Unexplainable Weight Gain (H2O, exercising, eating right)

Water won't make you lose weight, first.

Second, weights won't really make you lose weight. When I started doing more weight lifting, I didn't move for 2-3 weeks, heck I even gained 2 lbs, but then it came down. Be patient. When you add all the stuff that happens with women cycles too, it's very easy to gain 4lbs of water or bloating alone.

Keep doing what you're doing. As long as you're eating enough (at least 1400 calories a day if you do weight training 6 days a week), the weight will come off.

Is it maybe coming up on that time of the month? I know for me, around that time I can fluctuate between 5 or more pounds.

Also, what everyone above said.

I know where you're coming from but please don't give up! I lost 10 pounds in my first month on MFP, and it's just been a train wreck since. I lost 2 more very very slowly (about 5-6 weeks) then I gained 7 back within a few days (after eating a high calorie birthday dinner) and it's been stuck there for awhile. I don't eat so great every single day, but I stay under my calorie goals at least 6 days a week, I drink 2 liters of water a day and exercise at least 3 days a week, way more than I did before MFP. I eat at least 1500 calories a day LESS than what I was eating before MFP (and not gaining back then). Even if I'm still eating some not-so-great stuff every few days, I'm still eating much better, working out, and drinking water way more than ever so it's frustrating and a bit discouraging but I think it happens to everyone. The first weeks of weight loss were probably mostly water and now my body is just trying to adjust to the changes and eventually it will break frozen scale! Just keep at it and we'll celebrate our changes soon enough

You're not gaining muscle in a week, but you may be retaining water for muscle repair. The scale went up a couple of pounds when I first started lifting. It should settle down in a couple of weeks if that's the culprit.

**Soonergirl said it true... "Muscle weighs heavier then fat." You might be losing fat and the little extra weight is muscle.
Plus all the Woman factors we get to deal with. Yay ~huh~ DON'T GIVE UP!

If your doing weights then you may be gainning muscle and muscle weighs more then fat.

1lb of muscle weighs the same as 1lb of fat.

I try to use a scale and count calories but it's almost near impossible to when you cook your own food since everything gets mixed in with other stuff and you can't measure it to a tee. Same with eating out. The only way I can 100% know how many calories I ate in a day is by eating prepacakged foods that have calories listed on the package lol

And I'm 5'6 133 is okay but it's still a little chubby on me. I have fat inner thighs and a bit of a tummy :P

Use the recipe builder. Find the entries in the database with no asterisks. I actually think building your own recipes is the most accurate method.

So what's your calorie goal? Have you been meeting it?

Edited to add-- I think what you should do is keep lifting (if you haven't got a program yet I'd recommend Stronglifts 5 x 5) and eat at a very slight deficit. Set MFP to lose half a pound a week and eat back half your exercise calories.

And stop weighing so much if it's going to upset you. You need to understand that weight fluctuates. Sodium, food in your system, and water retention from exercise and time of month can all make the scale show a higher weight, but none of those things means you're gaining fat. Log accurately, stick to your goal, and trust the process.

I think 1400 calories is a fair goal and I'm pretty sure I'm meeting it (if not below). I'll try to track foods I actually make on my own but I still find it to be a difficult task.

It's really important to track what you're burning. Not eating enough and gaining weight is very common.

Muscle doesn't weight more then fat, a pound is a pound.
BUT - Since a lb. of muscle is leaner and takes up less room then a lb of fat, you could be adding on the muscle while NOT losing much fat. Try incorporating HIIT training to rid the fat and it will also up your muscles' fat burning capacity.

I think 1400 calories is a fair goal and I'm pretty sure I'm meeting it (if not below). I'll try to track foods I actually make on my own but I still find it to be a difficult task.

It just takes practice. You'll get it. Weigh in grams when possible. So for example, if I make a pot of chili I put in all the ingredients, in grams, and then when it's done I measure how many cups the pot made. Usually it's 6 cups. So then I'd put in that it's 6 servings. That makes it easy to figure out my calories. If I eat 2 cups then it's 2 servings. You can also do it by weight. So say a serving is 100 grams. Then when you want to eat some, you weigh your portion. If it was 235 grams, you'd put it in as 2.35 servings in your diary. Make sense?

As stated a couple of times already, you're not gaining enough muscle mass eating at a deficit to constitute much of a change, if any. Muscle is built on a calorie surplus and hard work. You might be making some "newbie gains" if you're new at lifting, but it won't be enough to really worry about.

As far as weight gain, I personally wouldn't worry about it. The scale isn't going to tell the truth anyway. Its good for trending over a long time, but it can show anywhere from 2 lbs to 8 lbs gain over the course of one day, and that's simply not possible. You may be retaining water, which is often the case when lifting or exercise, it may be that you're body is holding on for a while and then you'll experience the "swoosh" effect and lose several pounds all of the sudden. There are several women on this site who will tell you that they actually weight more because of lifting over time, but their measurements and body composition are 10 times better than before. They've lost inches and body fat, but maintain and even built muscle.

Give yourself some time, a week or even a month sometimes isn't really worth measuring. I've been stuck going up and down and up and down but never losing anything for 2 months, then all of the sudden it's dropping at a steady rate and still dropping...and I even recently upped my calories, and that didn't seem to matter much with my weight loss. I am currently at my lowest (as of this morning) than I can ever remember being in the last 25 or more years. I also fully expect to be a lb or two heavier in the morning than I was this morning and probably even higher later in the week, but most likely will have a decent drop before the weekend is up or by this time next week.

If you are gaining or not moving after a couple of months, you might doing a little tweak here or there, maybe up your calories by a couple hundred at first, I know it seems counter-productive, but your body is designed to survive, and if it thinks it's not getting enough fuel, it will do what it needs to do to make it last and that often means a slower metabolism. You may have set yourself for a much faster goal than your body wants.

1) If you aren't accurately weighing and measuring your food, you're very likely eating more than you think you are. You must count everything. You say your diet is poor to moderate, but not fantastic. One or two days of a better diet isn't going to change things much. You need to count everything, including the ketchup and relish packets. Those add up! Honestly, weighing and measuring food takes practice, and a digital scale. Enter every single thing.

2) Muscle needs water to rebuild after lifting, so it is going to retain it. This is good.

3) You haven't been working out long enough to have gained any appreciable mass. Strength gains, probably. Mass, no.

If you're only doing a partial job at calculating what you eat, then you're not going to have the success you're hoping for. You can't make guesses and just hope for the best. Getting the food right is most of the battle. Grabbing a chip here or a bite of a cookie there will add up to hundreds of calories in a day if you're not careful.