gaining weight while eating right

AEJhoi

Hey! I have a very big problem! I had lost 2,5 kilos in about 2/3 weeks and I was really happy with that. Now, last week, I gained 1 kilo while I was eating the right amount of calories and certainly not above maintenance, so I was really sad, but I thought it might be water. Now this week, I gained another kilo so I am almost back to where I started, and I am eating around 1400/1600 calories a day, I drink a lot of water, I sport atleast 40 minutes a day on the eliptical trainer. What am I doing wrong?
I really dont get it because for gaining I should eat like 3500 more than maintenance and even though I had a few bad days I have always stayed under that and I sported a little more. I am really lost here and I really need to lose 8 kilos before september! Can anyone help me please?

Julietecosse

I only lost weight when I stopped eating bread. I was eating my 1200 cals, but only lost when I cut out bread. Try it and see if it helps. Good luck.

wilkyway

I just checked your diary, but urm, not much to look at!
Are you strength training too?
Sometimes the body needs time to adjust, if it's like how u said, I seriously don't think you actually GAINED for real. Instead of getting wound up too soon, take your measurements!!!

How were your eating habbits before you started 3 weeks ago?
It's hard to give u some good advice, when I don't know what the BEFORE was like.
Also, could you give me an example day of how your meals look like?

Don't worry:flowerforyou:

CarolynB38

I think it might be what you are eating rather than how much. You could try reducing the bready things a little and try to avoid too much in the way of fries, biscuits etc and eat more fruit and veg to fill you up and provide fibre and vitamins and minerals. You don't need to cut out the bread and stuff completely but reducing these things may help. Eating more lean protein can also help with weight loss.

For some people it doesn't seem to matter what they eat as long as they are under their goal calories. For many others (me included) the weight only comes off with a healthy diet with plenty of fruit, veg and lean protein. Some people can eat huge amounts of healthy foods and still lose weight. I have a friend like that, but a lot of what she eats is fresh stuff and virtually nothing processed.

I hope that helps.

Keep going and you will get there

AmandaPandah

The elliptical shouldn't be your only source of exercise.

TheVimFuego

I only lost weight when I stopped eating bread. I was eating my 1200 cals, but only lost when I cut out bread. Try it and see if it helps. Good luck.

Second that ... Since I cut bread, pasta, rice, etc (and really limited any sugars in, for example, processed foods) the weight has really come off.

Wheat Belly is decent book for anyone that wants to know how the metabolism reacts to grains.

Kind of makes 'a calorie is a calorie' look like a pretty silly idea when you KNOW that your energy balance hasn't changed but can see the difference altering the macronutrient balance makes.

Mmmm, eggs, cheese and bacon scrambled in butter for brekkie ... beats some toast and fruit juice any day

AEJhoi

Thanks for all the responses!

I normally eat 2 slices of toasted bread for breakfast, then maybe a snack around 10 o'clock (an apple or something)
then for lunch another 2 slices of bread, at 2 and 4 o'clock a snack (an apple, yoghurt, rice waffle, something called 'ontbijtkoek', it's Dutch, not sure how to explain it. It's a bit cake-ish but with not that many calories and recommended for diet)
Then for dinner it depends, I do eat pasta and such but always with lots of vegetables, I think my dinners are healthy (occasionally pizza or something like that)

I don't do very much strenght trainig, only some ab exercises and squads maybe.
Before I started my eating habits weren't that bad, I just gained a lot of weight some years ago from stresseating and I finally wanna get it off. For dinner it was pretty much the same. I did cut out soda and juices and I eat more conscious now.

So I will try to cut out pasta and bread, thanks!

I also cycle everyday but since thats just my way of transport I dont really count it as exercise all the time, I just see it as some extra calories burned.

Noel1114

Hi,

Yes, I'd suggest you cut out bread, pasta and the pizza. Replace with sweet potato or brown basmati rice.
Incorporate more lean protein like turky slices for snacks.
Best of luck

em9371

You don't eat enough. The initial loss will have been water, and now your body has realised you are under feeding it the loss has stopped - eating too little can affect your loss as bad as eating too much.. The cycling does still count as exercise so if you aren't logging then your cals will be even lower. You need to put enough fuel in for your body to work properly.

With only 6 kg to lose you should be aiming for no more than 0.5lb per week.
I would change your goal to. 0.5 and eat ALL cals including exercise, cut out some of the bread, add more protein/ fruit / veg and do more weight training not just elliptical.

AEJhoi

Okay thanks! Now i am actually back to losing 8 kilo's instead of 6, but I hope I didn't gain the weight back for real!

I will definitely try without pasta and bread, really hope that works!!