Consistently gaining when I'm trying to lose

Are you weighing your food on a scale?

You'd rather believe you have an illness rather than accept you may not be logging properly?

There are mistakes that people commonly make that cause them to not lose weight that we might be able to spot if you change your Diary Sharing settings to Public: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

Help people to help you by making your diary public.

I can't help you but I sympathize.
Don't be too hard on yourself, and give yourself time.
I've been using this app for less than six months, and I realized that although the numbers help, they can only be an estimation.
Experiment with your body, and take the time to find what works best with you.

smotheredincheese wrote: »

americanzombiedesigns wrote: »

elphie754 wrote: »

americanzombiedesigns wrote: »

Guys. Stop telling me I'm eating to much.

You asked what the issue was, and people told you. The simple fact is-you are not in a calorie deficit if you are not losing weight, therefore you are eating to much.

I eat 1200 calories a day. That's the minimum you can eat without going into starvation mode.

Based on another lovey person who is posting, I might have a medical condition that is causing this. I plan to go to a doctor soon to find out

But if you're gaining weight then the evidence suggests you must be eating more than that, whether through inaccurate logging or something else I don't know.

I'm a petite female with hypothyroidism. Before I was diagnosed I was gaining weight rather rapidly on an 1100-1200 calorie a day diet. So it is very, very possible to gain weight on 1200 calories (or even less) per day. Once medication kicked in I began losing at a very satisfactory rate on the exact same calorie intake.

OP -- People post what they know, or at least what they think they know. Most people want to help but simply have no idea what they don't know.

There are medical conditions (hypothyroidism and PCOS being the two main ones) that can affect your metabolism such that you can fail to lose weight or even gain on a very limited calorie diet. Strictly speaking, is it true that even with those conditions if you're gaining weight then you're eating more than your body needs to maintain? Well . . . yes. It is technically true. But that's an incredibly simplistic and shortsighted way of looking at it. As posted above, before I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism I was gaining on 1200 calories (or less) per day. So technically even on that low intake I was indeed eating more than my body needed and had I cut my intake down to 800 or 900 calories a day (or lower if necessary) there's little doubt that I would have eventually found a low enough calorie intake that I would have been able to lose, or at least maintain, my weight. Would such a low intake have been realistically do-able, or healthy? No. Not at all.

So my advice is to go get yourself checked out by a doctor as soon as possible.

synacious wrote: »

americanzombiedesigns wrote: »

trjjoy wrote: »

Are you weighing your food on a scale?

Yes. And measuring liquids. If I don't measure I'm using the Barcode feature (for when I eat things like protien bars)

I would just like to note something for anyone who reads this or does similar.

I'm 5'3.5" and 112.5 pounds. Getting down to this weight took being spot on with my calorie intake and due to that I would weigh everything, including prepackaged items. Many protein bars weigh more than the package says. Quest bars should be 60 grams each and I'd get bars that were anywhere from 58 grams to 71 grams, usually on the higher end. This added 30 to 50 calories just from that alone. Yesterday's Kind bar I ate added 30 more calories due to the extra weight. Combine that with the fact that most nutrition labels are rounded by FDA guidelines and one protein bar could be an extra 50 to 75 calories just like that. That is a lot of extra calories for someone of my height and weight. Imagine that several times per day without weighing and you're looking at an extra 200 to 300 calories easily even when you're trying to be as precise as possible with your logging.

Edit: OP closed their account. Provided they don't have a medical issue, which is unlikely, I guess they wanted coddling rather than reality.

holy smokes!
never weighed the quest bars

So it isn't any help to this chick since she closed her account but I would guess she might fall into the whole lean people trying to get leaner. I find now that I am within a few pounds of my goal, I don't see the weight loss very often. Still doing the right things but most weeks I see a spike in weight or no loss. Then about once a month I will hit a new low weight. There is just too much fluctuation when you get close to see it regularly. If the goal calories for one pound of weight loss a week is at 1209 you have NO wiggle room.

SingingSingleTracker wrote: »

americanzombiedesigns wrote: »

ShrinkingScientist wrote: »

Are you eating your exercise calories back? How do you measure your food (i.e. scale, measuring cups, eyeballing it)?

I'm using measuring cups and a scale. I am also eating some, but not all my calories back.

americanzombiedesigns wrote: »

jemhh wrote: »

americanzombiedesigns wrote: »

jemhh wrote: »

americanzombiedesigns wrote: »

ShrinkingScientist wrote: »

Are you eating your exercise calories back? How do you measure your food (i.e. scale, measuring cups, eyeballing it)?

I'm using measuring cups and a scale. I am also eating my exercise calorie back. That's the correct thing to do right?

How many calories are you eating? Not netting.

I try to eat 1200 to 1300 calories a day. And if I'm correct that is the minimum amount of calories a female body needs to function correctly.

You said you do 1-3 hours of cardio per day and eat back exercise calories. How can you have a base goal of 1200 and eat back exercise calories and still only eat 1200-1300 calories? That doesn't add up.

I'm sorry. Miss communicating. Let me clarify. This is really the first time I've ever done calorie counting so I'm doing this based on what the app says.

It says I should have 1200 calories a day. So I try and eat that. I then exercise which burns calories. I've read from different sources (if I'm wrong please correct me) that I need to eat back the calories I burned because if I don't then my body's calorie intake is below 1200 which can be bad for the body as 1200 is the lowest you should go. I normally don't eat back most of the calories I burned during workout, but I do eat back some.

If that information I've read is wrong then I will simply stop eating back my exercise calories.

Running your age, gender, height, and current weight - here is what Calorie Net Calculator says you need to lose a pound a week, lose 2 pounds a week, maintain, gain a pound a week, gain 2 pounds a week. I left exercise out of the equation as you can always add some of the exercise calories into your diet while still maintaining a deficit.



Something was working before when you lost the weight down to 138 pounds. And something has reversed since then to have you gain the weight back up to 153.

Reality usually boils down to underestimating the amount of calories eaten and overestimating the amount of calories burned through exercise. Use the App for bar codes, use appropriate and honest portions for measurement and if you can't find something in the search engine at MFP or on the internet - create your own portion amount and calories to enter into your diary.

OP may be gone but thanks for posting this calculator.