Gaining inches but eating healthy and exercising

heb994
heb994 Posts: 3
in Health and Weight Loss
For a month now I have been eating right and exercising regularly but i have been gaining inches around my waist! I eat lot of veggies and fruits and i consume little amount of carbs and protein and i try to keep their intake during the day. I have always used olive oil when I cook and I eat frequent small meals throughout the day. I keep the calorie intake between 1500 to 1700 which is a lot less than 2000 i used to eat and I make sure to drink 2L of water everyday. For exercise I walk 3 miles 4x a week and some stretching here and there on days I'm not exercising. I have been doing this routine for about a month now and I have no results!! My weight is still the same and I've been gaining inches around my waist and my back seems bulkier as well. I'm 5'4 and weigh 140 lbs what am I doing wrong?!?!

P.S. I have done plenty of diets before and I had no problem losing weight. If anything I am doing a healthier diet now than i have ever before. Please help!!

Replies

  • Unknown
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  • seehowyousoar
    seehowyousoar Posts: 60 Member
    How accurate are you with your weighing and logging food and how accurate are you with your calories burned through exercise?

    If you are not losing weight, you are most likely not at a deficit.
    Opening up your diary would help us help you, too. :)
  • thestonalisa
    thestonalisa Posts: 4
    Do you do any activities that could be functioning as strength training? You could be putting on muscle, which can add weight on the scale and inches around your back. But that's not necessarily a bad thing!
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  • HungryasFuark
    HungryasFuark Posts: 463 Member
    Do you do any activities that could be functioning as strength training? You could be putting on muscle, which can add weight on the scale and inches around your back. But that's not necessarily a bad thing!
    If by weight you mean water weight, then yes.

    If you mean muscle, then no.

    It could be muscle if she is new to lifting
  • beautifulwarrior18
    beautifulwarrior18 Posts: 914 Member
    First of all, why are you limiting carbs and protein? If you're on with the low carb fad fine, but you aren't giving your body the neccesary protein and amino acids to build muscle if you are only eating a little protein.

    Second, if you aren't losing weight then you aren't measuring your food properly.
  • KarenJanine
    KarenJanine Posts: 3,497 Member
    If your weight has stayed the same you are eating at maintenance and you may need to reassess your logging accuracy.

    There is no need to limit carbs or protein. MFP sets the protein goal quite low so don't worry if you go over.
  • chrisdavey
    chrisdavey Posts: 9,834 Member
    you are in a calorie surplus. If this is not your goal, then eat less.
  • heb994
    heb994 Posts: 3
    I log everything I eat and I am calculating the calories as well. I'm not sure how accurate they might be but i do measure out all foods that i consume and calculate the calories accordingly. But either way I am consuming a lot less calories since I changed from mostly protein,fat, and carb diet to fruit and veggies and I eat relatively the same amount.
    These are some of my daily food log
    Day 1: 125g of apple, 140g banana with 1/2c fat free plain greek yogurt, 8spring rolls with only fresh veggie(lettuce, tomato, onion, bell peppers, carrots, avocado) and soy sauce mixed with water, 1.5lb boiled pumpkin, 1/4cup strawberry ice cream, 135g apple, 6 spring rolls made the same way as lunch spring rolls

    Day 2: 1/2 cup fat free plain greek yogurt with small banana and 5 large strawberries, 1/2 serving of oatmeal pancake made from package, 1/2lb boiled pumpkin, 1/2 serving soba noodles with soy sauce, , 120g apple, soba noodle salad(soba noodles with fresh veggies), 1/4 cup strawberry ice cream.

    These are sample food log from my diary and most days are similar diet to this. I also don't drink anything other than water.

    Exercising wise I walk 3 miles 4x a week and I walk it in about an hour and a half and the trail i walk on has some hills.
  • beautifulwarrior18
    beautifulwarrior18 Posts: 914 Member
    Do you do any activities that could be functioning as strength training? You could be putting on muscle, which can add weight on the scale and inches around your back. But that's not necessarily a bad thing!
    If by weight you mean water weight, then yes.

    If you mean muscle, then no.

    It could be muscle if she is new to lifting

    Not if she's eating at a defecit which in honesty it doesn't sound like she is so she very well could be gaining muscle.
  • heb994
    heb994 Posts: 3
    I used to lift weight as well for about 4 months beginning of the year. my body builds muscle very fast so I cut down on protein and changed my exercises to cardio since I was bulking up too much. I don't think i should be gaining muscles since I'm doing way less weight training than couple months earlier
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 49,030 Member
    How often did you eat soy sauce till now?

