why am I gaining?

missbeezy

I have eaten back most of my exercise calories if not all of them as everyone has instructed me to do on this site and I am gaining wight. I use a hrm so my calorie burn is pretty close to accurate. I weigh and measure and count the calories of anything that enters my mouth including a mint or gum. I seem to lose when I don't eat the calories back so where to go from here?

kerryannediet

interested in this Bump

laddyboy

Because.

How are we supposed to help you if we can't see your diary or know anything about your age, height weight calories you're eating, calories you should be beat. Help us help you. It's all a calorie in vs. calorie burned. It's really that simple.

missbeezy

Hmmm I thought it was open. Let me fix this

hemlock2010

It sounds as though you already have the answer. When you don't eat back exercise calories you lose; when you do you gain.



So listen to your body and let it tell you what it's trying to tell you.

playfortoday

Are you keeping track of your sodium? You could be retaining water.

denimandroses

You could be gaining muscle, but losing fat. Since muscle weighs more than fat, the scale may not show a loss, or may even show a gain. If your clothes are fitting better (or looser), you're still on the right track regardless of what the scale says. Good luck to you!

dawnemjh

How long have you been doing this?? Are you drinking enough water??Are you weighing/measuring everything that you are eating??

laddyboy

You could be gaining muscle, but losing fat. Since muscle weighs more than fat, the scale may not show a loss, or may even show a gain. If your clothes are fitting better (or looser), you're still on the right track regardless of what the scale says. Good luck to you!

Muscle does not weigh more than fat. 1 lb of muscle weighs 1 lb. 1 lb of fat weighs 1 lb.

laddyboy

Hmmm I thought it was open. Let me fix this

Not fixed yet. I'll check back later to see if I can help.

SunLovin1

You could be gaining muscle, but losing fat. Since muscle weighs more than fat, the scale may not show a loss, or may even show a gain. If your clothes are fitting better (or looser), you're still on the right track regardless of what the scale says. Good luck to you!

Muscle does not weigh more than fat. 1 lb of muscle weighs 1 lb. 1 lb of fat weighs 1 lb.

True, but in terms of volume, muscle weighs more. Consider the example of a pound of bricks and a pound of feathers.

OP, have you measured yourself? You'll want to use your measurements as a reference point as well.

123456654321

Possibly over estimating your burned calories, under estimating your food calories? Also, remember that part of the calories you burn when working out are calories you would have burned just sitting around and those are already accounted for on MFP, they do not need to be eaten back.

stormieweather

You haven't been doing this very long (join date of this month), I would recommend patience. My scale goes for weeks sometimes without showing a drop, even showing increases, before it finally drops to a new low. Once I dropped 2 pounds, per the scale, and I didn't see that number again for another month! I would stick to it for another month before changing anything.

I seriously doubt that you've gained any muscle. It's extremely rare to gain muscle while on a deficit and it takes more than a few weeks.

Your overall calorie burn may be lower than you think, HRM aren't intended to measure resting or light activity. I found that I wasn't burning anywhere near what the machines and mfp said. I'm very efficient that way!

Double check your portions and your food. Even if you think you're being accurate, there may be a slipping point in your diet. Mine was my nightly ice cream and not weighing ALL of my food.

Don't cheat. A meal or day too often can completely throw off your deficit. If you do anything, give yourself once a month to eat at maintenance, and then log it and monitor it.

If I don't get enough protein, my loss tends to slow. Make sure you are getting 1g of protein per pound of lean body weight.

So I was burning a bit less than estimated and eating a bit more than estimated. In the process, I completely obliterated my perceived deficit.

missbeezy

I opened my profile and how come my diary wont show?

missbeezy

Also I have been on the site since Jan 1 I restarted a new pare in March so I'm three months in and 8 lbs down

autumn13

This happens to me to...I can not eat my calories back other wise I gain weight..Listen to ur body..

AnnaPixie

Try eating half your exercise calories back and see if that makes a difference. It allows for errors in calculation either way.

And you profile and diary are open to friends only. You need to change your settings.........

good luck :flowerforyou:

MsPitt

Also I have been on the site since Jan 1 I restarted a new pare in March so I'm three months in and 8 lbs down

8lbs in three months is just fine! As for why you're gaining when you eat your exercise calories... check to make sure your lifestyle setting is accurate. Under settings, click the 'Update diet/fitness profile' link. If you have your lifestyle set inaccurately, your goal may be higher or lower than what your body really needs.

Another thing to consider - when eating back exercise calories you may not have to eat all of them - just enough so that your Net total for the day is healthy compared to your BMR.

http://www.caloriesperhour.com/tutorial_BMR.php

bettybejou

Try not to be discouraged. You are motivated to lose weight and get healthy and you are making great steps to do that. I only seem to lose weight when I really stick to 1200 calories at least 5 days of the week and I give myself a little extra on weekends so I don't feel deprived. The calories I burn with exercise are really the bonus that help the weight to fall off so I don't pay any attention to them. If I ate what I burned off, I'd actually be on a 1400 calorie diet, and I doubt I'd lose very fast. I look at exercise as something to help me look more firm and count the benefits as my cholesterol and blood pressure control not to mention the benefits to my mental health. It's all about making healthy changes for a lifetime and then just watching food choices and portions to keep the weight off. Keep up the good work fitness pal.

calmmomw3minimeez

Hi...one thing to remember is that you may gain some lbs because of TOM. I ALWAYS gain about 3-6 lbs of water 2wks before mine and it takes around the same time for it to come off! Also if you are doing a good bit of wgt. training, your scale will go up for awhile, but if you keep at it and be patient it will come down sooner or later...the thing is that you can't always go by what the scale says...try measuring yourself once every wk or two until your body gets used to the changes you are making.

kao708

I have eaten back most of my exercise calories if not all of them as everyone has instructed me to do on this site.

