Feeling very disheartened. What's going on?

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  • FauxBoho
    FauxBoho Posts: 30 Member
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    Thanks everyone :)
  • Care76
    Care76 Posts: 556 Member
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    I tend to gain 4-6lbs whenever I start a new workout routine. It's just water weight but it does make things go slower. I also gain 2-4lbs right before my cycle starts and I stay up for a week sometimes.

    My metabolism is insanely slow, like a snail. I eat 1200 calories a day and I only lose 0.25-0.50 lb per week. It's so slow. But I've been at this for 3 years and I'm wearing jeans I wore 12 years ago! You can do it!
  • SusanMFindlay
    SusanMFindlay Posts: 1,804 Member
    edited August 2016
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    First of all, I'm going to disagree with the advice to stop working out.

    But I am going to suggest that that advice may have come from a place of "you just had a baby; you have so much on your plate right now; don't stress yourself out too much".

    I don't know how old your baby is now, but it's pretty common for new mums to get very little sleep - and not getting enough sleep tends to work against weight loss.

    So, my advice would be to keep eating healthy and working out (especially since you enjoy it), but try to stop stressing about it.

    Also, are you breastfeeding? If so, 1400 calories is likely too low and could potentially affect supply.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,527 Member
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    You did say you're on week 2 of a new exercise program? It's NOT unusual to GAIN weight when starting a new workout program. 5-7lbs is average.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
    9285851.png
  • cthakkar1985
    cthakkar1985 Posts: 137 Member
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    There's a couple of things that could be happening -

    1) Did you have a meal before you weighed in (possibly the night before) that contained a lot of carbs and/or sodium. Or just a heavy meal in general. Very possible that you are retaining water weight.

    2) Were you very sore before you weighed in due to weight lifting? When I have a very heavy weight lifting session, I could be 2-4 lbs heavier (also due to retaining water weight)

    3) You could be putting on a little bit of muscle while losing fat since you just recently began this workout routine.

    My recommendations -

    1) Weigh yourself more frequently. I weigh myself 1/week every Friday morning. I don't overeat Thursday or lift Thursday to minimize water weight.

    2) Check your body fat too

    3) See how your clothes fit.

    Stick with it - you're probably fine.
  • scoii
    scoii Posts: 160 Member
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    You can gain or lose 5lbs a day during to salt content, water retention, menstrual cycle. You could have weighed in at a light time 7 weeks ago and heavy time this one and in reality you lost a lot more. Unfortunately with only a single starting weight you don't know if that was representative of what you were.

    If you are really good with your logging then you should have lost more.

    I would recommend weighing at the same time every day and every day for a week just so you can see the normal fluctuations. Then drop back to weekly
  • FauxBoho
    FauxBoho Posts: 30 Member
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    I weigh in at the same time every week but had stopped for the month I did the Whole30 as that is a part of the rules. I didn't lift or eat anything high in sodium the day before.

    I can't decide if I should increase my carbs & lower my fat or vice versa. Currently on low carbs & high fat. Was going to add back legumes & things like quinoa so I could increase my carbs but am now unsure. I don't want to over engineer my weight loss but I feel like I don't have a choice. All the other Mums who did this with me lost about 5kgs. I lost the least. I was also the only one who worked out. All cardio (HIIT) and some knee push ups so I can't have gained too much muscle.

    Not sure if I mentioned my daughter is 18 months old so I am well and truely over the infant stage.
  • FauxBoho
    FauxBoho Posts: 30 Member
    edited August 2016
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    ninerbuff wrote: »
    You did say you're on week 2 of a new exercise program? It's NOT unusual to GAIN weight when starting a new workout program. 5-7lbs is average.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
    9285851.png

    Yes I'm on week 2 of the pretraining part of BBG. Goes for 4 weeks before starting the real deal for 12 weeks.

  • FauxBoho
    FauxBoho Posts: 30 Member
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    SusanMFindlay wrote: »
    First of all, I'm going to disagree with the advice to stop working out.

    But I am going to suggest that that advice may have come from a place of "you just had a baby; you have so much on your plate right now; don't stress yourself out too much".

    I don't know how old your baby is now, but it's pretty common for new mums to get very little sleep - and not getting enough sleep tends to work against weight loss.

    So, my advice would be to keep eating healthy and working out (especially since you enjoy it), but try to stop stressing about it.

    Also, are you breastfeeding? If so, 1400 calories is likely too low and could potentially affect supply.

    Yes I'm still breastfeeding her 3 times in 24 hours. I also think breastfeeding makes it hard to lose weight. My body seems to want to hold onto as much weight as possible. Not sure if that's a thing, it's just my experience. I'm also on antidepressants & have a pretty bad history with food so my metabolism is probably working against me.

