Why am I gaining???

CameronMaude

So I'll start off with some general stuff about myself. I'm 21, I'm 5'3", my starting weight was 140lbs, and I want to get to 110lbs. I chose that because it's a pretty number and it would make my BMI 19.5, which I think is a nice distance into the normal weight category. (18.5 is where underweight and normal weight meet)
So the story is that in January of last year I got some mild anorexic thing, and stopped eating for 3 weeks, then I lost 4lbs, then I binge ate for months and I gained that weight back, plus another 13lbs. I decided to lose the healthy way, as a new years resolution. Hey, what do you know? They do stick around once in a while! Well actually, I did well for january, but then February to April I was staying in someone's house in France and I didn't get to choose what I ate, so I gave up for that period of time.
So anyway, I ended up losing all the weight I gained since the 2013 new year, but the only problem is that I plateaued. For the time I was home, I ate 1400 calories (1200 in january but I didn't feel like it was enough so I bumped it up), and lost 1 to 1.5 pounds every week. Except last week. Last week was my birthday party and I let myself go and I probably ate about 5000 calories, if not more.... That made me feel sick for DAYS. I've been doing my regular 1400 since then, but I've gained 1/2 lb. I don't understand!! It was one day and it seemed to have just messed everything up... I also don't weight my food, and at restaurants I have to guess how much I ate, but I ALWAYS over estimate, and measure with cup measures at home. I would weight everything, but that's a pain in the neck and my scale is REALLY old and I don't think it's very accurate at all. It's one of those ones that is a dial and you have to turn a little nob to get it to reset to 0, and it sucks. Anyway sorry about the long post... And the slight messiness of all the thing I had to say. I left my diary open so maybe you guys could share some tips? My birthday was on monday the 2somethingth, it's the monday I didn't log very much because I was mortified with what I ate. Thank you for anything you have to say that would help, and I'd like a minimum of respect in the answers too, please.
P.S. Anyone who wants to add me as a friend can!

Pirate_chick

you gain because you eat more calories than you burn. That said, 1/2lb equates to 1750 calories.So either you ate 1750 calories over your maintenance and gained a half of a pound, or gained a 1/2 pound in water weight which is the more likely culprit. Don't sweat it drink plenty of water.

juliafromrf

Buy a digital scale and weigh everything ..

SLLRunner

you gain because you eat more calories than you burn. That said, 1/2lb equates to 1750 calories.So either you ate 1750 calories over your maintenance and gained a half of a pound, or gained a 1/2 pound in water weight which is the more likely culprit. Don't sweat it drink plenty of water.

This.

One half pound is nothing, and is even a natural weight fluctuation.

thavoice

Pregnant.

amandacolaizzi

Hey, you can't worry so much about fluctuation like that. Being fit and healthy is about finding a routine that you can stay in for the rest of your life. That is why strict diets never last. Because it is unrealistic to think that you can keep that up your entire life. Normal, healthy people fluctuate between five lbs once they reach their healthy weight. I mean sometimes if i retain too much water, I gain a few lbs on the scale. If you ate more calories than you burned off that week...unfortunately you will gain weight. However, your mind set cannot be focused on the small missteps. It has to be on the overall progress that you have made. That's what you need to look at. You are changing your life for the better. Maybe you are not 100% there yet when it comes to sticking with those habits 24/7. But you are in the process of building those habits. That's something to be proud of. You will have weeks where you go off track and you'll have weeks where you do amazing. But it's all part of living. There's no need to go to extreme's either way. It's a journey, not a race

4legsRbetterthan2

yes, buy a reliable scale, you can get one for 10$. In addition you are going to have to get more accurate with your logging, its hard to know what you are really eating when you are guessing at restaurants and eyeballing things. You may think you are overestimating but you truely do not have any idea.

It sounds like you are trying to lose too aggressively for your goals as well, according to your ticker goal weight is about 15lbs away for you, so you should be shooting for 1 lbs a week at most, more likely 0.5 or so.

as for the extra 1/2 lbs after your birthday, sometimes the extra water weight sticks around longer than we would like, especially if the party was followed by TOM. That would make you keep the water around. Just be patient and stick to you calories and it will go away in time.

bowlerae

OP, a half a pound is nothing to worry about. I did notice that you have ate a lot of sodium on some days so my bet is that it is water weight. I once fluctuated over 4 lbs in a few days from water weight and it took a few days to go back to normal.

You really do need to weigh everything. Get a new scale, you can get one at Wal-Mart for $20 or probably Amazon/eBay for cheaper so no excuse.

