Gaining weight on 1200 calorie diet
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ladyhusker39 wrote: »Also, start using a trending app to track your weight over time.
This! I use Happy Scale and it's so useful for watching trends.1 -
A lot of things could be off, it's a bit tough to say with so little detail
- portion guesstimation does not help
- Inaccurate entries (even scanned) do not help
- The tools: have you aside from fitnesspal calculated your BMR/TDEE
- The goals: have you double checked your goal entries
- Your expectations, related to the above if you are realizing only 100Cal deficit a day you will not lose a pound of fat a week
- Increased activity, building of muscle
- (normal) fluctuations
- Increased sodium/salt intake
- Any medications ?
- …
You have to try and paint the full picture for yourself, and also give it some time, (healthy) weight gain/loss is not an overnight thing, try to pay attention and get all the details, set realistic goals and expectations and definitely give it more than 3 weeks.
Since you are already (assumed) on low intake, try to sneak in a little activity, which does not necessarily mean hardcore exercise, but can be as little as 15 minutes of extra walking a day.
Anyways good luck
, and do check in how you are progressing
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I'd also like to point out the '2 or 3 slip ups' mentioned in the OP. Nothing wrong with going over calories occasionally, but it does have an impact.3
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not sure why folks think scanning is a guarantee of accuracy.
You can scan the food and based on a serving it will log it for you but how do you know you are eating 1 serving.
You still need to measure it in some way.
Because common sense tells you to trust that it is pre-weighed along with being pre-packaged. It really shouldn't be unreasonable to expect the package to actually contain what it says it does. That's why people trust it. It is a shame that we can't trust the package - it should say exactly what is in the package....I know it doesn't but it should. Most people would assume that it's accurate.
but common sense also tells us that if the package says serving is 50 grams and the package is 340 grams then it needs portioned out...aka weigh out a serving.
And it often is exactly what it says on the package...but we aren't just talking about single servings.
For example...I scanned in my cheese sticks yesterday cause it was easy..but I still weighed out my serving as the box contained about 10 servings...my yogurt I have weighed it and now trust that the weight is within reason so I don't anymore.
This is what people don't get.
ETA: another thing I have scanned in items and it wasn't even close to waht I was eating...so yah user entered errors too2 -
Did you recently start running? Are you doing any other training along with the running? It could be that you are gaining muscle which does weigh more than fat. 4lbs isn't that drastic and could very well just be toned muscle being added. Physically how do you look? Have you compared some before and after pics?12
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dudasd1973 wrote: »Did you recently start running? Are you doing any other training along with the running? It could be that you are gaining muscle which does weigh more than fat. 4lbs isn't that drastic and could very well just be toned muscle being added. Physically how do you look? Have you compared some before and after pics?
Not going to be gaining 4lbs muscle in 3 weeks eating in a deficit.8 -
dudasd1973 wrote: »Did you recently start running? Are you doing any other training along with the running? It could be that you are gaining muscle which does weigh more than fat. 4lbs isn't that drastic and could very well just be toned muscle being added. Physically how do you look? Have you compared some before and after pics?
No.
No gaining muscle on 1200, without a progressive load lifting program or obese etc.
and not it doesn't...it takes up less space...it is more dense.
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I'm vegan and I eat around 1400 and I'm losing weight so if you are having issues you are probably eating more than you think. Also it's only been 3 weeks.0
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@mayerss2 in addition to also voting food scale and you're probably eating more than you think. You say you're eating back the calories from your running - if they are from the app they may be overestimated. Are you eating all of them back?0
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There were a couple of things I noticed in the original post.
1. You say you slipped and went way over. This could have an impact as someone else stated we all do it but it does cost you something.
2. You say you are eating back your exercise calories, this often is overestimated by MFP and most websites. Most of us only use 1/3 to 1/2 of what the program allots us for exercise.
3. You are guessing the weight of your food. This can often get you into trouble as others have explained.
4. You say you went as low as 100 lbs. That is very low unless you are extremely short. Your weight goals may be unreasonable. When you are close to goal weight it is very hard to lose because the deficit is so small. I'm only losing half a pound a week now because I only have 10 lbs left to go. You need to be patient.
You may be eating too many calories for the exercise you have done. Try cutting to 1/3 or 1/2 of what the program gives you.0 -
[1] Like others have said, weigh your food and double check the entries...the scanned items are often something completely different, and weights per item/slice can vary a lot.
[2] 20 minutes of running for a female might not be many calories. If she's not tall and near goal weight (I didn't see either listed) and runs/jogs very slow, it could be as low as 100 calories of burn.
