I'm gaining while working hard?

Please do make your diary public

How did you determine your calorie goal - MFP set up or custom set?

Nicely done on your loss so far!

So did you select a 2 lb weekly goal at the start and still have that in place?
How much were you losing at first and the last few weeks you did lose weight?

And after logging your exercise, did you keep meeting your eating goal despite the fact it went up?

When was your last diet break?

Do you weigh-in on valid days to minimize fluctuations?

Oh yeah, moving faster with lighter weight compared to slower with heavier weight may be a wash, not more calories, just depends.

And dittos to going faster - which will burn more carbs now.
Body responds by storing more carbs, which store with water. 3 lbs is rather too much for that change though, probably talking 1 lb max there.
But could be combined with a few badly logged meals with higher sodium or something.

So did you select a 2 lb weekly goal at the start and still have that in place?
How much were you losing at first and the last few weeks you did lose weight?

And after logging your exercise, did you keep meeting your eating goal despite the fact it went up?

When was your last diet break?

Do you weigh-in on valid days to minimize fluctuations?

Oh yeah, moving faster with lighter weight compared to slower with heavier weight may be a wash, not more calories, just depends.

And dittos to going faster - which will burn more carbs now.
Body responds by storing more carbs, which store with water. 3 lbs is rather too much for that change though, probably talking 1 lb max there.
But could be combined with a few badly logged meals with higher sodium or something.

Hey, thanks for your reply!
I think I upped my goal to that after about three months of losing weight,. I lost about 35lbs quite quickly so I can't say how much it was at the beginning. it's been approximately 2-3lbs before the past two weeks where I gained a pound last week and two this week.

Sometimes I meet my goal eating wise, sometimes I don't but it's usually within 300?

I'm not sure what a diet break is

I weigh in every monday morning, after I go to the bathroom.

Diet break, taking a break from a diet. Not eating in a diet. Your body will adapt to some degree being in a diet, burning less than otherwise. diet breaks allow it to remember what full level maintenance eating is.

Did you know you can look at your weight loss stats on MFP? Might want to look it up if you want to some insight as to what's going on.
Like, how long to lose those 35 lbs? No guesses, go look it up in your history.

So you had your settings to less than 2 lbs weekly, and then moved it to 2 lbs weekly, and have been losing more?

Since you didn't specifically mention it and I'm getting a feeling.

Do you log your workouts and calorie burns, and because your eating goal goes up - you eat more on those days?

I know you've lost decent amount of muscle mass in your weight loss along with fat. That's a bummer, because you'll be hard pressed to get it back.
Less muscle mass means smaller metabolism, meaning you have to eat less than you could have if you'd kept it.

So valid weigh-in day.
Morning after rest day eating normal sodium levels, not sore from last workout.

Now look at your 2 weigh-ins that say you gained weight - are they valid days?

As to eating goal, are you willing to go over 300 the next day then?
Or you are willing to be probably 30% short of a goal.
Willing to miss your goal weight by 30% and just say that's close enough?

A goal is for reaching.

I'm going to assume since you did lose your logging is decent enough or that would not have happened.
I'm guessing you are existing at a very depleted carb storage level, and finally ate enough to increase them.
If really that carb depleted normally to gain that much that fast - you'll soon be losing less than 2 lbs I'd wager. Hope I'm wrong, but I get the feeling you'll be back about a weight plateau soon.

I'd suggest now since you have less to lose, and lost some muscle mass, you follow the program if you aren't. Log your workouts and eat those calories back.
You creating a bigger than reasonable deficit is going to backfire more than it has.

And yes, MFP lowers your eating goal if your weight drops, unless you are already at 1200.

Which means you could reach goal weight with barely any loss and eating 1200. Maybe that sounds reasonable and sustainable for maintenance for you. Most would hate it and fail to maintain.

That said to keep your goals setting simple, MFP won't automatically reduce your calories.

Actually it does every 10 lbs, which changes the calories by enough to matter then. 5 lbs is usually very minor change.
Actually has a new page come up after you log new weight that is 10lbs down.
You can check box there to not show you again though.


Also, the calories burned walking is not a straight line function, as you get more efficient up to a point, and then inefficient and burn more.

http://www.exrx.net/Aerobic/WalkCalExp.html

And walking calculator there at bottom link to use for NET as you mention, because NET is the eat back amount.
At least those calc's are more accurate than HRM.