my weight went UP.... help!

teaspoon43

I need some opinions here.. I believe this is my 35th or 36th day of straight logging on MFP and I've lost 20 lbs to date (woohoo). This morning, however, I gained .2lbs back - I know I know, not a huge deal but I haven't weighed in for 10 days. The only change from this weigh-in to the previous ones is that I started strength training 3 days a week, nothing crazy but I do 3 reps of 10 on all the weight machines in my gym. I know muscle weighs more than fat but it's been a week!!

Here are some other things because I know people will ask, hopefully I thought of everything My main thing is that I'm not weighing in for another 10 days and I want to fix whatever I'm doing wrong now so I don't "waste" 20 days.

Weight - 275
Height - 5'5"
29 year old female
Typical Monday, Wednesday, Friday workout - 45 minutes elliptical and 45 minutes strength training
Typical Tuesday, Thursday workout - 45 minute stationary bike and 45 minutes swimming
Saturday and Sunday - I take these days off but I still try to get my 10,000 steps in
Average calorie intake - 1600
I drink between 10-14 cups of water per day (I don't count milk towards that if I have cereal etc)
My diet is pretty good, I would say 70% of the time I'm good on the healthy food and 30% of the time I will have a piece of candy, some chips or mashed potatoes with dinner... nothing too major.

Am I not eating enough calories? I dunno... here's my fitbit report from last week, just can't believe I gained - I log EVERYTHING even when I don't eat what I'm supposed to.

Liftng4Lis

water retention, ignore it.

Phrick

when you start a new exercise routine, in your case the weights, your muscles retain water to cushion and repair themselves. This will show as a gain or a stall in loss. It's 100% common, 100% normal, and 100% will go away as you get used to the exercise. Don't panic.

teaspoon43

I'm just bumping this to get more opinions, especially on if I'm eating enough calories

Realtree2429

I agree with water weight. You just started lifting, your body will retain water. Are you eating any exercise calories back? I'm a big fan of doing that! Also, if it's close to your TOM, always plan on your scale going up that week Take measurements and know that you're heading on the right direction!

Edited to add: calculate your TDEE and BMR. I'm 5' 8" and at 204 and I eat at least 1660 calories a day, and I eat back 75% of exercise calories. But always remember that weight lose isn't linear, especially if you're only going by your scale.

SingRunTing

when you start a new exercise routine, in your case the weights, your muscles retain water to cushion and repair themselves. This will show as a gain or a stall in loss. It's 100% common, 100% normal, and 100% will go away as you get used to the exercise. Don't panic.

This.

shexy16

I'm not trying to sound mean or anything, but it's only a .2 gain, it's probably just a tiny bit of water weight or something. I think its almost impossible to do any kind of healthy eating plan to lose weight and not have a tiny gain here or there. I really wouldn't read that much into it.

malibu927

Weight loss is not linear, especially as you begin a new routine and your muscles retain water for repairs. You'll see it happen often, especially around TOM.

vismal

I'm just bumping this to get more opinions, especially on if I'm eating enough calories

Everyone wants to blame insignificant weight increases on not eating enough. It's never not eating enough! Eating too little has many negative consequences, weight gain isn't one of them. You gained an insignificant amount of weight over an insignificant amount of time, ignore it. You need to watch your overall, long term, trend, which for you has been weight loss.

Why are you only weighing in every 10 days? This increases the chances of your results looking wonky. If you happen to weigh in on a "low" day, then 10 days later you happen to weigh in on a "high" day you might think you are not making progress or even going in the wrong direction. This is because you just got unlucky with the day you picked to weigh in. A great deal of daily shifting of weight is COMPLETELY NORMAL. I'll copy my typical weighing advice which should solve your problem:

My advice to you is to weigh daily but stop pay ZERO attention to day to day changes. Weigh daily right after you wake up after you pee, record those weights in a log. After 7 days, take an average. This number is slightly more meaningful then your daily weights but again, pay little attention to it. After a month start comparing the averages. This is much more significant and will show your actual progress. The advantage of averaging is if you happen to weigh in on a day where water retention is unusually high or low due to sodium or glycogen or any of the MILLION different things that cause fluctuations, you don't have to freak about the massive shift in weight. The averages will account for the high days and the lows days and give you an idea of what you really weigh. After a month goes by, your averages should go in the downward direction, if they do not then you need to either reduce calories, increase exercise, or both.

Danikfit90

Hey there! It could be you retaining water. Or...tmi ..younmay need to go #2 <-- my fiance says this to me lol. Fir your journry how do you feel--take the scake out of the equation.

wkwebby

Seriously, what is 0.2 lbs in the grand scheme of things? Water weight/retention could be as high as 3 lbs. (or for some people even more). One day and a 0.2 lb increase is a blip on the screen. If you get stressed, cut the amount of times you look at the scale to 1x/week. I don't even pay attention to what is after the decimal place anymore. It goes up and down all the time!

Just weigh in once a week if you stress out about the numbers. Don't forget, stress will also do funny things to the numbers.

MyaPapaya75

#2....get more fiber

Danikfit90

Vusmal I agree. As I tell my clients ignore the scale and take your measurements. Take before pictures and in a month after eating better and changing up your fitness routine then take after pictures. You see yourselr every day and you pretty much keep your mind on the scale. That scale will be your enemy..muscles weighs more. Be sure to change up your exercise routine.....muscle memory is a bi***.

