Trying to stay the course

braves1girl

I know that this has been posted too many times to count, but I am getting very discouraged. :sad: I am doing a TDEE break. And I have gained almost all of my weight back! I had lost 20 lbs when I found this group (and I'm still VERY thankful I did), and now I've gained 18lbs back! I'm lifting 3 days/week and always stay within my BMR and cut.

I know that I'm not supposed to pay attention to the dreaded scale, but my thighs feel bigger, my stomach, etc... so it's not just the scale that has me down. I'm wondering if I didn't do my reset correctly to begin with. :huh: I like the boost in energy I've gotten and the strength I get from heavy lifting, but I can't lie...this pudgy feeling sucks! :grumble: I mean it's hard to cross my legs! :embarassed: :frown: Talk about a setback!

I am trying to trust the process, and deep, deep, down I do! And up until now I haven't really paid attention to the scale. But when I noticed my thighs feeling like they do, that's when I got on the scale. I haven't read where this is normal or not. I have not eaten well the last two days, but dang, that shouldn't make me gain 5 lbs in 3 days! :noway:

I just had to talk to people that would understand my situtation and give some advice. My husband is supportive, but hasn't got a clue!

Thanks for listening...:flowerforyou:

Greenrun99

You definitely didn't gain 5 lbs in 3 days.. water weight really has a way of messing with you after a few bad days of eating.. How long have you been on a TDEE break? 18lb gain since you started, is that including your reset and all that? Your cloths are tighter so you probably did gain some weight from your initial 20 lost, but when your done with your break you may want to change things up a bit.

braves1girl

Yes, that's including my reset and all in the 18 lbs gain. I'm gonna have to do something..I'm just on day 4 of my TDEE! I was gonna do a 2 wk maintenance, but now I'm thinking just a week. I went too long at cut and thought maybe a 2 week maintenance would be needed. I am only gonna do a week now! Don't you think? I think I might try to pay more attention to my carbs, as I have NO problem reaching and exceeding that count! Thanks for your response!

heybales

Keep close stats on what you have been eating on avg, and what you have been gaining each week. That can help you nail your TDEE.

And this is eating at 1 level, the original weight TDEE right? You didn't go changing the BMR and TDEE stat as the weight went up and kept eating to the higher figure, right?

Though, literally, that would be true, weight goes up, BMR goes up, TDEE goes up. But if you chase that goal and your TDEE estimate is wrong, which sounds like it was, you'll just keep gaining. With 20 lbs more there is easily another 200 calories or more in TDEE, that's significant.

What you should see is diminishing weight gain, just like before you plateau'd losing weight is was diminishing losses.

When no more gain, now look at what the TDEE would be for that new weight. Split the difference with what you are eating now. And for 1 week eat even more. If no gain, metabolism went up even more and you were still below potential TDEE. Add the other half. If still no gain, then add another 100 a day for the next week.

The week with a valid weigh-in day that gains any weight you just went over new weight TDEE for your current level of exercise.
Now you know what to deficit to.

And that TDEE figure divided by current weight BMR is your personal multiplier for that level of activity. As long as you do it, that applies no matter what the weight is.
So you loose 10 lbs or BF% changes enough, you recalc BMR, times your personal multiplier, there's your TDEE. Take the cut.