See, here is the issue...not everyone agrees about eating your exercise calories back and it doesn't work for everyone so don't take everything that is posted on this site as gospel.

Most of us aren't doctors or nutritionists so all we can tell you is what has worked for us. You have to do what works for you. Maybe eating them back isn't what your body needs.

missbeezy

I think I fixed it, my diary is open for the public. Only thing is that it does not have my food intake from January 1 until when I started this new profile. from Jan 1-about 3 weeks ago My eating was pretty much perfect and right on target. i noticed and i am really slipping but still even then I was not losing anything. Thank you all for your comments and your help, greatly appreciated

foodforfuel

Hi missbeezy! Congratulations on joining MFP on your way to a healthier lifestyle! One thing I did for myself that helped me alot was to change the tracker/breakdown so that I could see my sodium intake daily. Seeing the numbers shocked me! I don't even use table salt, just the 'hidden' sodium in food was a real eye opener! I see that you are tracking your calcium. Maybe switch that out and replace it with the sodium tracker. Under the advice of my doctor, I chew two Tums (or equivilent) a day to ensure my calcium is at a good level. Good luck in finding what works for you, and above all, never give up!!! :flowerforyou:

tamiller93

This happens to me to...I can not eat my calories back other wise I gain weight..Listen to ur body..

Same here. I have a heart rate monitor, but it WILL NOT pick up when I am at my gym. No satellite signal there. So I record my calories that show up on the machine I'm on (which I know is not right). Then I try to always leave 100-200 calories free so I know I am not going over. Once the weather gets better and I can run outdoors, I will be able to use my heart rate monitor and more accurately gauge my burn. But until then I am leaving those calories out there. It has worked so far.

dawnemjh

Hey there, I just briefly checked your diary, and I noticed that you are burning 800-1600 calories during exercise. May I ask what you are doing??? This may be an overestimation (or not) but if you are really burning that much, I didnt notice any healthy recovery meals for after that type of activity. I also noticed by the type of foods you are eating that you are probably way over in sodium. You should edit your nutritional profile and plug sodium in there for a few days to see what that is. Sodium will hold water and that can cause water weight.
Also dont get discouraged. Make some changes and keep up the good work. I am a slow loser. Basically since i started in jan. I am the same, gaining and losing the same weight.!!!! I will send friend request and we can chat more about it!!! You are doing great!!

missbeezy

Well because my weight is so high I burn calories at a much faster rate so an hour of. exercise will burn anywhere from 700+ calories depending on what I do. So I can only lessen it by not exercising or only doing a few min

missbeezy

Hey there, I just briefly checked your diary, and I noticed that you are burning 800-1600 calories during exercise. May I ask what you are doing??? This may be an overestimation (or not) but if you are really burning that much, I didnt notice any healthy recovery meals for after that type of activity. I also noticed by the type of foods you are eating that you are probably way over in sodium. You should edit your nutritional profile and plug sodium in there for a few days to see what that is. Sodium will hold water and that can cause water weight.
Also dont get discouraged. Make some changes and keep up the good work. I am a slow loser. Basically since i started in jan. I am the same, gaining and losing the same weight.!!!! I will send friend request and we can chat more about it!!! You are doing
great!!










Thank you I will add in sodium and try to see if I can work on that as well!!! Thank u!!

schobert101

[[/quote]
"Same here. I have a heart rate monitor, but it WILL NOT pick up when I am at my gym. No satellite signal there. So I record my calories that show up on the machine I'm on (which I know is not right). Then I try to always leave 100-200 calories free so I know I am not going over. Once the weather gets better and I can run outdoors, I will be able to use my heart rate monitor and more accurately gauge my burn. But until then I am leaving those calories out there. It has worked so far."
[/quote]

Huh? Heart rate monitors don't use satelite signals.......GPS uses satelite signals. Look for other reasons why your monitor is not working at the gym

MsPitt

Huh? Heart rate monitors don't use satelite signals.......GPS uses satelite signals. Look for other reasons why your monitor is not working at the gym

Maybe it's a cell phone application?

tamiller93

Huh? Heart rate monitors don't use satelite signals.......GPS uses satelite signals. Look for other reasons why your monitor is not working at the gym

Maybe it's a cell phone application?

It just kept saying "lost satellite signal", and was not calculating my calories burned. :huh:

Imthatg1rl

You could be gaining muscle, but losing fat. Since muscle weighs more than fat, the scale may not show a loss, or may even show a gain. If your clothes are fitting better (or looser), you're still on the right track regardless of what the scale says. Good luck to you!

Muscle takes up less space than fat because it is more dense.