Gained 2 lbs in a week after upping calories?!?

ThatLoser17
ThatLoser17 Posts: 6
in Health and Weight Loss
Okay so to be completely honest I'm recovering from an eating disorder. I wasn't to the point to where I was underweight but for 2 months I was eating less then 100 calories a day and months before that less then 500 calories a day. I lost a ton of weight. But since July I've been in recovery and slowly upping my calories.. Which has been horrifying. My personal trainer and therapist wants me to up my calories 100 calories a week.. I was at 1200 but I told my personal trainer I was hungry all the time and she was just like "GREAT! Your metabolism is speeding up!! How about you eat 1400 now!" So I did. And I gained 2 freaking lbs. What the heck. I'm suppose to be eating like 1800 to maintain my weight.. So why am did I gain?! I'm 5'9 (female) and 135 lbs. Please help me understand what happened! Am I eating to much?! Cause this really has me down.. And I really want to restrict now.. But I know I can't. I want to have abs and be toned and fit and not just "skinny" but I'm just so stuck right now :( It's hard seeing the scale go up.. Plus I don't think it's water weight.. I went pee before I weighed!!:p If you could help me that would be so appreciated.. Thanks!!

Replies

  • joanne2208
    joanne2208 Posts: 5
    Are you still underweight? Eating low calories for that period of time would have lowered your metabolism significantly- the weight gain was probably your body adjusting to have been fed, probably holding onto fat incase your body goes back into starvation mode. I know it's probably hard to see the scales go up but perhaps you need to weigh a bit more too- if you're underweight.
    If you're in the healthy weight range give the new diet and your body time to adjust. Could take a month or more to see your body start to see a true number on scales as your metabolism starts to get faster.
  • Mokey41
    Mokey41 Posts: 5,769 Member
    5'9" and 135 lbs is still very thin so I don't think you need to worry to start with even if you did gain 2 lbs. If you're working out and planning on building some muscle you may gain weight. It's not a bad thin. I'd rather be heavier and well muscled than weigh less a be a blob of flab. Water weight isn't just your pee, it's all the water stored in the cells in your body so peeing before weighing won't make a difference.

    My best suggestion to you would be to put the scale away and quit weighing. What you don't see can' t upset you.
  • BenjaminMFP88
    BenjaminMFP88 Posts: 660 Member
    If you were in that much of a caloric deficit, your body would have lost a lot of muscle as well as other things. As you eat more, more calories can be used to promote muscular growth which will increase your weight. On top of that, your eating more so your sodium and carbohydrat intake has increased. Increase in Muscle, Sodium and Carbs will increase your water retention. So most of the weight you will gain when below maintenance is healthy good weight. (water is good and essential for the body. Don't stress at water retention)
  • bwogilvie
    bwogilvie Posts: 2,130 Member
    If your muscles are storing more glycogen, they'll also be storing about 4 times its weight in water. That could be one source of gain, in addition to the other reasons that have been mentioned.

    It could also be random fluctuation. Last week, my Monday weight was 2.4 lbs. more than the week before. This week, it was 2.6 lbs. lower (so down 0.2 lbs. over 2 weeks). Every day the average person takes in 9.2 lbs. of water and eliminates about 11 (the extra 1.8 lbs. comes from water in the food we eat). Over a week, you could easily retain a couple of pounds for whatever reason, then eliminate it over the following week.

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