Gaining Weight With a Calorie Deficit
DanielleMazziotti
Posts: 2 Member
I have been having some issues with my current weight loss and I am hoping to find some answers here. I have searched the internet and read every article I could find on this topic but none of them are truly answering my questions. Hopefully someone here can help!
At the beginning of May I started this diet and began exercising. I eat 1200 calories a day and make sure that I never go over on carbs, sugar, fat, sodium, etc. While ensuring I hit my protein and fiber goals daily. I am a 5'4" female and when I began I was 173lbs. It has now been 3 months since I began and as of this morning I weigh 149.4lbs which I am super happy about. The problem is, the weight loss completely stopped about a month ago and as of a few days ago, I am actually gaining weight. A week ago I weighed 148.2 and then suddenly I started gaining weight every day. I thought it was a weird fluctuation but I am getting on the scale every morning and seeing this increase slowly. I'm not sure what I could be doing wrong. This worked for me for so long and suddenly it's doing the opposite.
I've read a lot about this online but all of the tips are for people who are eating too much or not drinking enough water and that is not me. I eat 1000-1200 calories a day and log absolutely everything. I never snack on little things and then leave it out. Everything is measured out. I am very precise. I eat around 105g of protein, 105g of carbs, and 40g of fat a day. Most days I will go over on my protein so my carbs and fat will end up being lower. I tried having a cheat day once a week for a little while because I heard a calorie spike could help but it did not help at all so I stopped doing that a couple of weeks ago. I work out 1-2x daily, cardio 5x a week for 30-60 minutes and weight lifting 5x a week. I do not have a sedentary job. I drink over 12 8oz glasses of water every day. I monitor my potassium and sodium intake to make sure they are balanced in order to prevent retaining water. I rarely pass 1200mg of sodium daily and if I do it's never even close to 2000mg.
What am I doing wrong? Why and how could I be gaining weight? I have put so much work into this and it is really frustrating that suddenly I seem to be going backwards. Any and all tips and advice is appreciated. Thank you!!
At the beginning of May I started this diet and began exercising. I eat 1200 calories a day and make sure that I never go over on carbs, sugar, fat, sodium, etc. While ensuring I hit my protein and fiber goals daily. I am a 5'4" female and when I began I was 173lbs. It has now been 3 months since I began and as of this morning I weigh 149.4lbs which I am super happy about. The problem is, the weight loss completely stopped about a month ago and as of a few days ago, I am actually gaining weight. A week ago I weighed 148.2 and then suddenly I started gaining weight every day. I thought it was a weird fluctuation but I am getting on the scale every morning and seeing this increase slowly. I'm not sure what I could be doing wrong. This worked for me for so long and suddenly it's doing the opposite.
I've read a lot about this online but all of the tips are for people who are eating too much or not drinking enough water and that is not me. I eat 1000-1200 calories a day and log absolutely everything. I never snack on little things and then leave it out. Everything is measured out. I am very precise. I eat around 105g of protein, 105g of carbs, and 40g of fat a day. Most days I will go over on my protein so my carbs and fat will end up being lower. I tried having a cheat day once a week for a little while because I heard a calorie spike could help but it did not help at all so I stopped doing that a couple of weeks ago. I work out 1-2x daily, cardio 5x a week for 30-60 minutes and weight lifting 5x a week. I do not have a sedentary job. I drink over 12 8oz glasses of water every day. I monitor my potassium and sodium intake to make sure they are balanced in order to prevent retaining water. I rarely pass 1200mg of sodium daily and if I do it's never even close to 2000mg.
What am I doing wrong? Why and how could I be gaining weight? I have put so much work into this and it is really frustrating that suddenly I seem to be going backwards. Any and all tips and advice is appreciated. Thank you!!
4
Replies
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How long have you been "gaining weight?" Do you use a food scale to weigh everything, and then log it all, without cheating, forgetting, or skipping?
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Check out the flowchart in the thread below........
