Help! I'm gaining weight with diet and exercise!
lepeep717
Posts: 9 Member
I'm hoping to get advice on a problem I can't quite figure out myself. I've spent the last 7-8 weeks trying to lose weight through exercise and watching what I eat. In that time, I've experienced weight fluctuations of gain and loss. The most I've lost is 1.2 pounds below my starting weight and today I weigh 5 pounds more than the starting weight.
11/20 - 159.2
11/16 - 155.6
11/8 - 157.2
10/25 - 158.0
10/18 - 152.6
10/12 - 155.4
10/4 - 154.2
9/20 - 153.8
The tough thing is, it might take a week to lose 2 pounds, but then it will take 1-3 days and all of it comes back - and I'm not binge eating! I'm eating more or less the same things - keeping a food diary, and exercising 2-3 times per week. For the last week I've eliminated wheat, dairy, and sugar. I seriously thought no sugar would help but I'm baffled by the scale this morning showing a 2 pound weight gain in just 1 day.
The only thing I can think is water weight but I'm not sure how to tell. The only other culprit I can think of is a hormonal imbalance - I have a fibroid (it's a very common benign tumor in the uterus that up to 50% of women get). The presence of the fibroid most likely means I have excess estrogen in my body - I'm doing as much as I can to lower estrogen (eating only organic, no dairy or sugar, taking supplements).
Does anyone know what could cause a difficulty in losing weight? Should I go to a doctor and ask to be tested for anything specific?
11/20 - 159.2
11/16 - 155.6
11/8 - 157.2
10/25 - 158.0
10/18 - 152.6
10/12 - 155.4
10/4 - 154.2
9/20 - 153.8
The tough thing is, it might take a week to lose 2 pounds, but then it will take 1-3 days and all of it comes back - and I'm not binge eating! I'm eating more or less the same things - keeping a food diary, and exercising 2-3 times per week. For the last week I've eliminated wheat, dairy, and sugar. I seriously thought no sugar would help but I'm baffled by the scale this morning showing a 2 pound weight gain in just 1 day.
The only thing I can think is water weight but I'm not sure how to tell. The only other culprit I can think of is a hormonal imbalance - I have a fibroid (it's a very common benign tumor in the uterus that up to 50% of women get). The presence of the fibroid most likely means I have excess estrogen in my body - I'm doing as much as I can to lower estrogen (eating only organic, no dairy or sugar, taking supplements).
Does anyone know what could cause a difficulty in losing weight? Should I go to a doctor and ask to be tested for anything specific?
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Replies
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What's your planned calorie deficit, and are you weighing your foods to get your portions close to exact?
Frankly, it doesn't matter if you give up dairy or wheat or sugar, it matters if you give up total daily calories. You could lose weight on fast food cheeseburgers if you kept your calorie intake at the proper levels.0 -
Hi, Do you use a food scale? It makes a huge difference. I was guessing portion sizes and was over estimating. If you are using a scale then it could be water retention.
What is you height and how many calories do you consume a day? This will help as well with answering your question.
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As long as you are not at the bottom of your calorie allowance try cutting your target by 100 calories a day. Take alternate rest days off on your exercise. Try this for a month and see what happens.0
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Research into this subject has time and time again shown that we underestimate calories by a median of 30%. Very much human nature.
When our tracking methods report a deficit, but we gain weight it indicates we have a problem with our tracking methods. We are prone to mistakes.
One consensus on the MFP forum is that using a food scale is the best way to help correct ourselves and reduce reporting errors. This is supported by the research. Grams or ounces (weight) is more accurate than measuring cups, and absolutely more accurate than eyeballing it.
The second thing is missing things, such as the butter we put on our potato, or that mini Snickers we grabbed. We have to evaluate ourselves without judgement (because we're all guilty of this).
The third thing is to check our entries. Are we using the correct information? The database is crowd sourced and there are a lot of incorrect entries. Try verifying with the USDA Nutrient Database, or nutritiondata.self.com.
Finally, exercise is great for our overall health, but it does not help us lose weight as well as our eating habits. Exercise calorie burns are vastly overestimated in this database and on most exercise equipment. Heart rate monitors are more correct. Ultimately, focus on the eating habits and reporting more for weight loss.
Reevaluate, change the methods, reassess in 2 weeks.
