Well Great :( :( :(

First of all, you dont need to stress. Your homework comes first. Second, did you eat anything before you weighed? One day, I weighed myself and I went back in a few hours later and I gained two lbs. (it was off the next day). Your weight fluctuates throughout the day. Its also ok to eat over once in a while. Just bc you are eating below your calories, doesnt mean you are eating healthy. So, if you went over last night, you coud have been eating healthier. Remember, dont worry about the scale and dont let it ruin your whole day. Stress also adds to weight gain too.

:-)

Unless you went 3500 calories over what you burned in the day, you didn't actually gain 1 whole pound. Your weight will fluctuate day to day based on many factors i.e. your sodium intake, water intake, monthly "issues," etc. Going over your calories one day didn't cause it. Don't panic! And don't weigh every day! You'll drive yourself crazy!

Don't worry! Everyone's weight swings around a few pounds. Sure, if you skipped a workout maybe you didn't sweat off some water weight. But also keep in mind that two cups of water weighs one pound. If your body was haning on to some extra H2O you can be up slightly. Going over your calorie goal one day is not going hurt you...I guess if you ate 3500 extra calories that could be a pound. Hang in there. Looks like you have lost 7 lbs!

Looking at your diary, I see that on the day you went over 100 calories. This is not anywhere near enough for you to put on a pound. Depending on where you have your deficit set, it won't even be enough for you to put on weight. What I suspect it is, will be your high sodium intake for the day. You are well over the limit - if I ate that much sodium I'd put on about 5 pounds overnight! Excess sodium makes you retain water, and this will be the cause of the weight gain.

It is easy to deal with. Drink lots of water to help excrete the sodium, and try and keep your sodium down as much as possible. You can do this in the first instance by cutting down on pre packaged foods and eating more fresh meat, fruit and veggies.

Don't stress about the 1 pound. Even if it isn't the sodium, it is a normal fluctuation.

All the best,

Erika

Uncle Ted recommends....to everyone....that you view this as a marathon and not a sprint. Stay on your program, eat your calories, do your workouts, cut yourself a little slack now and then (I have one free meal per week where I eat anything I want) and don't sweat the scale. Weigh yourself once a month. Period. If you can't stand to hold off, then twice a month or at most once a week (even that's pushing it for me). People who weigh themselves every day or try to note little changes in the mirror each morning when they get dressed are going to psyche themselves out. As other posts note, your body, based on the size of your frame or bodyfat percentage, can fluctuate 2-4 lbs every day. That's why putting the scale up in your closet for 30 days at a time lets you avoid freaking out when you see the little movements.

Take the first Sunday morning of every month, get the scale down and weigh yourself. Then take your neck, shoulder, chest, waist and thigh measurements. If the inches go down and the weight stays the same (or even goes up), you're replacing fat with muscle. If your weight goes down, great. Compare all of these things to the previous month and you'll be amazed at how good your outlook and motivation will be for the next 30 days.

I also wanted to mention, that while 3200 calories seems like a lot...it is really not. If it was so much then why are their so many over weight folks you may ask? Well it is simple. Take into account that female I described previously...let us say, for maths sake, that she needs to eat 2000 calories per day at a lightly active level in order to maintain her 150 pounds...lets again say that she has a desk job and her "lightly active" description comes from a lunch time walk she goes for with a colleague...which in her mind this is exercise. We will call her Jane.

For breakfast Jane stopped at Dunkin Donuts on the way to work, her normal routine and had a whole grain bagel (390) with lowfat cream cheese (150). She also orderd a medium low fat mocha latte (320). Jane's breakfast adds up to 860 calories.

Jane has been at work since 7am and it is now 9:30am and time for her to take a small break. Jane pours a cup of coffee and takes two creamers (40). She has also brought a small apple from home as her break snack (60). Jane's break adds up to 100 calories.

Lunch time has come around and Jane office building has a cafeteria in her building that sells food items of similar nutritional values to Wendy's, Jane more often than not eats her lunch at this cafeteria and then goes for a 30 minute walk. Jane doesnt like to eat a big lunch so she orders half a cobb salad with ranch dressing and croutons (420). She does have a bit of a sweet tooth though and usually orders the equivalent of a frosty Jr (really just a few ounces of ice cream.....150). Jane's lunch consisted of 570 calories.

It is about 3:30 and Jane is getting a little hungry but she brings a 100 calorie snack pack with her every day just for this occasion. Jane's snack consisted of 100 Calories.

Jane likes to be out of the office no later than 6PM, with good traffic she can get home in 45 min, but on average it usually takes an hour. Jane generally gets home at around 7PM and she really does not like to cook, usually she is just too tired to mess with it. As soon as she gets home she has a couple glasses of red wine (300), and a couple pieces of brie cheese (100) and then walks over to Panera bread just down the road, or orders a to go order and picks it up on the way home. At panera bread she generally orders 1/2 Sandwich and soup (670)...For a total of 1,070 calories.

By the time Jane finishes dinner, a couple tv programs, and cleaning up it is almost 9:30Pm and Jane likes to have a small oat meal cookie (120) and a small glass of skim milk (80), it helps her sleep. After some light reading Jane dozes off at around 10:30PM. Total of 200.

Jane's day consisted of an intake of 2900 calories. Nearly 900 calories more than she needs to eat daily in order for her to maintain her current weight at her current activity level. Jane's diet does not seem unreasonable, I believe many would even look at that and think it is relatively healthy...no fried foods...eating throughout the day ect. But the bottom line is that calories in equals more than calories out. Every 3.5 days Jane will gane another pound..with each pound she gains her calorie levels needed to maintain that weight also increase...she will continue to increase in weight until the two balance each other out. Fat metabolises about 6 calories every hour and Muscle metabolises between 8-10 calories every hour.

Lets give Jane the benefit of the doubs and say that with her walks she had a moderately active lifestyle. Even so, Jane would continue to gain a pound every 3.5 days until she reached 250 pounds, the weight at which 2900 calories is required to maintain. See how easy it is to all of a sudden be a year down the road and 100 pounds heavier? If Jane was to eat only 100 calories over her daily max she would still be gaining a pound per month, 12lbs per year, and five years later that is 70 POUNDS!!! ....only eating 100 calories over...wow. Not to mention as we age the amount of calories burned without additional activity decreases. Stress also could play a factor by decreasing the bodies metabolic rate, or the rate at which it burns calories by doing nothing more than breathing.

All is not lost though. Lets look at what a couple dietary changes and a little extra exercise could do. Jane could take her bagel dry or with a very light amount of butter, she could cut out her Latte and reduce her breakfast to lets say 400 calories, even less if she can save half the bagel as a snack later in the day. Her snacks are good and at the right amount of calories. She could bring her own salad and save money or pack a canned soup and cut out the ice cream, she could easily reduce her lunch to 350 calories. For dinner only drink one glass of wine, grill your own chicken, make your own dinner, or get some lean cuisine frozen dinners..again money and calorie saving. Also cut out the bed time cookie and the glass of milk and replace it with a glass of sleepy time tea and a tasty quaker rice cake (caramel or chocolate drizzle). Jane's dinner and bed time snack could be reduced to 650 or so calories...so what do we have...a total of 1600 calories...now Jane as at a 400 calorie defecit and Jane also decided to run for 30 minutes in the morning or once she got home from work...burning an extra 500 calories. Now Jane is at a 900 calorie defecit. Now every 3.5 days Jane will be losing a pound...again until her weight and calories even out. Jane is already at a healthy BMI at 150 but if she wanted to get down to a very healthy BMI of 20 she would only need to lose 20 pounds and based on her exercise and diet she could do that in just over a couple months......


And that is the story of weight loss and gain!!