I've gained eating back calories. Help?!

How much weight have you gained and over what period of time? It could be something as simple as a little water weight gain (we tend to retain water due to sodium, exercise, hormone, stress, changes in our exercise routine, etc).

Two weeks isn't long enough and 3 pounds is water retention. Patience, it will come.

You could be overestimating your burns in your workouts. If you think you burned 300 but only burned 200, you're going to be off and that adds up. Also, how accurately are you logging? As in are you weighing where possible instead of measuring, etc.? There's a huge margin of error when you're first learning how to look at portion sizes and for me it didn't start really helping until I started weighing everything.

But also, two weeks isn't a long time in the grand scheme of things. It may *feel* like forever, but really 4-6 weeks is a more accurate indication of the overall trend.

You're supposed to eat back calories with MFP...but here's the kicker...most people overestimate their burn (often substantially so)...they just take the data base as actual fact...in reality, most databases and calorie calculators are going to overestimate your calorie burn. You have to make an allowance for estimation error.

For me, I found it helpful to compare my burn to a few different sources...on top of that I would compare it to my perceived level of effort using a factor of 5-10...5 calories per minute for basically a fast paced walk in the park and 10 calories per minute being a sustained level of effort for which I could not hold a conversation or do anything besides focus on the task at hand. It is pretty hard to burn more than 10 net calories per minute...and even if you do, you want to be conservative with this method. As things went along I got a pretty good idea of what I was burning for various things...most of my workouts come in around 7-8 calories per minute.

I would also add that a vast majority also underestimate their intake...they eyeball servings or they see that a package of chicken breasts says 4oz serving = 120 calories...so they log that without realizing that that may be a serving size, but the average chicken breast is about 8 - 10 oz...so they're easily eating twice what they log. This happens with numerous foods in my experience.

Make sure you're being as accurate as possible...consistent in your logging...and be conservative with your estimated burns.

I use the FItBit to calculate cardio and I am not tracking strength training at all. I am on a business trip so I am eating out every day. I eat pretty much the same things every day. I am depending on them to be preparing the product according to their posted nutritional information. I do use a food scale at home. I am really looking forward to getting back home so that I can cook my own food and eat cleaner.

Thanks for your analysis.

Ok it's probably water weight from sodium! Don't worry about it.

def give it more time.

and don't forget to take into account your time of the month. I gain a few lbs right before I start.

try not to dwell on it too much. if you're like me i'll get discouraged from time to time and say "screw it, give me a cheese burger"