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Thank you all for the advice. No, I don't use a food scale but I'm going to get one right away and try to be as accurate as possible recording calories and portion sizes.0
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If you're gaining weight, you need to eat fewer calories, exercise more or both.0
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Derf_Smeggle wrote: »Research into this subject has time and time again shown that we underestimate calories by a median of 30%. Very much human nature.
When our tracking methods report a deficit, but we gain weight it indicates we have a problem with our tracking methods. We are prone to mistakes.
One consensus on the MFP forum is that using a food scale is the best way to help correct ourselves and reduce reporting errors. This is supported by the research. Grams or ounces (weight) is more accurate than measuring cups, and absolutely more accurate than eyeballing it.
The second thing is missing things, such as the butter we put on our potato, or that mini Snickers we grabbed. We have to evaluate ourselves without judgement (because we're all guilty of this).
The third thing is to check our entries. Are we using the correct information? The database is crowd sourced and there are a lot of incorrect entries. Try verifying with the USDA Nutrient Database, or nutritiondata.self.com.
Finally, exercise is great for our overall health, but it does not help us lose weight as well as our eating habits. Exercise calorie burns are vastly overestimated in this database and on most exercise equipment. Heart rate monitors are more correct. Ultimately, focus on the eating habits and reporting more for weight loss.
Reevaluate, change the methods, reassess in 2 weeks.
Good post!0 -
I'm hoping to get advice on a problem I can't quite figure out myself. I've spent the last 7-8 weeks trying to lose weight through exercise and watching what I eat. In that time, I've experienced weight fluctuations of gain and loss. The most I've lost is 1.2 pounds below my starting weight and today I weigh 5 pounds more than the starting weight.
11/20 - 159.2
11/16 - 155.6
11/8 - 157.2
10/25 - 158.0
10/18 - 152.6
10/12 - 155.4
10/4 - 154.2
9/20 - 153.8
The tough thing is, it might take a week to lose 2 pounds, but then it will take 1-3 days and all of it comes back - and I'm not binge eating! I'm eating more or less the same things - keeping a food diary, and exercising 2-3 times per week. For the last week I've eliminated wheat, dairy, and sugar. I seriously thought no sugar would help but I'm baffled by the scale this morning showing a 2 pound weight gain in just 1 day.
The only thing I can think is water weight but I'm not sure how to tell. The only other culprit I can think of is a hormonal imbalance - I have a fibroid (it's a very common benign tumor in the uterus that up to 50% of women get). The presence of the fibroid most likely means I have excess estrogen in my body - I'm doing as much as I can to lower estrogen (eating only organic, no dairy or sugar, taking supplements).
Does anyone know what could cause a difficulty in losing weight? Should I go to a doctor and ask to be tested for anything specific?
If you have gained 5lbs in 8 weeks you have logging issues and are eating more than you're burning by around 300 calories a day
You need to weigh and accurately log your food
You need to not overestimate your activity level and exercise calories
Or you have a medical issue with thyroid or hormones and should get bloods
It's most likely the former
It could be the latter
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Yeah, I was just talking about getting a scale. You can lose just using measuring cups (I did), but you then also have to do regular (daily) vigorous cardio to get rid of the margin of error. No cheating yourself that way, either, you have to sweat. (Sweating doesn't = calories burned exactly, but you get my drift, the effort level has to be there - you should feel like you worked.)0
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What exercises are you doing? It would very likely be that you are putting on more muscle. Remember muscle weighs a LOT more than fat (mostly because muscle has more water in it, and water is heavy), so even if you put on a small amount of muscle, and lost a fair amount of fat, you can end up weighing more.
I also find that people who exercise drink more water, which again, will make you weigh more (hence you should only ever weigh yourself first thing in the morning when you have little fluids in your body).
Ignoring the weight, how do you look? Is your fav pair of jeans tighter or looser? You might find that if you go by the measurements of how your clothes fit, you are in fact thinner, even though you weigh more.
Other than that, people fastly underestimate the amount of calories they consume. We tend to forget to log the 1 biscuit we ate at a colleague's desk at work, or the 2tablespoons of olive oil over our salad, or the sugar in our coffee/tea.0 -
lynettekotze wrote: »What exercises are you doing? It would very likely be that you are putting on more muscle. Remember muscle weighs a LOT more than fat (mostly because muscle has more water in it, and water is heavy), so even if you put on a small amount of muscle, and lost a fair amount of fat, you can end up weighing more.
