eating under calories and exercising yet gaining weight

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Replies

  • wilmnoca
    wilmnoca Posts: 416 Member
    You answered the question. Eating under calories= weight gain/plateau. Or you could be underestimating how much you're eating and over estimating how much you are burning.
  • jacksonpt
    jacksonpt Posts: 10,413 Member
    You answered the question. Eating under calories= weight gain/plateau. Or you could be underestimating how much you're eating and over estimating how much you are burning.

    What????
  • Holly_Roman_Empire
    Holly_Roman_Empire Posts: 4,440 Member
    You answered the question. Eating under calories= weight gain/plateau. Or you could be underestimating how much you're eating and over estimating how much you are burning.

    What????

    My thoughts exactly. Geez...can there be a test required for those that want to help other people?
  • bcattoes
    bcattoes Posts: 17,299 Member
    If you are truly eating at a calorie deficit and gaining weight, then it is water weight. It's pretty much impossible to gain fat on a calorie deficit unless you have some rare medical condition

    But make sure you are logging correctly and logging everything! One crazy weekend binge could throw your whole week off.
  • shadus
    shadus Posts: 424 Member
    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!

    Are you weighing food and only counting exercise that you eat back as 50-70% of max?

    Edit: If short term, are you starting, just started your period? That'll screw up your losses for a week often as not.
  • shadus
    shadus Posts: 424 Member
    You answered the question. Eating under calories= weight gain/plateau. Or you could be underestimating how much you're eating and over estimating how much you are burning.

    What????

    My thoughts exactly. Geez...can there be a test required for those that want to help other people?

    Why spouting crap off you have no understanding of is so much more fun! Lemme try!

    <sarcasm>B-B-BUT STARVATION MODE!!!! Haven't you seen how fat concentration camp victims got, or the guys in the Minnesota starvation experiment? Holy crap don't you know anything.

    For reference:
    https://www.google.com/search?q=concentration+camp+survivor&safe=active&tbm=isch <- concentration camp survivors
    https://www.google.com/search?q=Minnesota+starvation+experiment&safe=active&tbm=isch <- minnesota starvation experiment
    </sarcasm>

    ... you could just read: http://www.aworkoutroutine.com/starvation-mode/ I guess... it details exactly how you gain weight while starving yourself. It's funny how people at starvation levels ~always~ lose weight when you control their intake externally... but when they do it themselves some percentage gain weight. Isn't that odd.
  • shadus
    shadus Posts: 424 Member
    maybe you need to readjust how much you eat to be lower so you still have a deficit
    how much under your calories are you eating? if you are not eating enough food to fuel your body and are working out too much you will not lose weight. also, how long has this "gain" been going on? And is it consistent or did you just gain weight this week and post that you're gaining even though you're at a deficit?

    First, before giving advice you should probably at least SOMETHING about what you're saying so that you're not actively hurting someone or sabotaging their weight loss with bad information.

    If you actually know so little about weight loss that you believe that statement, please explain concentration camp victims and the Minnesota starvation experiment. Until you can do so in a plausible manner, you are outright feeding people bad information (I won't even get into why if you can explain that, any explanation that was plausible in any form would make weight gain absolutely impossible in the first place.)

    There is absolutely -zero- science that backs up what you are saying.
  • meskew87
    meskew87 Posts: 27 Member
    I always have this thought when people say eat more to lose weight. I know that can't be true because plenty of people starve! Lol...but in all honesty I think there is some truth to giving your body enough fuel to run efficiently. I don't know that this has to do with your metabolism really slowing down or speeding up based on how much you eat, but I know eating more is working for me. I had been at a plateau for about 8 weeks (Yikes!) and finally gave in to the eating more idea, because eating less was not working. I decided to eat closer to 1500 instead of under 1200 like I had been doing and I finally saw some weight come off.

    My only guess is that by giving my body enough fuel, my workouts are better, my energy is higher throughout the day, and I'm simply burning more calories because I have the energy to be moving around! I have to think that the harder I puch myself in my workouts, the better an afterburn I get, too. So thats my best theory as to why eating more seems to work.
  • shadus
    shadus Posts: 424 Member
    Last thoughts.

    She's listed as wanting to lose 225lbs. Lost 44 lbs so far. She's 30 years old. Assuming a "average height" of 5'4" (for females in US, that's the average.) Assuming her goal weight is mid point of her normal bmi range... that leaves us with:

    BMI "Normal" Range: 108.5 - 145.0
    Difference Min/Max: +36.5
    Half Difference: 18.25
    BMI Midpoint: 126.75
    Weight to Lose: 225
    Starting Weight: 351.75
    Already Lost: 44
    Remaining Weight: 307.75
    Basal Metabolic Rate: 2105.90
    Sedentary Rate: 2521.08
    Light Activity Rate: 2878.23
    Moderate Activity Rate:3256.39
    Very Active Rate: 3613.54
    Extremely Active Rate: 3991.71

    With more than 100lbs to lose, it's not difficult (nor uncommon for a doctor to suggest) losing 2lbs/wk... which would put her at around ~1521-2613 cal/day (tdee- eg not eating back exercise) depending on the accuracy of exercise as described. If I had to speculate based on the above information, I'd guess over consumption of exercise calories (machines calorie formulas get further and further off the further from 150 lbs you are.)

    (Edit: Note- complete speculation since she hasn't said how tall she, specified a starting weight, or opened her food diary.)
  • norcal_yogi
    norcal_yogi Posts: 675 Member
    I just posted asking for help with the same exact problem! Hoping to get some tips to figure this out! Hang in there!

    If you aren't losing weight, there are 2 possible reasons:

    1) you aren't in a deficit. This is the case for the vast majority of people
    2) you have some undiagnosed condition (i.e. diabetes) that changes the cal in/cal out conversation slightly.


    An honorable mention should go to unrealistic expectations - make sure your expectations (both what you expect and how quickly you expect it) are reasonable.

    .

    word^^
  • norcal_yogi
    norcal_yogi Posts: 675 Member
    You answered the question. Eating under calories= weight gain/plateau. Or you could be underestimating how much you're eating and over estimating how much you are burning.

    ??? no...

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