Weight only going up. I be puzzled!

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Somanyquestions
Somanyquestions Posts: 6 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
Hello guys and girls,

I'm rather new here so here's a short introduction.
I'm a very short guy (155cm) and feel best at around 48kg. Two weeks ago I reached this weight, so I upped my calories to maintenance. In two weeks, during the week, I ate about 200 calories below maintenance and then on a saturday I eat around 3000. I would say that evens out things quite a bit. I jog about 2-3 times a week, about 8km in a hilly landscape and do some mild strength training about 3 times a week for half an hour. Nothing over the top, but at least a few hours of exercise a week.

My weight seems to disagree with maintenance. I went from 48 to 50kg in two weeks. I am very very puzzled by this. I understand that you gain at least some weight in water after upping to maintenance, but 2 kilograms? I'm really disheartened by this, but am very tired of calorie counting and just wish to eat normally.

So my question is, is it normal to gain that much in just two weeks of maintenance, or is something else going on? Could it be my weight just spiking up for a couple of weeks due to the extra food, and it will eventually settle back down again?

And before anyone asks, yes I do weigh my food. I have not been eating an excess of 14000 calories in just two weeks....But still, the weight doesn't lie either. Consider me puzzled!

Replies

  • DaddieCat
    DaddieCat Posts: 3,643 Member
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    Where did you get your maintenance calories from? It seems like they might be too high. Is this from trial an error or a calculator?
  • Somanyquestions
    Somanyquestions Posts: 6 Member
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    A combination, really. Most calculators say I need about 1800 to maintain with my current activity level. This seems a little in concordance with the amount I need to lose as much as I did (around 1400-1500).
  • DaddieCat
    DaddieCat Posts: 3,643 Member
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    I would say give it about a month... maybe 6 weeks. If you find yourself gaining still, you might be slightly over maintenance and will need to adjust as needed. Calculators can only give estimates. When I'm switching to maintenance from a cut/loss period, I increase the calories slowly, 100-250 additional calories per week until I find that balancing point.
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    edited October 2015
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    14000 cals a week sounds pretty accurate.... I reckon your weight is fluctuating up briefly from that high calories day - perhaps it was high in sodium or carb heavy. I find if I have a high day then the scales reflect a gain but its temporary and disappears within 2 to 3 days.
    My maintenance cals are around 15000 weekly (5ft 2) and eating to that is working perfectly - some days I eat lower, other days higher, it all balances out.
  • Somanyquestions
    Somanyquestions Posts: 6 Member
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    Thank you both for the replies. 14000 cals a week is not what I'm eating. That's what I should have been eating -extra- in order to gain two whole kilograms

    In fact, I just did some calculations. In the last 6 weeks I have been eating on average 1600 calories a day. Still, I have gained 2kg in the last two weeks, in which I ate at maintenance. This means that in the month of dieting before maintenance, I have eaten on average less than 1600 (more like 1400-1500 calories a day), but apparently, I have not lost a single gram as eating at maintenance popped me right back, and over, my starting weight.

    I know I'm short and I can't eat the 2500 average calories suggested for a 'normal' guy. But I do exercise (both cardio and strength) so I'm not sedentary. Yet I seem to be gaining on an amount of calories that is suggested for short ladies....What gives?!

    Anyone has a clue what could be happening here? I already feel like I eat like a frigging mouse compared to others. I really don't want to be eating any less. It's really discouraging and I really do not know what to do.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
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    more then likely it is glycogen replenishment and it not "real" weight but water weight. Typically it is recommended that your should cut about five pounds below your actual target weight, because when you increase your calories this will lead to glycogen replenishing, which leads to about a five pound "gain"...
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
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    ndj1979 wrote: »
    more then likely it is glycogen replenishment and it not "real" weight but water weight. Typically it is recommended that your should cut about five pounds below your actual target weight, because when you increase your calories this will lead to glycogen replenishing, which leads to about a five pound "gain"...

    ^^ sound advice
  • MissJay75
    MissJay75 Posts: 768 Member
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    Trust the numbers. If they were working for you to lose, then add back your deficit, and they will work for you to maintain. Your head knows the truth, you didn't over eat by 14000 calories the past 2 weeks. That means the weight can only be water retention, it may or may not go back down. But what is a number on a scale? Can you see a difference in those 2 kg? Nope, because it's not fat.

    (You know how a bunch of new dieters eating at a calorie deficit set to lose 1 pound a week lose like 5 pounds the first week and get all excited? When you stop eating at a deficit the opposite effect happens).
  • Somanyquestions
    Somanyquestions Posts: 6 Member
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    Water retention or not, I am still puzzled by a 2kg gain. I mean, I ate at a deficit for over a month. So if my glycogen was restored to normal levels, I still should have ended up below my starting weight, right?

    And yes, I can see a difference of 2kg. I look a bit more squishy than I like...Meh, I don't understand any of this. And it just hurts to think that eating 1600 calories a day makes me gain weight. I already got a feeling I can't enjoy food because anything less than 1600 doesn't leave much room for indulgence such as social drinks or dinner parties.
  • MissJay75
    MissJay75 Posts: 768 Member
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    In general terms, whenever you eat at a deficit over time, your body will deplete glycogen stores from your muscles. You will pee extra, and lose weight when your body lets go of extra water. You will also lose weight from the calorie deficit.

