I have been eating healthy and Gained 6 pounds Please help

So i have been eating 1440 Calories That's what MFP tells me to eat to lose 2 pounds a week I went and weighed myself yesterday and I weigh 223 and i was 217 2 weeks ago I measure my Food with Measuring cups And i walk and burn off 300 calories a day I need help figuring out should i be exercising more or eating less? Because i am doing something wrong And my Stats are I am a Female 5'3 223 And my BMR is 1,736 - 1800 different websites say different numbers any help or suggestions will be appreciated thanks
«134

Replies

  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
    Use a food scale instead of measuring cups. That will help you get into the loss column.
  • LeanButNotMean44
    LeanButNotMean44 Posts: 852 Member
    Get a food scale and WEIGH all solids. Measuring them is not accurate - every calorie counts!
  • michelleselmon
    michelleselmon Posts: 90 Member
    thank you so much Ladies I appreciate the help I will deff get a food scale
  • sheldonklein
    sheldonklein Posts: 854 Member
    You aren't eating 1440 calories or anything close to it. Get a digital scale and be as precise and honest as possible in tracking your intake. A calorie target is meaningless if you are not accurately tracking your calories. And BMR is irrelevant.
  • NikkyT30
    NikkyT30 Posts: 91 Member
    First piece of advice ...... Ditch the measuring cups! They are not accurate. You need a food scale to know for sure how much your eating. Also make sure you are drinking plenty of water. Too much sodium could be an issue and you retaining water that way. Also maybe you should change your stats to 1 or 1.5 lbs of weight loss a week. Your body may need more fuel. I hope this helps. Good luck to you. :)
  • michelleselmon
    michelleselmon Posts: 90 Member
    I will start eating more and get a Digital Food scale thanks everyone for all the help I felt like Quitting when i saw that i gained more weight I have no energy and It's hard i feel like i will never reach my goals! But i am going to keep pushing forward Thanks again for all your help everyone :)
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
    2 weeks could be water weight gain. I agree to get a food scale to improve accuracy, but I'd also say not to panic just yet.
  • sheermomentum
    sheermomentum Posts: 827 Member
    If your scale says you've gained 6 pounds in two weeks, then its most likely 1. water weight, 2. different clothes, or 3. a different scale. If you can rule out 2 and 3, that leaves just number 1. Getting a food scale (preferably digital) is a good idea, but don't freak out either. Its highly unlikely that you've gained 6 pounds of fat while counting calories, even with measuring cups. You'd have to have eaten 1500 calories per day more than you burned. So unless you've been eating alot of sweets that you haven't mentioned, or something, keep going, and check back with the scale in a couple more weeks.
  • karyabc
    karyabc Posts: 830 Member
    Another one here for the food scale. And yes please keep in mind that you can eat veryyyy healthy and if you are not in a deficit, you will not lose or even gain if you are eating more than you think.

  • stevencloser
    stevencloser Posts: 8,911 Member
    +1 on the food scale advice.

    Are you eating back your exercise calories? Cause those are usually too high estimated.

    And also in 2 weeks it's unlikely you gained 6 pounds of fat, so it's mostly if not all water weight.
  • stevencloser
    stevencloser Posts: 8,911 Member
    I will start eating more and get a Digital Food scale thanks everyone for all the help I felt like Quitting when i saw that i gained more weight I have no energy and It's hard i feel like i will never reach my goals! But i am going to keep pushing forward Thanks again for all your help everyone :)

    Eating more isn't going to help against a problem caused by eating too much.
  • jkal1979
    jkal1979 Posts: 1,896 Member
    I'm glad to hear that you are going to get a food scale. They can be a real eye opener.

    Are you due for your period soon? That can also play a big role in water weight gain.
  • michelleselmon
    michelleselmon Posts: 90 Member
    I will start eating more and get a Digital Food scale thanks everyone for all the help I felt like Quitting when i saw that i gained more weight I have no energy and It's hard i feel like i will never reach my goals! But i am going to keep pushing forward Thanks again for all your help everyone :)

    Eating more isn't going to help against a problem caused by eating too much.

    I sometimes do eat back the exercise calories because I am so hungry but I am trying to not do that I am worried about eating below my BMR So that's why i eat them back too
  • michelleselmon
    michelleselmon Posts: 90 Member
    jkal1979 wrote: »
    I'm glad to hear that you are going to get a food scale. They can be a real eye opener.

