depressed...keeping my calorie goal and gained weight!!

eap20mn

I dont want to lose motivation but i have been keeping my goal of 1200 - 1400 calories for about 2 1/2 weeks now and I weighed in today and found out i gained weight???? soooo depressing. Anyone gone through something similar?

randa_behnam

could be water retention. how do your clothes fit? i dont follow the scale cos its always changing. make sure you weigh yourself at the same time each week. dont do it daily. x

bizco

If your diary was public we may be able to provide helpful tips.

AnathemaTeatime

My doctor's general advice is eliminate all processed carbs and kick your cardio up to an hour a day. If you're already doing an hour or more, up the intensity. Always seems to work for me!

agrossey

Hey, if your exercising alot, your gain muscle weight.. better to go on measurements of waist and hips. )

hpsnickers1

are you eating your exercise calories back? If you eat 1200 and burn off 400 that puts you at 800 NET which is too low. If your calories go too low for too long your weight loss can slow down, halt and you can possibly gain some weight.

Try to give some more time. Your body needs to adjust to the changes.

CarterGrt

Your body will fluctuate very frequently. Within a week, you might cycle up and down a few pounds so it really depends on how you catch it. Other issues could also do it like a bit too much sodium which will cause you to retain water.

Also, not that I am an expert, but certain monthly cycles seem to also impact temporary weight gain according to a lot of women on this site.

So, I would suggest that you take a longer-term view. If you keep doing the right things, over time, you will definitely see the results that you want. But, along the way, you will have weeks where you do everything right and still gain weight. The body is a complicated thing. What can you do?

Another thing I would recommend is to take some body measurements and track these too. This can really help to keep you sane on weeks where the scales aren't showing the improvements you want.

--Carter

noexcuses1218

Something similar, yeah - I was all excited when we got the wii fit plus and after two weeks I'd gained four pounds. Have since switched to a more cardio-intensive workout and trying to keep calories down per MFP goals. Weighed this morning and gain and half a pound but lost two inches on my waist.

How's your sodium intake? Too much can cause water retention.
How's your fiber intake? Too little can cause... well, never mind.
Are you increasing your activity level or just working the calories?

I totally get the disappointment. I woke up this morning like it was Christmas, only to see the weight gain after a solid week of exercising and I was ready to throw the balance board into the TV.

Don't give up. Just get some input (like you're doing now), change one thing at a time to see what works and what doesn't.

:flowerforyou:

clsxplor

Could be the time of month....causes water retention. Also, have you been working out, or just doing calorie counting? Sometimes your body needs a kick-start to burn what you take in and then some. Also, try not to keep eating the same meals every day. Sometimes even if your calories are the same, you need to be getting them from different sources or your body slows down the metabolism and you hit a plateau. If your body thinks that all you are going to give it is 1200 calories, it goes into a kind of starvation mode, and you burn much fewer calories than normal.

Behavioral

YES!!! In spades. I went about 2-2.5 weeks with no weight loss. I work out between 3-6 days per week at least 1 hour per day, etc., etc. and kept under my calories. ARGH!!!! I finally did have a few lbs. come off this last week, so it seemed to resolve itself. I came across another post awhile back about this, but now I can't find it. It explains that sometimes you are better off to go up in calories, but below your basal metablolic rate (BMR) and see if that helps. I did increase my calories from 1200 to 1380 and this seems to be more sustainable. I still try to keep to 1200 calories plus whatever I burn working out. If I end up going up to 1380, then that's okay too. Stick with it. Don't give up!

eap20mn

ok so I do have to admit that I did eat tons of salt this week....so that could be a cause of my weight gain....

Anniepoo04

Sometimes you have to vary your calories and trick your body. When I lost the major part of my weight I would eat a certain calorie amount day kinda of low and the next day go up a bit it is about keeping your body guessing.