Orangetheory

Pretty much what everyone has said. Calories in vs Calories out is weight loss/gain. Thermodynamics is a fundamental law, and if you have gained weight you ARE in a caloric surplus. This is as set in stone as the earth is round or that objects that have mass have gravitational attraction.

So, why are you in a (small) caloric surplus is the question. Some possibilities (in order of probability):

1) Eating more than you think - 4lbs over 4 months is a very subtle change in weight. A couple extra grams here of this, and a couple extra here of that (which you couldn't necessarily detect even if you were trying to measure out cups) easily could account for this difference. 10g of fat would be adding an extra 90 calories each day, and would be almost completely undetectable to the naked eye.

Add up all these across the day and who knows. Yes, you're eating within 300 kcal +/- what you think you are averaging, but there is solid uncertainty there, MORE than enough to account for the weight gain.

2)This depends on exactly how much your workouts are. If you're slaving away at 2 hour workouts this doesn't apply, but many people when they work out compensate unnoticed afterwords and in between by being more sedentary or even less fidgeting than usual. This difference in NEAT could also create that subtle difference in calories we are dealing with.

3)Your scale has gone off calibration and is now reading higher even though you weigh the same.

4)Your body is able to violate the laws of physics that govern the universe.

No real other possibilities. If you're burning more than before (highly likely, but not 100% guaranteed), then the only remaining possibility is that you're consuming more food than you were before.

What's the solution? Probably what everybody else said, grab that food scale and verify. If, after a few weeks you've dialed in at 1500 kcal and weight is still constant/rising, then reconsider #2. 99% chance #1 is the culprit.

PS: Finding time to weight food is not hard. It takes for sure less than 60 seconds to weigh food for a given meal. Often it takes about 10 seconds.

aperz1 wrote: »

I get it, but cups equate to ounces to milliliters to grams. It's the same.

Actually, no. Volume measurements do not equate to weight measurements.

aperz1 wrote: »

I have the containers and they just equate to measuring cups.

To echo what everyone else said accurate tracking is key. I am a huge fan of using a food scale but I have a coworker that uses the those containers and has success with them.

I used to think I knew enough about portions and healthy food to know that calories were not my problem. I too would argue with people when they gave me advice I didn't like. Then I realised that if I respected them people whose opinions I was asking enough to ask them, then it seemed kinda dumb to not at least give their advice a try. As it turned out they were right.

OP. Stop being so resistant. If you really do want help at least be willing to give the advice a shot. EVERYONE here is giving you the same advice. Get a scale and use it. What do you have to lose besides the weight you gained doing it your way?

kimny72 wrote: »

In the same amount of time it will take to put food into pretty-colored tupperware, you can have that container on a food scale and actually know how much you are eating.

If you don't want to use a food scale, you don't have to. But it is the only way to get a reasonably accurate picture of what your numbers are. You can weigh for a couple of weeks and see if your calories are what you think they are, or you can keep trying out ways to estimate and not know for sure what's going on.

My food scale sits on my counter, and I put whatever container or plate I would use anyway on the scale and then measure out my portions. Takes approx 3 seconds more time. Easy peasy.

Correct! Nothing hard about keeping the scale on the counter and weighing everything. I would tend to CRAM containers. You can't cram a scale....

Good show!