    Are you due for your period soon? That can also play a big role in water weight gain.

    I had just gotten off it when i Weighed myself and I was in shock that i had gained i used a scale at Walmart where you sit down I'm not even sure if that scale was Accurate it was in the pharmacy Thanks again for your help :)
  • gemdiver00
    gemdiver00 Posts: 77 Member
    Log everything that goes into your mouth. I logged in half of a grilled cheese sandwich AND the 3 tater tots I ate
  • dmt4641
    dmt4641 Posts: 409 Member
    If you are weighing yourself at Walmart and the pharmacy, that could be your problem. You aren't using consistent scales at consistent time of day with the same clothes. Scales can be off by 5 lbs from each other. I weigh 2 lbs more at the end of the day than when I first wake up.

    Get a scale at home and weigh yourself in the morning right after using the restroom with the same clothes (or lack of clothes) on.
  • michelleselmon
    michelleselmon Posts: 90 Member
    dmt4641 wrote: »
    If you are weighing yourself at Walmart and the pharmacy, that could be your problem. You aren't using consistent scales at consistent time of day with the same clothes. Scales can be off by 5 lbs from each other. I weigh 2 lbs more at the end of the day than when I first wake up.

    Get a scale at home and weigh yourself in the morning right after using the restroom with the same clothes (or lack of clothes) on.

    Your Right I do think thats my problem I just dont see how i gained that much eating healthy and burning 300 a day when my Husband weighed himself he had lost weight so I actually believed i gained that much Thanks again for all your help :)
  • michelleselmon
    michelleselmon Posts: 90 Member
    gemdiver00 wrote: »
    Log everything that goes into your mouth. I logged in half of a grilled cheese sandwich AND the 3 tater tots I ate

    I am logging everything i am eating Thank you so much :)
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,393 Member
    edited August 2015
    You cannot compare across scales. That is a recipe for disaster.
    You cannot compare dressed vs not dressed. And at different times of the day. That is a recipe for disaster too!

    While you are shopping for a within budget kitchen scale... try and get a person scale too.

    Honestly it doesn't even matter if it is accurate (it would matter to me; but in reality it doesn't) as long as it can record your weight change over time.

    Picking a scale is a long discussion (Because people freak when the scale shows them three different numbers within three minutes, scales just lie these days and show you the same number until they detect a large enough, as defined by the manufacturer, change of weight. They do that in order to convince you that they are very consistent... while in actual fact they aren't).

    I have no insight on how to pick one that doesn't do this all the time. When I did find one eventually that doesn't do it all the time, I just called it a day in desperation and shelled the ca$h. The Fitbit Aria's first 2-3 weight ins are real and only after the 3rd time you weight yourself does it go into fake consistency mode; but it is solidly overpriced for what it is, and the wi-fi setup could not suck worse if a committee of imbeciles had deliberately tried to make it as sucky as possible -- unless you luck out and the sub-par POS cheap wi-fi chipset they used happens to be compatible with your router and other devices, which is far from a universal happening!)

    Anyway. Pick a scale. Make sure it has fresh batteries. Place it on an un-yielding piece of floor. Avoid moving it around without recalibrating. By preference weight yourself on that same spot day in and day out!

    Weight yourself in the morning after you used the bathroom, nakid, or as close to it as you can get, and before eating or drinking anything. A small glass of water weighs half a lb.

    After you've done all that, enter your weight into an web site/application such as www.weightgrapher.com or www.trendweight.com (can integrate to MFP through a free fitbit account even if you don't have one of the supported scales), or LIBRA on Android, or Happy Scale on iPhone.

    All of them produce a trendline of your weight, a trendline that allows you to focus on your longer term progress without freaking out about daily variabilities in water weight which can be substantial and are caused by things such as sodium, exercise, excess food in the gi tract, monthly hormonal shifts, and other random events in this universe. Such variabilities have been known to reach 5+lbs for some individuals (as compared to a daily weigh change that could be as little as 0.2lbs)

    Of course the advice you received re: weighting your food is absolutely solid and will make a big difference too.... but a 6lb gain while watching what you've been eating smacks of measurement error, not just of gaining weight because of cup measuring errors... well, not unless you eat a lot of peanut butter ;-)