Why am I gaining weight?

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I was doing really well and dropped 25 pounds. Then I upped my calories to 1400 because I was exercising more and I've gained 8 pounds! Aren't you supposed to add on when you exercise more? I''m dropping back down to 1200 but any other advice would be great

tmauck4472

They are going to tell you to open up your diary so they can see what you are eating. I can't eat back my exercise calories. I always gain when I do. Some people can do it with great results, but I am not one of those people.

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I opened it. I'm hoping I just am one of those people that functions on lower calories. The second I bumped them up I started gaining

Brunner26_2

You did not gain 8 lbs of fat. It's most likely water weight, plus the weight of the extra food inside you (you technically weight more after you eat a meal than before, right?). Stick with the 1400 calories for a couple weeks and see what happens. And actually eat the 1400 calories, you go way under a lot of days, assuming you're logging everything.

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I logged everything except yesterday's dinner

Koldnomore

You can't base your 'gain' on one day. You need to give your body a couple of weeks (MIN). If you have been eating 1200 for a while your body is used to not eating so now when you actually feed it it will hold on to it for a while.

Also you look pretty slender already, the closer to your goal you are the more careful you need to be about exactly what you are eating and the more accurate your numbers need to be. Have you calculated your TDEE with your new routine? You need to be doing a 10/15% cut from that (possibly less depending how much you need to lose) and not just randomly adding calories..

JesterMFP

When did you increase? Did you pick 1400 arbitrarily, or did you get that from MFP or another calculator?

If you are suddenly eating more food, you are likely to gain a few pounds initially because of the added weight of food in your system, and also carbs retain water, so more carbs = more water retention. If you keep gaining, then that's a problem.

Looks like yesterday's dinner is logged to me - or do you mean you had more that you didn't log? How sure are you that you didn't go over your goal if you didn't log? Not that you've gained 8lbs of fat overnight, but are you in the habit of not logging everything? If so, it's possible that you're underestimating your consumption.

126siany

When do you make this change to 1400? Doing the math, it would take 140 days of 200 extra calories per day to gain 8 lbs.

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I logged dinner after he posted so you guys could see. I upped to 1400 a little over 2 weeks ago. I picked 1400 to slowly add calories and my BMI was tested 2 weeks ago its 29%. I have no idea what a TDEE is. I'm new to the dieting thing only been doing it for 2 months

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Bump

DrMAvDPhD

Probably your body adjusting (aka holding on to more water) to the upped calories. Stick it out at 1400 for a few more weeks and you'll see it come back down.

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Thanks, I hope so