Low calories, but gaining...
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emilycarroll0327
Posts: 7 Member
I've been struggling a lot recently because I've been seeing my weight slowly creep back up. I started at 185 and then dropped down to about 162, and I've kept my calories the same and everything was okay, but soon I started to gain weight on the amount of calories I'm eating (1200), despite exercising harder and tracking my food with much more detail. After I got back up to 166, I increased my calories to see if that was doing anything, and it just made it worse for about a week, and decreasing my calories had no affect. How do I stop gaining? It doesn't make any sense to me?
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Replies
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Calories are too low!!!!!! Way too low, also what are your macros?
1200 calories is the minimal amount to survive, you're body is probably holding on to as much as it can because you aren't giving it enough also whats your diet look like, how much water are you drinking? What was your diet like before you started your weight loss journey?0 -
What time period are we talking about? Weeks? Months?1
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Siran12001 wrote: »What time period are we talking about? Weeks? Months?
This was over about 2 months that I lost the weight, so I lost the 20 pounds over that time period. I started gaining weight steadily over the last 3 weeks.0 -
Calories are too low!!!!!! Way too low, also what are your macros?
1200 calories is the minimal amount to survive, you're body is probably holding on to as much as it can because you aren't giving it enough also whats your diet look like, how much water are you drinking? What was your diet like before you started your weight loss journey?
So, if I increase my amount enough the weight loss would eventually stop? I've been trying to increase but it only seems to make it worse, and more rapid. Prior my diet was absolute crap, basically I'd eat anything. I'd estimate I cut the fat back by over half and increased protein. I mainly eat a lot of vegetables and lean meat.0 -
How are you measuring your food intake? Digital kitchen scale? Are you double checking mfp food macros for accuracy?1
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LazyNightOwl wrote: »How are you measuring your food intake? Digital kitchen scale? Are you double checking mfp food macros for accuracy?
I do measure food out regularly like that, and it has been working every time I have tried to lose weight, but I've never started to gain before now. I add up the macros myself as well, as well as tracking them on here.
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More and harder exercise might just lead to water retention to heal injured muscles. If you changed your diet to more carbs can lead to a higher water retention. Weight loss is not linear and three weeks really is not long enough to even count as a plateau. Even more so as 20 pounds in 2 months is quite the number.1
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emilycarroll0327 wrote: »Calories are too low!!!!!! Way too low, also what are your macros?
1200 calories is the minimal amount to survive, you're body is probably holding on to as much as it can because you aren't giving it enough also whats your diet look like, how much water are you drinking? What was your diet like before you started your weight loss journey?
So, if I increase my amount enough the weight loss would eventually stop? I've been trying to increase but it only seems to make it worse, and more rapid. Prior my diet was absolute crap, basically I'd eat anything. I'd estimate I cut the fat back by over half and increased protein. I mainly eat a lot of vegetables and lean meat.
You need to establish healthy maintenance calories, this will take longer than a couple weeks and yes you might gain a little weight back but in the long run this will help especially with plateaus ...
At so much of a deficit (1200 cals) you of course lost weight, but now your body is retaining water and probably fat and as much as it can because of the lack of nutrition your giving it
You need to find out what your true daily caloric intake should be, stick to it for 4- 6 weeks, eat HEALTHY maybe even low carbs to help with the water retention and drink AT LEAST a gallon of water a day.
With proper diet and exercise you should start losing the weight again with a higher caloric intake, and with higher calories as your maintenance you will have room to go on a deficit once you plateau and it will be comfortable
Try to remember that losng weight, and getting healthy is not a quick and easy thing, it takes time and there will be failures, thrive off of them and push yourself hard everyday. You've lost so much in such a short period of time already, yes you will gain a few of those pounds back but once you get your calories up, sort out your macros and get to it in a safe and healthy manner the loss will last as long as you stick to it, also remember weight can and usually will fluctuate day to day, make sure you weigh yourself first thing in the morning and don't weigh yourself everyday, set ONE day out of the week and every week thats the day you wake up and weigh in!!!!2 -
emilycarroll0327 wrote: »Calories are too low!!!!!! Way too low, also what are your macros?
1200 calories is the minimal amount to survive, you're body is probably holding on to as much as it can because you aren't giving it enough also whats your diet look like, how much water are you drinking? What was your diet like before you started your weight loss journey?
So, if I increase my amount enough the weight loss would eventually stop? I've been trying to increase but it only seems to make it worse, and more rapid. Prior my diet was absolute crap, basically I'd eat anything. I'd estimate I cut the fat back by over half and increased protein. I mainly eat a lot of vegetables and lean meat.
You need to establish healthy maintenance calories, this will take longer than a couple weeks and yes you might gain a little weight back but in the long run this will help especially with plateaus ...
At so much of a deficit (1200 cals) you of course lost weight, but now your body is retaining water and probably fat and as much as it can because of the lack of nutrition your giving it
You need to find out what your true daily caloric intake should be, stick to it for 4- 6 weeks, eat HEALTHY maybe even low carbs to help with the water retention and drink AT LEAST a gallon of water a day.
