Gained 5 pounds in 4 days... help!!

sweettoothfairy

Please help me if anyone has relevant answer.Here is my story:

Its been 2.5 years since i started my weight loss journey and ever since the only hurdle i faced was slow weight loss, initially people say you lose faster but even in the begining my weight loss was 0.5 pound per month. Even with rigourous diet and exercise I never lost more than 2 pounds in a month but thats not all. My main issue is weight gain. I work my A** off for a month loose close to 1 pound and 1-2 days of cheating and weight shoots upto 3-4 pounds and thats not a temperory gain. That gain shows on my scale and my body, especially around my face and my upper abdomen.

I only loose weight till i eat less than or equal to 1200 calories and workout for good 1-1.5 hrs, and not eat my exercise calories back. If i eat my exercise calories back, i dont loose any weight ....ugghhhh this is giving me so much stress and i know in turn it will make me gain weight.... i hate it!!

If i upp my exercise intensity and eat 1200 i feel week, hungry all the time and my body shows signs of fatigue within a week or so and if i increse my calorie i dont loose.I dont know what to do.. Recently I ate 1200 calories per day and did low impact cardio , drank 3 litres of water everyday and finally in 2 months lost 5 pounds but here is the twist i just came back from 4 vacation where in i ate close to 1500-2000 calories and yes no exercise , today everyone in my family told me i hv gained weight and when i stepped on weighing scale i have gained 5 pounds errrrrrrrrrrrrrr..... i mean 5 pounds in 3-4 days thats not possible right !! then how come i gain weight so fast. am i starving on other days so when i eat my body stores it, or what is it, I dont know what to do.. At times i feel like giving up on this journey, 2.5 years is long time to get a makeover but m still hanging around 20 pound mark... please help me undersatnd whats happening...i feel like crying right now......

P.s. My thyroid levels are in check and i dont have PCOD and its not TOM.

Espressocycle

it's water retention, or your scale is broken, or you are really constipated.

sweettoothfairy

I have IBS so that rules out constipation, regarding water retention i am drinking enough water plus its not one time story, its been happening since i started this journey, max i have gained was 10 pounds in a week but i always keep negative thoughts aside and start a fresh but this time i m losing my mind.

dad106

5 pounds in 4 days is just water weight. It takes 3,500 calories to lose/gain a pound of fat.. so unless you ate an extra 14,000 calories it's not actual weight gain.

It sounds like you're doing a lot of exercise but barely eating anything.. so I'd suggest eating more. You may be bloated at first, but once your body gets used to it, that will go away.

melissa0001

your body could be in starvation mode, which messes up your metabolism. You should be eating more if you are working out that much. You will gain initially while you body readjusts to food but then you should start losing at faster rates

mill1295

It's important what you are eating not just how much..

mill1295

It's important what you are eating not just how much..

sweettoothfairy

In 2 years i tried decreasing my exercise to 30 minutes a day and even i tried eating 1500 calories but nogo..... i might sound like a pessimist but m losing hope.

bluegold12

Do you wait at least 3 hours after your meal before going to sleep or taking a nap? Going to sleep soon after my meal usually makes me gain weight. Even one meal followed by a nap makes a huge difference for me.

sweettoothfairy

I dont sleep after meals.My dinner is around 7:30 pm and i go to sleep around 11. Only thing i take is 1 cup skimmed milk 1 hour before bed.

pnieuw

My wife's a runner, and just read an article to me last night that mentioned if you gain or lose 2% of your weight in a day, it's fluid, not fat. I agree with the others - to gain that much in fat means you ate a huge amount of food over a four day period.

Keep at your plan and your body will adjust.

rileysowner

I have IBS so that rules out constipation, regarding water retention i am drinking enough water plus its not one time story, its been happening since i started this journey, max i have gained was 10 pounds in a week but i always keep negative thoughts aside and start a fresh but this time i m losing my mind.

There are medical conditions that cause water retention. Not to mention if your food while on vacation was high in sodium it will cause water retention as well. Have you ever had your kidney function checked by your doctor? For that matter, even though doctors are not really trained in this, have you discussed this with your doctor? You may have an underlying cause to this difficulty in losing weight other than Thyroid or PCOS.

sweettoothfairy

Thank you, that is something i havent thought about. At times when i wake up in the morning i can feel my hands and feet bloated. Especially when i gain wieght i always feel it in my upper abdoman, first place where water retention starts. I am gonna get it checked asap.

lottabody1

don't be so hard on yourself, that only make you give up and a quitter never wins, every pound lossed counts, i learned in weight watches years ago, "if you bit it ,you need to write it" you didn't put the weight on over night, so don't expect it to come off over night. hang in there and let's hear a success story from you:)

Kaimana94

your body could be in starvation mode, which messes up your metabolism. You should be eating more if you are working out that much. You will gain initially while you body readjusts to food but then you should start losing at faster rates

I agree with the above post. It sounds like your body is in starvation mode. This will cause you to retain water.

kapeluza

THIS is from my blog:

"Aunt Flo, Oh How I Hate Thee.....

