Gaining inches???

amyoliver85 · February 2017

Hi all,

Usually I'm the one providing some sound advice, but I am stumped with what is going on with my body. This is pretty long, but I felt like it's important to help let you guys know what I've noticed and what I've been doing right so you can help me to identify what I've started doing wrong.

I was burning fat steadily and losing inches until November. At that time I hit a plateau and was not worried about it. Plateaus happen. I continued to work out and eat right. I track my calories and I track my workouts religiously. I track my food by weighing it to the gram, and I use a personal HRM on my body to track workouts. So I'm about as close to the right numbers as you can get.

In December, my clothes started to feel tight. I hadn't done measurements in about a month and when I did them, I was pretty shocked that I had gained inches. Not just a little bit, but a lot. I did some research and have tried to adjust everything I could think of. But just weighed and took measurements this morning, and again I have gained inches and gained pounds. I have gone from a clean size 10 to a 12/14 in just over 2 months with no idea how this is happening.

I eat pretty healthy. My maintenance calories with no exercise are 1,573. So I cut to a base of 1,200 or non-workout days and I eat back the exercise deficit on exercise days. I eat a lot of non-processed foods, and I don't eat much dairy or wheat because I seem to have a bad reaction to those foods. I get pretty close on the right mix of protein, carbs, fat, etc.

I know for certain that I am not pregnant.

My workouts typically consist of 26-30 minutes on an elliptical for the cardio component and then 30 minutes of weights. I also typically walk about 8,500 - 10,000 steps per day. My daily burn is anywhere from 400 - 600 depending on what muscles I am working during the weights component. I also try to keep my cardio up during the weights portion by running 2-3 laps inbetween every set.

I'm not a stress eater but have been feeling kind of stressed. I also have been feeling really fatigued for about the last month and I wondered if I was experiencing Seasonal Affective Disorder because I have experienced that in the past, but have not experienced weight gain with that. Getting outside is particularly difficult at this time of year because I live in Utah (yesterday it was 55 and relatively sunny, and today it's 30 and so freezing you can barely move), and I work in a facility that has no outside light coming in.

My boyfriend and I went away for three days on a hiking trip to Zions National Park to try to get some sun and fresh air (away from the inversion in the city) thinking it would do me a lot of good, but I felt really tired the whole time, and of course, the sun wasn't out

What I'm really looking for is to understand whether other people have experienced this. Is this an instance where this is happening for no reason and I should just soldier on and it will right itself? Or should I be involving my primary care physician? Or is there something else I am missing? Is there maybe some sort of daily vitamin combination I should be using to better support my body? I currently take the Thrive daily for Women but I just am not sure if I'm missing some critical component for health somewhere.

Anybody who has had similar experiences would be really helpful to me. This is very disheartening to experience when I have been working so hard.

swingsnatchlift · February 2017

How is your sleep? Plays a big part for me.

And, what kind of weight training are you going? Barbell work? Machines? How hard do you push yourself? Do you ever take deload weeks? And, why are you doing cardio in between weight sets? For instance, I am deadlifting, I want to use my rest time to rest and not run. The purpose is for recovery.

How many days a week are you working out?

Do you religiously weigh your food?

How much protein are you eating every day?

quiksylver296 · February 2017

Are you eating back all your exercise calories? Even with a HRM, the number may not be accurate. Common recommendation here on MFP is to only eat back 50% of your exercise calories.

400-600 calories for an hour of weight lifting seems WAY high to me. I get about 160 calories for an hour. HRMs don't work for weight lifting.

I've read your post twice, and would definitely start by cutting back on the amount of exercise calories you are eating back.

sbrandt37 · February 2017

Most people consider the calorie burn estimates for workouts to be too high. If you were eating back 100% of your workout calories, you might have been eating more than maintenance.

amyoliver85 · February 2017

quiksylver296 wrote: »

Are you eating back all your exercise calories? Even with a HRM, the number may not be accurate. Common recommendation here on MFP is to only eat back 50% of your exercise calories.

400-600 calories for an hour of weight lifting seems WAY high to me. I get about 160 calories for an hour. HRMs don't work for weight lifting.

I've read your post twice, and would definitely start by cutting back on the amount of exercise calories you are eating back.

sbrandt37 wrote: »

Most people consider the calorie burn estimates for workouts to be too high. If you were eating back 100% of your workout calories, you might have been eating more than maintenance.

As I mentioned in my OP, I am only weight lifting for 30 minutes. Most of that calorie burn comes from the cardio at the beginning and inbetween sets. I get concerned about eating too few calories. Even if I cut back to say 400 of the 600, that puts me above maintenance calories, but if I only eat back enough to hit maintenance levels, that could put me at a major muscle-eating deficit. Nothing is perfect, but even if I'm eating all of my exercise calories, with deficit and maintenance taken into account, and even a little HRM error, I would never be eating enough to gain a half inch or more per week around my waist, which is what is happening, plus part-inches everywhere else, too. I'm not against giving it a try, but cutting out half of the daily burn is not really sustainable since I have to feed my muscles to keep them healthy. I'm already on a calorie deficit plan. If I was eating a maintenance plan, then it would make a lot more sense to not eat back so many exercise calories. So again, I'm not against giving the advice you've both given a try, just concerned that when I'm already on a deficit plan, eating low deficit while working out would also work against me (that's a scientific fact).