    Not making excuses just something that may be a consideration.
  • minniestar55
    minniestar55 Posts: 346 Member
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    FauxBoho wrote: »
    I should add I was also never under 1200 calories. I was generally around 1400 I would say.

    This statement explains part of the problem. Put your data into your MFP profile, give your goal, get calorie allowance, measure & weigh everything, track everything.

    However, if you are still breastfeeding, I would say be careful about reducing calories right now. Nutrition is far more important. Maybe concentrate on "healthy eating" to support baby's nutrition & growth; keep walking; once baby is weaned, then use MFP to lose the weight.
  • SusanMFindlay
    SusanMFindlay Posts: 1,804 Member
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    FauxBoho wrote: »
    Yes I'm still breastfeeding her 3 times in 24 hours. I also think breastfeeding makes it hard to lose weight. My body seems to want to hold onto as much weight as possible. Not sure if that's a thing, it's just my experience. I'm also on antidepressants & have a pretty bad history with food so my metabolism is probably working against me.

    Not making excuses just something that may be a consideration.

    Breastfeeding "burns" calories (by giving them to baby) so usually helps weight loss. Antidepressants, on the other hand, are known to make weight loss difficult. So, they are likely causing the problem.

  • kprimaverab
    kprimaverab Posts: 32 Member
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    Try weighing daily. Sometimes your weight spikes at random times (especially for us women). I started weighing daily and tracking my daily weightloss trend. Some days it says i lost 16 some days its 14.. I imagine the same type of thing might be happening to you. As well... Your body holds on to water weight and fat storage to produce breast milk. Tough through it and I'm sure the pounds will show on the scale. Do you feel at all different in your clothes?
  • Shan_Lindsay
    Shan_Lindsay Posts: 60 Member
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    If you are breastfeeding and only eating about 1400 calories, then you are probably not eating enough. As a previous poster said, it burns calories. I would log everything in MFP and I believe it has a breast feeding option, and you will probably see that you need to eat more calories.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,372 Member
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    You didn't weigh yourself in 7 weeks. You could have lost more but just happen to retain water today (which is pretty common when you start exercising again by the way)... weigh more often.

    And make sure you're using the right entries as well - weighing food is fantastic but if you're using the wrong entries (raw instead of cooked etc) you could be way off.

  • sutt0117
    sutt0117 Posts: 10 Member
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    It's all essentially calories in vs. calories out. If you are taking more calories in than you are expending out, then you are likely going to gain. In order to lose fat, you need to put your body in a deficit. @erindimondfitness on Instagram is a great resource
  • ryry_
    ryry_ Posts: 4,966 Member
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    FauxBoho wrote: »
    SusanMFindlay wrote: »
    First of all, I'm going to disagree with the advice to stop working out.

    But I am going to suggest that that advice may have come from a place of "you just had a baby; you have so much on your plate right now; don't stress yourself out too much".

    I don't know how old your baby is now, but it's pretty common for new mums to get very little sleep - and not getting enough sleep tends to work against weight loss.

    So, my advice would be to keep eating healthy and working out (especially since you enjoy it), but try to stop stressing about it.

    Also, are you breastfeeding? If so, 1400 calories is likely too low and could potentially affect supply.

    Yes I'm still breastfeeding her 3 times in 24 hours. I also think breastfeeding makes it hard to lose weight. My body seems to want to hold onto as much weight as possible. Not sure if that's a thing, it's just my experience. I'm also on antidepressants & have a pretty bad history with food so my metabolism is probably working against me.

    Not making excuses just something that may be a consideration.

    Breastfeeding actually increases your metabolic rate but can also increase fluid retention (so milk can be made on demand). Also, you might be storing more weight in your breasts to feed baby. Throw in your menstrual cycle and this could be some temporary water weight masking real progress. I would start monitoring your weight more consistently from where you are. I can drop 5 lbs in from one day to the next with little rhyme or reason.
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
    edited August 2016
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    Antidepressants in and of themselves do not cause weight gain, they can cause appetite increase which in turn causes weight gain.

    Were you tracking religiously on Whole 30? There could be an issue there.

    I'll offer my own anecdote though. I often go 2-5 weeks with no loss, I just have a lot of natural fluctuations. This week I am hovering 2-3lbs above my lowest weight because of a little more exercise than usual, wine which i don't often have, bacon which is salty and just other normal stuff. Is it frustrating? Sure. But i trust the process, it will sort itself out as long as i stay consistent. And in the last three months I have dropped nearly a dress size whilst taking a diet break and only being 1lb lower than my prior low weight before that. So it's happening, the scale just doesn't tell the whole story. I need a good 8 weeks to get a real picture of what I'm doing.

    Edit: And I know all this because I weigh daily and track the trend with Happy Scale. I'd have missed a bunch of new low weights if I only weighed once a week.

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