Still gaining weight

doctorwhogirl
doctorwhogirl Posts: 26 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Here we go again! Another person gaining weight and no reason why!
I'm going to open up my diary so that it is visible.

I'm 26, 150.5lbs as of this morning and cannot seem to get to my (v reasonable) goal of 140.

This week, I've gained 3.4 pounds. Despite my usual exercise and my eating.

A brief overview of my story is:
Went from 224-140lbs two and a half years ago. I have maintained within a stone/14 lbs of that weight but I cannot seem to get back below about 10st 8lbs no matter what I do.

Exercise wise I exercise 4-5 times a week: boxing class, jogging, and weights in the gym.

Food wise I felt I was maybe eating to little so I increased from 1300-1450 and thankfully didn't see any big gain for a few weeks until now.

Nothing made this week any different, yet I gained.

This is happening constantly. I maintain, maybe lose 1/2 lbs then a massive gain for no reason.

I'm afraid to even go out of a meal or to the cinema in case I gain huge amounts because if I'm gaining while staying in calories what will happen when I don't!?!

Any advice would be really helpful.

My heart is broken with the whole situation.

Replies

  • firemanfive0
    firemanfive0 Posts: 228 Member
    try this post....may be something in there to help you. If not it is good knowledge to have.

    Check this if you're confused about calorie and macro goals:
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/654536-in-place-of-a-road-map-2-0-revised-7-2-12
  • lambertj
    lambertj Posts: 675 Member
    Your diary looks fine to me. Sometimes over time, we get lax with our measurements of food. I know I have and we have to start again being very specific with measurements. My two tablespoons of peanut butter now have reached epic portions and I know I need to be more accurate. Could that be the case with you? Other than that, hormones cause huge fluctuates as well. Hang in there
  • LesleyGillan
    LesleyGillan Posts: 164
    I gain 4lbs just before my T.O.M and it takes a couple of weeks to come back off.
  • doctorwhogirl
    doctorwhogirl Posts: 26 Member
    I suppose it could be hormonal. But it's so disheartening!!!! I've 7 days before left of my pill so perhaps it's that? (Pill hasn't contributed to weight gain in the past, lost the 6 stone on the pill.)

    With regards measuring I measure everything on my scales and am fairly strict.

    This is one of those days where I feel like eating everything now because I'm so disheartened. I haven't had a mad eating day in 4 months because I know that's a vicious cycle. But I feel like the cycle is happening now regardless of my eating!
  • doctorwhogirl
    doctorwhogirl Posts: 26 Member
    Anybody? I know this thread comes up time and time again but this is seriously messing with my head! It's soul destroying like! I don't want all my hard work of 6 stone lost to just fade away because I can't pinpoint why I'm gaining. :(

    I wouldn't mind if I was going out for meals, having big treats. I'm seriously trying!
  • nellyett
    nellyett Posts: 436 Member
    I posted this a few days ago so the days I'm referring to in here will be a bit off....this is what worked for me, and has been my 'ah-ha' moment!!

    I did a lot of reading and researched the TDEE / BMR numbers, etc. as I had been eating the recommended 1200 cals for months. I did really well at first and lost 7 lbs pretty quickly. then nada.... I couldn't figure out why since I was only eating between 800 - 1200 cals per day net. Doesn't a large deficit equal large weight loss? Not for me...

    After spending a lot of time on different websites, and doing different calculators, here is what has worked for me:

    http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/

    I didn't want to base my numbers on exercise that I MIGHT do, even though I'm consistent, so I factored in my TDEE at the Sedentary rate - 15% (I don't have much to lose).

    I am 5'5" and currently 136 lbs. My BF is 22.7 % and am 40 years old. I went to the Scooby Workshop website to calculate my calorie needs for the day and use those numbers. If you know your bodyfat % then a more accurate calculation is using the Katch-McArdle formula according to them. These stats give me:

    BMR - 1405
    TDEE - 1686 (at Sedentary)
    Calorie Requirements to lose 0.5 lb per week - 1433 (this is at a 15% deficit)

    Sooooo, what I did after that is reset my MFP daily goals at 1450 cals per day NET! I eat back ALL of my exercise calories.

    The second thing I did was purchase a HRM to accurately guage what I was burning during my workouts. You would be surprised at the discrepancies between estimates! I do an intense bootcamp class 3 x per week and run on my off days. Either a few miles or sprint intervals, depending on how I feel that day. Depending on what we are doing in bootcamp, my burn could be anywhere from 240 cals to 350 cals....WAY under what I thought!!! If I was to eat back what I GUESSED I was burning, then I would be eliminating any deficit I had for the day. Keep in mind that the muscle you're building will burn more calories at rest, and you get a great 'afterburn' from weights that will last for hours after, so even though you're not burning as large of an amount during your workout, the after effects far outweigh doing just straight cardio!!! Heavy lifting is the best thing you can do for your body!! I used to do both on the same day, but have stopped doing that. A little bit of something 6-7 days per week is better than a huge amount of exercise 3-4 days per week. (for me anyway).

    The last thing I do is stop stressing and trust the process. I eat whatever I want and try to make sure that it fits into my calories for the WEEK. I've been eating Halloween chocolate like it's going out of style (yesterday that's all I had for lunch), and I was down a half lb this morning. I was way over my calories on Sunday, and was under Monday and yesterday. The little weekly graph on MFP shows me at an average of 1453 cals per day for the week so far.

    I weigh myself every morning, but only log the progress if it's less than the last entry. sometimes there will be 2 weeks of no change, but then all of a sudden there's a 1 lb loss showing on my graph. If I take the total loss and divide it by the amount of weeks, then I AVERAGE a 0.5 lb loss per week. This way I can see the trend with water retention, etc. I don't stress if it's up.

    This method has been easily sustainable for me....slow and steady with zero deprivation!!

    ----

    Hope this helps!!

Categories