I also find that people who exercise drink more water, which again, will make you weigh more (hence you should only ever weigh yourself first thing in the morning when you have little fluids in your body).
Ignoring the weight, how do you look? Is your fav pair of jeans tighter or looser? You might find that if you go by the measurements of how your clothes fit, you are in fact thinner, even though you weigh more.
Other than that, people fastly underestimate the amount of calories they consume. We tend to forget to log the 1 biscuit we ate at a colleague's desk at work, or the 2tablespoons of olive oil over our salad, or the sugar in our coffee/tea.
No you don't put on muscle in a defecit unless under specific circumstances and certainly not in that time frame or as a woman..I really wish it was that easy
Drinking more makes you less water retentive not more, when you are dehydrated your water weight will go up0 -
lynettekotze wrote: »What exercises are you doing? It would very likely be that you are putting on more muscle. Remember muscle weighs a LOT more than fat (mostly because muscle has more water in it, and water is heavy), so even if you put on a small amount of muscle, and lost a fair amount of fat, you can end up weighing more.
I also find that people who exercise drink more water, which again, will make you weigh more (hence you should only ever weigh yourself first thing in the morning when you have little fluids in your body).
Ignoring the weight, how do you look? Is your fav pair of jeans tighter or looser? You might find that if you go by the measurements of how your clothes fit, you are in fact thinner, even though you weigh more.
Other than that, people fastly underestimate the amount of calories they consume. We tend to forget to log the 1 biscuit we ate at a colleague's desk at work, or the 2tablespoons of olive oil over our salad, or the sugar in our coffee/tea.
5lbs of muscle is nearly impossible to gain in that time frame without some serious work, and eating a surplus of calories.
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Can you also open your diary?0
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Power walk as fast as you can for 30 to 60 minutes every day. Then you will not need a food scale. You will just need to ballpark your calories and you will still lose weight. And you will feel better and be healthier too.
Or you could just eat less and have to weigh everything you eat.0 -
bcalvanese wrote: »Power walk as fast as you can for 30 to 60 minutes every day. Then you will not need a food scale. You will just need to ballpark your calories and you will still lose weight. And you will feel better and be healthier too.
Or you could just eat less and have to weigh everything you eat.
Power walking will create maybe an additional 200 calorie deficit. Ballparking your calories can create a much larger error than that, especially for somebody who isn't experienced with portion sizes (and it's quite possible that the OP falls in that category based upon her post). I could go in the kitchen and easily wipe out 200 calories in about a minute. Not saying that walking isn't good exercise and doesn't have other benefits, but it certainly won't compensate for sloppy logging.0 -
bcalvanese wrote: »Power walk as fast as you can for 30 to 60 minutes every day. Then you will not need a food scale. You will just need to ballpark your calories and you will still lose weight. And you will feel better and be healthier too.
Or you could just eat less and have to weigh everything you eat.
Power walking will create maybe an additional 200 calorie deficit. Ballparking your calories can create a much larger error than that, especially for somebody who isn't experienced with portion sizes (and it's quite possible that the OP falls in that category based upon her post). I could go in the kitchen and easily wipe out 200 calories in about a minute. Not saying that walking isn't good exercise and doesn't have other benefits, but it certainly won't compensate for sloppy logging.
This ...so much this
Plus power walking will probably increase your appetite, maybe not same day but day after and that makes ball parking even more difficult ...particularly the lower your defecit0 -
I lost 55 lbs. in about 11 months by power walking every day, and ball parking my calories. I don't even log my food anymore because I am training myself to be able to eat smartly without having to keep track of everything I eat.
And when I say power walk, I mean walk fast enough to get into cardio zone 3/4 for 30 to 60 minutes per day. You can burn way more than just a couple hundred calories, and I have gone on longer walks on hilly trails where I burned over 800 calories. If you are going to spend an hour walking, you may as well get the best out of it by pushing yourself, and improving your fitness at the same time. You only get out of something what you put into it.
