Gained a pound despite eating under

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halimaiqbal00
halimaiqbal00 Posts: 288 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm 5' 7, 32 years old and female. I weigh 156 pounds and want to lose 6 pounds to get to my goal of 10 stones. I workout 3x a week for 45 min, lifting heavy Kettlebells (16 and 20kg) and for fun, a two hour brisk walk on a Saturday. I've been eating between 1500-1700 calories for the past 3 weeks and had lost 1 pound in the first two weeks and then gained it back in the last week. My diet is varied and I don't eat much junk at all, or high sodium, processed foods. Am I eating too little? Not sure where I'm going wrong but it's very disheartening. I know the scale weight should be the be all and end all but nonetheless, it's awful seeing it go up when I'm putting all the effort in. Measuring does not motivate me like the scale does. At all. Knowing I have to weigh in once a week holds me accountable. Any suggestions?
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Replies

  • maidengirl_
    maidengirl_ Posts: 284 Member
    edited October 2016
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    Eat in deficiency. Weigh/measure and accurately log your food. It's only been 3 weeks and you don't have that much to lose as you are already in a healthy weight range for your height. Weight loss is not linear and you will not lose each week. Good luck.
  • gillie80
    gillie80 Posts: 214 Member
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    try adjusting your fitness/diet profile to lower calories. you wont be eating too little if you're gaining, but like Maidengirl said you've only been doing this a few weeks. you need to give your body time to adjust. make sure you're drinking your 2 litres a day of water. it really helps.

    give yourself a chance and don't stress. it will come off. it may be slow as you are already in the healthy range but you'll get there.

    good luck :)
  • fr33sia12
    fr33sia12 Posts: 1,258 Member
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    Looking at your food diary you don't seem to weigh everything you eat, for example 1 egg or 1 slice of bread, which then makes me wonder what else you don't weigh. Also there's days where you haven't entered a meal at lunch or snack. Weigh and log everything you eat no matter how small.
  • BenWatford86
    BenWatford86 Posts: 3 Member
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    There are many more elements that make this up which could account for this. Muscle mass increases could account for the basis of stable / maintaining weight, or even putting on weight as you are increasing muscle mass with your workouts. fr33sia12 is right, you do need to log everything effectively, but you can also get to points where your body adjusts to a homeostasis to maintain it's weight based on caloric intake. Start with measuring everything, see if that makes a difference, if you don't then see if you get visual differences in how you look - that could be your lean muscle mass vs. fat.
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    edited October 2016
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    Its been only three weeks and actually you lost 1 pound... that the gain is (1 lb) is water weight/fluctuations and not a real fat gain. Its impossible to gain (fat) weight in a calorie deficit.

    If you are not in a calorie deficit by having sub par logging (weighing your food intake and have logging inaccuracies), need to work on this.

    You are not logging food every day, and you seem to work hard on eating under your calorie goal each day. need to work on meeting the goal, not trying to beat the goal. If you are set to 1450, 1500 calories to lose X pounds a week, eat those calories, not less.

    You are only compounding your efforts by trying to do this more aggressive than needed.

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  • halimaiqbal00
    halimaiqbal00 Posts: 288 Member
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    I have to weigh a medium egg out? I'm sure the calicoes of a medium hen egg are pretty much the same everywhere. The bread is weighed. It's a uk brand that I scanned. I accurately weigh everything
  • halimaiqbal00
    halimaiqbal00 Posts: 288 Member
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    Thanks for the replies guys. I follow weight watchers and log on here from time to time to make sure that my calorie intake is below what I've set it to, which is why there are days I haven't filled in my diary on mfp whereas I've logged everything on my ww journal. Have been doing it religiously every day for over 6 years as well as weighing and measuring everything excluding a basic salad
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
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    gillie80 wrote: »
    try adjusting your fitness/diet profile to lower calories. you wont be eating too little if you're gaining, but like Maidengirl said you've only been doing this a few weeks. you need to give your body time to adjust. make sure you're drinking your 2 litres a day of water. it really helps.

    give yourself a chance and don't stress. it will come off. it may be slow as you are already in the healthy range but you'll get there.

    good luck :)

    No to do adjust calories lower. This is bad advice.

    OP you are already under eating the calorie deficit. For example one day this week I saw 1000+ out of the 1600 calories goal... Your deficit is already at the 1600, your goal is to NOT go under this number.

    You compounding weight loss by under eating.
  • halimaiqbal00
    halimaiqbal00 Posts: 288 Member
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    Thanks RoxieDawn, very informative! I think I'll amp up my calories to 1700 a day and nothing under, and see how I fare. Does that sound ok?
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    edited October 2016
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    halimaiqbal00 wrote: »
    Thanks RoxieDawn, very informative! I think I'll amp up my calories to 1700 a day and nothing under, and see how I fare. Does that sound ok?

