Gained back?!

suedehigh
suedehigh Posts: 6
in Health and Weight Loss
I lost 10 lbs last month doing the Atkins and almost 4 inches around my waist, went from 141 lbs to around 130 lbs. Then I decided to eat healthily and kick the excercise up a notch. I eating at a calorie deficit (1200 per day) and excercise 30-45 minutes a day, 5 or 6 days a week. And in the last 3 weeks or so, I've gained almost all of it back! Every inch is back around my waist and my weight is back up to 137! Before anyone fusses about the Atkins, I did it because I ate healthy and excercised and never managed to lose any weight for a YEAR. I just maintained. But now apparently eating healthy won't even maintain it? So lost. :(

Replies

  • luckypony71
    luckypony71 Posts: 399 Member
    Do you use a food scale? I found that I was over estimating my portions and didn't really loose until I started to measure my food.
  • suedehigh
    suedehigh Posts: 6
    I pretty much only eat vegetables and lean meats and the occasional orange. I don't use a food scale, but you tend to measure greens by the half cup and fish when frozen is pre calculated for you. I don't eat processed sugars, or 'white' breads since I stopped doing the atkins (I actually find that they make me feel a little sick now.) Even if I was underestimating my diet by more than a whopping 800 calories a DAY, I think a 7 lb weight gain in less than 3 weeks is ridiculous.
  • MissLCWolff
    MissLCWolff Posts: 69 Member
    First of all, use a food scale and a heart rate monitor to be sure you're counting your calories consumed and burned accurately. Second, you could be overtraining yourself (depending on how intense your 30-45 minutes of exercise is; if it's just something light like walking, then ignore this). Muscles are built in the home, not the gym--your body needs time to heal and rest between exercises. Also try upping your calorie intake a little bit, sometimes your body just needs you to shake up your routine.
  • suedehigh
    suedehigh Posts: 6
    My excercise tends to be 2 days of body weight training/circuit, one day of cardio (bike riding, jogging, dancing, whatever), one day of rest, two more days of circuits, another day of rest. Even if I'm overtraining, or underreating, or my metabolism is bored, how am I GAINING more than 2 lbs a week? That would be an extra of almost 25,000 calories in 3 weeks. I would have to be eating an extra 2000 calories a day to do that. Breakfast: Bowl of whole grain cereal (1/2 cup if you're wondering). Lunch; Chicken Salad (real salad, not mayonnaise goop and it's one chicken breast on 1 cup of greens, with 2 tbsp of italian dressing), Supper: Fish and Steamed Broccoli. Midday snack; A pickle. <- I don't see any possible way I manage to ever come close to eating 3200 calories today. Or have gone up yet another lb in 24 hours.
  • DP325i
    DP325i Posts: 677 Member
    I lost 10 lbs last month doing the Atkins and almost 4 inches around my waist, went from 141 lbs to around 130 lbs. Then I decided to eat healthily and kick the excercise up a notch. I eating at a calorie deficit (1200 per day) and excercise 30-45 minutes a day, 5 or 6 days a week. And in the last 3 weeks or so, I've gained almost all of it back! Every inch is back around my waist and my weight is back up to 137! Before anyone fusses about the Atkins, I did it because I ate healthy and excercised and never managed to lose any weight for a YEAR. I just maintained. But now apparently eating healthy won't even maintain it? So lost. :(

    /thread

    1200 cals per day, what you're seeing is starvation mode at its best
  • suedehigh
    suedehigh Posts: 6
    Not according to my doctor, daily calorie intake and your basal metabolic rate are drastically affected by surface area and height. And if I was in starvation mood, I would have stalled out, not gained 7 lbs. That doesn't make any sense at all.
  • jstout365
    jstout365 Posts: 1,686 Member
    My guess is that the Atkins diet for a month depleted your glycogen stores as is common with low carb diets. This also affected the amount of water weight you had by decreasing it. Once you moved to a healthier diet and added more carbs, the stores started to fill back up, adding water and weight. Add on top of that strength training exercises, and you retain more glycogen and water to help repair the muscles. It could be the primary reason for the gains.

    If you want to stick with the more balanced diet, be really diligent about tracking and logging. A food scale can make a big difference. Try to avoid some of the typical weight loss pitfalls that even experienced MFP users can fall into. Here is a great post to help you get on a solid track:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants
  • DP325i
    DP325i Posts: 677 Member
    Not according to my doctor, daily calorie intake and your basal metabolic rate are drastically affected by surface area and height. And if I was in starvation mood, I would have stalled out, not gained 7 lbs. That doesn't make any sense at all.

    Okay so let me put it this way, your 1200 "should be" what you net. Yet you also stated you kicked up the workouts, are you eating those calories back? Lets say you burn 400 cals in your workout (hypothetically speaking) and don't eat it back, you're at 800 cals for the day.

    Search 1200 calories on the forum, its nothing new that people gain on it.
  • suedehigh
    suedehigh Posts: 6
    1200 is my net, perhaps I phrased that wrongly, and as far as I can tell, scientifically, it should be nearly impossible to be gaining at a deficit. Though the glycogen stores post makes a good bit of sense from a physiological viewpoint. I'm getting kind of a hateful vibe off you dude, go away.
  • agent99oz
    agent99oz Posts: 185 Member
    I feel your pain! For me my gain and loss thing has only happened since I have had kids - I am currently doing a 28 day test of my thyroid as I believe 100% something is not right.

    Good advice on the Glycogen stores - Also sodium have you added in anything new? Any new drinks/artificial sugars? These can help hold weight too - also water and sleep my 2 old other favourites. Anything changed here??

