Advice? Gaining at a deficit! (Yes diary is open, be gentle)

Liftng4Lis
Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
First, yes I weigh, scan and enter EVERYTHING meticulously! Super anal even and when in doubt, I estimate up.

In the last week I have gained a pound and a half and there is no way its water, as this has been consistent for the last 5 days.

I work out 3-4 days week 35ish weight training, followed by 30 minutes of cardio. The only change I’ve made is instead of doing 3 sets of 15 on each, I’ve upped the weights 10-20 pounds on each and do as many as I can usually 10-12, 3 sets. I get calories burned directly off the machine for cardio, regardless; I do NOT eat back my exercise calories.
With the exception of a cup of black coffee in the morning, I drink only water, 8-12 bottles a day (this is the only area I don’t always enter in my diary).

My TDEE says “2074”, according to an online calculator.
This being said, what am I missing here??

Replies

  • SonicDeathMonkey80
    SonicDeathMonkey80 Posts: 4,489 Member
    Diary isn't open, sorry.
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
    Sorry, it is now. Blonde you know.
  • Ninkyou
    Ninkyou Posts: 6,666 Member
    Is ToM around the corner? Ovulation?

    I always gained 3 lbs in water both during ovulation and my period.
  • SonicDeathMonkey80
    SonicDeathMonkey80 Posts: 4,489 Member
    My armchair diagnosis after looking at the past 3 days is that you eat lots of sodium bombs. I see pizza, Subway, pork, beef jerky, etc. Not a thing wrong with those foods, but I wouldn't weigh myself for at least 2-3 days after eating them. And that's a stretch.

    Also, I am going to say that you could stand to eat a few more calories in your day, and your protein looks on the low side.
  • lisalsd1
    lisalsd1 Posts: 1,519 Member
    I didn't check your diary, but one thing I had to change was my "activity level." When entering in my stats, I assumed I was moderately active; I'm a stay-at-home mom with a toddler/pre-ker. I feel pretty "busy," so I assumed I was pretty active (aside from my gym activities).

    I didn't see much change in my weight over a couple of weeks. I changed my activity level to lightly active (the next step down). That helped.
  • jfauci
    jfauci Posts: 531 Member
    I also think you need more food. I don't eat a lot, but 900-1000 calories is way too low. I used to eat about 1000 per day and people on this forum convinced me to increase my intake and BAM, the weight started coming off. Try it. Good luck!
  • Will_Thrust_For_Candy
    Will_Thrust_For_Candy Posts: 6,109 Member
    First off, I was wondering the same thing as Ninkyou.

    Secondly, I took a quick peek at your diary and it looks like you are using some of the entries from the database for meals...things such as "penne chicken" Is that your recipe or is that what you had and you just used a random entry? Also, I noticed the use of cups for a lot of your food....fruit, nuts, etc. If you weigh everything, why are you using cups to log? That can make a big difference.

    I mean I think that one week is nothing to get concerned about, but these little things that I mentioned above can make a huge difference.
  • Ninkyou
    Ninkyou Posts: 6,666 Member
    I'm also going to say, based on your diary, you should be eating more. Your goal is 1300 calories, you should be EATING 1300 calories. Not 950, not 1100, etc. You should be eating 1300. Plus on top of exercise, you should eat at least half of those calories back. You won't be doing your body any favors my scrimping all those calories.
  • RabbitLost
    RabbitLost Posts: 333 Member
    My experience with calorie burn from the cardio machines is that the numbers are really high. I use a heart rate monitor. When I compare my HRM to the machine, the burn from the machines has been almost double sometimes. The machine is always higher than the HRM. For me, this is the difference of 100 to 300 calories a session. At 300 calories, it only takes about 12 days to miss a pound.
  • AmyRhubarb
    AmyRhubarb Posts: 6,890 Member
    First, yes I weigh, scan and enter EVERYTHING meticulously! Super anal even and when in doubt, I estimate up.

    In the last week I have gained a pound and a half and there is no way its water, as this has been consistent for the last 5 days.

    I work out 3-4 days week 35ish weight training, followed by 30 minutes of cardio. The only change I’ve made is instead of doing 3 sets of 15 on each, I’ve upped the weights 10-20 pounds on each and do as many as I can usually 10-12, 3 sets. I get calories burned directly off the machine for cardio, regardless; I do NOT eat back my exercise calories.
    With the exception of a cup of black coffee in the morning, I drink only water, 8-12 bottles a day (this is the only area I don’t always enter in my diary).

