Am I not eating enough?

ajnesbitt07 · May 2011

I apologize for anyone sick of seeing these topics, but I'm feeling really stuck right now!

MFP set my calorie goal for 1200 calories. I am a waitress/bartender 4 days a week, and 2 days I'm also a manager there, so I'm still on my feet the whole time, but not running back and forth nearly as much as I would serving or bartending.

I'm 5'5" 188-189lbs. I was an athlete in high school and college, but since getting married and having my daughter (who's now 2), I'm not nearly as active as I used to be.

I log everything I eat. I exercise (mostly cardio-ex. elliptical, cybex, bike, zumba, body jam, etc) to burn about 400-500 calories per day. I was at the gym today, not yesterday, but weds, thurs, and friday I was there as well. I have been coming in about 100-200 calories under per day after I factor in everything I ate and all the exercising I did. I'm usually overboard on protein.

I got on the scale today to discover I've gained about 1.5lbs in the past week.

What gives?

Thanks in advance for any advice/help you can give me!

Atlantique · May 2011

What did you choose for your activity level? Maybe it's set too low?

Here are a few things that can make the scale jump up unexpectedly:

-Excessive sodium. If you had more processed and/or restaurant food than you normally do over the last few days, that can cause a temporary spike of water weight

-Sudden increase in carbs. Carbs will make you retain more water, too.

-Increase in alcohol consumption.

-Ramping up the exercise. Your muscles store glycogen and water when you start using them more, so again, you can sometimes see a small water weight gain spike.

-Starting to 'eyeball' your food instead of measuring it. As you've been here a few months, maybe you have started to eyeball some things?

-Women often have a temporary water spike once a month.

biznurse · May 2011

I KNOW better, but I was eating 900-100 cal NET daily, and I gained weight. I upped my cals and the weight started dropping!!

dexters_dexterity · May 2011

its my second day but i ate my normal food as i usually eat and it was under my cal requirement, im hesitating to eat more, if ill eat more than i usually do ill gain instead of losing and i dont believe in fad diets i have always been eating healthy. yesterday it was around 1100 and today i consiciously tried to make it around 1400 which is even less than my requirement 1550 and i burnt 150 cals on treadmill. i hope u r getting wht i m saying!

leomom72 · May 2011

i found upping your cals has helped me..what i did was googled " how much should i weigh" and there are about 100 sites with that info..of course, you must put in your weight and all that, but what i did was i picked 5 or 6, and averaged them together..it ranged from 1400-2800 cals a day, but i have really found this helps..best of luck

biznurse · May 2011

You bring up a good point Leomom..... How you feel and the size you wear is as important as focusing on the scales. i LIMIT my weigh inm's now and find I do much better!

ajnesbitt07 · May 2011

Thank you everyone for your input!

I fell off the weight loss wagon for a few months with every excuse in the world as to why I couldn't make it to the gym or why fast food was okay 3-4 times per week. I did just start going back to the gym last week, so I was expecting a drop in weight, not a gain, but I think I do need to up my caloric intake. I think I underestimated how many calories I burn at work (6 days/week).

I'm going to try uping my calories this week and see what the results are!

Thanks again!

dexters_dexterity · May 2011

may be u r gaining muscle weight which is good coz more muscle increases metabolic rate and in turn u lose more cals during excericise and even ur daily basis chores.

and u have already lost 19 lbs which is good number i have to lose 22 lbs and i have just started wish me luck

Am I not eating enough?

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