And this is also a recent development as I previously mentioned. As in, I have always used this method to control my weight and to burn fat and inches, and it just recently turned against me. That is why I am searching for what the other possibilities could also be.

luvmy4sps wrote: »

How is your sleep? Plays a big part for me.

And, what kind of weight training are you going? Barbell work? Machines? How hard do you push yourself? Do you ever take deload weeks? And, why are you doing cardio in between weight sets? For instance, I am deadlifting, I want to use my rest time to rest and not run. The purpose is for recovery.

How many days a week are you working out?

Do you religiously weigh your food?

How much protein are you eating every day?

As I mentioned in my OP, I religiously track everything. I work out a different body part each day of the week, 6 days a week. I can't use a barbell for upper body due a physical condition, but use hand weights. I also use body weight exercises. I use machines for lower body. I do cardio inbetween because it's a proven method for ensuring maximum response from the body to muscle workouts, especially for people whose muscles cool down too quickly during "recovery" periods. It's totally fine to do cardio between sets as long as I allow the primary muscle to rest and would not cause my workout to backfire or cause me to gain inches. My protein levels are based on my activity level. A day where I burn 600-800 calories during workouts would cause me to eat closer to 75 grams or more of protein, but a sedentary day would leave me closer to 45 grams.

When you're talking about sleep...how does that impact you? Do you find if you're more fatigued and sleeping more that you have a more difficult time with your weight? I find that I tend to sleep just fine, but by the time Noon rolls around I feel like I haven't slept in days and then when I get home, I'm about to crash. It feels awful. But then I'll go to sleep and sleep great and feel awesome in the morning and have a great workout and then the same cycle repeats itself.

amyoliver85 · February 2017

Look_Its_Kriss wrote: »

I still stand by my post despite it being completely ignored lol... good luck OP

I put in a call to my doctor after reading your comments, and her nurse just called me back a moment ago to schedule an appointment. I'm also at work and have to provide that some level of priority.

My not responding to you immediately was the product of waiting to see what my doctor had to say and my coworkers needing me. Certainly not ignoring you. I wish you had taken that possibility into consideration.

Sad that you felt the need to make the second comment but thanks for the original advice.

swingsnatchlift · February 2017

luvmy4sps wrote: »

How is your sleep? Plays a big part for me.

And, what kind of weight training are you going? Barbell work? Machines? How hard do you push yourself? Do you ever take deload weeks? And, why are you doing cardio in between weight sets? For instance, I am deadlifting, I want to use my rest time to rest and not run. The purpose is for recovery.

How many days a week are you working out?

Do you religiously weigh your food?

How much protein are you eating every day?

amyoliver85 wrote: »

As I mentioned in my OP, I religiously track everything. I work out a different body part each day of the week, 6 days a week. I can't use a barbell for upper body due a physical condition, but use hand weights. I also use body weight exercises. I use machines for lower body. I do cardio inbetween because it's a proven method for ensuring maximum response from the body to muscle workouts, especially for people whose muscles cool down too quickly during "recovery" periods. It's totally fine to do cardio between sets as long as I allow the primary muscle to rest and would not cause my workout to backfire or cause me to gain inches. My protein levels are based on my activity level. A day where I burn 600-800 calories during workouts would cause me to eat closer to 75 grams or more of protein, but a sedentary day would leave me closer to 45 grams.

When you're talking about sleep...how does that impact you? Do you find if you're more fatigued and sleeping more that you have a more difficult time with your weight? I find that I tend to sleep just fine, but by the time Noon rolls around I feel like I haven't slept in days and then when I get home, I'm about to crash. It feels awful. But then I'll go to sleep and sleep great and feel awesome in the morning and have a great workout and then the same cycle repeats itself.

1) Religiously tracking everything and weighing everything can be two different things. I can track what I believe is religiously, but it may not be accurate. For instance, I put sugar in my coffee every morning. 1 tsp of sugar is 4g per the label, but using my teaspoon it's 5. I had a protein bar today, the label indicated 60g, but when I weighed it, it was 63g. I'm early enough in my journey that it doesn't matter much, but I need to build the habit, because I know as I get closer to my goal, it's going to matter.

2) Your protein sounds really low for someone who is lifting weights. From your description I have no idea how intense these workouts are - indicating six days a week on machines tells me nothing. The rule of thumb that I use is 1 gram per pound of lean body mass. My lean body mass is 123 pounds. My goal is 130g of protein each and everyday. As I get closer to my goal, I'll have to eat more protein.

3) High quality sleep is important to recovery. Aim for 7-10 hours of quality sleep each and every night. Not enough sleep can wreak havoc on your body, especially when eating in a deficit.

My thoughts:
Are you 100% positive you're not pregnant? Until I read the part, where you said you know you're not pregnant, my thought was pregnancy. I have four kids, so I'm a little experienced in that department.

It's good you're going to see your physician.

Have you tried not working out for a week and just eating at a 500 cal or less deficit. Giving your body a break is needed sometimes.

It's hard to offer any advice beyond that because no one knows your height, weight, how much you've successfully lost so far and can see your diary. Consider the fact that your body needs a break and that you are either eating too much or eating too little.

You know how many steps you take. What are you using to track your steps? I use a Fitbit and find the daily calorie burn pretty accurate compared to the deficits I end up eating and the actual weight lost. I can only say this because I'm as exact as I can be with food logging.

Gaining inches???

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