Gained 6 pounds

greektoast
greektoast Posts: 3
in Health and Weight Loss
Hey guys, so I have a crappy situation. I have lost 40lbs so far. However, for the past 2 weeks I've been sitting at around the same weight (165-167), because of this I have been working out more, varying my exercises and eating healthier. For instance my usual day consists of:

Breakfast: Old Fashioned Oatmeal with strawberries and blueberries
Lunch: Salad with zuchini, squash, onions, peppers and spring mix.
Snack 1: One oz of almonds
Dinner: Another salad, or an egg white omelet with a little bit of feta, mushrooms and spinach.
and if I have another snack it'll be a half a bag of Orville Smart Pop Popcorn with no butter and no salt.

I drink the right amount of water per day, 8 cups.

My workouts will be 500 calories of varying cardio and then about 30 minutes of weights.

The other day I weighed myself in the morning before I had anything to eat and I was 160.5 and then the next morning I weigh myself and I'm 167. (I ate my normal meals and ran 4 miles. I didn't binge.)

I was really excited about getting so close to my goal, and now I'm about to give up because I'm not losing anything anymore.

What's going on?

Replies

  • becausewhytfnot
    becausewhytfnot Posts: 6
    Perhaps you're gaining muscle? But if you gained that fast, I'm not so sure.
    Sometimes if you're dieting for a long time, your body will get used to your diet. I've heard a lot of stories from people that have to switch up their diet to something different than routine, because they've all of a sudden stopped losing weight.
    Try a different excersize at different times throughout the day. I'm not at that point yet, so I don't know from experience, but you'll still be working out, so it can't hurt.
  • LearnFromTheRed
    LearnFromTheRed Posts: 294 Member
    Did you put on seven pounds overnight? That's happened to me before after running and weights. It's water retention from your muscles repairing, I think. Someone with more knowledge might be able to explain it.
  • Bearbo25
    Bearbo25 Posts: 28 Member
    How many calories are you netting? Your sample diet above can't be more than 1000 calories and if you are exercising more than usual you are probably having too big of a deficit.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    It looks like you're not eating enough at all. And you really need to eat more protein. It's definitely not muscle or fat though with what you've been eating, I just don't think you're doing it the right way.
  • Michelle_dirtracer
    Michelle_dirtracer Posts: 245
    Eat more! Based on that menu, you are not getting enough fuel to replace 500 calories burned from cardio.
  • Michelle_dirtracer
    Michelle_dirtracer Posts: 245
    Perhaps you're gaining muscle? But if you gained that fast, I'm not so sure.
    Sometimes if you're dieting for a long time, your body will get used to your diet. I've heard a lot of stories from people that have to switch up their diet to something different than routine, because they've all of a sudden stopped losing weight.
    Try a different excersize at different times throughout the day. I'm not at that point yet, so I don't know from experience, but you'll still be working out, so it can't hurt.

    Gained muscle? No
    Get use to diet? No
  • Hauntinglyfit
    Hauntinglyfit Posts: 5,537 Member
    Where's the protein?
    If you increased your exercise lately, you are probably retaining water.

    ETA: How tall are you?
  • polluxy
    polluxy Posts: 31
    It's water. With the exercise you're doing, you're depleting the glycogen stored in your liver and muscles. When you eat (particularly if you had a carbohydrate-rich meal after exercising), you're replenishing those glycogen stores. Each gram of glycogen binds to 4 grams of water, so let's say you replenish ~200 g of glycogen, that's ~ 800 g of water, easily 2-3 lbs. Then, your muscles are trying to repair themselves, which pulls more water into the interstitial spaces created by little microtears you get from exercising. When you gain 7 lbs overnight, it's not muscle, and it's not fat --- it's water.

    And this notion that "not eating enough" is going to make you gain weight is total BS. But still, I think you should eat a bit more, particularly by way of fat and protein. You've got to give yourself the fuel to repair and strengthen muscles while keeping insulin ... And hence fat storage... Low. Check out this article on post-exercise nutrition from a real expert on the subject; it's primarily intended for athletes, I think, but there are some good principles that the rest of us can employ:

    http://chadwaterbury.com/the-truth-about-post-workout-nutrition/

    Don't give up! You're changing your body composition even when the scale doesn't move.
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