Why if I'm sticking to my goals this week have I put on 2lb?

sarahcuddle

Some serious help needed. Have made my diary public. I am a 44 year old English woman, 5'3" and currently 181 lbs which is in the obese range (not proud but those are the facts). Been on here about 2 months and have lost 11 lb so far (Oh no make that 9 lb since I just put 2lb on!). I set my goal as to lose 1lb a week and MFP has given me 1360 calorie goal before exercise. I have a sweet tooth which I am trying to conquer but overall I eat quite healthy, I cook from scratch, watch my sodium and sat fats and rarely eat junk food.

For exercise I do a lot of walking and am currently on week 2 of couch to 5k. I also sometimes swim (I am, or used to be a very good swimmer) and do zumba for the wii. I want to start some strength training but am not a member of a gym. Have tried a 10 min total body workout on utube and it nearly killed me lol

This week I did go slightly over my calorie allowance at the weekend but felt | had more than made up for it in the days before and since. I have been stressed this week over a couple of issues but that's the only difference I can point to. My weight loss plateaued a couple of weeks ago and I decided to eat less exercise calories back and lost 2lb last week. Any suggestions or help would be most welcome thanks. I do not want to eat a very low carb diet as I cook family meals for my kids and also I don't think I could sustain it

sarahcuddle

Anyone please ?

katiegirl121

Hi - My suggestions would be to track your sugar. Plus breaking your meals down so you are having something healthy to eat for morning and afternoon tea. We have just done a biggest loser competition at work and the trainer at the gym advised the importance of eating often but smaller meals. Good luck.

agent99oz

Just track your training, maybe up the intensity

Are you lifting weights? If so you may have put on some slight muscle which will then hold water...and weight gain

Also did you drink at the weekend? I find it takes a week before those calories go! Crazy but that's what my crazy body does

I am in place where I lose a pound put on 3....driving me crazy and I track everything!

sarahcuddle

Thanks guys. Wwill try tracking my sugar. Think it will be over and try the smaller meal thing, one of my successful friends does that and says it helps her. I do need to up the intensity of my exercise and start some kind of weight training but don't know where to start. I did have a couple of glasses of red wine on Sunday. I shall be really upset if I can't even do that once in a while without it affecting my weight loss! Depressing

nhga47

Could possibly be that you are now putting on muscle too. I have been doing insanity for 3 weeks now, and I started out around 187 at that time. I was down to 181 and jumped back up for a bit, and now I am back down. I think as you burn off the fat, gain muscle and burn fat again, its kind of a yoyo effect. I wouldn't worry about it.

lollienluke

ive just done a nutrition course where they say you should have 5 eating points a day to help your metabolism stay constant. Also watch your fibre, to lose weight you need to aim for around 24grams a day x

sarahcuddle

Do you mean you should eat five times a day?

lollienluke

had a quick look at your diary, are you only drinking 2 cups of water a day or are you just not logging your water? maybe upping your water intake would help as well x

pj27559

Don't rely so much on weighing yourself, use it as a guide by all means, but a tape measure is far more accurate, as it will let you see if you are losing fat even if you are not losing weight i.e.: possibly gaining muscle.

Take some key measurements an log those along with your weight, it may give you a clearer view of things.

sarahcuddle

Only log actual water intake but have other drinks throughout the day which are included in my diary. Thanks for your input

Eleanorjanethinner

Hi Sarah,

9 pounds in 8 weeks is pretty good going, you know! You're on the right track so I'd say most of it is persistence and slowly making changes.

Having a wee look at your diary, my suggestions would be:

*Make sure you have a filling breakfast that's lowish in sugar and maybe has some protein. Cereal is of the devil - you get a sugar rush then a crash that leads to cravings.
*Drink masses of water - sometimes craving sweets/dessert is actually 'cos your thirsty.
*Most of your snacks are sweet - try adding some savoury/ protein rich snacks i.e. light cheese, hummas and veges, cottage cheese, light yoghurt. Protein keeps you fuller for longer than sweets and will hopefully train you not to expect sweet treats several times a day.

Generally, though, just keep going!