With proper diet and exercise you should start losing the weight again with a higher caloric intake, and with higher calories as your maintenance you will have room to go on a deficit once you plateau and it will be comfortable
Try to remember that losng weight, and getting healthy is not a quick and easy thing, it takes time and there will be failures, thrive off of them and push yourself hard everyday. You've lost so much in such a short period of time already, yes you will gain a few of those pounds back but once you get your calories up, sort out your macros and get to it in a safe and healthy manner the loss will last as long as you stick to it, also remember weight can and usually will fluctuate day to day, make sure you weigh yourself first thing in the morning and don't weigh yourself everyday, set ONE day out of the week and every week thats the day you wake up and weigh in!!!!
Thank you, I will try doing that.0 -
emilycarroll0327 wrote: »Calories are too low!!!!!! Way too low, also what are your macros?
1200 calories is the minimal amount to survive, you're body is probably holding on to as much as it can because you aren't giving it enough also whats your diet look like, how much water are you drinking? What was your diet like before you started your weight loss journey?
So, if I increase my amount enough the weight loss would eventually stop? I've been trying to increase but it only seems to make it worse, and more rapid. Prior my diet was absolute crap, basically I'd eat anything. I'd estimate I cut the fat back by over half and increased protein. I mainly eat a lot of vegetables and lean meat.
You need to establish healthy maintenance calories, this will take longer than a couple weeks and yes you might gain a little weight back but in the long run this will help especially with plateaus ...
At so much of a deficit (1200 cals) you of course lost weight, but now your body is retaining water and probably fat and as much as it can because of the lack of nutrition your giving it
You need to find out what your true daily caloric intake should be, stick to it for 4- 6 weeks, eat HEALTHY maybe even low carbs to help with the water retention and drink AT LEAST a gallon of water a day.
With proper diet and exercise you should start losing the weight again with a higher caloric intake, and with higher calories as your maintenance you will have room to go on a deficit once you plateau and it will be comfortable
Try to remember that losng weight, and getting healthy is not a quick and easy thing, it takes time and there will be failures, thrive off of them and push yourself hard everyday. You've lost so much in such a short period of time already, yes you will gain a few of those pounds back but once you get your calories up, sort out your macros and get to it in a safe and healthy manner the loss will last as long as you stick to it, also remember weight can and usually will fluctuate day to day, make sure you weigh yourself first thing in the morning and don't weigh yourself everyday, set ONE day out of the week and every week thats the day you wake up and weigh in!!!!
Thank you! I will try doing all that stuff.1 -
No problem!!!
Hope it helps a little, don't give up. It's all a learning process but as long as you keep pushing forward it'll all workout, remember a baby step forward is still a step forward0 -
How have you been weighing yourself? It has been getting gradually colder for the past two months and I became more reluctant to strip for a weigh in. I have gradually "gained" 5 lbs that I lost instantly yesterday plus a couple more once I decided out of curiosity to weigh in nekkid like I did in the summer.
Give it another month of very accurate logging, closely sticking to your calories, and typical exercise (don't increase intensity or change routine) and see how your body reacts. It's fairly likely your weight will drop back down again. If there is still an issue and you keep gaining, a visit to the doctor may be warranted. A friend of mine had an ovarian cyst the size of a grapefruit removed that she wasn't even aware she had because she had enough belly fat to hide the growth and oddly had no symptoms until it grew large in size.0 -
There are so many reasons (other than food) why we as females (I'm assuming your female) could gain weight. ToM is a big factor, I can put on up to 5lb in the run up to the event itself and then lose it again overnight. Add water retention from exercise/training/higher salt in to the mix and I can gain and lose 7lb over a week. I only record my weight when it hits a new low, just keeping an eye on the fluctuations so I know what factors are going to affect the number on the scales. I also measure (bust/waist/hips/upper arm/thigh) and if the scale either hasn't been moving or seems to be going in the wrong direction, I'll often see a reduction in one of those numbers.0
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I can fluctuate up to 5lbs in a day. Not a big deal and it has nothing to do with actual fat gains. If you're adding new exercsie/bumping up your routine you're going to experience water retention. And then there's a bunch of other things that can cause the scale to go up, that aren't fat gains-hormones/pms/tom/, digestion periods, constipation, batteries going bad on scale, sodium intake/water retention, etc etc. Heck, I weight more after I take a shower lol.
The Only thing needed for weight loss is to eat at the appropriate calorie deficit for your weigh goals. I'd rerun your current stats through MFP, set your goal for 1lb a week, and then just be patient. Look at monthly weight trends, not daily or even weekly.1 -
What have I read in this thread????
OP, what are your stats?
While 1200 is likely too low, it is not in any way a minimal amount needed to survive. There is no such thing as your body holding onto fat because you're eating too little.
I'll leave this here. Look over it and see if it helps.
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Your weight gain was probably water retention, as you were losing weight just fine with that. Eating more to lose more will NEVER work.
Either way, there's no way anyone would gain weight on 1200 calories unless they're 70 and sedentary or something.2
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