Gaining weight for no reason on just 1500 calories

Onlyyoucanbeyou
Onlyyoucanbeyou Posts: 12 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
According to multiple calorie calculators, I need 1800 calories a day to maintain weight. I've been eating roughly 1500-1700 for 4 months and have not stopped gaining at about a pound per week. What is going on? I don't have my food diary public but I can tell you the foods I eat within those 1500 calories:

chicken and other meats
seafood
lots of fruit
some veggies
nuts
oatmeal
rice sometimes
olive oil
100% dark chocolate
honey sometimes
coconut milk sometimes (So Delicious)
chia seeds

Basically nothing unhealthy. I am very healthy. I exercise 5 days per week, mainly cardio and a little bit of strength. It's not muscle haha, I've gained inches. PLEASE HELP

Replies

  • jonnythan
    jonnythan Posts: 10,161 Member
    Open your diary.

    How careful are you about portion sizes? How much do you weigh and measure your food?
  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
    You only joined this month. How were you tracking before?
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,427 MFP Moderator
    How much gain are we talking about? Water retention from exercise alone can add inches and several pounds of weight.
  • Onlyyoucanbeyou
    Onlyyoucanbeyou Posts: 12 Member
    On paper. I still counted everything.
  • savithny
    savithny Posts: 1,200 Member
    Are you using confirmed entries (especially USDA ones) in your diary?
    Are you weighing, rather than measuring? A lot of the entries by volume are really, really inaccurate. Or hard to gauge. "One tablespoon" of peanuts? Given the shape of a peanut, essentially meaningless.

    My big revelation from my food diary was how much little stuff added up, and how much little variations in portion size added up.
  • Onlyyoucanbeyou
    Onlyyoucanbeyou Posts: 12 Member
    10 lbs.
  • Onlyyoucanbeyou
    Onlyyoucanbeyou Posts: 12 Member
    Are you using confirmed entries (especially USDA ones) in your diary?
    Are you weighing, rather than measuring? A lot of the entries by volume are really, really inaccurate. Or hard to gauge. "One tablespoon" of peanuts? Given the shape of a peanut, essentially meaningless.

    My big revelation from my food diary was how much little stuff added up, and how much little variations in portion size added up.

    I don't actually eat nuts, rather nut butter. And I am really good about just getting out a spoon of it. The other things are easy to add--things like oatmeal. But I really can not get a food scale.
  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
    Do you use a food scale for everything except completely liquid stuff and then use a measuring cup for those? Do you log everything? Condiments, drinks etc?

    ETA: just saw your added comment - why can't you get a food scale? How do you know that your spoon for example for nut butters is accurate?
  • jonnythan
    jonnythan Posts: 10,161 Member
    Are you using confirmed entries (especially USDA ones) in your diary?
    Are you weighing, rather than measuring? A lot of the entries by volume are really, really inaccurate. Or hard to gauge. "One tablespoon" of peanuts? Given the shape of a peanut, essentially meaningless.

    My big revelation from my food diary was how much little stuff added up, and how much little variations in portion size added up.

    I don't actually eat nuts, rather nut butter. And I am really good about just getting out a spoon of it. The other things are easy to add--things like oatmeal. But I really can not get a food scale.

    Cannot get a food scale? They're $10 on Amazon.
  • Onlyyoucanbeyou
    Onlyyoucanbeyou Posts: 12 Member
    Do you use a food scale for everything except completely liquid stuff and then use a measuring cup for those? Do you log everything? Condiments, drinks etc?

    ETA: just saw your added comment - why can't you get a food scale? How do you know that your spoon for example for nut butters is accurate?


    You make a good point. I'm pretty sure it's accurate, but the main thing that gets to me is this was working before! I was eating 2000 calories (however, working out more) and still no food scale, and at a perfect weight. Now I've realized that that level of activity was much too much to be healthy, so I have lowered my intake accordingly (or have I?).
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,427 MFP Moderator
    It's very easily to under estimate calories, especially with nuts and butters.
  • jonnythan
    jonnythan Posts: 10,161 Member
    Do you use a food scale for everything except completely liquid stuff and then use a measuring cup for those? Do you log everything? Condiments, drinks etc?

    ETA: just saw your added comment - why can't you get a food scale? How do you know that your spoon for example for nut butters is accurate?


    You make a good point. I'm pretty sure it's accurate, but the main thing that gets to me is this was working before! I was eating 2000 calories (however, working out more) and still no food scale, and at a perfect weight. Now I've realized that that level of activity was much too much to be healthy, so I have lowered my intake accordingly (or have I?).

    There's no way to know whether you've lowered your intake unless you're very careful about measuring.
  • now_or_never13
    now_or_never13 Posts: 1,575 Member
    Are you using confirmed entries (especially USDA ones) in your diary?
    Are you weighing, rather than measuring? A lot of the entries by volume are really, really inaccurate. Or hard to gauge. "One tablespoon" of peanuts? Given the shape of a peanut, essentially meaningless.

    My big revelation from my food diary was how much little stuff added up, and how much little variations in portion size added up.

    I don't actually eat nuts, rather nut butter. And I am really good about just getting out a spoon of it. The other things are easy to add--things like oatmeal. But I really can not get a food scale.

    Cannot get a food scale? They're $10 on Amazon.

    This. A decent food scale is not expensive and is not big. I got mine on sale for $15 a little while back. You would be surprised at the differences. Your oatmeal for example.... the bag on mine says 1/3 cup is a serving (dry) and lists the grams beside the 1/3 cup. If I measure out 1/3 cup of oatmeal, a level 1/3 cup scoop weighs at least 10g's more than what it should weight. The tortilla I had this morning as another example said 1 tortilla is a serving which should weigh 60g's. I weighed that tortilla and it actually weighs 70g's.

    For your things like peanut butter/nut butters, are you using an actual TBSP measuring spoon or the TBSP that we eat with that comes with a cutlery set? They are two different amounts.

    Kitchen scales are not that expensive and you don't have to get a nice fancy one. A normal one will do as long as it measures grams, oz, etc and has an option to zero it. When I weigh things I put my bowl/plate on it and zero it. I than add what I am going to eat to it. If I add more than one thing to the same bowl I record the measurement for what I have put in than zero it and add the second thing. You would be surprised at how much an actual serving is. A kitchen scale also doesn't take up much space on the counter.
  • CristinaL1983
    CristinaL1983 Posts: 1,119 Member
    Two things:
    1) Measuring with spoons and cups is pretty inaccurate. I think there is a youtube video that shows that they can be off by up to 30% which can easily put you over maintenance. A scale is probably necessary.

    2) Online BMR calculators and TDEE calculators (which calculate maintenance calories) show averages or estimations for your height and weight. They can be off by easily 30% (according to research) and there are people who have posted in here that when they actually got their BMR or RMR tested it was off by even more than that.

    If you can't get a scale for whatever reason and are going to continue measuring in the same way, drop your calories by a couple hundred. If you can get a scale, leave your calories at the same level but make sure that you weigh everything. If your weight stays the same, you can get your BMR or RMR tested or you can just use trial and error to find what you need to be eating to lose weight.

    Nothing is an exact number and you shouldn't feel like you have to keep eating the same amount even if it isn't working.
  • Onlyyoucanbeyou
    Onlyyoucanbeyou Posts: 12 Member
    Thank you everyone. The thing I gather I should really pay attention to is accuracy of portions. Hope this works!

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