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10573290/why-am-i-not-losing-weight2 -
Now that you are lighter, margin of error is less. So you are either
1. Underestimating calorie intake
2. Overestimating exercise calories
3. If you take in gross 1200kcal (if u don't eat back exercise calories), you could be retaining more water because you're starving yourself. A week of eating at maintenance will help lose water.
4. You haven't given enough time for weight loss to continue and are panicking too soon
5. If you are really eating at 1200net kcals, you will surely lose weight
6. Some medical issue I'm not knowledgeable about
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Consider where you are in your cycle. I track my weight, CI, and CO every day and make notes of things like excess sodium or if I drink alcohol, etc. Even when I'm doing everything correct with no indulgencies or over calorie days, I'll gain about 2-3 pounds over the week during ovulation and again before my TOM. It all comes off and then drops to where it should be based on my deficit. A week of slight gain is perfectly normal over the long run. If you're logging accurately, your body will eventually catch up to the deficit you've been maintaining.
Based on your activity level, though - it does sound like you're eating too few calories.4 -
Thank you all for the responses. Yes, I measure out everything that I eat. I am confident that I am not underestimating calories in or overestimating calories out. I do not eat back exercise calories so it could be possible that I am eating too little which is causing water retention as one of you suggested. Also, I am ovulating and did not consider weight gain from that as I never have gained while ovulating in the past but I suppose it is possible!0
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I suggest you set goals to .5 pound loss per week and consume the net calories. At this rate you're losing muscle as well, and are starving yourself.4
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DanielleMazziotti wrote: »Thank you all for the responses. Yes, I measure out everything that I eat. I am confident that I am not underestimating calories in or overestimating calories out. I do not eat back exercise calories so it could be possible that I am eating too little which is causing water retention as one of you suggested. Also, I am ovulating and did not consider weight gain from that as I never have gained while ovulating in the past but I suppose it is possible!
So you eat 1200 daily and have to exercise for more calorie burn even to maintain right now?
Ouch - hope you don't get sick or go on vacation or family responsibilities - your eating level would have to drop terribly low just to maintain then.
That's too bad.
Plus the fact when you weigh less you need to eat less anyway.
I'm going to suggest your body has adapted by slowing you down daily.
Your workouts are probably no where near what they could be.
Your daily activity level is probably less movement than you are aware.
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If it were me, I would try eating about 1500/day for 2 weeks (which I'm guessing is going to be close to maintenance since you are only 5'4" and female)...then go back to what you are doing after a 2 week break...keep the workouts, keep the logging, just up the calories for a few weeks...give your body and your mind a bit of a rest, then get back at it!!!0
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DanielleMazziotti wrote: »Thank you all for the responses. Yes, I measure out everything that I eat. I am confident that I am not underestimating calories in or overestimating calories out. I do not eat back exercise calories so it could be possible that I am eating too little which is causing water retention as one of you suggested. Also, I am ovulating and did not consider weight gain from that as I never have gained while ovulating in the past but I suppose it is possible!
measuring is different than weighing btw...
for example 3/4 cup of fruitloops is a lot more than 85grams and the calories on the side are for 85grams...so if I were to just use a cup I would have "underestimated" calories in.
If you are eating to little you would be losing faster.
water retention can mask weight loss and even make it appear you are gaining but not more than a couple pounds...up to 10 with meds.
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Have you dropped your calories in relation to your weight? You lost a good percentage of bodyweight so your calories should decrease accordingly.1
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DanielleMazziotti wrote: »Thank you all for the responses. Yes, I measure out everything that I eat. I am confident that I am not underestimating calories in or overestimating calories out. I do not eat back exercise calories so it could be possible that I am eating too little which is causing water retention as one of you suggested. Also, I am ovulating and did not consider weight gain from that as I never have gained while ovulating in the past but I suppose it is possible!
measuring is different than weighing btw...
for example 3/4 cup of fruitloops is a lot more than 85grams and the calories on the side are for 85grams...so if I were to just use a cup I would have "underestimated" calories in.
If you are eating to little you would be losing faster.
water retention can mask weight loss and even make it appear you are gaining but not more than a couple pounds...up to 10 with meds.
