eating under calories and exercising yet gaining weight
llhew
Posts: 6
Hi all,
I have noticed over the past two weeks I have not been losing weight but rather gaining. I am eating well under my allotted calories and exercising 5 times a week yet I keep fluctuating between 5-7 lbs more than my last loss. I have at least 150lbs to lose still so I know I should still be losing. I drink lots of water during the day but I think water retention may be a piece of it. I am going to keep a close eye on my sodium intake to see if that makes a difference but was wondering if anyone else experienced this or has any tips on how to get the weight loss kick started again.
Thanks!
I have noticed over the past two weeks I have not been losing weight but rather gaining. I am eating well under my allotted calories and exercising 5 times a week yet I keep fluctuating between 5-7 lbs more than my last loss. I have at least 150lbs to lose still so I know I should still be losing. I drink lots of water during the day but I think water retention may be a piece of it. I am going to keep a close eye on my sodium intake to see if that makes a difference but was wondering if anyone else experienced this or has any tips on how to get the weight loss kick started again.
Thanks!
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Replies
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Hi all,
I have noticed over the past two weeks I have not been losing weight but rather gaining. I am eating well under my allotted calories and exercising 5 times a week yet I keep fluctuating between 5-7 lbs more than my last loss. I have at least 150lbs to lose still so I know I should still be losing. I drink lots of water during the day but I think water retention may be a piece of it. I am going to keep a close eye on my sodium intake to see if that makes a difference but was wondering if anyone else experienced this or has any tips on how to get the weight loss kick started again.
Thanks!
Open your food diary? Also, are you weighing your foods and using a HRM for exercise? What kind of workouts are you doing? How many calories are you aiming for per day?0 -
Can you open up your diary?
Do you eat back exercise calories? What are you using to estimate your burns (HRM or MFP)?
Exercise is for fitness, diet is for weight loss. You can't out-exercise a bad diet (not saying you do - because I don't know yet)0 -
maybe you need to readjust how much you eat to be lower so you still have a deficit0
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1. Make your diary public so we can see both your calories in/out and food choices.
2. You should not be eating "well under" your calories.
3. Keep drinking the water, do not stop because you think it is water retention.
4. What are you doing for exercise on these 5 days per week?
5. 2 weeks is a short time span....look at the bigger picture instead of focusing on small periods of time as they can be deceiving.0 -
The "well under calories" caught my eye too - people seem to forget that this is a calorie GOAL, something to attain, achieve, aim for, not a mark to fall well short of. Food is fuel!1. Make your diary public so we can see both your calories in/out and food choices.
2. You should not be eating "well under" your calories.
3. Keep drinking the water, do not stop because you think it is water retention.
4. What are you doing for exercise on these 5 days per week?
5. 2 weeks is a short time span....look at the bigger picture instead of focusing on small periods of time as they can be deceiving.
And as other have said, opening your diary would make it much easier to offer advice.
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Hi all,
I am eating well under my allotted calories and exercising 5 times a week yet I keep fluctuating between 5-7 lbs more than my last loss.
MFP works out your calories to include a deficit, you dont need to eat under the calories MFP provides. Your body is probably struggling with so much exercise and not enough fuel. I know it can be tempting to do everything at once and as fast as possible but you have to do things slowly and let your body adjust to sudden changes.0 -
Agree with everyone else, if you could please open up your diary so we can try and help. Also, drinking MORE water will actually help release any water retention. I know it sounds counter-intuitive but once your body is getting the water it needs, it will no longer hold on to extra fluids. You will probably be going to the bathroom a lot at first but your body will adjust to that as well.
Make sure you're eating 5-6 small meals instead of 3 large ones, it'll help fuel your metabolism. You definitely shouldn't be eating well under your calories though. That is probably the problem right there, your body isn't getting enough fuel so its going into survival mode and holding onto whatever you put in.
Biggest things to watch for, portion control, drink LOTS of water, (you'd be amazed at how helpful water is for weight loss), salt intake and just move more! Walk everywhere, take the stairs instead of an elevator and your best bet is to get a monitor for your workouts. Fitbit or bodymedia are both great monitors, or just get a standard HRM so you can track what calories you're burning accurately.
