I don't know why this keeps happening?

invisiblelo

Ok it's been 2 weeks and i've stayed the same weight despite sticking religiously to 1200 - 1300. I got on the scales this morning feeling flatter and I have put a pound on. I am so upset.

MysteriousMerlin

Are you taking measurements? Are your clothes fitting looser?

Weight is only a number. It will fluctuate regularly. Have you eaten a lot of sodium lately? There are a lot of variables.

Morgan_Mack

Are you making sure that you are getting enough water each day?

invisiblelo

I drink lots and lots of water, I am not taking measurements no, but surely putting weight on after only eating 1200 - 1300 a day doesn't make sense?! I don't know what to do.

BuoyantSoul

That seems like a very low calorie count to me. Just about anyone would lose weight very rapidly on such a restrictive diet. So if you're not losing weight there are some things to consider, mainly that you are probably not counting your calories correctly. If you're not measuring and weighing foods and just estimating, or forgetting to log things, that's probably the issue. It seems like that's a VERY common issue here. You have to log every little thing you eat and you have to make sure it's logged correctly.

Also if you're working out, you might be overestimating your calorie burn. Unless you are using a HRM there's no way to tell for sure. MFP gives some wonky calorie burn numbers. Maybe you're eating back more calories than you actually burned.

It could be muscle gain, it could be water weight. It's normal for weight to fluctuate by a pound or two up and down day to day from fluids and so on. If you are working out, remember that muscle is denser than fat and you might be smaller but still weigh more.

orangpeel757

If you're not using a food scale, I'd highly recommend it. Eyeballing your portions may lead you to believe your eating less calories than you're actually eating.
I agree about checking out your sodium and making sure you're getting enough water. You may need to drink more than 8 glasses if you're exercising.
Also, give it some time. If you still haven't lost after another couple weeks, then it may be time to talk to your doctor who can run some tests and/or set you up with a nutritionist.

ninerbuff

Weight loss isn't linear. You don't control how your body regulates hormones and practically anything you do can cause water retention.
If you live and die by the scale.................then you need to not use it because it will disappoint your more than make you happy on an everyday basis.

A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

NerdyAdventurer

"It could be muscle gain"
No.
Not in that small amount of time. Gaining pounds of muscle is hard, especially on a calorie deficit.

Could be your time of the month. we all weight extra during that special time. Bless you mother nature.

But as everyone said, weight fluctuates a lot from day to day so don't let one not so great weigh get you down.

Sarauk2sf

As has been mentioned - weight fluctuates all the time - usually due to water weight.

Have you started exercising recently?

AllOutof_Bubblegum

MFP is quite notorious for setting calorie goals FAR too low, regardless of height and weight. For example, it told me to eat 1200, and my BMR (the bare amount of calories I need to LIVE) is 1280. And I am extremely tiny, only 5 feet. So unless you are smaller than me, or bedridden, it is almost a CERTAINTY that you are eating too little. (This can result in lean muscle loss, chronic fatigue, metabolism damage, and bingeing due to over-restriction.)

Go to

http://iifym.com/tdee-calculator/

and enter your height/weight/activity level.

Subtract 10-20% from the number it calculates for you, and that is the number of calories you should be eating a day in order to lose weight healthily and sustainably.

heybales

I drink lots and lots of water, I am not taking measurements no, but surely putting weight on after only eating 1200 - 1300 a day doesn't make sense?! I don't know what to do.

You noticed that is ONLY for non-exercise days?

And contains whatever deficit to cause the weight loss you picked, which may or may not be reasonable.

Exercise days should be eating more to maintain that same deficit, be it reasonable or foolish.

Aaron_K123

I drink lots and lots of water, I am not taking measurements no, but surely putting weight on after only eating 1200 - 1300 a day doesn't make sense?! I don't know what to do.

I maintained my weight on the scale for a solid 5 weeks when I first started counting calories and exercising. I dropped 1.5 inches around my waist during that time. I stuck with it and trusted the system and after those 5 weeks the weight started coming off at the expected pace basically when my fat loss outstripped the offset from the water retention.

When you start exercising and changing your diet your body has a tendency to retain water which offsets the fat loss in terms of scale weight. You can detect this with a tape measurer, but not a scale as a scale has no way of distinguishing between water and fat.

Aaron_K123

I weighed myself almost every day for the last 100 days. Here is what that looks like. Notice for the first 5 weeks my weight basically didn't change even though my routine was the same throughout.



That is 5 weeks of no change. You have only experienced 2.

Starting at 5/26 I changed my workout routine to a more intense regime (P90x) and as a result my weight is plateauing likely due to water retention yet again. My scale weight has remained the same for the last 2.5 weeks. This is to be expected. Does it bother me to upset my nice little trend line? Yeah, a bit...but I know its water retention not fat because it pretty much has to be so it doesn't bother me that much.