I'm gaining weight!!!

I started the Kayla workout 2 and half months ago and weighted 167 and now I weight 180! I don't skip workouts and I started eating a little bit better and less junk for and I'm gaining weight instead of losing it! Why ?????
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Replies

  • taylorpigg
    taylorpigg Posts: 10 Member
    I only ate 1500 calories a day plus whatever I burned during working out
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,943 Member
    How do you know you're not eating more? Do you weigh everything you eat on a digital food scale in grams and chose the correct entries? How do you know how many calories you burn and that they are accurate. Sorry, but if you're gaining weight then you're eating more than you need.
  • blues4miles
    blues4miles Posts: 1,481 Member
    taylorpigg wrote: »
    I only ate 1500 calories a day plus whatever I burned during working out

    How did you calculate that 1500 calories? Do you weigh and measure your food? Do you use a food scale?

    How did you calculate calories burned from the exercise?
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    These are my really generic tips. If you're comfortable opening your diary or giving us some more details, that might help to get you more specific advice.

    1. If it's been less than 3 weeks or so, don't sweat it! Normal fluctuations happen and unfortunately sometimes we stall for a week or two even when we're doing everything right. Give your body some time to catch up with the changes you're making.

    2. If you aren't already, be sure that you're logging everything. Sometimes people forget about things like veggies, drinks, cooking oils, and condiments. For some people these can add up to enough to halt your weight loss progress.

    3. Consider buying a food scale if you don't already have one. They're about $10-$20 dollars in the US and easily found at places like Amazon, Target, and Walmart. Measuring cups and spoons are great, but they do come with some degree of inaccuracy. A food scale will be more accurate, and for some people it makes a big difference.

    4. Logging accurately also means choosing accurate entries in the database. There are a lot of user-entered entries that are off. Double-check that you're using good entries and/or using the recipe builder instead of someone else's homemade entries.

    5. Recalculate your goals if you haven't lately. As you lose weight your body requires fewer calories to run. Be sure you update your goals every ten pounds or so.

    6. If you're eating back your exercise calories and you're relying on gym machine readouts or MFP's estimates, it might be best to eat back just 50-75% of those. Certain activities tend to be overestimated. If you're using an HRM or activity tracker, it might be a good idea to look into their accuracy and be sure that yours is calibrated properly.

    7. If you're taking any cheat days that go over your calorie limits, it might be best to cut them out for a few weeks and see what happens. Some people go way over their calorie needs without realizing it when they don't track.

    8. If you weigh yourself frequently, consider using a program like trendweight to even out the fluctuations. You could be losing weight but just don't see it because of the daily ups and downs.

    9. Some people just burn fewer calories than the calculators predict. If you continue to have problems after 4-6 weeks, then it might be worth a trip to the doctor or a registered dietitian who can give you more specific advice.
  • JeromeBarry1
    JeromeBarry1 Posts: 10,179 Member
    taylorpigg, the key phrase you wrote is "plus whatever I burned during working out". The exercise database has many incorrect values for calorie burn. Suppose, just suppose, it's off by 50%. Nutrition labels are allowed to be off by 10%, but the food database has many incorrect entries which show calorie values in food to be too low. Suppose, just suppose, you've chosen values that are off by 50%. It is entirely possible that you burned 200 calories in a workout session and then ate 400 calories because you think you earned it. It's just a math equation. Part of being honest with yourself is being truthful to yourself. When you start your complaint by admitting that you still eat junk food and have made little improvement in your eating, you explain to me why you're still gaining weight. Weigh your food with a digital scale. Even weigh your junk food. Record all of it. When you accurately measure and diligently record the food you eat, you can see, with high confidence, exactly why you're gaining or losing weight. 3500 calories is 1 lb of fat. If you gained 13 lb in 2 months you ate an extra (3500 x 13) calories in two months.