This. You've said several times that you are measuring and logging. If you are not weighing your food then your measurements are most likely inaccurate. And you can log whatever you want. If you are using inaccurate entries then you aren't going to get the results you are looking for.13 -
Congratulations on your success! You may be doing everything right and giving too much emphasis to that scale. An increase in weight is not the same as an increase in body fat. Your appearance will always reflect your habits, but the change is not always as quick or as consistent as we like.
It sounds like you have the right habits. I like tcunbeliever's advise to try bumping up the calories for a couple weeks to see how you respond.6 -
joemac1988 wrote: »Have you dropped your calories in relation to your weight? You lost a good percentage of bodyweight so your calories should decrease accordingly.
she says she is only eating 1200 so there is no way to drop calories as 1200 is the least you are supposed to eat for a female. now if she weighs food and finds out she is eating more then she can possibly drop a bit.2 -
joemac1988 wrote: »Have you dropped your calories in relation to your weight? You lost a good percentage of bodyweight so your calories should decrease accordingly.
That's a very bad idea - she's only eating 1000 - 1200 calories as it is.4 -
DanielleMazziotti wrote: »Thank you all for the responses. Yes, I measure out everything that I eat. I am confident that I am not underestimating calories in or overestimating calories out. I do not eat back exercise calories so it could be possible that I am eating too little which is causing water retention as one of you suggested. Also, I am ovulating and did not consider weight gain from that as I never have gained while ovulating in the past but I suppose it is possible!
You may not have noticed the weight gain at ovulation before now because you were losing consistently. Once you get closer to goal weight, you will notice every little thing as long as you weigh every day.7 -
Why in the world would you workout 1 to 2x a day and only consume 1000 to 1200 lbs and be low sodium. You may want to bump up your calories to actually feed it properly. And probably drop some of the exercise. Heck, I'd suggest doing a full body routine (like strongcurves or stronglifts) 3x a week and do cardio the other 2 to 3 that you workout. But tons of exercise + very little calories is never the solution.16
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Why in the world would you workout 1 to 2x a day and only consume 1000 to 1200 lbs and be low sodium. You may want to bump up your calories to actually feed it properly. And probably drop some of the exercise. Heck, I'd suggest doing a full body routine (like strongcurves or stronglifts) 3x a week and do cardio the other 2 to 3 that you workout. But tons of exercise + very little calories is never the solution.
Along those exact lines: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/why-big-caloric-deficits-and-lots-of-activity-can-hurt-fat-loss.html/6 -
My doctors me I needed to eat more often an the right things; my body was going in starvation mode. So here I am trying to reverse that. I'm still eating 1200 calories/day but concentrating on more proteins and less carbs will eating 3 meals and snacks/day. I'm 5'6, 202 lbs and on prednisone (steroids) and other meds that cause weight gain. We'll see how it works. I'll let you know.10
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Do you consume diet soda or equivalent? They have found artificial sweeteners can hinder weight loss. I remember a lady at weight watchers years back had trouble losing her last 5kg while doing everything right. She stopped drinking her 3glasses of coke zero per day and the weight dropped right off.29
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At a 1200 calorie target, the difference between weight accuracy versus volumetric accuracy is not trival. FWIW, once you've tried it, you'll find weighing is easier than measuring cups (less cleaning).
Also be sure you are using accurate database entries.- If you are measuring cooked, used cooked weight entries.
- If you are measuring raw (for meat, fruit and vegetables) or dry (for grains, beans, pasta), use raw or dry weights.
- Click through to look at the detailed nutritional info on foods you log. There's a lot of nonsense in the database. For packaged foods, make sure the info matches the package. For packaged foods and prepared foods, make sure the macros make sense (calories roughly = carbs x 4 + protein x 4 + fat x 9). I've seen I can't tell you how many entries where these things aren't just off by rounding errors (acceptable) -- they're just nuts.
