so y am i gaining?

akaMrsmojo

Eat, food is your friend not your enemy. You are freaking out your body.

Ge0rgiana

You aren't eating.

^^^^^

DanaDark

If you have been eating that little for months now. Upping your calories slightly will not work just yet.

You will need to eat at your TDEE for a week or two and at surplus for a day or two. This is to help regulate and restore your hormones back to their normal levels. You most likely have a huge build up of cortisol.

This will bring about some weight gain while you do this because as you eat more, your body won't immediately recognize that you're no longer eating too little.

Go to maintenance for a week, then at the end of the week do maintenance + 250. After that, figure out both your TDEE and BMR, and set your daily calorie goal in between there.

KristysLosing

I'll bet you are going to hear that you're not eating enough. No one you are going to gain from a couple of lollipops and ice cream that fit into your macros.

Gramps251

Eating too little combined with too many carbs (aka sugar). Yeah, real winning combination. Been there, did that, didn't work; except to get sicker and fatter. But since everything is just calories in and calories out according to many MFP expert members, you should be losing like crazy.

You are over simplifying this. People here say "eat more to lose" too but they don't mean eat cheese cake nonstop. hey, wait. Maybe I'll try that. ;-)

mystic36

Try cutting back on your sodium intake and drink more water. Water will help to flush out the fat and toxins not too mention the high sodium will help to retain the water. Drinking more water will also help reduce water weight gain.

jsan5933

you definitely aren't eating enough. you need to find out your BMR - the number of calories your body would use if it wasn't doing anything, like in a coma and the hospital needed to work out how many calories to feed you through a tube! that's what you need as a minimum so your brain can function and your metabolism works properly. then you need to use that number and find your TDEE - the calculation factors in things like how active you are (throughout the day, not just logging in 1 hr of exercise, WHAT ARE YOU DOING THE OTHER 23 HRS?) and eat slightly less than the TDEE amount.

HOWEVER if you have been eating too low calories for a long time, you may have metabolic damage which can take a long time to reverse. fitness models and competitors sometimes experience this when they have been given bad advice (1,200 cals, 2 hrs of cardio a day - that's terrible advice). Erik Ledin from Lean Bodies Consulting discusses this a lot and reversing it. You can look him up on facebook or on his website.

I would think you would need to, at the very least, hit the TDEE amount for a little while as your body has most recently been in starvation mode.

LanieGirl67

according to my nutritionist, as a woman you need 30 - 55 grams of carbs [some say 40 - 65] for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Thats at EACH meal NOT split between the three of them...-s-...I shoot for 45 - 60 myself. Your snacks should be under 20 grams. Those carbs should be good carbs, not junk. You have to make every calorie and carb work for you.....ice cream 3 days in a row just coz it fits into your meal plan isn't good for you, all that sugar, bleh....-s-

And everyone has said already you are in starvation mode so I won't drag on about that.

I would recommend measuring yourself too. When you work out you gain muscle and that weighs more than fat so that could attribute to your gain....also weigh yourself once every two weeks, don't obsess every day, you will go NUTS!!

SarahSosi

thx aloooot everyone! that has been extra helpful! :flowerforyou:

Jaulen

Another thing to note is you have very little weight to lose. Aim for half a pound a week.

kcallas88

id agree with most people on here...EAT MORE! You should fit your daily recommended amount of calories plus, eat back 50%-60% of your exercise calories. Eating too little will cause your body to use your muscle for energy and not fat...

LisaGirlfriend

Weight fluctuates a lot for me over days. I never weigh anymore. I measure/take pictures - anything BUT weigh. Having said that, you are netting below 1000 calories some days. When you get this low, some people find their weight loss stops. Figure your TDEE, BMR and see what you should be eating to fuel your body. Once you do that, your body will usually get on board.

Helpful:

http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

Definitely this!!

katevarner

Change your goal to .5 lbs per week. Eat ALL the calories MFP tells you to eat, including the ones it adds in for exercise. Eat more protein and less sugar. Do that for a few weeks, preferably 4-6. If you are still gaining, then do a reset (eat at maintenance for a month or so).

Or go to the roadmap and figure out exactly what you need based on your exercise (TDEE), subtract 15-20%, and eat that much EVERY day, regardless of whether you exercise that day. This method is harder for people who have been eating very low calories, so I'd try the first method first, but please try one. You aren't eating nearly enough.

albr0271

maybe you are gaining muscle weight! muscle weighs more than fat and if you're working out daily then you could be getting stronger. I've been staying the same weight, but i feel stronger and my tummy is *somewhat* flatter. if you're really worried about it cut back calories and work out harder. cut out treats for a few days and see if anything happens? good luck girl!

cwolfman13

You deffinatly need to eat more. I use to eat like you and my body just held onto the fat. I upped my calories and strated to loose again and I had way more energy and felt better too. Dont be scared to eat.

so how many calories are u eating now?

IF you're confused on how many calories you should eat, start here:
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12

If you want to stick with MFP calculations (lots of people consider them too low, but usually because users are overambitious with how fast they want to lose) then you need to eat every calorie they give you AND every calorie you burn.

Nice and succinct.

cwolfman13

maybe you are gaining muscle weight! muscle weighs more than fat and if you're working out daily then you could be getting stronger. I've been staying the same weight, but i feel stronger and my tummy is *somewhat* flatter. if you're really worried about it cut back calories and work out harder. cut out treats for a few days and see if anything happens? good luck girl!

Nobody is building any muscle on less than 1,000 calories net per day. For the most part, when you're at a deficit, you can maintain LBM, but you don't grow much, if any at a deficit. Muscles need fuel to grow.

amypomm

1300-1400 sometimes more depending on my workout.