GAINING.... HOW????

FOR OVER A WEEK, I have been eating around 1000-1100 calories (even when I have eaten out I got plain chicken breast and PLAIN green beans) and working out a bit (doing barre 3 videos online at home), how am I the same weight, even gained a little bit?


5'1. Trying to get back to about 112. 116 now, cant shake these pounds for some reason.
yes, I am weighing everything at home.

Replies

  • scarlett_k
    scarlett_k Posts: 812 Member
    How old are you?
  • xchocolategirl
    xchocolategirl Posts: 186 Member
    I was going to say you're at a healthful weight if you're trying to tone up more I would recommend body recomption you eat at maintenance and you focus more on cardio and some strength training like lifting if you want. Or you could add resistance to your cardio.

    However, since you're not losing weight I would say continue to do what you're doing food labels can underestimate by 20% and if you're not using a food scale you're most likely eating more calories than you think.

    If you're not lifting that might be a good idea. Weight loss isn't always the answer.

    Good luck!
  • peleroja
    peleroja Posts: 3,979 Member
    A week is not long enough to assess properly, especially for a woman since we tend to fluctuate a little more thanks to our hormones. Also, adding exercise when you previously didn't can cause your body to retain a little water to help repair your muscles. Furthermore, at 5'1" and 116 lbs, your maintenance calories (assuming moderate exercise) are only about 1700/day and so even on such low calories, you're not at a huge deficit (a little over a pound a week) anyway. If you're counting accurately, you will likely have lost that pound, but water retention from the new exercise program or your menstrual cycle could easily be masking it.

    If you haven't lost any weight in another two weeks or so, you can re-assess, but it's certainly too soon to be worried about it right now.
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,439 Member
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  • Tried30UserNames
    Tried30UserNames Posts: 561 Member
    It sounds like your muscles are possibly retaining some fluid from your exercise program. Give it 2-4 weeks and see what happens.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,232 Member
    edited June 2017
    psuLemon wrote: »
    There are a variety of things that can influence TEE. Severe calorie cuts and increase exercise can cause transition reductions in NEAT or other activities due to lack of calories. Its why there is so many anecdotes of people increasing calories, which has lead to more consistent weight loss. I know I did when I went from 1800 to 2300 (yes, a 500 calorie increase). Even LyLe McDonald has written about this type of phenomenon.
    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/why-big-caloric-deficits-and-lots-of-activity-can-hurt-fat-loss.html/
    And while its really earl[y], I don't think the OP is going to benefit by eating 1000-1100 calories while exercising and she is already lean. Severe calorie cuts make it hard to get adequate nutrients and at some point can cause a person to move less due to lack of energy. If anything, I'd probably start at 1500 to see if there could be a balance between enough calories in vs out.
    ndj1979 wrote: »
    1. it has only been a week
    2. you are only trying to lose four pounds which can be a bowel movement or a water weight fluctuation.

    maybe you should focus on eating at maintenance and running some kind of strength program to recomp your body some...

    Both QFT!

    It is hard to figure out how your weight is really changing. I use trendweight.com connected to a freely available without a device fitbit.com account to generate pretty pictures of what my weight is doing.

    That said you can also use www.weightgrapher.com (allows manual entry, can superimpose a user selectable previous period to visually compare weight at the same point of a monthly cycle. During setup tell it you want to maintain your weight to avoid annoying suggestions about your food and logging).

    Libra on Android. Happy Scale on iPhone.

    You don't have a lot to lose so a smaller deficit of 250 to 500 Cal a day may be more appropriate than a larger deficit. IF you add exercise to the mix, your progress may appear to be slower; however the end results will be better!


  • Luna3386
    Luna3386 Posts: 888 Member
    sweetjag74 wrote: »
    This might seem counterproductive but maybe you're not eating enough especially on workout days. I'm 5'2" and currently 113 butback when I wanted to drop a few pounds, I actually found they came off after I increased my calorie intake. I workout a lot though so it might not work the same. It's a thought though.

    When you're not losing weight, increasing your calories is never the answer. Think about it. Does that even make sense? If it did, we could all just eat more and no one would be obese. ;)

    Maybe not eating more, but we shouldn't encourage others to eat so little.

