Dieting and exercising hard everyday. Gained 5 pounds and still gaining!

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FatPixiee
FatPixiee Posts: 59 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Yes. So I am stressing out because I have been dieting much harder this past week and for some reason I have suddenly gone from 227.6 to 232.8! >_< I am, needless to say, not happy about this and am very curious as to why this is happening. I am eating 1000-1500 per day, some days maybe slightly less. I do 2-3 hours of cardio in addition to 30 minutes of strength training. I was only doing 20 min to an hour of walking, and eating approx 1500 per day until this past week. So why is making everything more intense, working out harder and longer, and eating less making me gain all this weight? Is this a normal thing for some people when starting a new diet?
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Replies

  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    If you open your diary, you may get some helpful advice.
  • chcoley
    chcoley Posts: 63 Member
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    You're starving yourself! You can't workout that much and eat that little.
  • juggernaut1974
    juggernaut1974 Posts: 6,212 Member
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    1 week? Way too soon to be reading anything into results - either positively or negatively.
  • sofaking6
    sofaking6 Posts: 4,589 Member
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    Adding more intense exercise, especially strength training but anything that really challenges your muscles, can cause water retention at first.

    Were you losing weight before? What caused you to make such a drastic change?
  • 33Freya
    33Freya Posts: 468 Member
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    FatPixiee wrote: »
    Yes. So I am stressing out because I have been dieting much harder this past week and for some reason I have suddenly gone from 227.6 to 232.8! >_< I am, needless to say, not happy about this and am very curious as to why this is happening. I am eating 1000-1500 per day, some days maybe slightly less. I do 2-3 hours of cardio in addition to 30 minutes of strength training. I was only doing 20 min to an hour of walking, and eating approx 1500 per day until this past week. So why is making everything more intense, working out harder and longer, and eating less making me gain all this weight? Is this a normal thing for some people when starting a new diet?

    Weight loss is like stuffing a pipe. You have to keep pushing more into it, and eventually the result will come out the other side. keep going. your weight will fluctuate up and down (I gain and lose 5lbs every month with my cycle). You just need to look at the long term gains and losses, and that takes time. Keep at it. Create fitness goals and shoot for those. Note your Non-Scale Victories... Just keep going.
  • soldiergrl_101
    soldiergrl_101 Posts: 2,206 Member
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    Open your diart
  • lemonsnowdrop
    lemonsnowdrop Posts: 1,298 Member
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    Are you weighing your food? Are you eating back exercise calories? How do you calculate your burns? You could be retaining water from a new workout regime, you may be retaining due to sodium, or may just need to be patient.
  • 1princesswarrior
    1princesswarrior Posts: 1,242 Member
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    Are you weighing and measuring all of your food? How are you tracking your exercise calories?

    A common mistake is to underestimate food intake and overestimate calorie burn. Also increasing intensity in exercise will cause water weight gain. Give it a month, tighten up on your food tracking, eat back 50-75% of your exercise calories and re-evaluate. Another suggestion is to take measurements every two weeks or so with a tape measure, that may be a better way to track right now.
  • fightforfit13
    fightforfit13 Posts: 4 Member
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    Your probably not eating enough calories. If you don't eat enough your body goes into starvation mode and holds on to what it can. 2-3 hours of cardio a day is crazy. Look up HIIT training. Spend 15-25 mins doing HIIT with your 20 mins of strength training while increasing your calories and I bet you'll see some results and probably feel better at the same time.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,730 Member
    edited July 2015
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    New intense exercise = water retention for muscle repair. Stress = weight gain due to hormones.

    If no food changed... ride it out to 3 weeks or until your muscles are not hurting.

    What made you change from 20 min walks to 3 hours? Is that per day?

    You are fuelling 3 hours of exercise a day on 1500 Cal?

    OK. You will succeed in making your body more efficient at surviving on less calories. Saves on food cost long term, I guess...
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
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    fightforfit13 wrote: »
    Your probably not eating enough calories. If you don't eat enough your body goes into starvation mode and holds on to what it can. 2-3 hours of cardio a day is crazy. Look up HIIT training. Spend 15-25 mins doing HIIT with your 20 mins of strength training while increasing your calories and I bet you'll see some results and probably feel better at the same time.