[3] 4 lbs could merely be water weight, especially for a female.1 -
womanisadevil wrote: »You have to weigh even the packages with calories. They're horribly inaccurate.
For example my bag of popcorn says 1 package 270 calories for 50 grams.
After weighing the bag contained 67 grams.
So 1 package was actually 362 calories.
Bread and other items premade and prepackaged this happens soon much with!
You eat 4 things and BAM over 400 calories more than what you think.
This is off topic, but I keep seeing your avatar and I love it!1 -
tinkerbellang83 wrote: »dudasd1973 wrote: »Did you recently start running? Are you doing any other training along with the running? It could be that you are gaining muscle which does weigh more than fat. 4lbs isn't that drastic and could very well just be toned muscle being added. Physically how do you look? Have you compared some before and after pics?
Not going to be gaining 4lbs muscle in 3 weeks eating in a deficit.
Sorry, still a newb here. Just throwing the proverbial spaghetti on the wall to see what sticks. Apologies. I'll go back to the newb corner now5 -
So I've been following the MyFitnessPal plan for 3 weeks now and I'm not seeing any progress. I am vegan and eat pretty healthy on a daily basis. I've only had about 2-3 slip ups where I went way over my calorie goal for the day. I also run 2-3 times a week for about 20 minutes. I track my runs on the app and eat more to compensate for them. But even after doing all of these things I've managed to not lose a single pound and instead gain 4 pounds. I don't understand where the problem is. This is quite frustrating and makes me just want to quit and eat whatever I want if I'm just gonna gain weight anyway.
On top of what everyone else is saying, 3 weeks with 3 slip ups way over calories, 1 bad mess up can easily wipe out a weekly defecit, Especially if your not weighing things your likely not in defecit, So sends you into gaining. Need a scale.
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So I've been following the [blog] MyFitnessPal plan for 3 weeks now and I'm not seeing any progress. I am vegan and eat pretty healthy on a daily basis. I've only had about 2-3 slip ups where I went way over my calorie goal for the day. I also run 2-3 times a week for about 20 minutes. I track my runs on the app and eat more to compensate for them. But even after doing all of these things I've managed to not lose a single pound and instead gain 4 pounds. I don't understand where the problem is. This is quite frustrating and makes me just want to quit and eat whatever I want if I'm just gonna gain weight anyway.
First, if you're running/exercising a lot more than before, you're probably hanging onto a bunch of water. And don't weigh after exercising. Wait until a rest day or first thing in the morning.
More likely is what I bolded. If you've been at this 2 to 3 weeks and have gone "WAY over calories" 2 to 3 times, there's a good chance you've wiped out your deficit in 1 binge every week. If not wiping it out entirely, surely negated a lot of it. Of course... I don't know what your weekly loss is set to, but that pattern would be the first thing to look at correcting.
You'd be better off going over just a little for a treat a few times per week than allowing a major binge to add up to 2 or 3,000 calories at once even just once weekly.
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womanisadevil wrote: »You have to weigh even the packages with calories. They're horribly inaccurate.
For example my bag of popcorn says 1 package 270 calories for 50 grams.
After weighing the bag contained 67 grams.
So 1 package was actually 362 calories.
Bread and other items premade and prepackaged this happens soon much with!
You eat 4 things and BAM over 400 calories more than what you think.
This is off topic, but I keep seeing your avatar and I love it!
Marilyn Manson is bae.
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dudasd1973 wrote: »tinkerbellang83 wrote: »dudasd1973 wrote: »Did you recently start running? Are you doing any other training along with the running? It could be that you are gaining muscle which does weigh more than fat. 4lbs isn't that drastic and could very well just be toned muscle being added. Physically how do you look? Have you compared some before and after pics?
Not going to be gaining 4lbs muscle in 3 weeks eating in a deficit.
Sorry, still a newb here. Just throwing the proverbial spaghetti on the wall to see what sticks. Apologies. I'll go back to the newb corner now
naw..stay out of the corner.
I actually saw me saying the same thing on a post somewhere a couple of years ago...I know better now...it's a hard way to learn (being wrong) but you get the right information at least.6 -
not sure why folks think scanning is a guarantee of accuracy.
You can scan the food and based on a serving it will log it for you but how do you know you are eating 1 serving.
You still need to measure it in some way.