SingRunTing

My advice to you is to weigh daily but stop pay ZERO attention to day to day changes. Weigh daily right after you wake up after you pee, record those weights in a log. After 7 days, take an average. This number is slightly more meaningful then your daily weights but again, pay little attention to it. After a month start comparing the averages. This is much more significant and will show your actual progress. The advantage of averaging is if you happen to weigh in on a day where water retention is unusually high or low due to sodium or glycogen or any of the MILLION different things that cause fluctuations, you don't have to freak about the massive shift in weight. The averages will account for the high days and the lows days and give you an idea of what you really weigh. After a month goes by, your averages should go in the downward direction, if they do not then you need to either reduce calories, increase exercise, or both.

Yup. This is exactly what I do. Daily weights go into MFP and get averaged weekly in a google drive spreadsheet:




Notice a few points in there where I could have freaked out? Where my weight went up for no reason?

It's because weight loss is not linear. There are a ton of reasons for your weight to fluctuate day to day (water weight, digestion, etc). Anything less than a 5 - 10 lb shift is not significant (sorry, but its not). Meaning that in the statistical world, you wouldn't be able to find a statistically significant difference.

All that matters is the trend. You can not see a trend on the scale of days/weeks. It has to be months. Refer to my graphs as for why.

vismal

My advice to you is to weigh daily but stop pay ZERO attention to day to day changes. Weigh daily right after you wake up after you pee, record those weights in a log. After 7 days, take an average. This number is slightly more meaningful then your daily weights but again, pay little attention to it. After a month start comparing the averages. This is much more significant and will show your actual progress. The advantage of averaging is if you happen to weigh in on a day where water retention is unusually high or low due to sodium or glycogen or any of the MILLION different things that cause fluctuations, you don't have to freak about the massive shift in weight. The averages will account for the high days and the lows days and give you an idea of what you really weigh. After a month goes by, your averages should go in the downward direction, if they do not then you need to either reduce calories, increase exercise, or both.

Yup. This is exactly what I do. Daily weights go into MFP and get averaged weekly in a google drive spreadsheet:




Notice a few points in there where I could have freaked out? Where my weight went up for no reason?

It's because weight loss is not linear. There are a ton of reasons for your weight to fluctuate day to day (water weight, digestion, etc). Anything less than a 5 - 10 lb shift is not significant (sorry, but its not). Meaning that in the statistical world, you wouldn't be able to find a statistically significant difference.

All that matters is the trend. You can not see a trend on the scale of days/weeks. It has to be months. Refer to my graphs as for why.

This is why I love graphs! lol #nerdalert. Graphs and averages show you what is actually happening. When people say "the scale lies" they really mean "I don't look at enough data points for the scale results to be useful".

SingRunTing

This is why I love graphs! lol #nerdalert. Graphs and averages show you what is actually happening. When people say "the scale lies" they really mean "I don't look at enough data points for the scale results to be useful".

Is my geek showing?? :blushing:

teaspoon43

thanks everyone! I know I was freaking out just a tad (okay, A LOT) but I've been working my *kitten* off 10-15 hours a week and I've never been this sore... just disheartening when I stepped on the scale. The good news is that I'm not stopping just was curious if I was doing something wrong. I think fiber is a huge part, I need more. I'm also a nerd so this spreadsheet thing might be just the ticket for me. Thanks for knocking me upside the head

StaciMarie1974

You're freaking out because you 'gained' .2 in 10 days and expected to see the scale lower instead. So many things affect your water weight - and are temporary. I can gain 3+ pounds from starting my period. Then there is sodium, stress, sleep issues, and water retention from starting a new fitness routine. One or more of these things are most likely masking your true efforts.

As to whether or not you're eating enough? Depends on how you feel. You can probably eat more and still lose weight steadily, but if you feel energetic, satisfied on 1600 then stick with it until you reach a point where you don't feel ok. And if you have a day where you feel the need to eat more, listen to your body.

The advantage to daily weighins is you can learn your body's routine. Learn when in the month its up due to hormones. I gain after starting, some women gain the week before. But its not good to weigh in daily if you stress about the results. You choose what works best.

PS-sore muscles is a BIG sign that your muscles are holding extra water for repair.

grantwashere

My advice to you is to weigh daily but stop pay ZERO attention to day to day changes. Weigh daily right after you wake up after you pee, record those weights in a log.

I log daily on FitBit, (first thing in the morning) and only log losses on MFP. FitBit is integrated with TrendWeight.com. I LOVE TrendWeight and you will too because of this very topic. It shows you at a glance what your daily weigh-ins are, what your trending weights are, how much you are losing (or gaining) per day/week/month, what your cal burn is, how long you've been logging, exactly how much you have to go to reach your goal, and what date you will reach your goal weight if you continue at the same pace. Did I mention that it's AWESOME!?!?!

Serah87

.02 pounds really?? :huh:

I say call in the military!!!:laugh:

OP: Patience.....you didn't gain the weight over night the weight is not going to come off over night!!!!

Slow and steady is the way to go!!! :drinker:

deksgrl

I'm just bumping this to get more opinions, especially on if I'm eating enough calories

Your average calorie burn is 3400. You are eating 1600. This is a 52% deficit. A recommended healthy deficit is 20%. For the very obese, they can take a bigger deficit, but not long term.