It's all about replacing bad habits with good habits, but you have to put in the work to get the results. Once you reach your healthy weight, you can add 500 more BMR calories to your daily intake, only have to do 2 to 3 hours of cardio and 1 to 2 hours of muscular conditioning per week to maintain fitness level, and will be able to eat enough to get what your body needs without being hungry all the time.
Anyone who is capable of walking should be able to do this and get the same result.0 -
That's not how it generally works though as appetite to tends to increase with increased intense activity but I'm pleased it works for you0
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Watching what you eat, is not being in a deficit. Being in a deficit, is what causes weight loss.0
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If that is not how it generally works, then maybe that is why most people fail, and it worked for me because I put the work in to get the result.
I think many people make it much more complicated than it needs to be. I also think many people just don't want to put the work in. Lets face it. Its very strenuous and uncomfortable to exercise, and many people do not want to do it. But once you make it a habit, and once you reach a healthy weight and good fitness level, its not that hard to maintain it. The hardest part is getting to that level.
It's really pretty simple.
if you are not active enough and eat too much you will be over weight.
if you are active enough and don't eat too much you will not be over weight.
But many people who are already over weight do not want to go through the discomfort of activity. So what do they do? They turn to weighing food, counting calories, and starving themselves. IMO, that is just replacing one bad habit with another.0 -
bcalvanese wrote: »If that is not how it generally works, then maybe that is why most people fail, and it worked for me because I put the work in to get the result.
I think many people make it much more complicated than it needs to be. I also think many people just don't want to put the work in. Lets face it. Its very strenuous and uncomfortable to exercise, and many people do not want to do it. But once you make it a habit, and once you reach a healthy weight and good fitness level, its not that hard to maintain it. The hardest part is getting to that level.
It's really pretty simple.
if you are not active enough and eat too much you will be over weight.
if you are active enough and don't eat too much you will not be over weight.
But many people who are already over weight do not want to go through the discomfort of activity. So what do they do? They turn to weighing food, counting calories, and starving themselves. IMO, that is just replacing one bad habit with another.
I realise that you've had success with your method, but that doesn't always work for everyone. It's completely down to personal preference and experience.
When I started out on MFP, I worked out 5x a week and weighed everything, and I lose weight. Now that I'm a lot busier and at a 'healthy' BMI, I'm not working out- but I'm still counting calories. And I'm still losing weight.
You can easily log and counter a sedentary lifestyle through logging and deficit. You can't out-exercise bad eating (or inaccurate/nonexistent logging).
ETA: I do agree that a lot of people dont want to put the work in though- but those that do will see the benefits, and those that dont (wether its sticking to a calorie goal or working out or both) wont see any weight loss or reach their goals. And that's their own loss.0 -
Mystery solved! I started my period this morning, which explains the 4.6 pound sudden weight gain which is water retention. It came a week early, so I didn't realize it was starting. The water weight should go down when my period ends in the next few days.
@Asher_Ethan - this was yesterday's food diary entry with calorie info:
8:30 am - 1 green drink - 110
10:00 am - quinoa salad - 112
11:29 am - quinoa salad - 56
12:45 pm- Sprouted lentil salad - 65 ; sugar free chocolates - 170
2:51 pm - Veggie straws - 120
2:00 pm - Sparkling grapefruit juice - 5
5:00 pm - Lentil salad - 65
9:15 pm - grilled chicken pesto panini - 576 ; 1 gin and tonic - 143
12:30 - 6 pcs sugar free choc - 360
Total - 1782 calories
I don't normally eat dinner so late, but it was Saturday night and I met friends out at a restaurant. Could have done without the late night chocolates. A few calculators online have said I should be able to lose weight with a daily intake of 1730 (so I went a little over yesterday).0 -
lynettekotze wrote: »What exercises are you doing? It would very likely be that you are putting on more muscle. Remember muscle weighs a LOT more than fat (mostly because muscle has more water in it, and water is heavy), so even if you put on a small amount of muscle, and lost a fair amount of fat, you can end up weighing more.
I also find that people who exercise drink more water, which again, will make you weigh more (hence you should only ever weigh yourself first thing in the morning when you have little fluids in your body).
Ignoring the weight, how do you look? Is your fav pair of jeans tighter or looser? You might find that if you go by the measurements of how your clothes fit, you are in fact thinner, even though you weigh more.