Don't you wish that some days you were a man? I know that during specific times of the month when our grumpy Aunt Flo decides to make an appearance in our lives, that is when I wish I were a man. I mean come on now, men have it easy. I think the hardest thing they have to deal with through the weight loss journey is the manbooblars.

Ok, now that I got that off my chest, ever since I switched scales I started weighing myself twice a day. At first it was more curiosity than anything. Amazing how in the morning you weighed a # and BAM in the evening you could weigh 3-4lbs heavier. I’ll even go to the extreme and be a little gross and tell you how stunned I was after an explosion in the bathroom to see a 1-2lbs difference on the scale. Anyways, I started writing down and keeping track of every weigh in I did, every single day. I have found it extremely helpful to be honest. I don’t write down every single time I weigh myself but rather I record the morning reading.

How can this possibly be healthy for someone who is trying to lose weight? Well, this is how it has helped me….

For example, last week on Thursday 8-25-11 I weighed in at 166lbs (which would have given me a +2lb loss for that week) but on my official weigh in day, Friday 8-26-11, BAM, I weighed 170lbs!!! TOM was around the corner so I knew what the culprit was. So far, I've been juggling between 169bs and 170lbs since Friday. TOM is visiting so it is reflecting on the scale. Had I weighed in only once a week and saw a 4lb weight gained, yeah, I would freaked the freak out!!!

Break down:

8/25/11 - 166lbs

8/26/11 - 170.0lbs KAPOW!!

8/27/11 - 169.2lbs

8/28/11 - 170lbs

8/29/11 - 170.4lbs

8/30/11 - 167.4lbs

To compare results and ensure nothing else was going on, I went back to my records from one month ago and surely enough I saw weight gain on the days prior to and during TOM. So, I feel a little better about that 4lb gain which can easily be contributed to water retention or just symptoms associated with Aunt Freaking Flo.

So, today, 8-30-11 is my day 4 of Aunt Flo kicking my *kitten* and this will probably be my last day of TOM. Surely enough when I got on the scale this morning it was down to 167lbs from being 170lbs all weekend. I was feeling really bloated and I still feel a little bloated so yeah, I hope to see good numbers come tomorrow or next day when Aunt Flo has packed up her sh#t and left the house. I hope to see that 166lbs come Wednesday or Thursday!



This has been a message from your friendly neighborhood honey badger…..



Stay thirsty my friends…… for H20 of course!!







(if you don't know why I call myself a honey badger then clicky here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r7wHMg5Yjg)

"

MIMITIME

Hi, You need to see a doctor now. It could be your thyroid but it could also be heart or artery related with all of the bloating. Please Please Please do this for yourself. If there is no problem - fine but what if there is? Again, it could be as simple as not eating enough but why take the chance? The doc can tell a lot just by putting the stethoscope over the main arteries in your neck, stomach area and leg/thigh area.

StarIsMoving

Ok, keep in mind.. I am not a doctor by any means, but saw this and went "Yay, it's not just me!". Here is what I found out this time around though. I have swollen joints, RA, and IBS, and also lung issues. Here's the thing... Those are all "stressors" to the body, so my body was producing more cortisol (who would have thought to check those levels?). I used to get soooo frustrated! I got checked for everything, ate way under calories, was a waitress for years running, and Never lost, only gained. Made no sense if you listened to everyone else! So.... this time around... have fitness advisor and nutritionalist, etc all involved and finally found my solution (and you have to find yours). Due to all my stuff, I take B Complex vit, acidopholus, and magnesium every morning. I insure I have protein in morning, noon-ish, and evening (and a bit before workout). Since then, it took about 3 weeks to start working and I have not stopped losing weight! I kept saying "it just wasn't meant for me to lose, this is where I am supposed to be at".... I was wrong. The combination of those supplements recommended to help my metabolism (cause I ate under calories for so long) and to help with the fluid.... it worked. You have to find your magic, but from someone who thought it wouldn't happen... it just means to look under other rocks for the answers. Some of us do not fit the normal "medical normal" of body function. Ok, I have babbled on long enough, but I thought I would let you know... as weird as people will look at you (even doctors did to me, not believing I biked 16 miles/day... hubby even told them and they didn't buy it)... it IS possible to struggle out of realistic realm... find your magic potion... ps... the belly was first place I noticed bloat too... many similarities. Please keep me posted

LisaKyle11

your body could be in starvation mode, which messes up your metabolism. You should be eating more if you are working out that much. You will gain initially while you body readjusts to food but then you should start losing at faster rates

^^THIS^^ although 'starvation mode' is somewhat of a sloppy term for it. if you are exercising at all and ONLY eating 1200 cals you are starving your body. it's likely that you need even more than the baseline of 1200 BEFORE you exercise. your BMR is likely around 1300+ (just to lay around all day).

