EATING MY CALORIES AND STILL GAINING

kprine1

Alright guys pretty discouraged. Eating my prescribed 1200 calories, measuring, weighing, and counting every snack. Exercising 5 days a week for 1 1/2 hours burning between 600-750 calories.... WHY AM I STILL GAINING??? I get that I might be making muscle but when and how long will I have to wait for the scale to budge??

kprine1

I am buring 600-750 per workout, not in total for the week!

eschwab855

I know its hard to do give it time I went the first 3 weeks ....nothing give it time it will work

skinnyme47

If I go over on sodium, I gain weight.

eschwab855

oh and did you get a good set of measurements if not take them now I didn't till a month after I started I so wish i had now

harriet_tubman

i stopped weighing myself a while ago and just go by how my clothes fit. my scale tells me i've either stayed the same or gained (since August) but my clothes fit fine (and in some cases are looser)

BrideToBe101212

Are you eating your 1200 calories or 1200+ exercise calories? Also, are you using a HRM?

abigaylelayne

I am not eating all my calories; burning between 350-400 calories per workout - 6 days a week; and I am not losing either ! I have been doing this for 6 weeks. The first 4 weeks I lost 8 pounds, now nothing. I totally understand your frustration !!! What are we doing wrong???!!

XXXMinnieXXX

Try eating a couple hundred more calories. 1200 is low, especially if your exercising! X

BeautyFromPain

Alright guys pretty discouraged. Eating my prescribed 1200 calories, measuring, weighing, and counting every snack. Exercising 5 days a week for 1 1/2 hours burning between 600-750 calories.... WHY AM I STILL GAINING??? I get that I might be making muscle but when and how long will I have to wait for the scale to budge??

Are you eating your exercise calories?
Also, you cannot gain muscle on a deficit unless you are a flatout beginner which would be about 1 pound, nothing more. If you opened your diary, it would be helpful?

kerricolby

Try eating back some of your exercise calories. I stayed the same for 3 weeks and was sticking to my calories and working out hard, but I was not giving my body enough fuel. This week I started eating most of my exercise calories back and I lost 5 pounds.

Blessedmommy_2x

Are you eating any of your exercise calories that you burned back? IF NOT its very likely that you are only netting about 500 calories a day. (1200 eaten -700 burned =500)

Also are you watching your sodium intake and increasing your water intake. Water weight can add serious weight to you and make you hold on to weight.

Sometimes the scale has a delayed reaction to the work you are doing... I have went a whole week before without seeing results and then all of a sudden then it'd start falling off.

I am relatively new at this myself... But I think its VERY likely you are not eating enough calories! I have about the same amount to lose and I started this journey eating way more than 1200 calories a day - and as you can see (from my ticker) its helped. I'm still not at 1200 cals a day and I have already lost 30 lbs. You may need to up them some.

***Sending you a friend request, because we have similar goals.

kmfl1

Are you eating what you're burning? Although the program allows it, I've found to eat about half of what I've burned. Helps.

kmfl1

Also, are you taking your measurements? Sometimes, as my wife says, "the scale is not our friend!" Your body could be going in while the scale is going up!

david_swinstead

Number one reason people fail to lose weight: because they aren't eating enough.

if you're eating 1200 a day, and burning off 700, then thaty's equivalent to only eating 500 calories a day (1200 - 700). This is not enough!

You should never, ever go below 1200 calories a day NET (that means after subtracting exercise calories). This will make your metabolism slow down to compensate for the lack of food it has. Pretty soon it will slow down to a point where you think you're eating in deficit, but actually due to your metabolism being so low, even at 500 calories you're eating in surplus compared to what your body is burning.

Open your diary and we can take a good look and give you better info, but initially it seems like an open and shut case of not eating enough.

david_swinstead

Also, as other people have said, yes it's possible to have some muscle gain, but this happens much slower than people might like to believe.

Muscle gain is far too readily used as an excuse for not losing weight. Even for beginners (beginners gain muscle faster at first) you wont gain more than perhaps 2-3lbs a month (admittedly a bit of a guesstimate), and to do that you would have to be lifting heavy weights consistently and keeping up an excellent supply of protein. More realistically you'd gain a lot less than that.

So in short, msucle gain isn't your problem.

dls06

Get a food scale to make sure your portions are correct.

lynn1982

Get a food scale to make sure your portions are correct.

This!! If you haven't done so already, be sure you're measuring everything and measuring it accurately!! You may be eating more than you think...

bingohead

If you don't eat sufficient calories,your body goes into starvation mode and starts conserving food as fat in case it doesn't get enough to sustain itself, make sure you eat you full amount of calories,including any extras earned by exercising.

