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I'm slowly gaining again??
mariesofi4108
Posts: 31 Member
Hi everyone! I've lost 26 pound in total in about half a year. I'm a 5'6 female. I run about 30 miles a week, and try to eat clean with 1400-1600 calories a day. I used to be around 127, but over the past month I gained a half pound of fat. No big deal, I was stress eating over finals and maybe didn't track as precisely as I thought. However, this week it fluctuated between 128 and 129, and after a binge of 2,000 ish yesterday (we bought groceries for a BBQ today) I weighed in at 130! I know it's probably water weight but I can't help feeling concerned that my weight is going to keep ballooning.... any advice? I don't want to keep slipping 
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Replies
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Go back to 1400-1600.
You have to make adjustments when things are going in a direction you don't want.5 -
I think you are overthinking it. All of us have off days. And if you had BBQ stuff, you probably ate a lot of sodium. Just make sure you are getting all your water in and it will flush out. I definitely don't freak out about daily weights personally, because my body fluctuates day to day. I use it as a guide to know what my body likes or doesn't like.8
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Set a 5 lb maintenance range for yourself to allow for fluctuations, such as 127-132. When you get to the top of the range, start eating at a 250 cal deficit until you're back to mid range. Do this even if you think the top of the range is water weight. You might only need to do the deficit for a few days if it is water weight, but it's one way to help keep things in check.17
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So from 127-130 is ballooning now?
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So from 127-130 is ballooning now?
And 2000 calories is a binge.....
OP - your weight will only continue to edge up slowly if you consistently eat over maintenance calories.
So much unnecessary anxiety in your post, you really need to resolve that for long term HAPPY maintenance.18 -
At your height and with that much running you should easily be able to eat more than 1600 cals to maintain.
And echoing what everyone else has said.6 -
When you get outside your target range, set a calorie goal that will bring you back down within a week or two.3
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2,000 calories isn't a binge, that's going over your target a little bit and causing you to worry too much. Up your workouts a little and get back to your target and you should get back to where you want to be pretty quickly.4
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Meah, just adjust. It's probably just a couple bags of chips with high sodium caused your body to retain a shwack of water, it will go away.0
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I'm 5'6", 133, 40 year old and I walk 10-12k steps a day, maybe run 10-15 miles per week (included in my steps), and my maintenance is 1800-2100 calories per day. I know it doesn't answer your question but your calories seem really low. It could be water weight if your exercising more. I know it's been more humid this last week and I'm up 2lbs.3
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6 reasons you gained weight:
Maybe it is number 6
20 -
jaimeolive wrote: »6 reasons you gained weight:
Maybe it is number 6
Or #7 you ate too much.6 -
given your stats and the fact you run 30 miles a week makes me very doubtful that you maintain on 1400-1600 cals? especially if that figure is gross.5
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I eat 2500 a day and I am smaller than you and exercise about the same amount. I think your maintenance seems VERY low. It is probably just normal fluctuations. You weigh all your food correctly right? 1400-1600 just seems so low. I lost all my weight on that amount.6
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You are over thinking things, weight fluctuates. It should settle down again in a few days, if it keeps moving up over the next number of weeks that is when you would take action. I think you'll find its just a fluctuation though.0
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You have very similar height/weight/maintenance numbers as me... Try not to get too worked up. Our weight fluctuates for many reasons. Having a realistic maintenance range can help. Mine is 128-132.0
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Or #7 you ate too much.
This infographic is trying to address the quick gains that make everyone flip out.4 -
Nony_Mouse wrote: »At your height and with that much running you should easily be able to eat more than 1600 cals to maintain.
And echoing what everyone else has said.
yea, but she is eating clean, I thought it was impossible to eat clean and gain weight?4 -
yea, but she is eating clean, I thought it was impossible to eat clean and gain weight?
Well then she should be able to eat twice what she is and not gain!!
But in all seriousness, adding my voice to the others who are the same height and maintain on more than that, and I'm much older than you, OP.1 -
Thank everyone, it went down to 128 and up to 130 again lol! And I meet with a nutritionist on a monthly basis and she told me to eat between 1400-1600 to maintain... but I wish I could eat more and not worry about gaining. I'm told my basic metabolic rate is 1310 calories, and I'm at 26% body fat, and my goal is 23%.0
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I think you need more data/time to determine if you are actually gaining. I've been on maintenance for about 2 years now and my maintenance is more of a range than a specific number. I tend to vary between 126 and 131#. When I hit the 129/130 I do cut back slightly but generally just a day or two.
Here is my weight graph from over the last month of maintenance. The peaks are related to a meal out the day before, AF, hormone changes, etc and are generally not actually weight gain.
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mariesofi4108 wrote: »Thank everyone, it went down to 128 and up to 130 again lol! And I meet with a nutritionist on a monthly basis and she told me to eat between 1400-1600 to maintain... but I wish I could eat more and not worry about gaining. I'm told my basic metabolic rate is 1310 calories, and I'm at 26% body fat, and my goal is 23%.