This said, you should open up your diary so we can get a better look at what may be going on. your body may need to adjust to taking in more calories and you may gain for a week or two... but if you keep at it (exercising and eating right), your body will readjust.

Jessicaruby

bump

mericksmom

I heard the celiac kinda shadows IBS, sometimes. Have you tried a low to no gluten diet?
How tall are you, I hear if you are shorter you need less cals (I have heard, not sure if it is true).
How long do you wait before you decide it isnt working? You may want to try one way for a month or more and see how it goes before calling it quits or longer.
Are you JUST using a scale or do use scale and measuring tape. IMO Measing tape will help you better see your goals happening.

I wish you the best and that someone has something that may help you. HUGS.

vold94

5 pounds in 4 days is just water weight. It takes 3,500 calories to lose/gain a pound of fat.. so unless you ate an extra 14,000 calories it's not actual weight gain.

It sounds like you're doing a lot of exercise but barely eating anything.. so I'd suggest eating more. You may be bloated at first, but once your body gets used to it, that will go away.

I agree, especially if when you do an intense exercise day you are feeling weak and hungry, you're body is trying to tell you that you need to eat more calories. Give it a couple of weeks doing it and your body will start to respond.

Hellbent_Heidi

Are you watching your sodium intake? When I go on vacation and eat in a lot of restaurants, I swell up pretty quickly too!

steffiejoe

What types of food are you eating? I can't see your food dairy.

sweettoothfairy

mostly I eat home made indian food.

keengkong

You DID NOT gain 5 pounds of fat in four days. Doing so would have required that you eat 17,500 calories more than what your body was burning. That's highly unlikely no matter how much you pigged out.

Yesterday, I weighed myself and weighed 190.5 lbs. Today, after I went to the bathroom, I weighed 185 lbs. That's a 5 1/2 pound difference. Five days ago, I weighed myself at 181.5 lbs. (I was likely dehydrated at the time because I had run several miles.) You'll notice my weight varied 9 pounds in less than a week.

Our weights change during the day. Five pounds is about the maximum range for me in one day.

I suspect you ate more while on vacation and have more salt in your body right now. I expect you'll be back to normal, or close to it, within a few days.

gritgirl

keengkong, i think i love you. i just got back from a week at a conference and showed a 5 pound weight gain. i was about to have yet another mid-life crisis simply because it took so dang long for me to lose the 6 pounds i did lose.

but now i feel much, much better. you are a god. did i say that already? it's true. thanks for talking sense back into me.

UsedToBeHusky

It's water weight. Eat some fiber and drink a lot of water. It will fall off momentarily.

YoungerNextYear59937

It may not be the number of calories, but the types of food you're eating, and when you eat them. I'm 52 years old, 5'1" and weighed 143.5 yesterday. I met with a personal trainer yesterday as a last resort, because I was losing so slowly. This was her advice. 1300 calories a day on days I work out. 1200 calories a day on days I don't. 100 grams of protein, 150 grams of carbs, and less than 40 grams of fat. Be sure to eat breakfast every day, as early as possible when you wake up. Eat 5 times a day, ideally every 2-3 hours. Try not to eat carbs after 4 pm. Drink 1/2 ounce of water for every pound of body weight you have--every day. (In other words if you weighed 200 pounds, you would drink 100 ounces of water daily).

It's too soon to tell if this is going to work, but I did lose one pound yesterday.

kellyscomeback

This article may explain a lot, it explained why 1 gained 2 lbs after I upped my weights:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/200544-why-do-you-sometimes-gain-weight-when-starting-a-new-exercis

SuperKatie

Without reading the rest of the replies, I'd say you have a food allergy or intolerance. I went and had my blood tested and found that I was significatnly intolerant to a lot of the foods I was eating on a daily basis. I found that by taking them out, I was able to lose 20lbs in 7 weeks, with nothing more than a diet change (no working out b/c of knee surgery).This is something you should look into. I got my test through an NMD.