- If you are eating prepared foods that don't have nutritional labels (restaurant meals, deli or other take-away) be highly skeptical of database entries you see that might match. Highly. Skeptical. Look, I sometimes like to treat myself to cake slices from the local branded bakery. There's a database entry on here that says a 7 oz slice of "fudge frosted cake" is like 250 calories. Brand named and everything. That's bs. I know it's total bs. But dammit I'm still terribly tempted to use that entry. Be skeptical AF. At 1200 cals / day, you don't have room to eff around like that.
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meganpettigrew86 wrote: »Do you consume diet soda or equivalent? They have found artificial sweeteners can hinder weight loss. I remember a lady at weight watchers years back had trouble losing her last 5kg while doing everything right. She stopped drinking her 3glasses of coke zero per day and the weight dropped right off.
Diet sodas dont hinder weight loss by any standard as they have zero calories. Some might suggest that they feel hungry after but it would be a minority and only would effect a person if they ended up eating more calories. For someone tracking calories, thats unlikely.. otherwise it would be in their food logs13 -
meganpettigrew86 wrote: »Do you consume diet soda or equivalent? They have found artificial sweeteners can hinder weight loss. I remember a lady at weight watchers years back had trouble losing her last 5kg while doing everything right. She stopped drinking her 3glasses of coke zero per day and the weight dropped right off.
Diet sodas dont hinder weight loss by any standard as they have zero calories. Some might suggest that they feel hungry after but it would be a minority and only would effect a person if they ended up eating more calories. For someone tracking calories, thats unlikely.. otherwise it would be in their food logs
At this point there is correlation between obesity and drinking diet sodas, but no causation - the strongest explanation I've heard so far is simply that people who are overweight are more likely to drink diet sodas in an attempt to cut calories.8 -
I lost 170 lbs guzzling diet drinks and have kept it off for > 2 years and I still drink the stuff daily.
Honestly, people who want to hate on diet sodas and artificial sweeteners just can't stand the idea that people might get healthier without making themselves martyrs.13 -
Source?meganpettigrew86 wrote: »Do you consume diet soda or equivalent? They have found artificial sweeteners can hinder weight loss. I remember a lady at weight watchers years back had trouble losing her last 5kg while doing everything right. She stopped drinking her 3glasses of coke zero per day and the weight dropped right off.5 -
DanielleMazziotti wrote: »Thank you all for the responses. Yes, I measure out everything that I eat. I am confident that I am not underestimating calories in or overestimating calories out. I do not eat back exercise calories so it could be possible that I am eating too little which is causing water retention as one of you suggested. Also, I am ovulating and did not consider weight gain from that as I never have gained while ovulating in the past but I suppose it is possible!
There are mistakes that people commonly make that cause them to not lose weight that we might be able to spot if you change your Diary Sharing settings to Public: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings3 -
cerise_noir wrote: »
Source?meganpettigrew86 wrote: »Do you consume diet soda or equivalent? They have found artificial sweeteners can hinder weight loss. I remember a lady at weight watchers years back had trouble losing her last 5kg while doing everything right. She stopped drinking her 3glasses of coke zero per day and the weight dropped right off.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/11/23/diet-drinks-may-preventing-losing-weight-study/
First article when googled diet drinks and weight loss8 -
DanielleMazziotti wrote: »Thank you all for the responses. Yes, I measure out everything that I eat. I am confident that I am not underestimating calories in or overestimating calories out. I do not eat back exercise calories so it could be possible that I am eating too little which is causing water retention as one of you suggested. Also, I am ovulating and did not consider weight gain from that as I never have gained while ovulating in the past but I suppose it is possible!
measuring is different than weighing btw...
for example 3/4 cup of fruitloops is a lot more than 85grams and the calories on the side are for 85grams...so if I were to just use a cup I would have "underestimated" calories in.
If you are eating to little you would be losing faster.
water retention can mask weight loss and even make it appear you are gaining but not more than a couple pounds...up to 10 with meds.
This. You've said several times that you are measuring and logging. If you are not weighing your food then your measurements are most likely inaccurate. And you can log whatever you want. If you are using inaccurate entries then you aren't going to get the results you are looking for.
Agree with this.
Measuring solids in cups/spoons is highly innacurate. Uses food scale for every solid food. That includes single serve and prepackaged items. Cups/spoons for liquid only.