    Thanks
    :smile:
  • Graelwyn75
    Graelwyn75 Posts: 4,404 Member
    My guess is that the Atkins diet for a month depleted your glycogen stores as is common with low carb diets. This also affected the amount of water weight you had by decreasing it. Once you moved to a healthier diet and added more carbs, the stores started to fill back up, adding water and weight. Add on top of that strength training exercises, and you retain more glycogen and water to help repair the muscles. It could be the primary reason for the gains.

    If you want to stick with the more balanced diet, be really diligent about tracking and logging. A food scale can make a big difference. Try to avoid some of the typical weight loss pitfalls that even experienced MFP users can fall into. Here is a great post to help you get on a solid track:

    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/1080242-a-guide-to-get-you-started-on-your-path-to-sexypants

    This. Unless you wish to stick to the Atkins diet for life, you are best starting afresh using the tools here and keeping in a deficit, eating mostly wholesome, nutritious foods, with a few treats thrown in. Also, exercise, especially intense exercise, will cause you to retain water and glycogen temporarily. It should start dropping again as long as you stick with something, and are consistent with your food logging and workouts. But I would suggest that 1200 is too low, regardless. It leaves nowhere for you to go if you hit a plateau. It is best to set yourself to lose 1 Ib a week for sustainability.
  • margannmks
    margannmks Posts: 424 Member
    Are you pregnant lol. 4" off waist is alot in a month. I know atkins diet causes about 6 lbs of water weight loss on average so i would defintly think youd gain that back as soon as you ate any carb. Was any of this during your tom, cause i can gain 5 lbs easily then in one day sometimes in an hour it seems. Fluid retention is a frustrating thing, i do what i call a ring test in am if its tight i ignore the rise in scale if its loose and scale says higher then i step up my exercise and count every morsel.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    I lost 10 lbs last month doing the Atkins and almost 4 inches around my waist, went from 141 lbs to around 130 lbs. Then I decided to eat healthily and kick the excercise up a notch. I eating at a calorie deficit (1200 per day) and excercise 30-45 minutes a day, 5 or 6 days a week. And in the last 3 weeks or so, I've gained almost all of it back! Every inch is back around my waist and my weight is back up to 137! Before anyone fusses about the Atkins, I did it because I ate healthy and excercised and never managed to lose any weight for a YEAR. I just maintained. But now apparently eating healthy won't even maintain it? So lost. :(
    That's most likely because you lost water weight on Atkins, and now that you've started eating again you've gained some of that water back.

    Depending on how much you have to lose, you might to up that calorie intake a bit to lose about one pound per week (my guess is you set your goals to lose 2 pounds a week, hence the 1,200 calories) and eat a portion of your exercise calories back.

    Losing weight slow and steady is easier to sustain in the long run.

    The best of luck to you.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    I lost 10 lbs last month doing the Atkins and almost 4 inches around my waist, went from 141 lbs to around 130 lbs. Then I decided to eat healthily and kick the excercise up a notch. I eating at a calorie deficit (1200 per day) and excercise 30-45 minutes a day, 5 or 6 days a week. And in the last 3 weeks or so, I've gained almost all of it back! Every inch is back around my waist and my weight is back up to 137! Before anyone fusses about the Atkins, I did it because I ate healthy and excercised and never managed to lose any weight for a YEAR. I just maintained. But now apparently eating healthy won't even maintain it? So lost. :(

    /thread

    1200 cals per day, what you're seeing is starvation mode at its best

    Not true. Starvation mode is not determined by the amount of calories you eat, but by the amount of body weight and muscle mass you lose, as in the Minnesota Starvation Experiment.
  • KittyLumpkins
    KittyLumpkins Posts: 2 Member
    Please, let's not perpetuate the starvation mode myth...I wish people would look into things before they go around shouting it as gospel.

    http://www.nowloss.com/starvation-mode-myth.htm

    My best guess is water weight.
  • albayin
    albayin Posts: 2,524 Member
    Are you pregnant lol. 4" off waist is alot in a month. I know atkins diet causes about 6 lbs of water weight loss on average so i would defintly think youd gain that back as soon as you ate any carb. Was any of this during your tom, cause i can gain 5 lbs easily then in one day sometimes in an hour it seems. Fluid retention is a frustrating thing, i do what i call a ring test in am if its tight i ignore the rise in scale if its loose and scale says higher then i step up my exercise and count every morsel.

    for a pear shaped person this could happen, I mean losing inches around the waist, water weight or not..
  • albayin
    albayin Posts: 2,524 Member
    OP, this has happend to me, almost exactly...After two years of struggling, I am still fighting over that 10 pounds. But i had to say not all the hardwork went for nothing: I did notice my body composition has changed, even at the same weight as before, my jeans fit better (not necessarily looser but my legs look way much better in the same pair of jeans), and my muscles are more defined. So there's a silverlining after all. Keep working on it.
  • suedehigh
    suedehigh Posts: 6
    Definitely not pregnant lol. Even though I do hold pretty much all my weight in my middle (which is why I tried the Atkins, since visceral fat is supposedly insulin resistance and glucose related?) 7 lbs of water?! I thought I'd read that like.. 2 or 3.. but geez. I would love to say that this was uplifting, but it was kind of depressing. :P I was so happy for that 10 lb drop but I guess 'too good to be true' applies here too. /: This morning I was nearly 3 lbs lighter again so I'm guessing definitely crazy water fluctuations, I've just never had them before. Thanks for the advice! No more crazy dieting for me. -.-

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