unexpected weight gain..

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kbrhelker23
kbrhelker23 Posts: 62
in Health and Weight Loss
hello everyone,
I am feeling really discouraged… Ive been working out typically 5 days a week no less than 90 minutes each day… 15-30 cardio which is either interval running or elliptical.. and then the rest of my time i spend lifting weights and doing mat work…. so last month i was down to 150lbs… within the last month i just added the interval running, i never ran before this addition.. and i started really challenging myself with lifting weights by lifting as heavy as i can for 3 sets of 12-15… and now i weight 157! thats a 7 lb gain in a month! I've been eating pretty well. no super clean in the last month due to vacations and such but over all i am eating a lot of berries and salads , no deep fried stuff or snacks other than produce, i might have like 2 small scoops of ice cream every 2 weeks but nothing major.. the only things i can think of also is that I've been drinking mass amounts of coffee and no water the last 2 weeks because i am having a lot of exams in school right now… could the no water and heavy lifting account for such a drastic weight gain?
I guess Im not really factoring in muscle gain because i was working out 5 days a week for a few months prior to working out really hard and adding running … could i still gain a good amount of muscle ? I just don't know how i could gain 7 lbs in a month! it took me like 4 months to lost 10 lbs… and to gain it almost all back in a month is madness!! please give me your thoughts.

thank you :0)

Replies

  • _Zardoz_
    _Zardoz_ Posts: 3,987 Member
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    Are you logging your food?
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    Without knowing how much you're eating, and if you're weighing your food, it's impossible to tell if you gained muscle (if you're eating too much, you might have gained some, but definitely not 7 pounds of it), water weight, or fat.
  • skinnybythanksgiving
    skinnybythanksgiving Posts: 159 Member
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    You have to keep tracking. I gained about the some by not tracking consistently. I started tracking again and it's coming off at a nice pace. Don't give up! Just get back to tracking and weigh everything on a digital scale.

    Yes, you need your water, especially with workouts like yours. :flowerforyou:
  • acorsaut89
    acorsaut89 Posts: 1,147 Member
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    Well, as women chances are good no - this isn't muscle mass. Women are not genetically made to gain that much muscle that quickly.

    Any time you introduce new exercise or change things up a bit, your body can hold on to some water - basically your fat cells are filling themselves with water anticipating that they'll be filled with fat stores again. This "water weight" will shed provided you are consistent in what you're doing.

    Second, are you sure you're really eating what you think you're eating? I know for me - I can't eyeball accurately and it's really hard to guess portion sizes. Maybe you're over eating?

    Also, are you relying on calorie burn from MFP? If so, it can over estimate what you're burning. Further, if you've shocked your body into something like extreme exercises or severe calorie deficits, you will lose weight but with severe calorie deficits, our bodies can adapt to these deficits so then something that worked for 4 weeks is no longer as much of a deficit because your body has adapted to it. Bodies can change and adapt from running on 3,000 calories to running on 1,200 calories very efficiently - this is where the myth of starvation mode (I think) developed. Not saying that you're eating a LC diet, but just some food for thought.

    Stress can lead to weight gain, but everyone handles it differently so hard to say if that's the case for sure either. I would say wait until this stressful time is over and then see what happens. It could really be as simple inaccurate logging.

    Best of Luck!!

    Edited for bad spelling :blushing:
  • dbmata
    dbmata Posts: 12,951 Member
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    Want to talk about unexpected?

    I was at 233.8 last monday (6/23), as of yesterday, I was 236.4.

    How did this happen? Let's see, significant increase in workout intensity, paired with an increase of sodium, self hate, and creatine usage.