    Nope. Starvation Mode, as you are describing it here, is a myth.

    OP it is likely water retention from increased exercise program.

    Also +1 on a week is too soon to panic or even really see results.

    PS - lose the word "dieting". Especially Dieting Hard. What does that even mean?

  • betuel75
    betuel75 Posts: 776 Member
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    fightforfit13 wrote: »
    Your probably not eating enough calories. If you don't eat enough your body goes into starvation mode and holds on to what it can. 2-3 hours of cardio a day is crazy. Look up HIIT training. Spend 15-25 mins doing HIIT with your 20 mins of strength training while increasing your calories and I bet you'll see some results and probably feel better at the same time.

    This is NOT true, there is no starvation mode.
  • lemonsnowdrop
    lemonsnowdrop Posts: 1,298 Member
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    fightforfit13 wrote: »
    Your probably not eating enough calories. If you don't eat enough your body goes into starvation mode and holds on to what it can. 2-3 hours of cardio a day is crazy. Look up HIIT training. Spend 15-25 mins doing HIIT with your 20 mins of strength training while increasing your calories and I bet you'll see some results and probably feel better at the same time.

    -inhales deeply-

    NNNNnnnnnoooooOOOOOOooo
  • MamaBirdBoss
    MamaBirdBoss Posts: 1,516 Member
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    You're probably getting water gain in your muscles from the new exercise. If so, it will go down soon. Open your diary, though, to see if you're making mistakes there.
  • atypicalsmith
    atypicalsmith Posts: 2,742 Member
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    Took me six weeks before the pounds started to drop. Have patience.
  • brianpperkins
    brianpperkins Posts: 6,124 Member
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    fightforfit13 wrote: »
    Your probably not eating enough calories. If you don't eat enough your body goes into starvation mode and holds on to what it can. 2-3 hours of cardio a day is crazy. Look up HIIT training. Spend 15-25 mins doing HIIT with your 20 mins of strength training while increasing your calories and I bet you'll see some results and probably feel better at the same time.

    You are misinformed ... stop spreading your misinformation.
  • atypicalsmith
    atypicalsmith Posts: 2,742 Member
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    fightforfit13 wrote: »
    Your probably not eating enough calories. If you don't eat enough your body goes into starvation mode and holds on to what it can. 2-3 hours of cardio a day is crazy. Look up HIIT training. Spend 15-25 mins doing HIIT with your 20 mins of strength training while increasing your calories and I bet you'll see some results and probably feel better at the same time.

    How did I miss this? Do NOT DO THIS, as others have advised. What a bunch of crock!
  • GiGiBeans
    GiGiBeans Posts: 1,062 Member
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    You're not kidding you're stressed. You're giving your body less fuel & demanding a lot more from it. Unless you are close to goal weight this intensity has no where to go - are you going to do 5 hrs of cardio a day? Go back to eating 1500 and start doing some interval training. If you prefer walking then walk and add a minute of running into the mix or a few sprints. Or do interval training on a machine. Keep up the strength training.

    It's better to change one thing at a time instead of dropping cals and adding lots of exercise - not only is it less stressful but if you make a lot of changes you won't know which is working and which is a waste of time.

  • AliceDark
    AliceDark Posts: 3,886 Member
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    Nobody has an actual real weight number. You have a weight range. Your weight fluctuates on a daily (sometimes hourly) basis in response to about a zillion different factors (like water retention from salt or new exercise, the weight of the actual food in your digestive tract, etc.). The only way to figure out your normal range is to record your weight on a regular basis (daily, weekly, 2-3x per week -- that part doesn't matter, as long as you're consistent) and observe the trend. You may have gained weight, or you may just have recorded the first weight at the low end of your range and now you're seeing the high end. After just one week and two recorded data points, you don't have enough information to have any idea what's going on yet.

    Eat a consistent number of calories, exercise a reasonable amount (i.e., NOT 3 hours of cardio a day, because that's crazytown), record regular weight data and be patient. If after 4-6 weeks you don't like the results, reassess. Lather, rinse, repeat.

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