Good luck!! Feel free to PM if you have more questions.0 -
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^^This... very VERY good information!0 -
This. I think some of you are jumping the gun a little by saying she needs to eat more or saying her body is in survival mode. A food diary and/or more information from the OP would be really useful here.0 -
Yes !!!! I have the same issue..under my calorie intake ..plus I go to bootcamp 3 to five times a week and NOTHING.....So I took my calorie intake down and decided not to us my extra calories from exercising..and see how that work for me..but its been 5 weeks and nothing. I already lose 21pd on my own...started fitness pal to get pass this plateau(;0
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X2
Something in your calculation is off. You're either overestimating your exercise burn or underestimating your intake, or both.0 -
Hi all,
I am eating well under my allotted calories and exercising 5 times a week yet I keep fluctuating between 5-7 lbs more than my last loss.
MFP works out your calories to include a deficit, you dont need to eat under the calories MFP provides. Your body is probably struggling with so much exercise and not enough fuel. I know it can be tempting to do everything at once and as fast as possible but you have to do things slowly and let your body adjust to sudden changes.
well said!0 -
Yes !!!! I have the same issue..under my calorie intake ..plus I go to bootcamp 3 to five times a week and NOTHING.....So I took my calorie intake down and decided not to us my extra calories from exercising..and see how that work for me..but its been 5 weeks and nothing. I already lose 21pd on my own...started fitness pal to get pass this plateau(;
Feel free to make your diary public if you'd like some input. :-)0 -
This. I think some of you are jumping the gun a little by saying she needs to eat more or saying her body is in survival mode. A food diary and/or more information from the OP would be really useful here.
I don't think that's jumping the gun at all, she herself said she is eating "well" under her calories. I took that as she's trying to eat so few calories thinking that will make her lose weight, and it won't. Your body needs fuel to function properly, especially if you are trying to work out 5 days a week. Think of a fire, the more logs you put on it, the bigger and faster it will burn. Stop putting logs on the fire, it will eventually burn out. You are right about her diary though, the very first thing I said in my comment was that she needs to open up her diary so we can all help. Everyone is commenting blind here since its private and just trying to do the best with what information we were given. 0 -
I recently found that I was in the same situation, running a daily deficit of 3-500 calories, (I log religiously, including all fats, oils and spices that I eat and also enter recipes that I make so I can properly log those). I eat very well with lots of veggies, very little white anything, protein, good fats, etc and engaging in lots of exercise - Turbofire 6 days a week, running 3-4 days a week, and then strength training 2 days a week. And I found I was gaining. SO I actually UPPED my calorie intake so that I wasn't running such an extreme deficit - I aim to be within 100 calories of my goal, and I'm losing again. If you're not fuelling your body properly for your exercise, you're body will retain what fuel it can as a reserve...0
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This. I think some of you are jumping the gun a little by saying she needs to eat more or saying her body is in survival mode. A food diary and/or more information from the OP would be really useful here.
I don't think that's jumping the gun at all, she herself said she is eating "well" under her calories. I took that as she's trying to eat so few calories thinking that will make her lose weight, and it won't. Your body needs fuel to function properly, especially if you are trying to work out 5 days a week. Think of a fire, the more logs you put on it, the bigger and faster it will burn. Stop putting logs on the fire, it will eventually burn out. You are right about her diary though, the very first thing I said in my comment was that she needs to open up her diary so we can all help. Everyone is commenting blind here since its private and just trying to do the best with what information we were given.
So what happens when a body "burns out?" It dies, right? Well, the OP is far from dead. She's posting AND gaining weight.
