Oh my word. UP 4 lbs!

tiaredgypsie

My goal was to LOSE 15. I've been up for days, enough to wear I don't feel like I can blame bloating from my cycle or water weight or anything.

My goal count is 1320. My net has been under that every day since I started (about a week and a half?) My activity hasn't been very high (injury recovery; starting back with running today) but I've done something every day.

Anyone wanna take a look and shoot me your theories on my weight is rising rather than falling????

runnercheryl

Looks to me like you eat a LOT of processed fast food.

As far as I'm concerned, there's nothing wrong with that - but it does mean sodium will stick around so you can blame water weight and bloating.

Are you getting plenty of water?

kalynn06

The good news is that it's probably not fat . My theory is water weight especially if you are up 4 pounds in a week. You aren't eating enough for it to be anything but water unless your logs are off and you somehow managed to eat 14,000 calories over maintenance. You also are eating foods that pretty much guarantee water retention, because there is a lot of sodium and processed sugar in your diet. There is also the fact that you aren't eating enough. If you eat a very low calorie diet for a sustained time, you will also tend to retain water.

DirrtyH

You need to start tracking your sodium.

I would also start trying to sneak some more vegetables and lean protein in. I agree that you're eating a little too much processed food. Not bad to have that sometimes, but including more whole foods in your diet is going to make you feel a lot better.

NoAdditives

Meet your calorie goal (including eating exercise calories) everyday. Give it some time. You shouldn't expect instant results. tracking sodium and sugar will help a lot. Excess refined sugar slows weight loss, excess sodium causes your body to retain water.

barney50501Missy

I eat a lot of processed foods myself (just don't have the time for much else). I do make sure I drink a lot of water to counteract all that sodium and that seems to help quite a bit.

tiaredgypsie

Nope, most of my food is homemade. But I sometimes choose a similar restaurant option on the diary if it matches my description quickly. Hardboiled eggs, fresh salsa, straweberries, cheese, coffee... not processed. But today's shows a taco bell taco and it was actually made at home from scratch.

tiaredgypsie

thanks for the feedback. Not enough water for sure. I'm used to "instant results" because I can fast very easily (too easily) and slow progress over time is my direct challenge. I haven't used a scale for over 20 years for this very reason. Oh, and I'll stop using restaurant equivelents for my entries if I'm going to ask people to look at them because no WAY do I love processed food! I mean, if you knew me, you'd know that's almost an intolerable insult (that I know none of you could possibly have known, esp from my diary!). Still, my bad for going for the fast record route.

kalynn06

Even if it's not water from diet, it could also be from exercise, because if you are pushing, your muscles will retain water sometimes for 2 weeks. Unless you had a binge at the heartattack grill right before you began logging, it's really unlikely that most or any of those pounds could be anything but water, because your body can't make fat or muscle out of air and it looks like you ate under your BMR for a week and a half.

tiaredgypsie

Oh an one more question....do I want my "calories remaining" to be as close to zero as I can get it? I see that goal line and think I should be way under it every day but am I actually supposed to be *right on it*, neither over nor under?

Dtho5159

Nope, most of my food is homemade. But I sometimes choose a similar restaurant option on the diary if it matches my description quickly. Hardboiled eggs, fresh salsa, straweberries, cheese, coffee... not processed. But today's shows a taco bell taco and it was actually made at home from scratch.

Honestly, Id do the handy recipe builder and not add things that say fast food on them... I make a hamburger at home that is a good 200 cal less than a Wendys burger, not to mention less sodium so I think that will make your calories off for the day if you make homemade but say its from a restaurant.

tiaredgypsie

how do you know how many calories to make it worth? I just had a piece of homemade, unfrosted chocolate cake, made from scratch. I have no idea how many calories to attribute to that so I took my best guess with a similar recipe on the Hershey''s can.

ladyraven68

how do you know how many calories to make it worth? I just had a piece of homemade, unfrosted chocolate cake, made from scratch. I have no idea how many calories to attribute to that so I took my best guess with a similar recipe on the Hershey''s can.

In the food tab there is a recipe section.

You can add a recipe called Chocolate cake

say how many servings, and add each ingredient so you know the total calories for the whole thing, and the calories for one slice, e.g 1/8th.

I use it for all my family meals, it's so much easier and accurate than trying to guess.

iwantahealthierme13

Too much fast food, even if it fits into your macros, it's not healthy, it's high calorie and very fattening.

r1ghtpath

not to mention, if you ARE going by the calorie counts from the fast food lists here, you could be WAY under eating! if your goal is 1350 and you're using places like taco bell for your calories you might be consuming way less than 1350. if a taco at taco bell is 300 cal and yours at home are 150 even 200, that's a pretty significant difference......

and the recipe section is great for things you make at home and there is more than one serving!!! you can add the 2 cups of flour and tell it there are 8 servings and it will give you total calories and then calories per serving :-)

mdsjmom98

The same thing happened to me since my last weigh in. I fought those pesky pounds for what seemed like a month, (in reality it was only 2 weeks) and then I weighed in on Friday, and not only were the pounds I've been battling gone, but 4 more!! I agree with the one poster who said you can't just gain 4 lbs in a week unless you are going waaaay over. As much as you don't want to blame it on water weight, it most likely is. One morning you'll weigh in and it will be gone.

sl1ngsh0t

This happens to me all the time.....but I am still losing inches. Are you?

EbonySD

I always gain "fake weight" after eating fast food. Give yourself 1 week of eating clean (no fast food/fried food) and you will drop the fake weight and hopefully an extra lb or two.

sweetteacher123

Keep tracking calories and working out, but don't expect fast results. True weight loss is the like the tortoise versus the hare. You want to be the tortoise...slow and steady wins the race! Check again in two weeks and I bet you will begin to see some small results. Then more in a month, etc. Keep working and good luck!

DataBased

Oh an one more question....do I want my "calories remaining" to be as close to zero as I can get it? I see that goal line and think I should be way under it every day but am I actually supposed to be *right on it*, neither over nor under?

That's the goal - when you find your sweet spot, you'll consistently lose. And the recipe builder is SO easy to use. Add in each ingredient of your recipe and enter how many people that recipe can serve - it does all the math for you.

Slow and stead is the best way to change your lifestyle to a healthy, sustainable one. Stick with it!

emmalou2206

Hi. Are you drinking your water or just not recording it? I drink around 14 glasses (7 pints) a day and I think it helps me massively with my weight loss. Try that if you are not already

Are you eating enough fresh food - fruit and vegetables etc

ProjFit

Im pretty much just repeating everybody else by now, but I do agree that you have to really watch your sodium intake. A burger from a fast food joint can sometimes have your entire sodium goal for the day in that one burger. If you watch that, plus make sure your within your calories then you should be golden. Its not necessarily fat, but I do understand that Its pretty discouraging when you stand on the scale and you gained some weight.

SierraElegance

That's terrific that you're not eating fast food, but if you're creating the equivalent at home that's not a great deal healthier. Don't get me wrong, that's definitely a step up from fast food, so you're headed in the right direction!

If you're truly serious about losing weight, first set up your diary to show sugar and sodium. You will be really surprised how high your numbers are! So you need to significantly reduced those, I'm sure. Then ditch the alcohol. Eat every 3 hours or so, and have about 30 grams of protein per meal. Design your meal around which protein you choose, and then add your carb and lots of veggies. Have fruit, but keep it to the morning.

Get rid of things like cereal, bread, milk, processed foods. You can add some of that back in later in moderation, but it's best to get rid of it when you can't get your weight to budge.

tiaredgypsie

Thanks all: i have some great new things to try this week: more water and record it, use the recipe builder instead of ff equivalents, watch the sugar/sodium, eat enough calories, and my other goal is to sweat some of this water off! I really appreciate the tips and feedback!