If you weren't exercising 1600 might be around maintenance for you (various calculators put mine in the low 1600s if I was sedentary, I'm 45 and ~10 pounds heavier than you). But you are exercising and you need to fuel that properly. Personally, I'd start adding 100 cals a day, and keep adding another 100 per day each week until until you see gains that can't be put down to natural fluctuations.3 -
mariesofi4108 wrote: »Thank everyone, it went down to 128 and up to 130 again lol! And I meet with a nutritionist on a monthly basis and she told me to eat between 1400-1600 to maintain... but I wish I could eat more and not worry about gaining. I'm told my basic metabolic rate is 1310 calories, and I'm at 26% body fat, and my goal is 23%.
Girl, I gain 2 lbs between breakfast and lunch! Don't over think it. Maybe you should get a Fitbit or A quality heart rate monitor so you can learn how many calories you are actually burning in a day? Our maintenance calories for a sedentary lifestyle with zero exercise is 1600 calories but exercise changes that. Seriously, my height, weight, and BF are the same as yours, but I run half the distance per week you run, and I burn a minimum of 2000 calories per day (which I learned from using my Fitbit Charge 2 religiously for 5 months).4 -
mariesofi4108 wrote: »Thank everyone, it went down to 128 and up to 130 again lol! And I meet with a nutritionist on a monthly basis and she told me to eat between 1400-1600 to maintain... but I wish I could eat more and not worry about gaining. I'm told my basic metabolic rate is 1310 calories, and I'm at 26% body fat, and my goal is 23%.
Scooby estimates your BMR (I assumed 18 yo, the differences will be small if you're a bit older. If you ARE <19yo we don't even know if you're done growing and the models we are using may well be under-estimating your energy needs)... at 1406. And your SEDENTARY maintenance at 1687.
Clearly you're not sedentary. Thus either you misunderstood the nutritionist, or he has data we don't have about you, or he is out to lunch... and dining on your food!
Now, I can see a nutritionist assuming you're more active than sedentary and giving you that range as a way to lose weight, counting on your additional energy expenditure to generate a deficit.
Note too that the nutritionist seems to have used the Katch-McArdle formula which takes into account lean body mass and does not take into account age. This results in a lower caloric estimate for yourself than the widely used Mifflin-St Jeor formula MFP and Fitbit use as their base.
This is in part based on your 26% body fat estimate which of course is very questionable as to its accuracy. As Scooby says in terms of which formula you ought to be leaning towards: "If you are fairly muscular and lean (4-pack abs or better), I would recommend the Katch-McArdle formula. If you are just starting on your fitness journey and are not yet strong or lean then I recommend the Mifflin-St Jeor equation." The reason being that Katch-McArdle under-estimate the energy requirements of maintaining non lean mass, which are not actually zero.
Anyway. Back to you, OP.
First of all the level of worry over a lb or two is disconcerting. Your weight is expected to move around. If you're not already using one start using Libra or Happy Scale or www.trendweight.com or www.weightgrapher.com or use some other averaging to look at weight trends as opposed to daily weights.
Second look for thread called: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/113609/relatively-light-people-trying-to-get-leaner
Third realise that you're at a BMI of 21 and young.
To me this means that you should fuel your activity. Build your strength. Move more. Eat to the maximum that you can without clearly regaining weight as opposed to looking to lose. The example of adding 100 Cal a week till you see clear evidence of persistent gains before backing off has already been given...4 -
I'm trying to loose 43 more pounds. I have lost 80 but put back on 24! I was so close to my goal! Then stress and life hit me hard! Need some motivation!0
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amanda102815 wrote: »I'm trying to loose 43 more pounds. I have lost 80 but put back on 24! I was so close to my goal! Then stress and life hit me hard! Need some motivation!
@amanda102815 Were you practically starving yourself to lose the 80? That's the reason most people crash and burn. Instead, setting a sustainable weekly weight loss goal is a great step towards sticking to your plan long enough to lose the weight you want.
Check out the General Weight Loss section (this thread we're posting in is in the Maintaining Weight section) and read the posts in the Must Reads sticky thread.
http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10300319/most-helpful-posts-general-diet-and-weight-loss-help-must-reads2 -
Don't stress it. A couple lbs of a weight fluctuation mixed within a "binge" of only a few hundred more calories is going to be prevelant. Just take your caloric intake back down to 1400-1600 range that you were at before, keep working out, and you will level back out to your range in the matter of a few days!1
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Thank you everyone! I went down to 126 lbs, a number I haven't seen in a while, so super pumped.1
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mariesofi4108 wrote: »Thank you everyone! I went down to 126 lbs, a number I haven't seen in a while, so super pumped.
Those days are great! I was at 135 on Monday (first day back from a week vacation), then down to 131 today (lower than pre-vacation average of 133). Don't stress if it creeps up again over the next couple days. For me, these drops are cyclical and happen mid-monthly cycle. My maintenance range is 130-135 so I'm expecting it to settle in around 132-133 by the middle of next week.2 -
mariesofi4108 wrote: »... but I wish I could eat more and not worry about gaining. I'm told my basic metabolic rate is 1310 calories, and I'm at 26% body fat, and my goal is 23%.
Lift weights and do what you can to build muscle. I can eat about 500 calories more than what MFP recommends to maintain because I am muscular. It's awesome!0
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