Why am I GAINING weight?

lipstickjungle

When I began this journey, I weighed 142 lbs and wanted to get down to 130 (I'm 5'6"). This was about three or four months ago? I get an hour of cardio in 5 days a week (running, elliptical, interval training), and I lift weights three times a week. When I stepped on the scale, my weight was 150! I'm watching what I eat, no candy or potato chips or anything. I'm a vegan, so I mostly eat vegetables, fruit, nuts, tofu, and I only drink water. I also take a supplement for protein and the rest of my vitamins. So, I usually eat 1,200-1,500 calories a day. I don't understand why I've gained so much weight but haven't seen a single pound come off. What should I do?

Nichole90

maybe its not actual "fat" but "muscle" that you are gaining?

koosdel

Open your diary.

hbrittingham

Are your clothes fitting more loosely?

nickiben

You may be burning too many calories so your body is going into starvation mood and not losing. Have you been logging the whole time youve been gaining? I stopped logging as I reached my goal weight, and I thought I had the whole thing sussed. Then weighed myself and Id put on 3lb, thinking I was doing ok!!!! So now Im back to logging and everythings back to normal.

joejccva71

When I began this journey, I weighed 142 lbs and wanted to get down to 130 (I'm 5'6"). This was about three or four months ago? I get an hour of cardio in 5 days a week (running, elliptical, interval training), and I lift weights three times a week. When I stepped on the scale, my weight was 150! I'm watching what I eat, no candy or potato chips or anything. I'm a vegan, so I mostly eat vegetables, fruit, nuts, tofu, and I only drink water. I also take a supplement for protein and the rest of my vitamins. So, I usually eat 1,200-1,500 calories a day. I don't understand why I've gained so much weight but haven't seen a single pound come off. What should I do?

Some questions I have:

1. Are you weighing yourself on an empty stomach in the morning the same day each week?

2. How many calories are you burning each day in a 24 hour period? If you don't know this, see the link in my sig.

3. What is your water intake per day?

4. How tall are you? Age? How active is your lifestyle outside of the gym?

5. From the information you've provided, it sounds like you are overdoing your training (cardio wise) a bit. If you are doing a 60 min cardio train whether it's running, eliptical or whatever 5 days a week and then weight training 3 days a week , you are doing too much.

Remember you burn calories outside of the gym, and most likely you are burning way more than you realize.

mercyyuen

Here are my guesses:
1. Maybe you're not tracking your foods right? Maybe you need to get a kitchen scale to measure your food quantities?
2. Maybe it's that time of the month, and you are retaining water?
3. Maybe you're taking Ambient and are eating food in your sleep?
4. Maybe you're eating too much salt and are retaining water?

I hate to say this, but if your gaining weight while exercising this much... the most likely culprit is what you're eating...

But I can't say for sure unless I saw your diary... and you testify under oath that it is 100% accurate.

lipstickjungle

My clothes aren't fitting more loosely. In fact, I went up a pants size.

I have been logging. Not always on the site, but I do write down everything I eat, the amount I eat it in, then look it up and total it.

nickiben

How much of a calorie deficit are you accumulating each day?