    Except you might be experiencing drastic water gain from a super-salty junk snack and it could be your time of month which screws up everything.
  • taylorpigg
    taylorpigg Posts: 10 Member
    How I measure my calorie intake is using this app and scanning the package.
  • taylorpigg
    taylorpigg Posts: 10 Member
    Also I now have decreased my calories to 1000 per day and I work out everyday 35 to 45 mins of cardio and also three times a week I do a strength training workout like abs, arms, and legs.still no results.
  • SLLeask
    SLLeask Posts: 489 Member
    taylorpigg wrote: »
    How I measure my calorie intake is using this app and scanning the package.

    Not everything comes in a package. How do you measure say, cheese? Do you weigh it on a digital scale? Also. on average, how many calories do you think you are burning when you exercise on average? If you have gone by the numbers on here it is probably wildly wrong. That's why many people eat only 50% of their calories back.

    Some questions that may help us to help you further: How tall are you, what do you weigh and what is your goal? How did you pick 1500 cals, is that what MFP gave you? Is your diary public, if not make it so.

    Also, do NOT go down to 1000 cals, unless you are 4' 6" and over 60.
  • Seffell
    Seffell Posts: 2,244 Member
    Use a digital scale to weight EVERYTHING solid that you eat and measure volumetrically all liquids. Gaining = eating more than you burn. Or... magic!
  • taylorpigg
    taylorpigg Posts: 10 Member
    If you use a scale to measure your food and get the exact calories and you guys all say you can't eat more than you burn so your telling me I need to burn 1500 calories while working out?
  • alyssa0061
    alyssa0061 Posts: 652 Member
    gebeziseva wrote: »
    Use a digital scale to weight EVERYTHING solid that you eat and measure volumetrically all liquids. Gaining = eating more than you burn. Or... magic!

    Probably magic
  • LazSommer
    LazSommer Posts: 1,851 Member
    edited May 2016
    taylorpigg wrote: »
    If you use a scale to measure your food and get the exact calories and you guys all say you can't eat more than you burn so your telling me I need to burn 1500 calories while working out?

    No, they are saying that you're not accurately measuring your calories to the point that you massively overate to the tune of 45,500 extra calories in 2.5 months while trying to eat at a deficit. Your body is not wired differently. You cannot gain that much weight without massively underestimating your food and overestimating your activity.
  • tlflag1620
    tlflag1620 Posts: 1,358 Member
    taylorpigg wrote: »
    If you use a scale to measure your food and get the exact calories and you guys all say you can't eat more than you burn so your telling me I need to burn 1500 calories while working out?

    Your body burns calories even at rest, in fact the majority of your calories are burned simply by being alive; this is called your basal metabolic rate (BMR). Working out can provide you with some additional calories to eat, but beware using mfp's calorie estimates or estimates from the cardio machines at the gym - these can be off quite a bit. It is best, if you bother eating those calories back, to start by eating 50-75% of them and see how it goes. If MFP is telling you to eat 1500 cal per day to lose X number of lbs per week, eat that amount (properly weighing and logging food of course). If you log exercise and it tells you you burned 300 calories (for example), eat an additional 150 cal, for a total of 1650 for the day.

    HTH!

  • cerise_noir
    cerise_noir Posts: 5,468 Member
    taylorpigg wrote: »
    If you use a scale to measure your food and get the exact calories and you guys all say you can't eat more than you burn so your telling me I need to burn 1500 calories while working out?
    No, daily calorie burn which includes the calories your body burns to function, general movement and exercise. If you're adding exercise to mfp, eat around half those calories back since mfp grossly overestimates burns.

    I agree with those who mentioned weighing all the food that you eat. Weigh meats/fish/root veggies/rice/pastas/uncooked grains raw, weigh veggies, weigh butter/mayo/nut butter, weigh prepackaged foods. Don't eyeball portions and don't use cups and spoons for measuring solid or semi solid foods. Use cup measures for liquids. Make sure to count the oils used for cooking and milk in coffee.... Log everything. Choose accurate database entries (match packaging), and don't go for count servings, always use the weight.

    Don't drop your calories before your weigh and log correctly. And don't go under 1200.

  • Psychgrrl
    Psychgrrl Posts: 3,177 Member
    How did you come up with the 1500 as the calorie amount you needed to lose weight?