    My TDEE says “2074”, according to an online calculator.
    This being said, what am I missing here??
    Upping the weights/changing exercise at all can cause a temporary gain. So can sodium, hormone fluctuations, and life in general. My wight goes up and down as much as 5lbs during the month, but my clothes still fit - been maintaining with these fluctuations for over two years now.

    Looked over a few days of your diary - several days below 1000, which is way too low. If you've figured your TDEE correctly at 2074, why are you eating at such a HUGE deficit? According to your ticker you're trying to lose about 9 more pounds? If so, your deficit is way too aggressive. Don't sell yourself short trying to workout hard and then barely eat any fuel.

    I had my best success dropping the last 10lbs (but more importantly, losing inches and reshaping my body) eating a 10-15% cut from my TDEE, which worked out to 1800-2000 calories (or more) a day. I workout about an hour a day, 5-6 days a week, running 3-5 miles 3 of the days, and dumbbells at home the other 3.

    Food is fuel - eat your cals! Your body will thank you for it. And start tracking your measurements as well as weighing yourself - you may see progress on the tape while the scale is busy bouncing up and down a few pounds every week. Trust the tape.

    And be patient, it takes time, but it's worth it.
  • hmroebuck
    hmroebuck Posts: 64 Member
    From your diary, eat more protein and less sugar and sodium.

    Based on your exercising, keep the weight low and focus on reps.

    I wouldn't worry too much about a one week gain though.
  • qwicherbytchin
    qwicherbytchin Posts: 42
    EAT SOME FOOD! :) You and I have talked before about how little you eat. It's not only unhealthy, but you're just sabotaging yourself. You need to eat your 1300 calories at the very least. On days you exercise, you need more. Think about it, if your car sits in the driveway, it's not using gas (like the days you don't go to the gym), but when you drive it, it takes more fuel to make it move. (like the days you go to the gym). Put some fuel in your tank and see what happens. C'mon....try it for 2 weeks. EAT, for goodness sake...
  • ruthie3110
    ruthie3110 Posts: 160 Member
    I'm thinking pretty much the same as everyone else here; too high of a deficit and potentially too lax with your logging.
    Grams/ozs are much much more accurate than cups and if you're exercising you really need to eat a lot more than you are!
  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
    Secondly, I took a quick peek at your diary and it looks like you are using some of the entries from the database for meals...things such as "penne chicken" Is that your recipe or is that what you had and you just used a random entry? Also, I noticed the use of cups for a lot of your food....fruit, nuts, etc. If you weigh everything, why are you using cups to log? That can make a big difference.


    When I put for example penne in, its my recipe, so I enter everything in and divide by servings.
    Nuts, I break it down to servings per that particular serving size. For example when I put walnuts, I know that 14 halves is one ounce or 185 calories. I put 3.5 halves in my yogurt, thus 48 calories.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 49,029 Member
    Based on your calorie intake, it's water. With higher intensity exercise (higher weight) it's NOT uncommon for weight to go up a week or 2 from water retention. Especially if one is in a deficit eating program. But IMO, you are eating too little.

    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
  • Supertact
    Supertact Posts: 466 Member
    d1Z-thats-not-how-it-works-thats-not-how-any-of-this-works.jpg
  • 3laine75
    3laine75 Posts: 3,069 Member
    Water/glycogen if you just upped the weight.

    Also, eat your allowance,especially hit your fat and hit your protein (goal is a tad low IMO). If you don't do this, you'll get little benefit from your strength training.
  • GeordieGirl80s
    GeordieGirl80s Posts: 120 Member
    1 - Eat more - I had no success at all losing weight until I upped my intake (I started out using the MFP default of 1200 & after 4 weeks I upped my intake to 1520)

    2 - hit (or even go over) your protein & fat targets (out of interest what are your carb/protein/fat %'s set to?) as your protein goal is very low, especially if you are doing weight training) - mine are 40% (153g) carbs, 35% (59g) fat & 25% (95g) protein

    3 - do not use 'cups' as a measurement of food stuffs unless you are measuring liquids
  • littlekitty3
    littlekitty3 Posts: 265 Member
    Simple. You upped your weight training.
    When you up your weight training you are causing more muscle damage, which then causes water retention and yadda yadda yadda retention to repair the muscle.

    It has nothing to do with your macro "ratio"

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