Gaining weight.. HELP.

nicoleash126
nicoleash126 Posts: 22 Member
in Getting Started
So I've been dieting & exercising for about two weeks now and I have gained 5 lbs!!!!!!! My diet consists of mostly fruits and protein, I do eat vegetables daily but not as much as I should. And I'm staying on a 1200 calorie diet, some days I have gone over by few calories, but most days I stay under the 1200. For my exercise I run 5 times a week for about 40 minutes on a treadmill and according to the treadmill I burn 450-550 calories. Plus other small exercises I do throughout the day. CAN ANYONE MAKE SUGGUESTIONS OR HELP ME? If you have lost weight successfully please ADD me! TIA

Replies

  • nicoleash126
    nicoleash126 Posts: 22 Member
    I've been tracking my food through this app however do you have any Sugguestions on how I could better keep track of the calories I burn?!
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,308 Member
    It's more about the food. Are you weighing all your food on a food scale?
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,308 Member
    Also, that five pounds - - - weight can fluctuate by five pounds easily on a day by day basis due to hydration, new exercise, salty food, that time of the month, lack of sleep, alcohol intake, etc. It isn't like five actual pounds of fat. Give it a few days, it will go back down if you stay within your calories eaten.
  • nicoleash126
    nicoleash126 Posts: 22 Member
    I don't have a food scale and don't have the extra money right now to buy one (and I know how cheap they are). I will invest in one soon once I have a couple bucks, I'm really just reading labels and trying my hardest to measure calories by that!
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    nicoleash126 wrote: »
    I don't have a food scale and don't have the extra money right now to buy one (and I know how cheap they are). I will invest in one soon once I have a couple bucks, I'm really just reading labels and trying my hardest to measure calories by that!

    There are two important parts of logging accurately. One is portion size. We've covered that a scale is best, but anything is better than eyeballing. If you have a dollar store in town, pick up some measuring cups and spoons to use and don't overpack them.

    The other half of logging is using accurate entries. This means everything from not trusting the barcode scanner 100% to double-checking "verified" entries (they can be off by a lot on occasion) to making sure that you're not choosing someone else's homemade or generic entry for something you make yourself.

    Reading labels is a great start! But be sure you're doing as much as you can beyond that to stay accurate in your logging.
  • shadow2soul
    shadow2soul Posts: 7,692 Member
    Double check the entries you are using. Some of the stuff in the database is really wrong. I've seen chicken entries that are 1/3 the calories they should be for the serving listed.
  • Hiro_Protagonist
    Hiro_Protagonist Posts: 40 Member
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  • nicoleash126
    nicoleash126 Posts: 22 Member
    Thank you guys, my goal this week to measure my food as accurately as I possibly can! Now do you guys have any Sugguestions for how to measure the calories I'm burning? Now that I'm aware of the treadmill being inaccurate... I was really proud of myself for burning those calories that I probably didn't even burn :(
  • robboughton
    robboughton Posts: 62 Member
    nicoleash126 wrote: »
    Thank you guys, my goal this week to measure my food as accurately as I possibly can! Now do you guys have any Sugguestions for how to measure the calories I'm burning? Now that I'm aware of the treadmill being inaccurate... I was really proud of myself for burning those calories that I probably didn't even burn :(

    Get a Fitbit or something along that line to give you a idea they are not 100% but they are very helpful.
  • aylajane
    aylajane Posts: 979 Member
    nicoleash126 wrote: »
    Thank you guys, my goal this week to measure my food as accurately as I possibly can! Now do you guys have any Sugguestions for how to measure the calories I'm burning? Now that I'm aware of the treadmill being inaccurate... I was really proud of myself for burning those calories that I probably didn't even burn :(

    Are you eating your exercise calories back? I ask because you said you were sticking to 1200 calories... If you are not, then it doesnt matter how accurate the treadmill is. If you are eating them back, make it a rule to eat back only half or something. If you are still not losing weight, then either your logging is wrong, or you are way overestimating how many calories you are burning... Adjust one and try again.

    Give any changes at least 2 weeks but up to 4 before you determine it is not working. Weight fluctuates pretty wildly day to day. Its the overall trend from week to week that tells you if you are making it work or not.
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    nicoleash126 wrote: »
    Thank you guys, my goal this week to measure my food as accurately as I possibly can! Now do you guys have any Sugguestions for how to measure the calories I'm burning? Now that I'm aware of the treadmill being inaccurate... I was really proud of myself for burning those calories that I probably didn't even burn :(

    If you can't afford a food scale right now, then I'm assuming that an activity tracker or heart rate monitor is also out of the question? In that case, you're stuck relying on estimates like MFP's calculator or the gym equipment you're using. I'd look at a couple of different calculators and take the lowest. And then for good measure I'd remove 50-100 calories because some of those calculators fail to remove the calories you'd burn just existing during that same period.
  • extra_medium
    extra_medium Posts: 1,525 Member
    nicoleash126 wrote: »
    Thank you guys, my goal this week to measure my food as accurately as I possibly can! Now do you guys have any Sugguestions for how to measure the calories I'm burning? Now that I'm aware of the treadmill being inaccurate... I was really proud of myself for burning those calories that I probably didn't even burn :(

