Weight gain after going off low carb diet even with calorie counting

nicswieghtloss
nicswieghtloss Posts: 6
edited November 9 in Getting Started
Hi everyone,

I have been having trouble losing weight on my vegan diet and thought I should go back to the Dukan diet. I lost about 4lbs in 3 days but felt awful and moody and decided to go back to my vegan diet but counting calories. The first day I had 1350 calories and gained 1 pound. The next day I had just under 1200 calories and gained another .6 lb.

Do you think it's a normal adjustment to gain weight after going off a low carb diet even if one is watching their calories?

Any advice?

Do you think maybe the vegan diet just isn't for me and I should stick to the Dukan diet no matter how bitchy I was feeling/acting on the low carb plan?

Thanks all.

Just very confused and want to get this weight off!

Replies

  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    When you go low carb, you drop a lot of water weight initially...when you go off low carb your glycogen stores re-charge and your gain water weight.

    you cannot lose 4 Lbs of fat in 3 days...you lost primarily water weight.
  • rachylouise87
    rachylouise87 Posts: 367 Member
    i have maintained my weight of 160lbs by going back onto carbs the moment i come off them i drop a stone in 6 weeks. surely all of that cannot be water?
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    When you go low carb, you drop a lot of water weight initially...when you go off low carb your glycogen stores re-charge and your gain water weight.

    you cannot lose 4 Lbs of fat in 3 days...you lost primarily water weight.

    Yup
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    rachylouise87 wrote: »
    i have maintained my weight of 160lbs by going back onto carbs the moment i come off them i drop a stone in 6 weeks. surely all of that cannot be water?

    In six weeks, no...not all of that would be water...but big losses early on are water. Mathematically, you can only oxidize so much fat in a given period...the OP said she dropped 4 lbs in 3 days...it is mathematically impossible for all of those 4 Lbs to be fat. That is the point.

  • nicswieghtloss
    nicswieghtloss Posts: 6
    Wow, thanks for the quick and helpful responses. So how long do you think it will take until everything regulates and the regular calorie counting starts to work? Just so frustrating.
  • msf74
    msf74 Posts: 3,498 Member
    nicswieghtloss wrote: »

    Do you think it's a normal adjustment to gain weight after going off a low carb diet even if one is watching their calories?

    Any advice?

    Yes, it sounds normal for the reasons previously given.

    What is important is the trend over time rather than a few days. If you are not losing weight after a few weeks then tweak your current numbers. Adjust as necessary depending on the results.

    Oh, and good call on ditching the Dukan Diet. It is one of the worst plans out there.

  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    nicswieghtloss wrote: »
    Wow, thanks for the quick and helpful responses. So how long do you think it will take until everything regulates and the regular calorie counting starts to work? Just so frustrating.

    The real issue here is that it is slow...but people don't want slow...they want to lose 4 Lbs in a couple of days...it's a slow process over weeks and months, just as putting on the weight was a slow process. It's also not linear...you will have weeks with smaller losses and weeks with bigger losses and weeks with no losses, etc...problem is that this discourages people and they stop being consistent with what they are doing because they think it's not working...when in reality, the lack of consistency is working against them.

    It works just fine...but you have to have patience and be consistent with what you are doing. If you're having problems losing on 1200 calories I would suggest that you are probably underestimating your intake either inadvertently or you have "calorie creep" from little things here and there that add up but you ignore logging or whatever. Beyond that I would get checked for possible medical issues.
  • nicswieghtloss
    nicswieghtloss Posts: 6
    Ya I think it tricks you into a false sense of security when you see the numbers on the scale going down, but it's not worth it for your health when you are snappy/moody, eating sweeteners and copious amounts of meat. I am ok with slow and steady as long as I can see some progress. I just get nervous when I see the scale go up and up.
  • nicswieghtloss
    nicswieghtloss Posts: 6
    So true. When you are desperate to lose weight, you do desperate things and then you have to pay the price when if I would have been consistently counting calories all along for months and not weighing myself all the time I would be where I want to be. Lesson learned. Thank you!
  • nicswieghtloss
    nicswieghtloss Posts: 6
    Ok, day 3 and I have gained again. WTF? The first day I had 1350 cal and gained 1lb. The next day I had just below 1200 calories and worked out and was up .6lb. Yesterday I worked out and had 1280 calories. In the middle of the night I couldn't sleep because I was so hungry so I had some flax crackers bringing me to a total of 1420 calories and I was up again another .6lbs.

    I am eating clean. Pretty low sodium.

    Anyone else experience this sort of weight gain when starting calorie counting?

  • cgartebay
    cgartebay Posts: 2 Member
    You're weighing yourself too often. Daily weight measurement is too noisy with water and waste products moving in and out. Pick one day per week to weigh in, such as Sunday morning after rising.

    Also if your workout includes strength training you might be picking up muscle mass. A weekly measure of your percent body fat might be more telling as to your overall fitness level.
  • nicswieghtloss
    nicswieghtloss Posts: 6
    edited December 2014
    Well after another day of gaining yet another pound after eating 1500 calories I threw out my scale out of sheer frustration. Yesterday without the scale I ate 1180 calories. I think seeing the number on the scale was giving me anxiety and making me want to eat more. From now on I'm going to go by my clothes and keep to around 1200-1300 calories a day, eating healthy and doing my Leslie Sansone walking dvd's 4x per week. I hope to see some improvement in the coming months as this 30+ weight gain on my 5'2" frame is a lot.
  • maxpow99
    maxpow99 Posts: 8
    You might not be eating enough calories, putting the body into a "starvation mode" causing you to hold onto extra calories. I would make sure you are getting quality protein, eating more calories, and just doing an extra walk/jog around the block with your dog each day.
  • TheSatinPumpkin
    TheSatinPumpkin Posts: 948 Member
    Gotta see this as a lifestyle and its going to be looong term.
  • GaleHawkins
    GaleHawkins Posts: 8,159 Member
    rachylouise87 wrote: »
    i have maintained my weight of 160lbs by going back onto carbs the moment i come off them i drop a stone in 6 weeks. surely all of that cannot be water?

    rachylouise87 no one outside of a lab perhaps can say how much was water or fat loss. A few weeks ago I went off of <50g daily of carbs and over a three hour period I ate 300 grams of carbs as in pasta and a milkshake. The next day I was six pounds heavier. 8 days later I was back down to my pre carb loading weight.

    Just based off my experience I would guess your stone/14 pound loss was about 50/50 water/fat. If that was the case your net loss was over a pound a week which would be a good loss rate in my view.

  • GaleHawkins
    GaleHawkins Posts: 8,159 Member
    TheSatinPumpkin wrote: »
    Gotta see this as a lifestyle and its going to be looong term.

    So true.

    We know all diets work at some level for some people. I do think when one selects a diet one should work it correctly for 90 days before changing it.

    Bodies have to adjust to major changes in diet so the first month can be just an adjusting phase.

  • raysputin
    raysputin Posts: 142 Member
    What worked? Do it some more!

    Every time I allow even the slightest increase of carbs into my food I put on weight even though I keep my calorie count the same and double my exercise.

    Do you remember Pippa Middleton and that dress she wore at her sister's wedding? It is said that it is all down to Dukan!
  • MKEgal
    MKEgal Posts: 3,250 Member
    maxpow99 wrote:
    You might not be eating enough calories, putting the body into a "starvation mode" causing you to hold onto extra calories.
    No.
    There is such a thing as starvation mode, but it takes a lot to get there... long-term VLCD.

    That leads to the body using up its carb stores (which are the first source of energy), using up its fat stores (which are the second source of energy), and starting to use protein (muscle) for energy (which is a distant third, because it's inefficient AND can lead to death when the heart & diaphragm can't work).

    You will NOT "hold onto extra calories". Your body needs calories to run. It will use whatever energy it has available.

    51637601.png
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    So you could eat say 50 grams extra of carbs, not even extra calories, and gain a few pounds of weight.

    Let's see, how to make 50 grams eaten (0.11 lb) = say 2 lbs of scale weight.

    Ya, that's something really to be concerned with, obviously it's water weight, because even if all those carbs was converted to fat (impossible in a diet, and eating low carb), it's even going to be a tad less than 50 grams since some mass is used up in the process to fuel it.

    So even you didn't follow your advice, do it some more - but you doubled your exercise to take care of water weight?

    Guess what the easiest and first improvement from exercise is?
    Store more water.
  • SnuggleSmacks
    SnuggleSmacks Posts: 3,731 Member
    edited December 2014
    nicswieghtloss wrote: »
    Ok, day 3 and I have gained again. WTF? The first day I had 1350 cal and gained 1lb. The next day I had just below 1200 calories and worked out and was up .6lb. Yesterday I worked out and had 1280 calories. In the middle of the night I couldn't sleep because I was so hungry so I had some flax crackers bringing me to a total of 1420 calories and I was up again another .6lbs.

    I am eating clean. Pretty low sodium.

    Anyone else experience this sort of weight gain when starting calorie counting?

    You're taking the scale number way too seriously. You can easily gain and lose 10+ lbs of nothing but water very quickly, due to various factors such as monthly hormonal fluctuations, fluctuations in sodium consumption, and muscle repair after increased activity.

    Look at it this way: A pound of fat is 3500 calories. In order to gain a pound of fat, you would need to eat 3500 calories OVER MAINTENANCE. This is very unlikely for you to have done in a day or two. It takes usually a week or two of consistent overeating to gain a real pound.

    Water weight will fool you, as has already been stated in previous posts. Don't let water discourage you. Stop weighing yourself every day, as it's obviously freaking you out. Weigh yourself once every week or two, in the morning after you use the bathroom but before you eat or drink anything, preferably naked or in just your underwear.

    Meanwhile, take your measurements, as they are a much better indicator of your progress. Two people can weigh exactly the same and have vastly different shapes because of body composition...130 lbs at 30% bodyfat looks very different from 130 lbs at 20% bodyfat.

    Also, take progress photos from the front, back and sides once a month so you can compare. It can be very difficult to see progress in the mirror, but you'll be very glad you kept a record when you get a few months down the road and can see with your eyes how far you've come by putting the pictures next to each other.

  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    nicswieghtloss wrote: »
    Well after another day of gaining yet another pound after eating 1500 calories I threw out my scale out of sheer frustration. Yesterday without the scale I ate 1180 calories. I think seeing the number on the scale was giving me anxiety and making me want to eat more. From now on I'm going to go by my clothes and keep to around 1200-1300 calories a day, eating healthy and doing my Leslie Sansone walking dvd's 4x per week. I hope to see some improvement in the coming months as this 30+ weight gain on my 5'2" frame is a lot.

    How accurate is your food logging?

    You weigh all foods that go in your mouth?
    Calories is per gram, not cups or spoonfuls.

    Also, since you are short, you have much less room for movement between reasonable and just creating extra stress for your body, which will just add to water weight and body adapting.

    For someone with 2500 daily maintenance with easy exercise, 500 deficit is 20% and easy to eat 2000 still.
    If yours is 1750 maintenance, then 20% is only 350, and 1400 may even feel very small.
    So 250 cal deficit may be better.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
    MKEgal wrote: »
    maxpow99 wrote:
    You might not be eating enough calories, putting the body into a "starvation mode" causing you to hold onto extra calories.
    No.
    There is such a thing as starvation mode, but it takes a lot to get there... long-term VLCD.

    That leads to the body using up its carb stores (which are the first source of energy), using up its fat stores (which are the second source of energy), and starting to use protein (muscle) for energy (which is a distant third, because it's inefficient AND can lead to death when the heart & diaphragm can't work).

    You will NOT "hold onto extra calories". Your body needs calories to run. It will use whatever energy it has available.

    51637601.png

    Where do you find that carb is first source of energy, and fat is second?

    In terms of what is used as % of fuel through the day, you'll find that fat far outstretches carbs. You'd have to get up to about mid-aerobic level exercising for carbs to finally surpass fat as fuel source, until that time, fat is used more.

    Or are you doing the math with those facts differently to get your comments.

    Agree that the effect that goes with starving from not eating does not apply to starvation mode from body adapting.
    But you should see some more recent studies where even a 25% deficit causes the mode, not VLCD only is required.
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