At restaurants, the most accurate information comes from chains that have their food entered in the MFP food database or have a website of their own with nutritional information. If you can't find the nutritional info anywhere then you absolutely cannot rely on it. Even if you think you're ordering something healthy like salmon and broccoli it's probably loaded with salt. And if you're not used to weighing your food it would be hard to eyeball whether you received 3oz of salmon or 6.

AllOutof_Bubblegum

Rofl at "mild anorexic thing". You clearly have no idea what anorexia really is. Keep on keepin' on, though, OP.

1princesswarrior

I agree the 1/2 lb is water weight. I've gained 4lbs of water weight since Sunday due to increasing riding difficulty and I started running again yesterday. Don't worry about that, just drink some extra water for a few days.

To really know or at least get a more accurate feeling for what you are eating you must weigh you food though. At least what you eat at home. Measuring cups can be way off for solids. When you eat out try to look up the nutrition information online before you go so you can make better choices, get salad dressing on the side and dip your fork instead of pouring it on the salad, stick to one roll, ask for a box right away and put half the meal in the box, ask for steamed vegetables instead of fries, etc. Skip the appetizers. Doing simple things like that can save a lot of calories at the restaurant.

I like to enjoy cake and ice cream so I plan ahead for it by getting in an extra workout or I will have it on the days I work extra long shifts at my second job at a horse farm. Also there are days I simply don't worry, like this Friday, Thanksgiving and Christmas, my birthday. One day will not undo all of your efforts so don't punish yourself. I do log those days though. Feel free to look at my diary, it's open and it's not perfect by any means.

amusedmonkey

My weight fluctuates from day to day by as much as 6 pounds, depends on what/how much I eat. Don't sweat it and look for a trend over a period of time. has your weight been going down GENERALLY in the past 3 months? That's what you should pay attention to.

TheVirgoddess

So I'll start off with some general stuff about myself. I'm 21, I'm 5'3", my starting weight was 140lbs, and I want to get to 110lbs. I chose that because it's a pretty number and it would make my BMI 19.5, which I think is a nice distance into the normal weight category. (18.5 is where underweight and normal weight meet)
So the story is that in January of last year I got some mild anorexic thing, and stopped eating for 3 weeks, then I lost 4lbs, then I binge ate for months and I gained that weight back, plus another 13lbs. I decided to lose the healthy way, as a new years resolution. Hey, what do you know? They do stick around once in a while! Well actually, I did well for january, but then February to April I was staying in someone's house in France and I didn't get to choose what I ate, so I gave up for that period of time.
So anyway, I ended up losing all the weight I gained since the 2013 new year, but the only problem is that I plateaued. For the time I was home, I ate 1400 calories (1200 in january but I didn't feel like it was enough so I bumped it up), and lost 1 to 1.5 pounds every week. Except last week. Last week was my birthday party and I let myself go and I probably ate about 5000 calories, if not more.... That made me feel sick for DAYS. I've been doing my regular 1400 since then, but I've gained 1/2 lb. I don't understand!! It was one day and it seemed to have just messed everything up... I also don't weight my food, and at restaurants I have to guess how much I ate, but I ALWAYS over estimate, and measure with cup measures at home. I would weight everything, but that's a pain in the neck and my scale is REALLY old and I don't think it's very accurate at all. It's one of those ones that is a dial and you have to turn a little nob to get it to reset to 0, and it sucks. Anyway sorry about the long post... And the slight messiness of all the thing I had to say. I left my diary open so maybe you guys could share some tips? My birthday was on monday the 2somethingth, it's the monday I didn't log very much because I was mortified with what I ate. Thank you for anything you have to say that would help, and I'd like a minimum of respect in the answers too, please.
P.S. Anyone who wants to add me as a friend can!

This is all about a half of a pound? That's a decent poo for me.

