Exercising and eating right, but gaining weight

maccabee72
maccabee72 Posts: 6
edited November 12 in Health and Weight Loss
I am a 42 year old male that started on a fitness program about 6 weeks ago. I started using MyFitnessPal to track Calories in the last few weeks. I consume about 2000 calories a day. I try to eat a healthy balanced, but high protein diet, and work out daily. My workouts usually consist of 45 minutes of weight training and 30-40 minutes of cardio for roughly 600 - 800 calories burned daily per the exercise diary. I usually take one off day. I lost 8 pounds the first four weeks, but have somehow put on 3 pounds this past week. I started at 192 and was back up to 187 this week. Any ideas why I am not losing more. Do I need to lower my Calorie intake? I appreciate any help!

Replies

  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    Weight loss is not linear. There will always be weeks where you don't lose or gain, especially if you consume more sodium than usual.

    That being said, don't trust the database for calorie burns. If you're eating back exercise calories, only go for 50-75% maximum as they can easily be overestimated, as your numbers seem to be. Another option is to invest in a HRM to give you a better guess as to what you burn during steady state cardio.
  • farway
    farway Posts: 1,264 Member
    edited February 2015
    Are you weighing food or using volume such as "cups" "large apple" one portion" etc ?

    If not weighing food I suggest you do
  • maccabee72
    maccabee72 Posts: 6
    Yes, I am absolutely weighing and measuring everything. I am putting a lot of trust, in the program. Visually, I am noticing increased definition in muscle, but I am trying to stick to more reps and less weight on weight training, although I did increase weight and decrease reps this past week. I feel like my calories and balance are right on, but am not seeing the Progress I'd like. I'd like to throw in that I also do a green tea in the morning and 20+ cups of water throughout the day. I do not drink anything else.
  • maccabee72
    maccabee72 Posts: 6
    I blow off one day a week. Usually Saturday, where I take in about 3,100 calories and do light cardio for about 250 calories. Is that enough to throw off my week by 3lbs?
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    Is Sunday your weigh-in day? Then it's most likely water weight from excess sodium/carbs.
  • vismal
    vismal Posts: 2,463 Member
    It's 1 week, it's not necessarily meaningful. The way I look at it, your down 5 lbs in 5 weeks. That's a good downward trend. Here's a tip for weighing yourself to make the numbers on the scale more meaningful:
    Stop concerning yourself with day to day weigh ins. They are meaningless. A million and one things affect day to day weigh ins (sodium, hydration, food in stomach, timing of last bowel movement, etc). A good technique is to weigh daily at the same time each day and record the result. At the end of the week, average the results. At the end of the month, compare the averages. There should be a downward trend (not necessarily a linear drop). If after 4 weeks or more you are consistently maintaining or gaining, consider reducing calories.

    Also, are you eating back those exercise calories?
  • Kazne
    Kazne Posts: 1 Member
    Don't forget that your putting on muscle as weight.instead of a weight scale you might want to buy a fat caliper and gauge your progress that way
  • germywormie
    germywormie Posts: 1
    Hi, I know everyone says that weight fluctuates, and that is true for me as well when I'm in "maintenance mode", but personally when I'm actively trying to lose weight, my weight always decreases steadily if I'm doing everything right. If I gain weight during "weight loss mode", it's because I've done something wrong like eaten a big indulgence meal, skipped out on workouts, or gotten less sleep.

    You sound like you've been drinking enough water, so I don't think water retention is the issue here (unless you've been consuming loads of sodium). I don't think it's muscle weight either, as you'd have to be working out and consuming a LOT to gain 2-3 pounds of muscle in 1 week. It's probably that you've been consuming more calories than you should, eating the wrong kinds of food, or not getting enough sleep.

    Try increasing the amount of vegetables and fruits in your diet - loads of veggies like spinach and broccoli have high amounts of protein as well. They also (a) help fill you up; (b) have a negative-calorie effect; (c) increase nutrient intake which is good for health in general (and since your body has more nutrients it will naturally drop unhealthy excess weight more easily); and (d) help flush your bowels out.

    Other things that work well for me are (a) taking a probiotic in the morning; (b) drinking oolong tea; (c) adding chia seeds to my food / water; and (d) just sleeping more in general.
  • silentKayak
    silentKayak Posts: 658 Member
    Use an app like HappyScale to track your weight daily. Ignore your "measured weights" and pay attention to the "predicted weight", which smooths out fluctuation over time. You're not gaining, you're losing. Keep up the good work!
  • maccabee72
    maccabee72 Posts: 6
    Malibu..Saturday is my weigh in day and it is upon waking up. It's the only day I weigh all week. According, to MyFitnessPal, I never exceed sodium intake. In fact, the only number I have consistently surpassed is protein by about 40g a day. My carbs have been higher than I'd like due to increasing quinoa as my carb go to. I'm trying not to concern myself with weight, but have set a weight goal. Should I reassess my goals. I'm feeling great, I'm motivated, but am getting discouraged due to the hard work I'm putting in, and the lack of progress toward my goals. Germy...I have worked more Veggies and fruits in my diet. Raspberries are my go to fiber staple and I am near addicted to broccoli, spinach, and kale. I stick to lean proteins only such as chicken, tuna, talapia, and salmon . I am getting between 6 - 8 hours of good sleep a night. Honestly, this is the healthiest overall lifestyle I've consistently lived in my life. I'm not sure if it is initial shock or if I'm doing something wrong, but after 6 weeks, I was expecting much better results.
  • maccabee72
    maccabee72 Posts: 6
    edited February 2015
    I also want to add, this is a great community. Thank you so much for the input! I'm super happy I have made MyFitnessPal a guide in this journey....Also, can someone recommend a good HRM they like that may be beneficial for me?
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    edited February 2015
    maccabee72 wrote: »
    Yes, I am absolutely weighing and measuring everything. I am putting a lot of trust, in the program. Visually, I am noticing increased definition in muscle, but I am trying to stick to more reps and less weight on weight training, although I did increase weight and decrease reps this past week. I feel like my calories and balance are right on, but am not seeing the Progress I'd like. I'd like to throw in that I also do a green tea in the morning and 20+ cups of water throughout the day. I do not drink anything else.

    That's great, means your body fat is reducing. Progressive weight training is your friend whilst eating at a calorie defecit so try the reverse ...more weight, fewer reps.

    maccabee72 wrote: »
    I blow off one day a week. Usually Saturday, where I take in about 3,100 calories and do light cardio for about 250 calories. Is that enough to throw off my week by 3lbs?

    Look at your calories as a weekly average - if your defecit is your goal defecit then fine. If this "blow off day" isn't calorie counted then you don't know what your defecit is. Although I agree that 5lb over 5 weeks is good and you shouldn't worry about a single week
    Kazne wrote: »
    Don't forget that your putting on muscle as weight.instead of a weight scale you might want to buy a fat caliper and gauge your progress that way

    One simply doesn't put on muscle in a defecit (except for newbie gains)
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