what am i doing wrong? i thought i had it all right!

Anidorie

so i have lost my goal wieght and i switched over to maintain my wieght and it gave me 1850 to east a day. the problem: i have eaten that for a week and i have gained four pounds! four pounds! i am going back to dieting those pounds off but what did i do wrong? I am five foot and eight inches. I was 120 but now i am 124. what did i do wrong? why did i gain wiehgt? i only ate what it told me to!

squitzwife

maybe it was too much of a shock to your body. baby try adding 50-100 calories a week to your diet and see what happens. if weight gain starts happening, cut back and try again later.

Ally_Clare

When you are given more calories i assume you are also meant to work a bit harder to burn more for exercise. Maybe try amping up the exercise regime a little. If that's not it, it could be your body telling you it's not used to the extra calories consumed. In a few weeks it should settle down though

rondahruby

Could it be that you ate "bad carbs" instead of good vegetables and proteins and gained back the weight? I suggest reading the Gary Taubes Book Why We Get Fat.

mamagooskie

I think that it's not an exact science and you may need to do an experiment.....so now you know you may need to eat 100 less to maintain. Try that for a week and then adjust again as needed until you find what works for you.

darwintheboxer

There is no way you actually gained 4 lbs of fat with 1 week of eating 1850 calories. You would have to be 500 calories over your real caloric needs (whatever they actually are) every day to gain 1 lb in a week. The likely culprit is water, did you happen to increase your sodium when you increased your calories?

stormieweather

It could easily be a normal fluctuation (I go up and down +/- 5 lbs a week). Or, maybe you've been dieting too long and the shock of the extra calories caused your body to hold onto them or there was water retention or glycogen replenishment? I'd suggest easing up to maintenance, increasing intake by 100 calories for a week at a time, then up them by 100 calories again, for a week, until you are at 1850. Even then, your calorie needs will vary, depending on the amount of energy you are expending on any given time (my actual calories burned ranges from 1600 on an extremely sedentary day to 2150 ie: yesterday). I am not currently working out, that is straight daily living. Big variation, huh?

So relax and stick to 1850 for a few weeks. See what happens. By the way, I've found that no diet plan of mine will show its actual impact for about 6 weeks. So hang in there...:flowerforyou: