why do i gain so quick???

Hellbent_Heidi

Any take-out food is LOADED with sodium. If you ate that a couple of times over the weekend, its likely you're just retaining water from that change in your diet and its not a real gain and you'll back on track after a couple of normal days.

Congrats on your success so far, and just learn to recognize (and not freak-out over) the fluctuations caused by sodium, etc....

LauriesTrying2BeFit

Your other half has a higher Basal Metabolic rate than you do (he is heavier and taller than you are?). You require less calories than he does. If you eat the same amount as he does, of course you'll gain weight.

he is actually lighter than me, he only weighs 120lbs and its 5'11 so only abit taller.

patsyanne

I am open to hearing what others have to say on this topic. I too am seriously struggling and often wonder "will I have to be so calorie restrictive forever?" Not seeing a lot of results right now....getting discouraged.

I feel the same way...why do I gain by having more than 1200 Cal for one day then take forever to take it off. Why???

Yanicka1

Questions

How many calories do you eat usually?
What are you gaining weight or fat?
What kind of exercise are you doing?
How long have you been rectricting calories?

iv been eating 1530 for ages then increased to 1650 but i usually burn say 300 a day and eat back at least half last few weeks iv been eating more tho.
i only weigh on digital scales so i dunno if its weight or fat,
i do alot of walking, zumba, exercise bike and exercise dvds for exercise has i cant get to a gym due to childcare
iv been restricting cals for about 8months now

Good news- it's fixable. Bad news- you're going to have to get a new mindset.

When you lose weight without preserving lean muscle mass- your metabolism slows because muscle keeps your metabolism kicking in high gear. How to preserve lean mass? Weight lift, eat a modest deficit (15-20% reduction in TDEE) and protein. If you're slashing calories, doing nothing but cardio and never take a break (which you should every few months) then you're slowing your metabolism down over time.

Thus, when you go off your diet - BAM- instant weight gain. Your metabolism simply isn't built to handle normal eating anymore.

Solution?
Metabolism reset. It'll take about a month to do- which in the grand scheme of things isn't long at all. Add weight lifting in place of some of your cardio; eat enough to fuel the workouts and your life.

For more info come read the stickies-
www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/3817-eat-more-to-weigh-less

This. Thank you I didn't have to write it LOL

chrishgt4

Your SO will most likely be able to eat significantly more than you without gaining because he is a man. Does he do sports etc? If so, then add even more on to what he can eat.

There's no way you've gained 5lbs, but you might have gained something. Having a blowout every so often is ok, but you can't eat like he eats I'm afraid.

gemiwing

This. Thank you I didn't have to write it LOL

;D I knew you were going there with me LOL

GreenTeaForDays

if you're using an iPhone or other smartphone I recommend getting True Weight or True Weight Lite. The app tracks your weight using a moving average which smooths out the daily fluctuations in weight. You could do a similar thing using excel or by hand. Instead of looking at you current weight, take the average of the last few days. The app also provides an estimate of how many calories you've been over or under to cause the subsequent weight-gain or loss.

http://www.madeupsoftware.com/trueweight/home.html

Cindym82

It's water weight from the sodium in the take out and junk you were eating all weekend. Drink a ton of water and eat some veggies and you'll be fine

Vixen0113

I've had this problem for years..In fact i weighed in on a friday, by next saturday I gained 13 lbs..I didnt go off off my diet..but i ate more than my normal 1200 calories..its so easy for me to gain weight..but to lose one pound, it takes blood sweat and tears lol

Lolli1986

Questions

How many calories do you eat usually?
What are you gaining weight or fat?
What kind of exercise are you doing?
How long have you been rectricting calories?

iv been eating 1530 for ages then increased to 1650 but i usually burn say 300 a day and eat back at least half last few weeks iv been eating more tho.
i only weigh on digital scales so i dunno if its weight or fat,
i do alot of walking, zumba, exercise bike and exercise dvds for exercise has i cant get to a gym due to childcare
iv been restricting cals for about 8months now

Good news- it's fixable. Bad news- you're going to have to get a new mindset.

When you lose weight without preserving lean muscle mass- your metabolism slows because muscle keeps your metabolism kicking in high gear. How to preserve lean mass? Weight lift, eat a modest deficit (15-20% reduction in TDEE) and protein. If you're slashing calories, doing nothing but cardio and never take a break (which you should every few months) then you're slowing your metabolism down over time.

Thus, when you go off your diet - BAM- instant weight gain. Your metabolism simply isn't built to handle normal eating anymore.

Solution?
Metabolism reset. It'll take about a month to do- which in the grand scheme of things isn't long at all. Add weight lifting in place of some of your cardio; eat enough to fuel the workouts and your life.

For more info come read the stickies-
www.myfitnesspal.com/groups/home/3817-eat-more-to-weigh-less

.... sort of, nearly, not quite... though the outcome is basically the same. i'll try a different explanation in case it helps.

muscles require a lot of fuel, so the more muscle you have the more you can eat. that is all it really boils down to. the more you use your body, the more you have to eat. bigger, stronger muscles that are used a lot = eating lots.

so it boosts the overall amount of potential energy metabolised, but shouldn't change per-cell/per-kg metabolic rate as such, not to my knowledge, at least (would be very interested to know if it does out of curiosity).

gemiwing

.... sort of, nearly, not quite... though the outcome is basically the same. i'll try a different explanation in case it helps.

muscles require a lot of fuel, so the more muscle you have the more you can eat. that is all it really boils down to. the more you use your body, the more you have to eat. bigger, stronger muscles that are used a lot = eating lots.

so it boosts the overall amount of potential energy metabolised, but shouldn't change per-cell/per-kg metabolic rate as such, not to my knowledge, at least (would be very interested to know if it does out of curiosity).

Yes, you're correct. Now here's the main point- if you want to eat 'normal' amounts of food and not be on a highly restricted diet for the rest of your life- more muscle is your buddy. So to get and keep the MM and our sanity is, personally, what I think the OP was really going for. I think after doing this for a while she already knows about water weight gain and is looking for the next step.

I'll take a look at the research I've got here and see if it changes the metabolic rate. So forgive the layman's terms of my post and I hope we can agree on the general principle of what I said.

ETA- gee the last sentence looks ****ty all typed out. I don't feel the level of ****ty that sentence looks. Need more coffee.

uk_ja

Stop lying to yourself and track the bad days, you are only cheating yourself with denial when you don't track the bad days.

If you had tracked you would have seen the calorie excess that you had eaten, you would have seen the crazy increase in sodium from the take out/ processed food. The 5lb gain would not be hard to see if the data is there in front of your and the data is what MFP is all about.

auroranflash

You have to eat 3500 calories over your maintenance calories to gain one pound of fat. So, unless you ate and additional 17,500 calories this weekend you haven't gained 5 pounds. It's water weight. it fluctuates according to a myriad of things including hormones, carb intake, sodium intake, etc. It will be gone very soon.

^ This is correct. As an example, I did log all of my food intake this weekend, and because it was heavy-sodium foods and generally bad for you, I too am up 5lbs from the weekend, even though my weekly goal was only over by 1500.

So you can see there's no way I even gained back one pound, much less five. It's just the scale being wonky again. I need to eat right and drink lots of water, and I'll be back down to my Friday number in a day or two.

haleighallen

You have to eat 3500 calories over your maintenance calories to gain one pound of fat. So, unless you ate and additional 17,500 calories this weekend you haven't gained 5 pounds. It's water weight. it fluctuates according to a myriad of things including hormones, carb intake, sodium intake, etc. It will be gone very soon.

^THIS^

Lesa_Sass

It's water weight from the sodium in the take out and junk you were eating all weekend. Drink a ton of water and eat some veggies and you'll be fine

^^^^^This. I had sashami Friday night and ate a ton of it with soy and wasabi. I woke up the next morning and had gained 4 lbs over night. Well, I knew for a fact this did not happen, it was the sodium retaining all the water I drank