Frustrated!

DJBug

How is it even possible that I GAINED two pounds this week?! I ate under my alloted calories every day, worked out 3 days, and did walks in addition. (I'm also in the middle of spring cleaning, but I haven't been logging that--it feels like cheating!). I didn't log my intake on Saturday, but I was pretty good--kept portion sizes down, might have ended up being a little over calories, but not by much....this is just so frustrating!

To give a little back story, I started working out 3+ times a week in January. At that point I was just trying to make healthier food choices, not take seconds, etc. After about 2 1/2 months, I was the same weight (and my clothes fit the same, so it's not "muscle"); so I decided it was time to get more serious about the food side of things.

I understand it's only been one solid week of doing this, but how come I GAINED?! (And it's not water weight from it being that time of the month either--that's in a week or two.) I wasn't expected a huge loss, but at least to have maintained or lost a little.

So far the only thing DH and I can come up with is that I don't often eat my breakfast until 10/11 am. I usually get up, get the kids out to school, do my workout and some housecleaning and before I know it, it's almost noon and I haven't eaten lunch! I'm working really hard on changing that starting today.

I've also added to my workouts; I've been doing YBB; today I started Active Sports 2 Personal Trainer for the Wii.

My calories tend to be closer to my allotment on when I work (I work nightshifts twice a week, usually Monday and Friday nights) because I basically am up for about 25 hours with only a two hour nap in the afternoon (if I'm lucky). The other days, I just can't seem to eat more, I'm truly full.

Sorry this ended up being so long, but I'm really looking for any advice. At least when I was a couch potato and ate whatever I wanted, I wasn't gaining weight! It's really frustrating!

livlinde

I've had the same problem! I'm under quite a bit of stress right now (college papers and finals!), so maybe emotions play a part. I'm hoping someone here has the answer for us!

andreae13

Make your food diary public to help us give better advise :happy:

abbie017

You may not be eating enough for all that you're doing. If you don't eat enough calories for your body to survive, it will hold on to the fat to preserve itself. The 1200 net calories for a day is the bare minimum you should be eating...any less than that and you'll put yourself into starvation mode, in which case, you won't lose any weight.

Good luck!

tsumpter

Not for sure if this will help but I have found that when I'm not getting the results that i want. I'm also not drinking water or enough water. R u consuming water?

lydiaharr

Maybe you are not eating enough and your body is holding onto to the pounds? I went through this last month where I was working out Alot but only eating up to 1,200 cals a day and not losing anything. It was definately frustrating! Now I log everything and eat what my myfitnesspal tells me I should be eating and I'm losing a 1 pound every week. If you are eating alot of sodium you could still be retaining water even if it's not your time yet. Hope any of this helps. (Hang in there!)

Holton

That can be very frustrating, but I assure you it has happened to most of us. Without seeing your food diary, I would suggest you really look at how much processed food you are eating (even if you are within your calorie limits). Too much sugar, too much sodium can both really derail your efforts. Be sure you are drinking at least 8 cups of water a day and not intaking sodas. These would be areas I would review while continuing to move forward with your efforts! Good luck!

WarmFuzzy

Make sure you are drinking plenty of water - more than the 8 standard glasses if you are working out significantly - your muscles need it to keep working out & help you shed weight.
Also, watch the sodium content in the foods you are eating - you can adjust your settings to add sodium as a marker in your food (in addition to calories, fat, carbs, protein, etc)
Chinese food will make me "gain" for a day or 2, so will a day of more processed foods (even healthy ones!)
Don't worry about a small gain right now - it's possible that this has been going on for a while (fluctuations) & you just weren't aware of it until you started logging into MFP... see where you are in 3-4 days... sometimes, my small gain will result in an overall loss just a day or 2 later!!

RMinVA

Wegiht loss is primarily driven by diet, not exercise. You said you are making healthier choices, but I'm going to wager that you can probably take that even further and clean things up even more. Look at sodium and sugar intake too: sodium is known to cause water retention, and sugar can have a similar impact.

Make sure you are drinking @ least 8 glasses of water a day. A lot of people will tell you that you don't need to do it, but in my case it definitely seems to help.

Sleep is also an important factor, so your work schedule may be a contributing factor, but there really isn't much you can do about that.

Last but not least, it is not uncommon for the scale to fluctuate. If you are exercising a bit more, there could be some water retention related to that as well. Get your 8 glasses of water in (see above comment) and it should go away pretty quickly.

nicho132

I am wondering too. I lost this week but gained last week. I essentially ate the same exact amount of calories during the weekdays and exercised the same amount. However, this last weekend I was not as good about logging all of my food so I probably went over my calories Saturday and Sunday. The previous week I did not go over at all and was in fact under by nearly 200 calories on two separate days. It does not make sense. I am 39 so I keep attributing the strange losses and gains to the fact that I am almost 40 and people say that your body changes around this time. I used to be able to lose weight so quickly!

tiggerificnurse

I have been there too. As several people have mentioned water is key. It flushes your body as well as increases your ability to burn calories effectively. Another thing that is important is the way you breath when you are working out. An-aerobic vs. aerobic. When we do not breath effectively while working out we are actually changing to an anaerobic state and cutting calorie burn. My aqua aerobics instructor taught me this. It is very important to breath in through your nose and out through your mouth to stay in aerobic state of exercise.