    Going down to 1000 is not the answer. Someone posted about BMR--1000 calories is likely less than your BMR, which means you're not giving your body enough energy to function omits most basic level. Which means you'll lose lean body mass at a greater rate than you would eating at a reasonable deficit.

    Many of us here lost weight by using a food scale to help us know the calories in part of the equation. Labels are approximations, including things like eggs and bread. One slice of bread is supposed to be 28g and 100 calories. When I weigh the bread, it's actually 35g which equals 125 calories. A serving of canned black beans is 1/2 cup which is supposed to be 130g. 130g does not come close to filling the half cup. Meaning if I use the measuring cups to determine portions, I'm eating more than the 100 calories than I thought. All those little things really add up quickly on a day to day basis.
  • kalegurl
    kalegurl Posts: 2 Member
    If you aren't "getting bigger" or if you notice that your clothes are looser, it could be that you lost some fat and gained more muscle
  • mandyloose123
    mandyloose123 Posts: 21 Member
    I agree with kale...I also gained in the beginning due to muscle gain. Don't worry it will come off but I would stick to eating at least 1200 cal. I put myself on 1000 calories a day for too long and it did more bad then good. Still coming back from it. Just keep it up, if you aren't eating pizza and cookies with beer chasers, your body will catch up.
  • aprilkorn
    aprilkorn Posts: 26 Member
    There are 3500 calories in a pound. So say your over by 500 cals per day for a week..that's a gain of a pound a week. Now it's very easy to lose track of 500 calories..is it possible you are under estimating how many cals you are consuming, a lot of the calorie counts are wrong in MFP so it's always good to double check. Or is possible your over estimating the calories burned during excercise?
  • taylorpigg
    taylorpigg Posts: 10 Member
    If the machine your using to exercise like the treadmill says you burned 350 calories while working out how do I know it's actuate? And if people say this app is off on how many calories you burn by putting in the activity how am I suppose to know how many I'm actually burning?? And I bought a scale to measure my food now and I don't eat junk food and if I do I measure it. But I'm a college kid and a part of college is drinking and I'm not willing to cut it out of my lifestyle but I'm trying to cut back on drinking but these are supposed to be the fun part of my life and idk how to lose weight and still be able to party and drink with my friends?
  • nuttynanners
    nuttynanners Posts: 249 Member
    Are you talking about the Kayla Itsines workout? Bikini Body Guide? If so, I have heard multiple people on this forum saying that the diet plan has had them eating too much food.

    I don't know too much about the program, but I suggest you count calories if you're not already doing so. Take a more scientific approach, rather than leaving it up to a program that isn't tailored specifically to you.

    Adjust the diet program so that your TDEE is greater than your calorie intake each day.
  • Colorscheme
    Colorscheme Posts: 1,179 Member
    taylorpigg wrote: »
    If the machine your using to exercise like the treadmill says you burned 350 calories while working out how do I know it's actuate? And if people say this app is off on how many calories you burn by putting in the activity how am I suppose to know how many I'm actually burning?? And I bought a scale to measure my food now and I don't eat junk food and if I do I measure it. But I'm a college kid and a part of college is drinking and I'm not willing to cut it out of my lifestyle but I'm trying to cut back on drinking but these are supposed to be the fun part of my life and idk how to lose weight and still be able to party and drink with my friends?

    Sounds like you need to be honest with yourself. Alcohol causes bloating and dehydration, you should consider cutting down your alcohol content as well as start weighing and logging everything you eat. You're also consuming calories from booze, are you logging your drinks as well?