    Yes.. I promise if you stick to the calorie goal each day to lose X pounds, and carefully weigh and log your food intake every day, things will move along just nicely...

    And if you get into a rut, take a look back at the chart and see if there are things you need to double check or reassess.

    You got this!!!! :)
  • gillie80
    gillie80 Posts: 214 Member
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    RoxieDawn wrote: »
    gillie80 wrote: »
    try adjusting your fitness/diet profile to lower calories. you wont be eating too little if you're gaining, but like Maidengirl said you've only been doing this a few weeks. you need to give your body time to adjust. make sure you're drinking your 2 litres a day of water. it really helps.

    give yourself a chance and don't stress. it will come off. it may be slow as you are already in the healthy range but you'll get there.

    good luck :)

    No to do adjust calories lower. This is bad advice.

    OP you are already under eating the calorie deficit. For example one day this week I saw 1000+ out of the 1600 calories goal... Your deficit is already at the 1600, your goal is to NOT go under this number.

    You compounding weight loss by under eating.

    sorry, i didn't mean lower calories, i meant lower weight loss. thanks for spotting that RoxieDawn.
  • TreyTnt9
    TreyTnt9 Posts: 104 Member
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    ConicalFern wrote: »
    C'mon you can log adequately without weighing eggs or slices of bread.
    Weight fluctuates. Everyone has their preference, but I weigh myself every day and look at the average, rather than doing it once a week. Be patient, keep logging accurately and the weight will come of.
    I agree, that was ridiculous advice. Weighing foods is important when it comes to many foods, but weighing eggs or a slice of toast is needless, and would not account for lack of weight loss.

  • MeganCannon
    MeganCannon Posts: 29 Member
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    I am a big proponent of weighing daily (particularly for women) because weight fluctuations are such a normal thing. Drinking and not peeing much before you weigh makes a huge difference!
  • fr33sia12
    fr33sia12 Posts: 1,258 Member
    edited October 2016
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    ConicalFern wrote: »
    fr33sia12 wrote: »
    Looking at your food diary you don't seem to weigh everything you eat, for example 1 egg or 1 slice of bread, which then makes me wonder what else you don't weigh. Also there's days where you haven't entered a meal at lunch or snack. Weigh and log everything you eat no matter how small.

    C'mon you can log adequately without weighing eggs or slices of bread.

    Weight fluctuates. Everyone has their preference, but I weigh myself every day and look at the average, rather than doing it once a week. Be patient, keep logging accurately and the weight will come of.

    If you read my whole post I did say "which makes me wonder what else you don't weigh" like dressings on salads, sauces etc. I was only giving examples of what I saw in OP food diary. Also when you only have a few pounds to lose and are not losing any weight even though you think you're eating at a deficit, obviously something is wrong and it could be something as small as not weighing a few foods and over estimating your calories, which all adds up.
    My bread is supposed to be 33g a slice I weigh it and sometimes it's only 25g ok that's not much, but add that up over a few weeks/months and along with other foods you don't think you need to weigh, again, it all adds up.
  • fr33sia12
    fr33sia12 Posts: 1,258 Member
    edited October 2016
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    snowflake954 wrote: »
    halimaiqbal00 wrote: »
    I have to weigh a medium egg out? I'm sure the calicoes of a medium hen egg are pretty much the same everywhere. The bread is weighed. It's a uk brand that I scanned. I accurately weigh everything

    I was surprised when I began to weigh eggs. They vary alot and have quite a few calories. A medium egg can vary, so I suggest weighing and find an entry for eggs that has it in grams. My medium egg is 64g. Take nothing for granted.

    thanks, glad to know I'm not the only one.
    TreyTnt9 wrote: »
    ConicalFern wrote: »
    C'mon you can log adequately without weighing eggs or slices of bread.
    Weight fluctuates. Everyone has their preference, but I weigh myself every day and look at the average, rather than doing it once a week. Be patient, keep logging accurately and the weight will come of.
    I agree, that was ridiculous advice. Weighing foods is important when it comes to many foods, but weighing eggs or a slice of toast is needless, and would not account for lack of weight loss.

    Obviously not ridiculous advice as others have noticed the same.
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
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    healthygreek wrote: »
    TreyTnt9 wrote: »
    ConicalFern wrote: »
    C'mon you can log adequately without weighing eggs or slices of bread.
    Weight fluctuates. Everyone has their preference, but I weigh myself every day and look at the average, rather than doing it once a week. Be patient, keep logging accurately and the weight will come of.
    I agree, that was ridiculous advice. Weighing foods is important when it comes to many foods, but weighing eggs or a slice of toast is needless, and would not account for lack of weight loss.
    I respectfully disagree. I don't weigh eggs but I do weigh bread slices. I've found a large discrepancy in my bread weights! Some slices by as much as 50g!

    What bread slices are you buying where slices are off 50 grams?

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