Gaining Weight With a Calorie Deficit

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  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,996 Member
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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!

    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_settings
  • cerise_noir
    cerise_noir Posts: 5,468 Member
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    kgirlhart wrote: »
    SezxyStef wrote: »
    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.
  • mgtz69
    mgtz69 Posts: 7 Member
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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.

  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
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    MegaMooseEsq wrote: »
    psuLemon wrote: »
    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.

    This reminds me of an episode of suits i saw last night. Someone asked Donna why she gets skim milk in her coffee but adds whipped cream, her response was she gets skim so she can have whipped cream. Totally nonsensical thinking.

    That is all, carry on :lol:
  • nowine4me
    nowine4me Posts: 3,985 Member
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    OP - are you getting enough sleep? Are you taking a rest day? Your body needs both of these to avoid stress.
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
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    You've been losing 8lbs per month, there is absolutely no way you suddenly started eating more than 1000 extra calories per day and started gaining. Math.

    You have been losing too quickly really and along with the over-exercising your body is likely under a lot stress causing water retention.

    Take a diet break of one to two weeks. Restart with a far less aggressive goal and make sure to use a food scale for logging.
  • Muscleflex79
    Muscleflex79 Posts: 1,917 Member
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    meganpettigrew86 wrote: »
    cerise_noir wrote: »
    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.
    Source?

    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

    did you really just use google and the telegraph as your scientific source??
  • deannalfisher
    deannalfisher Posts: 5,600 Member
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    Muscleflex79 wrote: »
    meganpettigrew86 wrote: »
    cerise_noir wrote: »
    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.
    Source?

    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

    did you really just use google and the telegraph as your scientific source??

    Dr Google and Mr Telegraph don't know all? dammit - there goes all my scientific arguments :)

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