Other than that, people fastly underestimate the amount of calories they consume. We tend to forget to log the 1 biscuit we ate at a colleague's desk at work, or the 2tablespoons of olive oil over our salad, or the sugar in our coffee/tea.
1 lb of muscle weighs the same as 1 lb of fat.0 -
lynettekotze wrote: »What exercises are you doing? It would very likely be that you are putting on more muscle. Remember muscle weighs a LOT more than fat (mostly because muscle has more water in it, and water is heavy), so even if you put on a small amount of muscle, and lost a fair amount of fat, you can end up weighing more.
I also find that people who exercise drink more water, which again, will make you weigh more (hence you should only ever weigh yourself first thing in the morning when you have little fluids in your body).
Ignoring the weight, how do you look? Is your fav pair of jeans tighter or looser? You might find that if you go by the measurements of how your clothes fit, you are in fact thinner, even though you weigh more.
Other than that, people fastly underestimate the amount of calories they consume. We tend to forget to log the 1 biscuit we ate at a colleague's desk at work, or the 2tablespoons of olive oil over our salad, or the sugar in our coffee/tea.
no, no, no ..
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bcalvanese wrote: »If that is not how it generally works, then maybe that is why most people fail, and it worked for me because I put the work in to get the result.
I think many people make it much more complicated than it needs to be. I also think many people just don't want to put the work in. Lets face it. Its very strenuous and uncomfortable to exercise, and many people do not want to do it. But once you make it a habit, and once you reach a healthy weight and good fitness level, its not that hard to maintain it. The hardest part is getting to that level.
It's really pretty simple.
if you are not active enough and eat too much you will be over weight.
if you are active enough and don't eat too much you will not be over weight.
But many people who are already over weight do not want to go through the discomfort of activity. So what do they do? They turn to weighing food, counting calories, and starving themselves. IMO, that is just replacing one bad habit with another.
all you need for weight loss is a calorie deficit. Exercise is good for extra calorie burns, body recomp, and general health ...0 -
bcalvanese wrote: »If that is not how it generally works, then maybe that is why most people fail, and it worked for me because I put the work in to get the result.
I think many people make it much more complicated than it needs to be. I also think many people just don't want to put the work in. Lets face it. Its very strenuous and uncomfortable to exercise, and many people do not want to do it. But once you make it a habit, and once you reach a healthy weight and good fitness level, its not that hard to maintain it. The hardest part is getting to that level.
It's really pretty simple.
if you are not active enough and eat too much you will be over weight.
if you are active enough and don't eat too much you will not be over weight.
But many people who are already over weight do not want to go through the discomfort of activity. So what do they do? They turn to weighing food, counting calories, and starving themselves. IMO, that is just replacing one bad habit with another.
all you need for weight loss is a calorie deficit. Exercise is good for extra calorie burns, body recomp, and general health ...
Although...exercise DOES help to create the deficit needed to lose weight.0 -
bcalvanese wrote: »Power walk as fast as you can for 30 to 60 minutes every day. Then you will not need a food scale. You will just need to ballpark your calories and you will still lose weight. And you will feel better and be healthier too.
Or you could just eat less...weigh everything you eat.
More useless advice from MFP.
It worked for you because whatever your method was, which is completely unscientific, put you in a calorie deficit. You should stop giving advice or stick to the last bit.-1 -
JustMissTracy wrote: »bcalvanese wrote: »If that is not how it generally works, then maybe that is why most people fail, and it worked for me because I put the work in to get the result.
I think many people make it much more complicated than it needs to be. I also think many people just don't want to put the work in. Lets face it. Its very strenuous and uncomfortable to exercise, and many people do not want to do it. But once you make it a habit, and once you reach a healthy weight and good fitness level, its not that hard to maintain it. The hardest part is getting to that level.
It's really pretty simple.
if you are not active enough and eat too much you will be over weight.
if you are active enough and don't eat too much you will not be over weight.
But many people who are already over weight do not want to go through the discomfort of activity. So what do they do? They turn to weighing food, counting calories, and starving themselves. IMO, that is just replacing one bad habit with another.
all you need for weight loss is a calorie deficit. Exercise is good for extra calorie burns, body recomp, and general health ...
Although...exercise DOES help to create the deficit needed to lose weight.
yes, that is why I pointed out that it increase calorie burns….0
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