Only on MFP does "I'm not losing weight" = "eat more food."0 -
This happened to me over the weekend...I was making great strides...and then....I gained some weight back. And although I would love to say it was my scale's fault...the fact is....I was definately eating more calorites then what were recorded. Unless you weigh everything and someone has done all the entry work for you....most of what is in MFP is a guess at best (including how many calories you will burn with certain exercises) with lots of room for underestimating. Yes it was disappointing to see that number fluctuate up...but I can't blame anything or anyone else but me. The food I put into my body is my choice..and I am simply going to use this informaton to make better choices in the future.0
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You also need to remember that muscle weighs more than fat. If you have recently incorporated exercise the your routine you may simply be increasing your muscle mass. I use a tool to track my body fat as well as my scale to track what my body is really doing. The scale is only one tool. Also I can tell you, as you diet, your body will go through "stuck" phases. Times where it just flat doesn't want to change. Some people think you need to shock your system to kick start it, but I believe just keep doing what your doing and it will come around.0
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This. I think some of you are jumping the gun a little by saying she needs to eat more or saying her body is in survival mode. A food diary and/or more information from the OP would be really useful here.
Agreed, first you need to know exactly what is going in before advising to eat more.0 -
When I get into a plateau I can't stand it! So, I do something drastic, to confuse my body all to hell, and get it back on track to losing weight again. For instance, this last plateau I was ready and knew what I needed to do. My exercise, for just one day, was to use a rototiller and break up the hard compacted dirt in our yard. I worked for 4 hours straight with only two breaks (to fill the gas and to remove a wire that had gotten stuck in the tines of the machine). Your body gets 'use' to food and exercise - get drastic for a day, MAX out to YOUR ABILITY. Get so physically tired you can barely take a shower , then take it easy for a day or two so your muscles have a chance to rebuild. Again, in my humble opinion, what you need to do is be drastic for only a day.0
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I recently found that I was in the same situation, running a daily deficit of 3-500 calories, (I log religiously, including all fats, oils and spices that I eat and also enter recipes that I make so I can properly log those). I eat very well with lots of veggies, very little white anything, protein, good fats, etc and engaging in lots of exercise - Turbofire 6 days a week, running 3-4 days a week, and then strength training 2 days a week. And I found I was gaining. SO I actually UPPED my calorie intake so that I wasn't running such an extreme deficit - I aim to be within 100 calories of my goal, and I'm losing again. If you're not fuelling your body properly for your exercise, you're body will retain what fuel it can as a reserve...
Exactly! 0 -
This. I think some of you are jumping the gun a little by saying she needs to eat more or saying her body is in survival mode. A food diary and/or more information from the OP would be really useful here.
I don't think that's jumping the gun at all, she herself said she is eating "well" under her calories. I took that as she's trying to eat so few calories thinking that will make her lose weight, and it won't. Your body needs fuel to function properly, especially if you are trying to work out 5 days a week. Think of a fire, the more logs you put on it, the bigger and faster it will burn. Stop putting logs on the fire, it will eventually burn out. You are right about her diary though, the very first thing I said in my comment was that she needs to open up her diary so we can all help. Everyone is commenting blind here since its private and just trying to do the best with what information we were given.
Only on MFP does "I'm not losing weight" = "eat more food."
:huh:0 -
You also need to remember that muscle weighs more than fat. If you have recently incorporated exercise the your routine you may simply be increasing your muscle mass. I use a tool to track my body fat as well as my scale to track what my body is really doing. The scale is only one tool. Also I can tell you, as you diet, your body will go through "stuck" phases. Times where it just flat doesn't want to change. Some people think you need to shock your system to kick start it, but I believe just keep doing what your doing and it will come around.
Highly doubtful the OP is putting on muscle mass at all, let alone enough to gain weight if OP is staying "well below" her goal.0 -
I had the same problem. You have to eat more!!!! I know it sounds counter intuitive but it is true.0
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Only on MFP does "I'm not losing weight" = "eat more food."
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You also need to remember that muscle weighs more than fat.
No no no. One pound of fat is the same as one pound of muscle. Muscle is just compacted densely.0 -
You also need to remember that muscle weighs more than fat.
No no no. One pound of fat is the same as one pound of muscle. Muscle is just compacted densely.
Not to nitpick, but the original statement wasn't "One pound of muscle weighs more than one pound of fat," so your rebuttal isn't even appropriate.
Anyway, carry on.0
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