    Until you're honest about what you're really eating, you won't get anywhere.
  • cerise_noir
    cerise_noir Posts: 5,468 Member
    kalegurl wrote: »
    If you aren't "getting bigger" or if you notice that your clothes are looser, it could be that you lost some fat and gained more muscle

    Not on that little calories in 2 months. It takes much longer to build muscle.
    Most likely fluid retention in muscle masking loss.
  • taylorpigg
    taylorpigg Posts: 10 Member
    taylorpigg wrote: »
    If the machine your using to exercise like the treadmill says you burned 350 calories while working out how do I know it's actuate? And if people say this app is off on how many calories you burn by putting in the activity how am I suppose to know how many I'm actually burning?? And I bought a scale to measure my food now and I don't eat junk food and if I do I measure it. But I'm a college kid and a part of college is drinking and I'm not willing to cut it out of my lifestyle but I'm trying to cut back on drinking but these are supposed to be the fun part of my life and idk how to lose weight and still be able to party and drink with my friends?

    Sounds like you need to be honest with yourself. Alcohol causes bloating and dehydration, you should consider cutting down your alcohol content as well as start weighing and logging everything you eat. You're also consuming calories from booze, are you logging your drinks as well?

    Until you're honest about what you're really eating, you won't get anywhere.



    I'm getting sick of everyone saying be honest I am! I just started counting calories this week! For god sake half of you on here need to not say anything bc you are all just being judgemental! This is for help not to criticize people! So if your not going to answer my question then don't post!
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    See if anything on this chart applies to you op

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  • ogtmama
    ogtmama Posts: 1,403 Member
    Much to my chagrin, I had to give up alcohol. Not only does it have a ton of calories, it leads you to have late night "snacks"that undocumented the whole week's worth of hard work
  • ilex70
    ilex70 Posts: 727 Member
    taylorpigg wrote: »
    taylorpigg wrote: »
    If the machine your using to exercise like the treadmill says you burned 350 calories while working out how do I know it's actuate? And if people say this app is off on how many calories you burn by putting in the activity how am I suppose to know how many I'm actually burning?? And I bought a scale to measure my food now and I don't eat junk food and if I do I measure it. But I'm a college kid and a part of college is drinking and I'm not willing to cut it out of my lifestyle but I'm trying to cut back on drinking but these are supposed to be the fun part of my life and idk how to lose weight and still be able to party and drink with my friends?

    Sounds like you need to be honest with yourself. Alcohol causes bloating and dehydration, you should consider cutting down your alcohol content as well as start weighing and logging everything you eat. You're also consuming calories from booze, are you logging your drinks as well?

    Until you're honest about what you're really eating, you won't get anywhere.



    I'm getting sick of everyone saying be honest I am! I just started counting calories this week! For god sake half of you on here need to not say anything bc you are all just being judgemental! This is for help not to criticize people! So if your not going to answer my question then don't post!

    That bit is kind of crucial. You gained 13 pounds in a bit over 2 months, and now you have been counting calories for just this week. It takes more time than that to see a change. Sometimes women keep a deficit for 2 or even 3 weeks before they see a big drop.

    Just keep logging and weighing your food for a while longer.

    The reason weighing is brought up so much is because packaging is often incorrect. One quick example I've found is corn tortilla chips. The serving listed says 10 chips is a 28 gram serving, but when you actually weigh 28 grams on a food scale it is only 8 chips.

    Yes, it is a small thing, but if many things you eat have 20% more calories than you think they do then you can see how that can add up?

    Also there are some incorrect entries in the database. MFP allows users to enter their own foods, but they don't police that the entries are correct. Sticking with verified entries and USDA entries helps, or actually checking the package info against the database entry.
  • DaniCanadian
    DaniCanadian Posts: 261 Member
    edited May 2016
    If you want to keep partying and not gain weight then Ed Sheeran lost 40 lbs just by switching to vodka ;-)
    And FYI, 13 lbs gained in 2.5 months means you weren't eating a calorie deficit. Maybe you were with food but booze could very easily put you way passed that.
  • Day_knee
    Day_knee Posts: 85 Member
    taylorpigg wrote: »
    I started the Kayla workout 2 and half months ago and weighted 167 and now I weight 180! I don't skip workouts and I started eating a little bit better and less junk for and I'm gaining weight instead of losing it! Why ?????

    You're eating too much, and not weighing and measuring your food. Calories in vs Calories out. You gain weight because you are not eating at a deficit. Period! This isn't a criticism. This is the truth. If you are gaining weight you are eating more than you should/think.