Exercise and weight gain

ddttddtt

So thanks to MFP and lots of helpful people on here, I lost a lot of weight, 70 lbs to be exact. I did this in a bad way, i ate 500 calories a day with no exercise for 4 months, i know this is bad, but after years of failing to lose weight, i was desperate. And it worked, i lost all this weight, so it was worth the torture. With 30 more lbs to go to my goal, i have decided i need to think ahead and start a plan for keeping the weight off. So i have started running. I never ran before in my life, but i have been running now for a month and i love it. I run 5 days a week for a total of 6 hours. I put my weight loss on hold while i get used to exercise, with the condition that I would not let my weight go up. I weight in every week to make sure of this. That being said, exercising, especially as much as i am now, means i need to eat more. I have been eating very well, not consuming more than 2000 calories a day. With a daily caloric need of 2200 for maintenance and burning over 3500 a week through exercise, i feel i should still be losing weight. In the last month, my weight has gone up 4 lbs. I feel great and i look so much better for the exercise. My legs are stronger than ever and my whole body feels great. What i want to know is this due to fat gain, muscle gain, or something else? What are other peoples experiences when they started exercising? I am just looking for people's thoughts on this. Thanks

ariant23

unfortunately, as someone who has no official knowledge or training, it sounds to me like you might have done starvation mode with the 500 calorie thing. it might take a while for your body to get back to using calories at a "normal" rate. That said, I would whip out a measuring tape and measure your legs, waist, hips, neck. Track that. It might be muscle mass from exercise (though running isn't technically weight-bearing, but if you're heavy it can be). It might be fat your body is squirelling away to use next time you're down to 500 cals each day.

BUT if you feel great, keep it up. It can't hurt to exercise and eat a healthy, portion controlled diet. Maybe drop your total by 100 cal each day and see if that helps.

sleepytexan

Here's one of my old posts from a similar topic:

OK. I'm gonna give this a shot. I am an avid lifelong athlete. I have never been overweight, however, I used to eat too few calories (without knowing it), and a couple years ago, I actually GAINED weight bc of having slowed my metabolism to the point that every little extra treat I ate caused a weight gain, even though overall my calories were too low. THIS DOES HAPPEN.

It is also the reason so many fat people stay fat. They restrict their calories so low, slow their metabolisms, binge (even a little), gain weight, restrict more . . . . and so on and so on. But they are still fat.

It is also the reason most people can't lose that last 10-20 lbs. For real.

1. MFP has a deficit built in. Let's say you're trying to lose 1 lb/ week. That is a 500/day deficit from your BMR (the amount of calories your body needs to complete basic functions.

2. You exercise and burn 500 calories. Now you are at a 1000 deficit. If you eat back those 500 exercise calories, you refuel your body and you still have a 500 deficit for that 1 lb loss. If you DON'T eat back those calories, you have too little fuel. This is bad. This is too much of a deficit for basic functions. If you do this for a long time, you will STOP LOSING WEIGHT. Why? bc your metabolism will slow down -- it's like a brownout--not quite enough electricity to make the whole city (your body) run, so it has to slow down some things. You will probably start being tired a lot, your skin and hair might start to look worse, and you might even gain weight. But you might NOT be hungry -- your body is getting used to fewer calories. That's bad.


That's when you start to gain weight. Let's say you're running along, eating 1200 calories a day, and exercising 400 calories a day, so net is 800. You're losing, you think this is great. You keep doing it, but after a while you stop losing. hmmmmm. One weekend you go out to a special event and have a slice of pizza and a beer. 1 slice of pizza and 1 beer. So you ate maybe 2000 calories that day and exercised off 400, so net 1600. BOOM! You gain 3 lbs! What?!

Next, you freak out and restrict yourself down to 1000 calories a day and work out extra hard, burning 500 calories. Great, netting 500 now. You don't lose any weight, but you sure feel tired. Better get some red bull.

Are you getting the picture?

EDIT: When you work out, you need fuel. Food is fuel. If you don't eat back those exercise calories, you will not only have a big calorie deficit, you will have an ENERGY deficit. Remember, the calorie deficit for weight loss is built in when you use MFP. Exercising basically earns you more calories because you must refuel.
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There are many people who will tell you not to eat exercise calories. Before you take their advice, you might want to see whether they are at goal, have EVER been at goal, or have ever been able to maintain at goal. If anyone says to you 'THE LAST TIME I LOST WEIGHT", just stop listening right there.

Ask some athletes whether or not they replenish their bodies with food equal to the calories they burn. Ask people who are fit and have achieved and maintained a healthy weight for some years. Don't ask people who count walking across a parking lot as exercise.

Here's an interesting case study about how to stay fat while consuming only 700 calories a day. Take a moment, you'll be glad you did:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/3047-700-calories-a-day-and-not-losing

blessings.