Because common sense tells you to trust that it is pre-weighed along with being pre-packaged. It really shouldn't be unreasonable to expect the package to actually contain what it says it does. That's why people trust it. It is a shame that we can't trust the package - it should say exactly what is in the package....I know it doesn't but it should. Most people would assume that it's accurate.
but common sense also tells us that if the package says serving is 50 grams and the package is 340 grams then it needs portioned out...aka weigh out a serving.
And it often is exactly what it says on the package...but we aren't just talking about single servings.
For example...I scanned in my cheese sticks yesterday cause it was easy..but I still weighed out my serving as the box contained about 10 servings...my yogurt I have weighed it and now trust that the weight is within reason so I don't anymore.
This is what people don't get.
ETA: another thing I have scanned in items and it wasn't even close to waht I was eating...so yah user entered errors too
Sure THOSE things have to be weighed and weighing them is common sense. But when a package says one Elevation bar is 130 calories, or two slices of bread is 90 calories, or one frozen dinner is 300 calories, I think most people assume that's what they are. It never even occurred to me to weigh one of those types of items.1 -
LadyLilion wrote: »not sure why folks think scanning is a guarantee of accuracy.
You can scan the food and based on a serving it will log it for you but how do you know you are eating 1 serving.
You still need to measure it in some way.
Because common sense tells you to trust that it is pre-weighed along with being pre-packaged. It really shouldn't be unreasonable to expect the package to actually contain what it says it does. That's why people trust it. It is a shame that we can't trust the package - it should say exactly what is in the package....I know it doesn't but it should. Most people would assume that it's accurate.
but common sense also tells us that if the package says serving is 50 grams and the package is 340 grams then it needs portioned out...aka weigh out a serving.
And it often is exactly what it says on the package...but we aren't just talking about single servings.
For example...I scanned in my cheese sticks yesterday cause it was easy..but I still weighed out my serving as the box contained about 10 servings...my yogurt I have weighed it and now trust that the weight is within reason so I don't anymore.
This is what people don't get.
ETA: another thing I have scanned in items and it wasn't even close to waht I was eating...so yah user entered errors too
Sure THOSE things have to be weighed and weighing them is common sense. But when a package says one Elevation bar is 130 calories, or two slices of bread is 90 calories, or one frozen dinner is 300 calories, I think most people assume that's what they are. It never even occurred to me to weigh one of those types of items.
and that is what my original post said...
And the packages actually say about bread for example
2 slices (85 grams) = 90 calories as an example.
so common sense says oh 85 grams is there I wonder if 2 slices do weigh 85 grams...
I believe that the rest that are actually single serve are fairly accurate and if you scan in a single serve item and it's scans in the correct product and size you can be reasonable certain that it's fairly accurate...it's not off enough to derail weight loss...0 -
LadyLilion wrote: »not sure why folks think scanning is a guarantee of accuracy.
You can scan the food and based on a serving it will log it for you but how do you know you are eating 1 serving.
You still need to measure it in some way.
Because common sense tells you to trust that it is pre-weighed along with being pre-packaged. It really shouldn't be unreasonable to expect the package to actually contain what it says it does. That's why people trust it. It is a shame that we can't trust the package - it should say exactly what is in the package....I know it doesn't but it should. Most people would assume that it's accurate.
but common sense also tells us that if the package says serving is 50 grams and the package is 340 grams then it needs portioned out...aka weigh out a serving.
And it often is exactly what it says on the package...but we aren't just talking about single servings.
For example...I scanned in my cheese sticks yesterday cause it was easy..but I still weighed out my serving as the box contained about 10 servings...my yogurt I have weighed it and now trust that the weight is within reason so I don't anymore.
This is what people don't get.
ETA: another thing I have scanned in items and it wasn't even close to waht I was eating...so yah user entered errors too
Sure THOSE things have to be weighed and weighing them is common sense. But when a package says one Elevation bar is 130 calories, or two slices of bread is 90 calories, or one frozen dinner is 300 calories, I think most people assume that's what they are. It never even occurred to me to weigh one of those types of items.
and that is what my original post said...
And the packages actually say about bread for example
2 slices (85 grams) = 90 calories as an example.
so common sense says oh 85 grams is there I wonder if 2 slices do weigh 85 grams...
I believe that the rest that are actually single serve are fairly accurate and if you scan in a single serve item and it's scans in the correct product and size you can be reasonable certain that it's fairly accurate...it's not off enough to derail weight loss...
I have weighed protein bars and muesli/granola bars before, neither are what they say on the packet for an individual serve. One item may not be providing significant extra calories, but if someone was using the info for many items consistently it might add up to a decent amount. For someone with a small deficit, it could be enough to decrease it to close to nothing.1
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