creeping up.

I'm now back up to about 162-164 pretty consistently when I step on the scale each morning for the past two weeks. I was at 158.8 every day for the first week of April.

I log every single thing I put in my mouth, every day. I try to make my exercise calories as accurate as possible. I usually log LESS exercise than I actually did, in order not to "cheat" myself. I cannot afford a heart rate monitor, so unless someone has an extra one they'd like to mail me for free, that's not an option.

Background:
January calories NET 1550 per day lost 4 lbs
February calories NET 1650 per day lost 1 lb
March calories NET 1570 per day lost 4 lbs
April calories NET 1853 per day gained ~3 lbs

I am 31 yo female 5'4" 162-164 lbs currently (but weighed 159 just a few weeks ago)

BMR: 1427
TDEE: 2,063

I'm right about where you are in terms of having not too much farther to go to the goal weight so I can share your pain. At this point, it's all about the number of calories. Your deficit is very tiny and it's super easy to lose all of it by either eating more than you think or by over estimating the calories you burn or sometimes it's just because you are eating too much.

I looked at a few random days of your diary in the last few weeks and even though you mentioned that you have a scale, there's way too many unweighed foods in there. You are still using cups/spoons, slices etc..You're eating more than you think for absolute certainty.

I'm curious about why you added almost 200 calories to each day when you were practically losing the perfect amount of weight for the past few months? I would wager that you have just eliminated any deficit that you did have and are now quite possibly eating at a slight surplus. Combined with meals out (which inherently introduced more uncertainty in your intake).

The last pounds are always the hardest. You can't have any deviations, you need to be eating exactly what you need, weighing absolutely EVERYTHING. You can't reach your goal weight by accident, it takes a lot of work.

Hope that helps

Thanks for your help, but I've only lost the first 10 of a total of 50 (don't go by my ticker) So I'm actually at the beginning of my journey.

One good question - the increased calories in April are due to moving. I've moved into a house and it has taken weeks to settle in and set-up, so I had to do without cooking for long than I'd prefer.

As for me using cups and slices - do not fear, I'm actually weighing these things and finding their calorie count by weight, and manually inputting it into MFP. It may say "1 cup of rice" but it's actually weighed to the gram and manually inputted by me, for accurateness.

I do think I had trouble while moving though, since I was living in two different places for a while without a functioning kitchen in either of them, basically eating burritos and Chinese food almost every day. A few of the days I definitely over ate, but overall I have not gone over my TDEE which is why there's no way the extra LBS are real fat (right? That's what I'm hoping...)


Thank you for your help!!

lilawolf

Sounds like you are on the right track. I definitely agree with measurements being better

Changing your workout substantially can affect your weight for 1-2 weeks.

Your period can affect your weight for 1-2 weeks

Change in diet especially if your extra calories are mainly from carbs or salty foods, can affect water weight and bowel weight (are you regular?) can be affected no matter what the extra cals are from

If you are drinking more water now that its getting warmer that could have a short term effect though better hydration tends to reduce retained water not increase it.

krawhitham

Sounds like you are on the right track. I definitely agree with measurements being better

Changing your workout substantially can affect your weight for 1-2 weeks.

Your period can affect your weight for 1-2 weeks

Change in diet especially if your extra calories are mainly from carbs or salty foods, can affect water weight and bowel weight (are you regular?) can be affected no matter what the extra cals are from

If you are drinking more water now that its getting warmer that could have a short term effect though better hydration tends to reduce retained water not increase it.

I think y'all are right about the measuring. I just did a quick measure and I'm 30" on my waist and 40" on my hips. I'm down .5 inch on each since March!

Gramps251

Congrats!

krawhitham

Could be water retention. Do you measure yourself regularly? Sometimes the scale can "lie" to you but measurements never do.

I just wanted to come back and say you are 100% correct!

I was eating at a deficit, but stress/hormones/eating more sodium than normal caused me to retain 4 lbs for about 3 weeks, and they've pretty much all fallen off in the past two days!

False alarm :^]