There's a few videos floating around explaining differences between measuring and weighing. Perhaps someone will post them?
Also, you don't mention where in your cycle you are. Are you close to ovulating or menstruating? Those will cause a weight spike.3 -
I lost 170 lbs guzzling diet drinks and have kept it off for > 2 years and I still drink the stuff daily.
Honestly, people who want to hate on diet sodas and artificial sweeteners just can't stand the idea that people might get healthier without making themselves martyrs.
Honestly, you couldn't be more wrong about my objections to artificial sweeteners. For starters, they taste nasty
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meganpettigrew86 wrote: »cerise_noir wrote: »
Source?meganpettigrew86 wrote: »Do you consume diet soda or equivalent? They have found artificial sweeteners can hinder weight loss. I remember a lady at weight watchers years back had trouble losing her last 5kg while doing everything right. She stopped drinking her 3glasses of coke zero per day and the weight dropped right off.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/11/23/diet-drinks-may-preventing-losing-weight-study/
First article when googled diet drinks and weight loss
Extrapolating from a single study involving mice is really sloppy reasoning. Unfortunately, media outlets love doing that kind of thing, because it gets the clicks and most people never really learned basic scientific literacy. Rest assured, the question is far from settled. Diet Coke away.
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I'm 4'11" so maybe not quite an example against your 5'4", but I have found that my size presents some unique challenges which means I have to at times do things that seem strange compared to the average size person. I started at 169 and I'm now 113. I have hit three long plateaus and a couple small plateaus in my journey since January. I even had times when I gained 1-2 pounds. Here is what I found seems to work - although it's only now that I finally see it as I just broke through another plateau on my way to my 110 goal (those last 10 pounds are a killer!) and did a little digging on why in the world did this happen.
First, let's assume you are accurate in your calorie counting and macro tracking and you aren't going over. Let's also assume your are accurate in tracking your exercise and not over estimating, accidently double dipping when all your apps sync, or taking the machines' readings as your number.
1) This is going to sound crazy, but for 2-3 days in a week, add 100 - 200 calories back into your daily intake but keep your macros in line. I find that as I shifted my calorie intake down to be in line with my weight, going on 1000 calories a day to keep my deficit was actually doing weird things. So, increasing a little for a few days seems to trick my body and my metabolism increases. I've seen articles and studies that show the real goal is to track your calories in/out weekly rather than day by day. So, if you have the right deficit overall, its all good. But, that doesn't mean you starve and then binge. A little fluctuation is good, big fluctuations are bad.
2) Mix up your exercise. If you are walking all the time, start alternating between walking and running. Go a different route that has more hills. Get on the elliptical. Go hiking. Get on a bike. Paddle board. Do yoga. Lift weights. Anything that isn't what you are always doing for your 30 minutes. I am an avid runner - 6 days a week for 35 - 45 minutes. But, I hit a wall on weight loss. Over my recent two week vacation, I only ran 3 days per week and never more than 30 minutes, in fact, often less. On the other hand, I was hiking in the woods, swimming and in general just active in other ways. I think the change up made a difference as I needed to work different muscles and things like trail running pushed my cardio up and gave me a bit of a HIIT workout.
I looked at my weekly reports for the past three weeks and finally saw it. My calories in are typically two thirds of my calories out per week. So this week I have a 4000 calorie deficit. This means that I burned about 11,000 calories and ate about 7000 calories this week. This wasn't really a typical week through - I was sick two days and didn't eat a lot (but I didn't move much either), although I also made up for that a couple days when I was better. But, what this shows is that if I have a goal of 1600 calories burned through exercise and regular activity daily, if I eat between 1000 and 1200 calories per day, I'll have a 500 calorie daily deficit which is what I want.
Anyway, don't give up. If it helps, focus on the new clothes you need to buy as you probably went down a couple sizes, the activities you can now do that before left you puffing or you just said no, and think of how good it feels that you are under 150. Use this time to get used to healthy living rather than worrying about the number on the scale. You will see weight loss kick in again.
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