UsedToBeHusky

I tell everyone to look at your sodium and potassium intake. These two nutrients create the balance of water in our bodies. Too much sodium and/or not enough potassium will cause water retention and it will look like a gain on the scale.

lynn1982

How long have you been doing this? If you just started (your profile says you joined in Feb 2012), it could be that your muscles are retaining water. That usually happens when you first start working out... Give it a few more weeks. After that, if you're measuring your food accurately and using a HRM so you know how many calories you've burned, it could be a medical issue.

emgs52

try eating 1200-1500 cals a day

mdebbie1026

Have your doctor check you thyroid for one thing. Also, are you using an HRM or the cal count off the machines? That difference is huge! Before my HRM I thought I was burning 500 to 700 per work out, HRM told me "Oh no Honey you are only burning between 200 & 300 calories!" Hang in there. Some of us just take longer to lose than others. It takes persistance and perseverence. You CAN do this!:flowerforyou:


Created by MyFitnessPal.com - Free Calorie Counter

vjrose

There are three things you can do, BMR (do you know yours), you need to be eating a bit over that number at least, that is what you body needs just to fuel your system and it takes energy to burn fat.
Examine your diet, weigh, measure, and look at what you are eating, looks like you have littles, are you eating on the run or on a plan. Prepared food or food you fix yourself, white flour, potatoes, added sugars (not fruit and veggie sugars), white rice, and tons of sodium can all interfere with results.
Are you using a HRM to get your calories (not entirely accurate depending on brand can be a bit high so I don't ever eat more than half of my exercise calories).
If you have toddlers did you take child maintenance into your activity level when you started, I really think your calories may be a little low for getting it done. However could be any of the previous ones. I fell for the whole 1200 calories at the beginning and went with along plateau, upped my calories and have been losing consistently since.

OSC_ESD

One word : CHANGE

You have to constantly change your regimen. Try researching / googling the " zig zag " method. Don't eat the same calories and burn the same amount everyday ... you have to keep your body guessing ! Workout harder some days and eat more ... on relax days just stay right near the 1200 cals. Make certain you are drinking plenty of water !

I have not looked to see if your diary is public ... but, understand that a calorie may be just a calorie ... but what's in those calories makes all the difference ! Know your nutrition .... add foods that speed up your metabolism, fuel your body and increase your energy.

There will be times the muscle building will out weigh the loss and you notice the difference rather than see the numbers go down ... but in the beginning that is just not the case. You need to tweak some things ... try a few of my suggestions and see if change is what is needed. I'm betting you will see a loss soon !

Caterpiller2011

Pls hang in there!

tinydancer24

Buy a heartrate monitor that calculates your calories burned. MFP and the machines are VERY inaccurate! I use my food scale religiously as well. Good luck!

SassyCalyGirl

this is opposite of what everyone else is saying but I went over two months with no loss-once I DROPPED my calories I started losing. It worked for me.

angelmanderson

You might not be eating enough or you are eating the wrong kind of foods.... I go up and down one week I will lose 3lbs then the next week I wont lose any... Sometimes you might need to eat a lot of calories to shock your system.. I have notice that with my body,, Hope this was helpful

fuzz_pawz

Alright guys pretty discouraged. Eating my prescribed 1200 calories, measuring, weighing, and counting every snack. Exercising 5 days a week for 1 1/2 hours burning between 600-750 calories.... WHY AM I STILL GAINING??? I get that I might be making muscle but when and how long will I have to wait for the scale to budge??

It may never budge...
Reason being is that MUSCLE weighs MORE than FAT.....so lets say you're 150lbs......when you burn off the fat, and you are still 150lbs, that's all muscle...lean muscle, not blubbery fat on your body.

You have to remember that DROPPING your calories to an amount that is way lower than what your body requires, will send your body into "starvation mode". What happens here, is that your body needs energy, if you are not providing the necessary energy required during the day via food, the body will take it from itself. Because muscle is a more pure source of energy, it will "eat" the muscle FIRST in order to gain the amount of energy needed to survive during a day.
People who starve themselves think it will eat away the fat....this is not so, not at first. You lose muscle first because it is a richer source for the body.

fuzz_pawz

You might not be eating enough or you are eating the wrong kind of foods.... I go up and down one week I will lose 3lbs then the next week I wont lose any...

I fluctuate DAILY...in the morning I am 3 lbs less than I am in the evening...this is also completely normal