I gained a pound!

honor82

Give yourself more than a week. I know it's frustrating because you want to see a lower number each and every week. However, this is an unreasonable way to think. Keep exercising and eating healthy and the weight will come of eventually.

pocomama

I am not a medical professional and I realise that it totally depends on how much you have to lose, but I am not a huge fan of eating back all of my exercise calories. I try to have an average net of around 700 calories a day. And I eat...a lot. I think that as I get closer to the overweight BMI and out of the obese I might have to revise my thinking but I do not think there is a blanket answer. Some people succeed by eating back every single exercise calorie, others succeed by eating less.

I think if you are in this for the long haul you have to accept that there are going to be times when you gain a pound or two. I have been up 2 for the past 3 weeks. It is frustrating, and I am changing things up a bit, but I am focusing more on how I feel, and the fact is that eating sweets and giving up on the exercise is not an option for me. I can't do it, I have come too far. Even in the beginning though, just the decision to change my life was something I was not willing to sabotage. But it is hard. Please dont get discouraged.

chrissi_k

I agree with the others, try to eat more and just my 2 cents a pound is a pound, so a pound of fat is a pound of muscle.

So muscles don't weight more than fat. It is like 2 lbs of feathers weight as much as 2 lbs of concrete

Qarol

You might have gained some muscle mass since you've been working out everyday. Muscle weighs more than fat.

In a week? Please.

roseganira

I'm not going to get discouraged because I remember after I had my daughter and before I had an eating disorder i was dieting and exercising for weeks before i actually started losing weight. And my husband is trying to lose weight also so last night I told him we should keep 3 charts..1 for our weight each week, the 2nd one to chart our daily exercise, and the 3rd one to chart what we eat. I thought that he would think it's a stupid idea but he seems very excited about it. So i'm glad him and I can encourage either and i also get encouragement on here

LuciLawless

I'm having the same problems. I can't help but hate it, but my mother says that some days you hit a peak but eventually it will go down again

roseganira

lol, my mom says basically the same thing

_GlaDOS_

Muscle does not weigh more than fat.

You did not gain muscle in such a short amount of time, and on such a huge deficit.

Eating less than 1200 calories per day consistently is a terrible idea for most people.

Regardless of what your net goal is, you need to eat back the calories you burn during exercise.

If you want to lose weight in a healthy way and preserve whatever muscle you already have, you need to eat more and set your goal to lose only 1 lb per week. Obviously, starving yourself did not work in the past since you said you gained weight back. It doesn't work for most people.

ETA: Don't freak out about a 1 lb "gain".

MercenaryNoetic26

I can easily eat and **** two pounds.

BarbWhite09

Just because the site says eat 1200, doesn't mean you need to. Bump it up to 1400 for a while. & are you eating back your exercise calories? When you weighed were you sore from working out? Your muscle retains water when it's trying to repair it's self [when youre sore]. Hows your sodium intake been? Is it almost that time of month? Lot of factors. Don't get discouraged.

roseganira

I haven't really had money to buy healthy food so I've basically been drinking 2 slim fast meals per day and eating a small dinner. But i have grocery money now so tomorrow I'm going to go shopping and get a lot of fruits and vegetables and some of those Smart One's WW meals. I love those things. So i will start eating more when i have fruits and veggies. And all I drink is water so that's a good thing.

roseganira

And by slim fast meals, i mean the shakes. I love those things. The French Vanilla is awesome

ninerbuff

I don't get it. I started a diet and exercise program 7 days ago. I've eaten less than 1200 calories per day and have worked out everyday for anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour and a half! And I mix it up by doing a different cardio workout every other day and I do strength training every other day after my cardio. I can usually lose weight easily when I diet and exercise like this. I just don't get it!

It's just water retention from starting exercising. Normal. But you should lift before cardio to be more effective.


A.C.E. Certified Personal Trainer
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4HealthyMe

Muscle does not weigh more than fat.

You did not gain muscle in such a short amount of time, and on such a huge deficit.

Eating less than 1200 calories per day consistently is a terrible idea for most people.

Regardless of what your net goal is, you need to eat back the calories you burn during exercise.

If you want to lose weight in a healthy way and preserve whatever muscle you already have, you need to eat more and set your goal to lose only 1 lb per week. Obviously, starving yourself did not work in the past since you said you gained weight back. It doesn't work for most people.

ETA: Don't freak out about a 1 lb "gain".

^^ I agree with this.

ninerbuff

You might have gained some muscle mass since you've been working out everyday. Muscle weighs more than fat.

That's not the likely reason. Muscle isn't easy to put on even if you're in calorie surplus. It's water retention.


A.C.E. Certified Personal Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

RdOvt

Are you drinking enough water?? Water helps to flush out your body. Water and green foods!

Rolynthunder

You might have gained some muscle mass since you've been working out everyday. Muscle weighs more than fat.

A pound of muscle weighs the same as a pound of fat. However, you would not gain a pound of muscle in a week, but you can gain a pound of fat. You should never eat less than 1200 calories. Your body is probably going into starvation mode and storing everything you eat instead of burning (evolutionary adaptation to stress). Another reason that you could be gaining weight is water retention. When you stress your muscles a lot, they will hold on to water which might look like you have gained muscle, but in fact it is just water. It takes a while to get toned and to see definition, so after a week of exercising what you are seeing is just water (sorry!).
Try eating more (Minimum 1200, but you should eat more cals on days you work out than on days you don't work out), drink plenty of fluids and keep exercising. The weight will come off, just give it time and make sure you are properly feeding your body.

ninerbuff

You have to remmeber that if you are just starting to do weight work, your body will gain mussle mass before you will see any difference on the scale. I am a slave to the scale and had to learn not to be. I worked out for a month, 4-5 times a week and only lost one pound. I started to measure myself though and I was getting smaller, just not weighing less. Mussle weighs more thatn fat. So just give it time and don't get discouraged by the scale. SHE can be ruthless at times. Keep it up your doing great!

Not the likely reason. It's water retention from working out that's the culprit here.


A.C.E. Certified Personal Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 28+ years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

karenwill2

you are most likely retaining some water to help break down the lactic acid build up in your muscles. It is what happens. On Thanksgiving I started working out..gained five lbs and now am down three of those 5. However, I am so much leaner and about to head to the gym now. I try to have at least 300 cals left over every day just because it makes me feel good to have extra.

gettingfitismyrevenge

I agree with the others, try to eat more and just my 2 cents a pound is a pound, so a pound of fat is a pound of muscle.

So muscles don't weight more than fat. It is like 2 lbs of feathers weight as much as 2 lbs of concrete

Ya, but 2 lbs of feathers looks like a hell of a lot more than 2 lbs of concrete. LOL
I think we all know what people really mean when they say muscle weighs more than fat - but it might be helpful if people would say, "The amount of space that 2 lbs of muscle takes up is less than the amount of space that 2 lbs of fat takes up."

Putting that aside, I really doubt you'll gain a pound of muscle in a week, it's more than likely water retention from working muscles harder than they are used to being worked.