why am I gaining?

Because.

How are we supposed to help you if we can't see your diary or know anything about your age, height weight calories you're eating, calories you should be beat. Help us help you. It's all a calorie in vs. calorie burned. It's really that simple.

It sounds as though you already have the answer. When you don't eat back exercise calories you lose; when you do you gain.



So listen to your body and let it tell you what it's trying to tell you.

You could be gaining muscle, but losing fat. Since muscle weighs more than fat, the scale may not show a loss, or may even show a gain. If your clothes are fitting better (or looser), you're still on the right track regardless of what the scale says. Good luck to you!

You could be gaining muscle, but losing fat. Since muscle weighs more than fat, the scale may not show a loss, or may even show a gain. If your clothes are fitting better (or looser), you're still on the right track regardless of what the scale says. Good luck to you!

Muscle does not weigh more than fat. 1 lb of muscle weighs 1 lb. 1 lb of fat weighs 1 lb.

You could be gaining muscle, but losing fat. Since muscle weighs more than fat, the scale may not show a loss, or may even show a gain. If your clothes are fitting better (or looser), you're still on the right track regardless of what the scale says. Good luck to you!

Muscle does not weigh more than fat. 1 lb of muscle weighs 1 lb. 1 lb of fat weighs 1 lb.

True, but in terms of volume, muscle weighs more. Consider the example of a pound of bricks and a pound of feathers.

OP, have you measured yourself? You'll want to use your measurements as a reference point as well.

You haven't been doing this very long (join date of this month), I would recommend patience. My scale goes for weeks sometimes without showing a drop, even showing increases, before it finally drops to a new low. Once I dropped 2 pounds, per the scale, and I didn't see that number again for another month! I would stick to it for another month before changing anything.

I seriously doubt that you've gained any muscle. It's extremely rare to gain muscle while on a deficit and it takes more than a few weeks.

Your overall calorie burn may be lower than you think, HRM aren't intended to measure resting or light activity. I found that I wasn't burning anywhere near what the machines and mfp said. I'm very efficient that way!

Double check your portions and your food. Even if you think you're being accurate, there may be a slipping point in your diet. Mine was my nightly ice cream and not weighing ALL of my food.

Don't cheat. A meal or day too often can completely throw off your deficit. If you do anything, give yourself once a month to eat at maintenance, and then log it and monitor it.

If I don't get enough protein, my loss tends to slow. Make sure you are getting 1g of protein per pound of lean body weight.

So I was burning a bit less than estimated and eating a bit more than estimated. In the process, I completely obliterated my perceived deficit.

Try eating half your exercise calories back and see if that makes a difference. It allows for errors in calculation either way.

And you profile and diary are open to friends only. You need to change your settings.........

good luck :flowerforyou:

Try not to be discouraged. You are motivated to lose weight and get healthy and you are making great steps to do that. I only seem to lose weight when I really stick to 1200 calories at least 5 days of the week and I give myself a little extra on weekends so I don't feel deprived. The calories I burn with exercise are really the bonus that help the weight to fall off so I don't pay any attention to them. If I ate what I burned off, I'd actually be on a 1400 calorie diet, and I doubt I'd lose very fast. I look at exercise as something to help me look more firm and count the benefits as my cholesterol and blood pressure control not to mention the benefits to my mental health. It's all about making healthy changes for a lifetime and then just watching food choices and portions to keep the weight off. Keep up the good work fitness pal.

I have eaten back most of my exercise calories if not all of them as everyone has instructed me to do on this site.

See, here is the issue...not everyone agrees about eating your exercise calories back and it doesn't work for everyone so don't take everything that is posted on this site as gospel.

Most of us aren't doctors or nutritionists so all we can tell you is what has worked for us. You have to do what works for you. Maybe eating them back isn't what your body needs.