    Nothing is really super accurate but it can help to just eat back about half of the calories you estimate you burn. You can still be proud of yourself, you did burn calories :)
  • chocolate_owl
    chocolate_owl Posts: 1,695 Member
    nicoleash126 wrote: »
    Thank you guys, my goal this week to measure my food as accurately as I possibly can! Now do you guys have any Sugguestions for how to measure the calories I'm burning? Now that I'm aware of the treadmill being inaccurate... I was really proud of myself for burning those calories that I probably didn't even burn :(

    There are two big inaccuracies in cardio machines:
    1) They include your BMR in the calories you burn. Let's say you're on the treadmill for an hour. If your BMR is 1200 and you sat around for an hour and did nothing, you'd burn 50 calories. MFP has counted those already. So when the treadmill tells you you've burned 600 calories in an hour, you need to take 50 off of that to not double-count.
    2) They assume you're a 35 year old, 150 lb male (or some other baseline that's not you). Unless you put your stats into the machine, it's going to calculate your calorie burn based on the wrong stats and give you an artificial number.

    After trial and error, I found that I can log 60% of the calories the treadmills in my gym give me. Eating back 50% of your calories is a safe place to start, and you can adjust from there.
  • Spliner1969
    Spliner1969 Posts: 3,233 Member
    Things to watch for:

    1) Labels on pre-packaged food. The serving size may be right, the calories per serving may be right, but be careful how many servings there are in a package. Also, when you do get your scale weigh everything, in grams if possible. Volume measurements just aren't accurate at all. I tend to eat a lot of protein bars, at least 1 per day, and they all may say serving size 1 bar, then that serving is 48g, but if I take the bar out of the package and put it on a food scale guess what.. it's generally up to 5g over. Doesn't seem like much but it adds up over a period of a week, that's an extra protein bar I didn't log.

    2) Sugar in fruit. Fruit has a ton of sugar in it, you can gain tons of weight on it. You can track sugar in MFP just change your settings. Sugar was one of the first things I gave up, and it unfortunately means I don't eat a lot of fruit. I don't deny myself it, I just don't buy it on a regular basis. I also don't add any of the granulated (processed) sugar to anything. Except chili. I'll never get past that I don't think. I add 1 tsp to my bowl of chili. I grew up eating chili that way and probably will always eat it that way.

    3) Condiments, don't forget to log them. Weighing food later when you have a scale will help. I'll sometimes make myself a burger. I'll put the plate on the scale (when you do buy a scale make sure it's big enough to put your plate on) and add condiments as I go using the tare feature. Makes everything super accurate.

    4) Sodium. Water weight can easily add 5 lbs to your results on the scale. You can also track this with MFP, just change your settings. Drink tons of water to get it flushed out of your body. I generally eat a lot of BBQ/Grilled foods on the weekends. Then Monday's are my rest day. Guess what.. Monday/Tuesdays are the worst days for me to weigh myself. I'll always be heavier on those days. I drop myself to less than the daily recommended amount of sodium (or try anyway) for the first 2-3 days of the week and then weigh in. I get better results that way.

    If you are eating pre-packaged meats, foods, frozen meals, etc. I guarantee your sodium levels are probably bad. That's how they preserve foods for sale in stores, add tons of sodium. Even the stuff with "Less Sodium" can have tons of sodium in them. An example is canned chicken.. tons of sodium. I used to quickly make chicken salad with it. Not any more. I'll simply buy chicken breasts and bake them with some Mrs Dash on them for the next day, chop them up and make my chicken salad. It's not easier, and takes time to prep food that way but it's 10x less sodium.

    5) Fiber. Do you get the recommended daily amount of fiber? Even if you do, if you're not drinking enough water it won't work like it's supposed to. It does the opposite if you are dehydrated.

    I do believe the food scale, when you can afford one, will help. I picked mine up off Amazon for less than $25 delivered. Search for "glass food scale removable top". The top screws off and it washes easily and I can set an entire dinner plate on it, tare it out to 0 and start adding ingredients. Love it.

    Hope something on this list helps! This is just the stuff that I had to wrap my head around when starting out.
  • Spliner1969
    Spliner1969 Posts: 3,233 Member
    nicoleash126 wrote: »
    For my exercise I run 5 times a week for about 40 minutes on a treadmill and according to the treadmill I burn 450-550 calories.

    The next purchase you will want to make is a HR monitor. It'll be closer to $50-$60 for a good one but they are worth it. Not required at all but very helpful. Especially the ones that are a chest strap. I use a Polar H7 and a smartphone/app called Endomondo. Polar also has its own app that you can download for free once you pair it with your smartphone. But my point is this, figure that any calorie burn estimate that you get, no matter if it's from an app or from your treadmill is only about 70% accurate. So if you're set at 1200 calories a day, and the treadmill says you burn 450, only allow yourself to eat back up to 70% of those calories. Less is better. If you were above 1200 to start with I'd say don't eat any of them back, but since your calorie estimates are at the low end of what is safe you are going to have to eat some back to keep your body from cannibalizing your muscle and for energy. Try going to IIFYM.com, use their calculator, put in how often you exercise, your exercise level (how hard you exercise) and when you get your calorie estimate, click "get my macros" and it'll tell you how to set your carb/protein/fat levels for the best fat loss. It works well for me. I had a lot of issues gaining muscle (it's tough in a deficit anyway) for the first six months using MFP's calculator because it sets the protein so low. Once I adjusted using the iifym calculator I was able to start gaining muscle while still dropping weight. Worked great for me, but I do know it's tough when you are shorter and have a low calorie estimate to start with. My wife struggles with that as well, she's a full 12" shorter than me.


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