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness industry for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • dannyblack123
    dannyblack123 Posts: 1
    Maybe you have a slow metabolism,how old are you?Also be careful with the olive oil just cause is healthy doesn't mean it don't pack a lot of calories.You could space your meals a little more to speed up your metabolism.maybe you need to pick up on the cardio intensity and lower your calorie intake.
  • MelodyandBarbells
    MelodyandBarbells Posts: 7,724 Member
    I used to lift weight as well for about 4 months beginning of the year. my body builds muscle very fast so I cut down on protein and changed my exercises to cardio since I was bulking up too much. I don't think i should be gaining muscles since I'm doing way less weight training than couple months earlier

    So if you've only been doing this for a month you may just need to keep it up and see what happens. Read the links if you haven't yet, just to make sure everything's on track to see results. If you weigh yourself, try to do it at the same time everyday, like first thing in the morning after bathroom to control for fluctuations that happen during the course of the day

    That said, I think you need to decide if you want to do this. As a female, you do not have enough testosterone to get bulky. As explained, your muscles may retain some water initially but that should resolve itself in a few weeks. When you lose fat, your muscle definition may show some more, but you generally won't build muscle in a caloric deficit. If you're scared of some muscle and therefore ditching the weights and not consuming enough protein, you may be shooting yourself in the foot by your own choices

    The sample's great but the actual diary allows to see for longer term trends. Are you logging everyday, is that 100 calorie item really probably 700, are the recipes listed constructed by you or a meal snagged from the database, are you drinking your calories, are your macros adding up to reasonable amounts, etc. It's sifting through all the data and trying to find what doesn't fit. The open diary provides the data for this analysis rather than a shot in the dark guess, else probably just read the links and hope something jumps out at you
  • corpus_validum
    corpus_validum Posts: 292 Member
    Why do people keep mentioning that she may be building muscle instead? Is it some auto response posters here default to?

    She believes she's at a caloric deficit, and nowhere does she mention that she does resistance training:
    "For exercise I walk 3 miles 4x a week and some stretching here and there on days I'm not exercising."

    Maybe you need a more vigorous/strenuous fitness plan to increase your caloric deficit: running, swimming, HIIT and/or resistance training. See what your results are after trying that out for a few weeks.
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  • sculli123
    sculli123 Posts: 1,221 Member
    Seems like not correctly calculating calories, weighing food, etc. We've all been there.
  • RGv2
    RGv2 Posts: 5,789 Member
    I used to lift weight as well for about 4 months beginning of the year. my body builds muscle very fast so I cut down on protein and changed my exercises to cardio since I was bulking up too much. I don't think i should be gaining muscles since I'm doing way less weight training than couple months earlier
    Oh brother.
    Why do people keep mentioning that she may be building muscle instead? Is it some auto response posters here default to?

    She believes she's at a caloric deficit, and nowhere does she mention that she does resistance training:
    "For exercise I walk 3 miles 4x a week and some stretching here and there on days I'm not exercising."

    Maybe you need a more vigorous/strenuous fitness plan to increase your caloric deficit: running, swimming, HIIT and/or resistance training. See what your results are after trying that out for a few weeks.
    Yup, the whole idea that she's building muscle is ridiculous.

    +1000..... +1000000 to the "Oh brother."
  • 212019156
    212019156 Posts: 341 Member
    She's not gaining inches of muscle. I wish gaining muscle happened that easily and quickly.
    She is underestimating how much she is eating. Most people do.
  • peleroja
    peleroja Posts: 3,979 Member
    Are you measuring that olive oil you're cooking with and all condiments and beverages? Are you weighing all your solid food correctly and choosing the correct (not user-entered) entries in the database? Are you eating out too much?

    It seems like the most likely cause is that you are accidentally wiping out your 300-50o calorie deficit (which could be done with one glug of olive oil) by not weighing and measuring meticulously.
  • kaotik26
    kaotik26 Posts: 590 Member
    Have you tried using a formula to see how much you should be consuming? I used this one, I can't remember the name of it (it's an eponym that's all I remember)

    http://weightloss.about.com/od/eatsmart/a/blcalintake.htm

    It will show you how much you need to eat to maintain and also how much to lose. I learned that the whole time MFP had me at 1200 a day I actually could have been closer to 1500. I feel it's a bit more accurate and you know you're on the right track.

    Also, there's nothing wrong with a few carbs, as long as they are not straight sugar and protein is necessary to feed your muscles and gives you long term energy.

    ETA: Also try a much as possible to add your own recipes or input every ingredient into your diary, it's a pain but much more accurate.

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