    When you stop eating at a deficit, your body restores that glycogen, and you pee a little less for a few days, and you will gain weight in the form of water. The body keeps this water as long as you eat at maintenance. Hence the gain. It is a permanent water retention.

    Similarly if many people report when they start eating low carb, they see a larger weight loss than their calorie deficit explains. If they suddenly start eating carbs again, they gain that weight back. None of it was fat loss, just the body balancing water.

    Imagine you are holding a balloon filled with 4 pounds of water every time you weigh yourself. When you start your diet you get to empty that balloon. Did you really lose weight? Some, from eating less. But the water the balloon emptied isn't fat, it's just water. All through your diet, the balloon is mostly empty. Every time you weigh from here on out you get to see changes in the scale based on fat loss. Sometimes you have a day where you indulge and go over on your calories, or eat a lot of sodium. You might see the balloon fill back up a bit, and the scale reads a few pounds up for a couple days, then the balloon empties and the scale goes back down.

    Now you are ready to maintain. You stop eating at a deficit. The balloon fills back up again. You gain a few pounds. The balloon stays full, the water weight stays on.

    General disclaimer, this is oversimplified, and it's not exactly the same for everyone. Just trying to help OP visualize it.
  • Somanyquestions
    Somanyquestions Posts: 6 Member
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    Thank you for that explanation. I completely understand the whole water retention thing, though, as stated before. That is not the issue. The issue is that I gained -more- back. I weighed 49kg when I started and went back down to 48 (clearly water, but perhaps also some weight). I was happy with that weight and started eating at maintenance and then not gained back up to 49 (as you would expect if water wast just restored) but to 50. That is why I'm puzzled.
  • MissJay75
    MissJay75 Posts: 768 Member
    edited October 2015
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    Sorry, I seem to be misunderstanding. I was under the impression you had been losing steadily for some time and then hit maintenance. Let me see if I have it right now.

    You are 155 cm or about 5'1

    You started at 49 kg (108 pounds) . Ate at a deficit for 4 weeks, and reached your goal weight of 48 kg (105.5 pounds) ? Changed to maintenance, then gained 2 kg (4.4 pounds) over 2 weeks and now weigh 50 kg or (110 pounds) Correct?
  • Yi5hedr3
    Yi5hedr3 Posts: 2,696 Member
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    Never increase more than 75-100 cals at a time
  • rlovell456
    rlovell456 Posts: 6 Member
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    I can't tell you anything about your weight (other than to avoid obsession with the scale). I can only tell you what works for me - do your best to balance calorie intake with calories burned on a daily basis. It just doesn't seem to work any other way.
  • MissJay75
    MissJay75 Posts: 768 Member
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    It's hard to say what exactly happened over the past 6 weeks. Maybe you lost and gained, maybe that's normal fluctuation for you, and you never noticed before. Here's my suggestion moving forward.

    Use a calculator such as this one to find an accurate number for your TDEE http://iifym.com/iifym-calculator/

    Eat at a small deficit, say 250 calories less than your TDEE per day. Do this for many weeks. Track your weight using a weight trend app like http://www.trendweight.com.

    Continue tracking, weighting, measuring accurately. Do this for a couple months. When you have weighed 47 kg for at least 1 week, transition back to maintenance by upping your calories back to TDEE. If/when your body replaces glycogen stores it should put you around 48kg. Eat at TDEE calories for 1 month, and continue to track, log, and record your weight trend. If you gain or lose after 1 month, adjust your TDEE calories in the proper direction.

    If you like to 'save' calories for the weekend, you can adjust your daily goal something like this:
    eat 350 calories below TDEE on weekdays, and at TDEE on weekends.
  • Somanyquestions
    Somanyquestions Posts: 6 Member
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    That's indeed what happened MissJay75 :)
    That calculator is giving me about 1800 calories as a TDEE. I always assumed it was around that, and during the weightloss period, I ate about 1400-1600 calories, so I should have lost weight. I clearly didn't.

    Last year I went from 51 to about 47 kg in 6 months. Nice and slow. But due to fieldwork (I'm a biologist) and not being able to decide what I eat because it was a rather remote area, I gained a few kg that I wanted to get rid of. Hence I commenced another 'diet' in September. I didn't change much from last time, but the weight seems unhappy to come off now. It's odd how something that worked just fine before, is not working at all now, and even seems to backfire by adding an extra kg.

    It shall remain a mystery. Thank you for your insights, though!
  • MissJay75
    MissJay75 Posts: 768 Member
    edited October 2015
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    Definately mysterious. You may want to check with your physician, and see if there is anything health-wise that may explain the difference.

  • rankinsect
    rankinsect Posts: 2,238 Member
    edited October 2015
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    How sure are you of your starting weight - was that a one-day measurement or the average over several days/weeks?

    I ask because nobody has just one weight, we all have weight ranges that fluctuate up and down by about +/- 2.5 kg around our mean weight. That means your goal weight was within the normal margin of fluctuation of your weight, so it's really hard to say whether you've gained, lost, or maintained without taking a lot of readings before and after and looking at the difference between the mean weights (or if you want actual statistical accuracy, you'd do something like a t-test).

    Maybe your prior 49 was a "low day" (i.e. you were a bit dehydrated or a bit glycogen depleted) and your current 50 is a "high day" (i.e. retaining extra water).

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