Why am I gaining weight?

oliviawink

I have been watching my cals for about 2 months. Initially I dropped a quick 8 lbs, but I've been stuck ever since. I won't say I've been an angel, but I've been quite good. Plus I've been exercising 3-5 times per week, mostly pilates for 20-50 minutes each time.

A week ago, frustrated with my stagnation I came to MFP (recommendation from a friend, I had been using another tracker before that was not nearly as good) and I got re-inspired to do better by myself. I have eaten amazingly well this week and stepped up my workouts so that I do 20-30 mins of cardio along with the pilates. My "burned" calories are well over 1000 for the week.

So why, a week later am I now 3 lbs heavier? Yeah, yeah, yeah, muscle weighs more than fat, but there's no way I gained 3 lbs of muscle in 1 week. Anyone got anything for me?

jewelzz

I believe I read somewhere that muscle does not weigh more than fat,it could be that you have been more active in your workouts and are retaining water .weigh first thing in the morning and that would be your true weight.

Jamievw

Water retention is possible. Or the stricter diet and more qorking out may have sent your body into starvation mode and therfore it is holding on to what you are taking in? In my experience, eating too little and working out too much has not helped me. Spike your calorie intake tomorrow, eat a big cheat meal but otherwise stick to what your doing and eat the rest of your meals normally. Drink more water too, or at least make sure your drinking enough.

Last week I woke up one day and was 4 pounds heavier. I waas very upset, since I havent done anything different, besides increase my cardio and change up my weight work slightly. It took me about 8 days to get back to where I was and I still dont really know what happened. You will get there. Dont give up!

teachparents

i watch what i eat.. go over my calories slightly about once every two weeks. run 5-15 k every week and started the jillian michaels shred 5 days ago.
went shopping for dress pants for work today and had to go up a size from what i usually wear....

is there anything more defeating than that??????


any ideas?????

NeuroticVirgo

I would check these things.

Are you drinking enough water? At least 8-10 cups minimum, but you might need more, especially when exercising. I have to drink almost 16 cups a day.

Do you eat a lot of sodium? You can be under calories and still be eating to much sodium, which makes you retain water (especially when working out).

Are you eating to few calories. Some people need to eat their exercise calories. So if MFP has you set to 1200 calories...and you burn 200 that day...you might need to be eating 1400 calories. This isn't true for everyone, but if your stalled out, try eating back your exercise calories and see what happens.

Hope some of that helps. Good luck!

NeuroticVirgo

***Oh, and some people are really good with food diaries. If you want, you can make yours public, and you might get advice on foods. (I myself am not that talented, still in the learning process)

teachparents

i drink hot water or green tea all afternoon at work.. my office is soooo cold .... maybe switch to large cups of cold water and suffer through it? ????

does it matter if the water is hot or cold???? heard that cold is better but i freeze at my desk!!!!

leomom72

I thought this may be my problem as well, but this is what i found about starvation mode http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1574882/starvation_mode_dispelling_the_myths.html?cat=5

MisdemeanorM

Don't worry too much - your weight fluctuates day to day. Don't let one week up or down frustrate you too much, weigh again in a day or two (drink a lot of water in the mean time) and if you hit a couple weeks in a row of gain then try shaking something up for a little.

also, be sure you are logging accurately - be sure you are measuring things right, remembering everything you eat, and logging your exercise calories correctly. If you are going by the machines at the gym, or the default calorie burn amts in the exercise tab here you might be overeating your exercise calories. The gym machine said I burnt 800 calories, but my heart rate monitor said 475, and I think that counts even a little high, so I round down from there. Plus, if you do something like walk (say shopping) for 3 hours, and log 3 hours of walking you need to subtract approx 60 cals per hour of what you would have burned anyway (and is thus already counted in your cal allotment.)

Consider weighing your food rather than measuring if you want to be really accurate - things like oatmeal and cereal can be quite off based on settling or rounded scoops. Licking the peanut butter knife might be an extra 50 calories you're not logging... etc.

So, before getting all into the details of "starvation mode", "muscle weighs more than fat" (and people IT DOES - 1 lb of fat will be much larger than 1 lb of muscle. It's a reference to density, not 1lb of muscle weights more than 1 lb of fat. But in equal volume, the muscle will weigh more) but anyway... before getting into all that check the basics - be sure you are not underestimating what you are eating, and overestimating what you are exercising. Also, be sure that your activity level is set right. I was at sedentary, which was not enough, so I bumped up to light activity, and started dropping. I have since dropped it back down to sedentary since I had back surgery and it's slowed me down. Also, if you are, say a house cleaner, and so set to active, but then you log cleaning 5 hours a day as exercise - you are double counting those calories, and thus double eating them.