    @kas1317 what are your goals? Do you need to lose a few pounds? What about recomping? (Where you reduce body fat while keeping your weight about the same?)
  • kas1317
    kas1317 Posts: 67 Member
    scarlett_k wrote: »
    How old are you?

    31
  • kas1317
    kas1317 Posts: 67 Member
    @Luna3386 just trying to drop a few pounds. Would love to tone up but don't even know where to begin with that. Honestly I like to look good in my clothes and not feel self conscience in a bathing suit, but I don't really "care" about being super lean or ripped lol
  • Luna3386
    Luna3386 Posts: 888 Member
    kas1317 wrote: »
    @Luna3386 just trying to drop a few pounds. Would love to tone up but don't even know where to begin with that. Honestly I like to look good in my clothes and not feel self conscience in a bathing suit, but I don't really "care" about being super lean or ripped lol

    From experience: sometimes confidence has nothing to do with how many pounds you lose. It's learned.
  • Chieflrg
    Chieflrg Posts: 9,097 Member
    musicfan68 wrote: »
    People REALLY need to quit telling people to eat MORE! More makes you gain weight!

    Not always, when eating in a deficit so extreme your TDEE drops.
  • dragon_girl26
    dragon_girl26 Posts: 2,187 Member
    Chieflrg wrote: »
    musicfan68 wrote: »
    People REALLY need to quit telling people to eat MORE! More makes you gain weight!

    Not always, when eating in a deficit so extreme your TDEE drops.

    Agreed, though OP has only been at this for a week. Not nearly long enough to worry about that.
  • peleroja
    peleroja Posts: 3,979 Member
    Chieflrg wrote: »
    musicfan68 wrote: »
    People REALLY need to quit telling people to eat MORE! More makes you gain weight!

    Not always, when eating in a deficit so extreme your TDEE drops.

    She's in like a 500-750 calorie deficit at the absolute max...reasonably aggressive for an already light woman but certainly not "extreme." This is not a woman with a 2500+ TDEE, she's already petite and her maintenance calories are well under 2000, unfortunately.

    I'm in this situation too (maintaining though) and the only thing that makes it possible for me to maintain is doing a lot of exercise so I can eat more, because a life lived forever on 1600 calories a day can get a little frustrating when sometimes I want to drink wine or a latte or eat a restaurant meal while still getting appropriate macros and adequate micronutrients.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    peleroja wrote: »
    Chieflrg wrote: »
    musicfan68 wrote: »
    People REALLY need to quit telling people to eat MORE! More makes you gain weight!

    Not always, when eating in a deficit so extreme your TDEE drops.

    She's in like a 500-750 calorie deficit at the absolute max...reasonably aggressive for an already light woman but certainly not "extreme." This is not a woman with a 2500+ TDEE, she's already petite and her maintenance calories are well under 2000, unfortunately.

    I'm in this situation too (maintaining though) and the only thing that makes it possible for me to maintain is doing a lot of exercise so I can eat more, because a life lived forever on 1600 calories a day can get a little frustrating when sometimes I want to drink wine or a latte or eat a restaurant meal while still getting appropriate macros and adequate micronutrients.

    You don't have to be in an extreme deficit for your TDEE to drop. Many people find that deficits in what most consider to be the moderate range cause them to reduce NEAT calorie expenditure, sometimes to the point of obliterating the intended deficit. I don't know that this is the case with the OP but the broad statement that eating more makes you gain weight or that eating more never helps a person lose weight is an oversimplification and incorrect.
  • peleroja
    peleroja Posts: 3,979 Member
    jemhh wrote: »
    peleroja wrote: »
    Chieflrg wrote: »
    musicfan68 wrote: »
    People REALLY need to quit telling people to eat MORE! More makes you gain weight!

    Not always, when eating in a deficit so extreme your TDEE drops.

    She's in like a 500-750 calorie deficit at the absolute max...reasonably aggressive for an already light woman but certainly not "extreme." This is not a woman with a 2500+ TDEE, she's already petite and her maintenance calories are well under 2000, unfortunately.

    I'm in this situation too (maintaining though) and the only thing that makes it possible for me to maintain is doing a lot of exercise so I can eat more, because a life lived forever on 1600 calories a day can get a little frustrating when sometimes I want to drink wine or a latte or eat a restaurant meal while still getting appropriate macros and adequate micronutrients.