Also, many times at the beginning of a change in lifestyle our bodies don't quite know what to do with itself and it wants to hold on to what we have. I have hit plateu after plateu and gotten discouraged because the scale is not moving and then I self sabotage.

Sound like you are working hard at it. Keep up the work and it will pay off.

DJBug

Just made my food diary public. Sorry, didn't realize it wasn't.

DJBug

Not for sure if this will help but I have found that when I'm not getting the results that i want. I'm also not drinking water or enough water. R u consuming water?

I will admit I'm not a big water drinker, but I have been really pushing myself to drink more. I do add an ounce of cranberry juice to every glass of water...it's the only way I can get the stuff down, and I've been logging those calories, too.

DJBug

Thanks to everyone who has responded so far, and those who respond in the future....I'm working on the water! Really going to push myself to get to 8 glasses today! (4 down, 4 to go).

Of course, I have an awards dinner to go to tonight for my DH....I'm just hoping there's some healthy stuff. I don't use too much processed food usually. And I always by the "low sodium" versions because I have borderline hypertension, and my mother-in-law (who lives with us) needs to restrict her sodium for multiple reasons. We did do take-out for dinner on Tuesday which was the gyro, but I just didn't have time to cook and we had to grab something on the way to Cub Scouts for my son. (The bit of burger, was two bites of my son's that I had before I realized what I was doing.)

Many people suggested trying to eat all my calories daily....should I really try to eat the extras I have left in the evening? I'm usually not hungry, and I try not to eat just because (one of my biggest pitfalls is eating out of boredom, as well as stress). And should I shoot for just my daily calories or those plus the exercise calories added in (I really don't think I could get there most days....)?

Thanks again, everyone.

WarmFuzzy

DJ - just looked @ your food diary & you need to eat more!!

Here's how MFP works - you tell it how much you weigh, how tall you are & what type of lifestyle you lead. It then tells you how many calories you need to eat in order to keep breathing =-) Then, you tell it your goal - let's say 1 pound a week. It subtracts calories from your original total to accommodate weight loss - 500 calories/day for each pound/week of weight loss (I applaud MFP for limiting it to 2# weight loss/week)
Then, if you exercise in addition to your average lifestyle activity, it gives you extra calories to eat to give you energy for that exercise.

It looks like your daily target is 1620. I do not know what you set as a goal, but 1620 is the net result of your required calories to live, less the calories to help you lose weight.

I see in the past week you haven't consumed that many calories, and when you log significant exercise, you are experiencing large deficits.

Many people would be saying "yay for you! you'll lose weight even faster!!" but just the opposite can happen. When you take in drastically fewer calories than you need, your body will change the way it uses energy, in order to store as much as possible for future calorie losses. the result - you can slow your weight loss, stop your weight loss & even experience weight gain.

Now, the plusses - I see that what you ARE eating is extremely healthy on most occasions - lots of veggies! I suspect that being new to MFP & logging in your food has made you hyper-aware of what you eat, & caused you to hold back.

My encouragement is to eat up to 1600 calories a day, and more when you exercise. Try to not go below your calorie target by more than 100 calories on any given day. continue to be aware of what you eat. Your sodium levels came in OK on almost all days, so I do not think that is a problem, unless your body is extremely sensitive.

Keep up the exercise - as long as you are eating to fuel yourself for the extra energy output, it will help you lose weight & also shape your body as the pounds come off.

If you'd like, send me a friend request & we can encourage each other to our goals!! Tara =-)

fteale

It's probably just water weight.

DJBug

@Tara,
Thanks for your input. I will send a friend request along.

I just don't know if, on the average day I can actually eat the 1600 calories PLUS the extras....I'm truly quite full already....but I guess I can try to incorporate some more snacks in between meals....off to go find a snack.....and some more water, too!

pkpzp228

As others have mentioned water consumption will fuel metabolism.

That said, two pounds in the context of one week is really not an accurate indicator and what I mean by that is that you should be looking at overall trending of calorie intake versus weight. 1 week is not enough time to judge whether your intake is leading to results. Depending on how much you weigh your body weight can flux from day to day by more than 2 lbs based on just hydration levels alone.

Stay committed to your diet plans and stick with your exercise, give it at least a few weeks, then you'll be in the position to accurately judge the effect of your consumption vs expenditure. Until then don't get frustrated, health a lifestyle and weight loss is a result, it's not measuring stick for successful your last week was.

good luck

dmitrim

Calorie count obsessively and don't eat anything that doesn't have the exact nutritional data on the packaging. And not just calories, use the detailed stats and focus on keeping sugar, fat and carbs to a minimum. I've lost 80 pounds over the course of 10 months by modifying my diet. I don't really bother working out and have never been the member of a gym. The past 3 months I've used the website to properly monitor my diet and it's helped a lot far as keeping things consistent. Learned that I was likely eating far too little during the first part of my diet. Kept plateauing, hasn't happened since I've been here always making sure I'm above 1200 calories.

It really does come down to the food side of things, once you get that down to a science it's simple.