I can certainly manage to lose weight with an occasional glass of wine or slice of cake so I'm sure you can too!

charitas32

Hi, my calorie allowance is about the same, but I tend to eat more during day, even if it means eating courgettes instead of pasta with my spag bol sauce and I think it helps me avoid energy slumps. Also I think maybe the sodium levels are not entered for a lot of things on the database, and that definately causes me to retain water. All bread is pretty salty and I know if I am out there's a lot more in the food that what I cook. Am from west yorkshire so feel free to add me for a little localish support

JesterMFP

1 lb of fat takes approximately 3500 calories. That's 3500 calories over your TDEE (total daily energy expenditure) - not just over your daily calorie goal. Looking at your diary, it seems that over 2 days, you went over your calorie goal by a total of approximately 260 calories. As you are set to lose 1 lb a week, on both those days you were still eating at a calorie deficit. Unless you have dramatically underestimated how much you ate, there is no way that you have gained any fat from those two days, let alone 2 lbs.

There are lots of things that make your weight fluctuate on the scale. I haven't looked in too much detail at what you ate in the last week, but if you've eaten a greater volume of food - remember that has a weight. If you've had more sodium than usual, you will be retaining water. If you've done more exercise than normal, or increased the intensity, your muscles will be retaining water. If you've eaten more carbs than normal - they cause more water to be stored. Hormonal fluctuations can cause more or less water to be stored. The previous weigh in might have been after a week where you were particularly dehydrated - and therefore you hadn't lost as much fat as it seemed, and this week your hydration has gone back to normal. There are so many possibilities, but the bottom line is - you haven't gained fat, so just keep doing what you're doing and it will go down again.

You can eat five small meals a day if that suits you, but it won't actually make a difference to your weight loss. It's not true that your metabolism needs to be kept going by regular meals. Some people eat only one big meal a day (intermittent fasting) and they lose weight just fine.

kcoftx

Weight naturally fluctuates. Are you sure these two pounds are there to stay? Unless you went WAY over, it is unlikely you actually gained fat. It is more likely you are retaining water. It could be a lot of things causing water retention including an increase in sodium, muscles retaining water after starting a new workout, hormonal, etc. It could even be the fact that your food wasn't finished digesting after your increase (if you just weighed that one day). Google it. Scales aren't reliable. You aren't just weighing fat. You are weighing a lot of other things that do vary. It is not unusual to fluctuate temporarily. It means nothing.

I'm currently on maintence for a bit. I fluctuate between the same 3 pounds. It is a normal fluctuation and does not mean I'm gaining or losing.

This is a function over time. Even weekly is a relatively short period of time. Do not fret about it. There may even be weeks where you don't see a scale loss at all and then suddenly it shows up.

My recommendation is to stay on top of your goals but to also relax about the progress. It takes time.

My other recommendation is to find multiple ways of tracking progress. All of them have a degree of unreliability but all of them together will give you a much better picture. Take monthly progress pictures (same outfit and pose is recommended), measure your body, and if you belong to a gym--ask for a body fat analysis using a caliper. Again, all of this is a function over time. None of it is 100% reliable. Overall, multiple sources of tracking will help you to stay motivated.

Agator82

Just to throw in my two cents, generally 2 lbs in a week may just be a change in water weight or intestinal weight (even from day to day), so my question is are you weighing in every day or once a week? If you weigh everyday you can pick up those swings of weight from items outside of your control such as retained water, undischarged wastes, etc.

The other things I noticed have already been touched on by this group, having a bit smaller meals (more snacks) may help a little bit and water is very important. As you lose weight you body will need to get rid of some extra waste and two of the ways it does that is through urine and sweat so days where you have low water intake my inhibit weight loss. Another problem might be the stress causing your body to hold onto some weight, stress hormones can do crazy things to body chemistry.

I can say from personal experience that I can swing 2 lbs +/- from day to day based on my water consumption and bathroom schedule. Try to make some modest changes at this time and if it continues another week you may need to reevaluate your goals. Good luck.

sarahcuddle

Thanks to everyone. Some really great suggestions. Haven't had anything to eat yet so think I might have poached egg and bacon, tomatoes and mushrooms for brunch and get my protein and fibre in Of course I will be accompanying that with two large glasses of water. Also planning to take my 4 year old swimming this afternoon and creep up on her a lot underwater to burn some calories.

Sarah