kcmcd

So I'll start off with some general stuff about myself. I'm 21, I'm 5'3", my starting weight was 140lbs, and I want to get to 110lbs. I chose that because it's a pretty number and it would make my BMI 19.5, which I think is a nice distance into the normal weight category. (18.5 is where underweight and normal weight meet)
So the story is that in January of last year I got some mild anorexic thing, and stopped eating for 3 weeks, then I lost 4lbs, then I binge ate for months and I gained that weight back, plus another 13lbs. I decided to lose the healthy way, as a new years resolution. Hey, what do you know? They do stick around once in a while! Well actually, I did well for january, but then February to April I was staying in someone's house in France and I didn't get to choose what I ate, so I gave up for that period of time.
So anyway, I ended up losing all the weight I gained since the 2013 new year, but the only problem is that I plateaued. For the time I was home, I ate 1400 calories (1200 in january but I didn't feel like it was enough so I bumped it up), and lost 1 to 1.5 pounds every week. Except last week. Last week was my birthday party and I let myself go and I probably ate about 5000 calories, if not more.... That made me feel sick for DAYS. I've been doing my regular 1400 since then, but I've gained 1/2 lb. I don't understand!! It was one day and it seemed to have just messed everything up... I also don't weight my food, and at restaurants I have to guess how much I ate, but I ALWAYS over estimate, and measure with cup measures at home. I would weight everything, but that's a pain in the neck and my scale is REALLY old and I don't think it's very accurate at all. It's one of those ones that is a dial and you have to turn a little nob to get it to reset to 0, and it sucks. Anyway sorry about the long post... And the slight messiness of all the thing I had to say. I left my diary open so maybe you guys could share some tips? My birthday was on monday the 2somethingth, it's the monday I didn't log very much because I was mortified with what I ate. Thank you for anything you have to say that would help, and I'd like a minimum of respect in the answers too, please.
P.S. Anyone who wants to add me as a friend can!

This is all about a half of a pound? That's a decent poo for me.

I lost a pound and a half just peeing this morning.

Unknown

This content has been removed.

LifeWithPie

If you're not weighing your food properly and you're not logging accurately, and you're guesstimating a lot then you're eating more than you think you are.
However, a half pound? Seriously? It's probably just water weight. I was up 3lbs last week from too much sodium. It's off now and I'm back to normal. My weight goes up and down every day, but it's still a downward arc over time. Weight fluctuations happen all the time. You're gonna have to deal with it.

SonicDeathMonkey80

tl;dr

Weigh your food, log everyday, calorie deficit

maz504

Sorry but what exactly is "some mild anorexic thing"? Please don't trivialize people's life and death struggles with ED's.

likitisplit

Sorry but what exactly is "some mild anorexic thing"? Please don't trivialize people's life and death struggles with ED's.

Not eating for three weeks is actually a big deal. If there isn't something seriously wrong, your body will force you to eat a lot sooner than that. I think we are talking about a life and death struggle here that is being minimized by the OP.

I second the recommendation for a doctor.

CameronMaude

Thanks for all the responses about the anorexia thing, I'm sorry if I offended some people but it was honestly a lot longer than 3 weeks and a lot harder than I made it sound. The 3 weeks was just the worst part, and please just trust me it wasn't good. Anyway, I hope you're all right about the water weight. Some of you are laughing at the fact that this is about 1/2 a pound, but if everything was still going as it was, I'd be at 124 by now, but I've gone up to 127... So it's about 3 pounds, which I realize can be water weight and probably is, but I kinda freaked out because it was all going so well until a couple weeks ago that's it.

SLLRunner

Thanks for all the responses about the anorexia thing, I'm sorry if I offended some people but it was honestly a lot longer than 3 weeks and a lot harder than I made it sound. The 3 weeks was just the worst part, and please just trust me it wasn't good. Anyway, I hope you're all right about the water weight. Some of you are laughing at the fact that this is about 1/2 a pound, but if everything was still going as it was, I'd be at 124 by now, but I've gone up to 127... So it's about 3 pounds, which I realize can be water weight and probably is, but I kinda freaked out because it was all going so well until a couple weeks ago that's it.

I agree that you do need to see a doctor. There is clearly something going on.

Unknown

This content has been removed.

heartshapedvox

Don't fret about the day to day weigh ins as much. In fact, don't fret as much. Your post sounds super fretty, and the added stress doesn't make good diet decisions any easier!

HONESTLY, when you gain weight and it's more than a day-to-day trend (seriously, give it like 5-7 days before you decide it's an actual problem with your current diet) it's because you simply ate more than you burned. It's easy to overestimate calories and underestimate activity. We all want to believe we eat less crap than we do, on some level.

On a very serious note, just because of how intensely emotional your post seems to be:

What matters is that you're worrying very, very hard about half a pound and have a pattern of eating very erratically, which implies an unhealthy focus on food. It doesn't matter whether or not you have a diagnosable eating disorder *right now.* You don't just wake up one day a bulimic or an anorexic, or EDNOS, or what have you. It's a path. A dark, spiraling path that once you get too far down can be VERY difficult to come back out of, if not impossible.

If you can, do check with a professional that specifically specializes in eating disorders and women's therapy. Sooner rather than later.

AdventureManatee

Look for general trends, over time. Like start taking weekly averages. It is absolutely normal to gain/lose +/- 5 pounds during day-to-day life. Panicking about half a pound is no good.