    Like all unexpected short term weight gain, you'll lose a lot of it with a good bm. The rest, just make sure you're tight with your logging.
  • QuietBloom
    QuietBloom Posts: 5,413 Member
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    Eating 'clean' doesn't guarantee anything. Weight gain = a calorie surplus. Inaccurate (or absent) logging and not using a scale are the biggest culprits.
  • kbrhelker23
    kbrhelker23 Posts: 62
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    thank you all. i don't track my food, it sounds bad but it drives me nuts looking up every single condiment and thing i eat… mostly i have a 80 cal meal replacement shake for 1 - 2 meals and eat dinner as usual…. idk… i think i will just only weigh myself every other month.
  • SherryTeach
    SherryTeach Posts: 2,836 Member
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    Of course, "dinner as usual" can mean a lot of different things. The bottom line is that if you don't know how many calories you actually eat every day, it's hard to know why you aren't losing weight. It seems that I have read somewhere that of all the programs designed to help people lose weight, calorie counting is the most effective.
  • 59gi
    59gi Posts: 307 Member
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    hello everyone,
    I am feeling really discouraged… Ive been working out typically 5 days a week no less than 90 minutes each day… 15-30 cardio which is either interval running or elliptical.. and then the rest of my time i spend lifting weights and doing mat work…. so last month i was down to 150lbs… within the last month i just added the interval running, i never ran before this addition.. and i started really challenging myself with lifting weights by lifting as heavy as i can for 3 sets of 12-15… and now i weight 157! thats a 7 lb gain in a month! I've been eating pretty well. no super clean in the last month due to vacations and such but over all i am eating a lot of berries and salads , no deep fried stuff or snacks other than produce, i might have like 2 small scoops of ice cream every 2 weeks but nothing major.. the only things i can think of also is that I've been drinking mass amounts of coffee and no water the last 2 weeks because i am having a lot of exams in school right now… could the no water and heavy lifting account for such a drastic weight gain?
    I guess Im not really factoring in muscle gain because i was working out 5 days a week for a few months prior to working out really hard and adding running … could i still gain a good amount of muscle ? I just don't know how i could gain 7 lbs in a month! it took me like 4 months to lost 10 lbs… and to gain it almost all back in a month is madness!! please give me your thoughts.

    thank you :0)


    You could be Insulin resistant.
  • 59gi
    59gi Posts: 307 Member
    Options
    thank you all. i don't track my food, it sounds bad but it drives me nuts looking up every single condiment and thing i eat… mostly i have a 80 cal meal replacement shake for 1 - 2 meals and eat dinner as usual…. idk… i think i will just only weigh myself every other month.



    This:

    http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/06/when-a-calorie-is-not-just-a-calorie/

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_calorie_is_a_calorie
  • 59gi
    59gi Posts: 307 Member
    Options
    hello everyone,
    I am feeling really discouraged… Ive been working out typically 5 days a week no less than 90 minutes each day… 15-30 cardio which is either interval running or elliptical.. and then the rest of my time i spend lifting weights and doing mat work…. so last month i was down to 150lbs… within the last month i just added the interval running, i never ran before this addition.. and i started really challenging myself with lifting weights by lifting as heavy as i can for 3 sets of 12-15… and now i weight 157! thats a 7 lb gain in a month! I've been eating pretty well. no super clean in the last month due to vacations and such but over all i am eating a lot of berries and salads , no deep fried stuff or snacks other than produce, i might have like 2 small scoops of ice cream every 2 weeks but nothing major.. the only things i can think of also is that I've been drinking mass amounts of coffee and no water the last 2 weeks because i am having a lot of exams in school right now… could the no water and heavy lifting account for such a drastic weight gain?
    I guess Im not really factoring in muscle gain because i was working out 5 days a week for a few months prior to working out really hard and adding running … could i still gain a good amount of muscle ? I just don't know how i could gain 7 lbs in a month! it took me like 4 months to lost 10 lbs… and to gain it almost all back in a month is madness!! please give me your thoughts.

    thank you :0)


    This:

    http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2012/06/when-a-calorie-is-not-just-a-calorie/

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_calorie_is_a_calorie

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