    You don't have to be in an extreme deficit for your TDEE to drop. Many people find that deficits in what most consider to be the moderate range cause them to reduce NEAT calorie expenditure, sometimes to the point of obliterating the intended deficit. I don't know that this is the case with the OP but the broad statement that eating more makes you gain weight or that eating more never helps a person lose weight is an oversimplification and incorrect.

    I was responding to the poster referring to OP's deficit as "so extreme", not refuting the concept that eating at a deficit can cause a drop in TDEE.
  • carnyking
    carnyking Posts: 2 Member
    Few things to consider :
    1) Try fasting. Push your breakfast later into the day, like 1PM and give yourself an eating window of 8-9 hours that means if you start at 12 you finish at 8PM or 9PM. It has many great health benefits besides helping with weight loss (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3680567/ article based on studies)
    2) Drink more water. Our body tends to store water when we lose weight so we need to flush it out, reduce sodium and carbohydrate intake and increase water consumption (aim for 3-4 litres A DAY (drink pure water not tea or coffee or any other beverage )
    Give this a try for 2-3 days. You should see the scale moving!
  • stanmann571
    stanmann571 Posts: 5,727 Member
    carnyking wrote: »
    Few things to consider :
    1) Try fasting. Push your breakfast later into the day, like 1PM and give yourself an eating window of 8-9 hours that means if you start at 12 you finish at 8PM or 9PM. It has many great health benefits besides helping with weight loss (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3680567/ article based on studies)

    It helps weight loss by reducing caloric intake... it's not magical.
    carnyking wrote: »
    2) Drink more water. Our body tends to store water when we lose weight so we need to flush it out, reduce sodium and carbohydrate intake and increase water consumption (aim for 3-4 litres A DAY (drink pure water not tea or coffee or any other beverage )
    Give this a try for 2-3 days. You should see the scale moving!

    Although water is preferred, drinking "pure water" can lead to electrolyte balance and is certainly not needed for hydration.

    You can maintain proper hydration with Tea, Diet Coke, or if your calories allow, beer.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    edited June 2017
    peleroja wrote: »
    jemhh wrote: »
    peleroja wrote: »
    Chieflrg wrote: »
    musicfan68 wrote: »
    People REALLY need to quit telling people to eat MORE! More makes you gain weight!

    Not always, when eating in a deficit so extreme your TDEE drops.

    She's in like a 500-750 calorie deficit at the absolute max...reasonably aggressive for an already light woman but certainly not "extreme." This is not a woman with a 2500+ TDEE, she's already petite and her maintenance calories are well under 2000, unfortunately.

    I'm in this situation too (maintaining though) and the only thing that makes it possible for me to maintain is doing a lot of exercise so I can eat more, because a life lived forever on 1600 calories a day can get a little frustrating when sometimes I want to drink wine or a latte or eat a restaurant meal while still getting appropriate macros and adequate micronutrients.

    You don't have to be in an extreme deficit for your TDEE to drop. Many people find that deficits in what most consider to be the moderate range cause them to reduce NEAT calorie expenditure, sometimes to the point of obliterating the intended deficit. I don't know that this is the case with the OP but the broad statement that eating more makes you gain weight or that eating more never helps a person lose weight is an oversimplification and incorrect.

    I was responding to the poster referring to OP's deficit as "so extreme", not refuting the concept that eating at a deficit can cause a drop in TDEE.

  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    carnyking wrote: »
    Few things to consider :
    1) Try fasting. Push your breakfast later into the day, like 1PM and give yourself an eating window of 8-9 hours that means if you start at 12 you finish at 8PM or 9PM. It has many great health benefits besides helping with weight loss (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3680567/ article based on studies)
    2) Drink more water. Our body tends to store water when we lose weight so we need to flush it out, reduce sodium and carbohydrate intake and increase water consumption (aim for 3-4 litres A DAY (drink pure water not tea or coffee or any other beverage )
    Give this a try for 2-3 days. You should see the scale moving!

    fasting will not make you lose weight any faster than a regular calorie deficit. yes, it is a way to control intake, but it won't magically make you lose fat any faster.