Weight gain after extreme weight loss? Help!
k80rae
Posts: 3 Member
My name is Kate and I'm 28 years old. I've been maintaining a healthy lifestyle for 6 years now.
I've lost quite a bit of weight, when I hit my goal weight of 140lbs I was sitting at almost 100lbs lost!
Unfortunately that lasted about a week and I've been steadily gaining weight since... In the past 3 years I've gained back about 35 - 40 lbs and it feels like I've EVERYTHING to keep this from happening!
When I hit my goal weight I wasn't really watching my diet even though I was on my 6th round of doing the BeachBody Insanity program. It's hard to remember specifically what my diet looked like when I had reached my goal weight, other than being brand new and much more strict vegetarian. I've been counting my calories - focusing on macros, and limiting sodium - for the last year and a half. I would say the worst part about my diet now is that there's a lot more sugar in it than there used to be but I still do my best to limit the intake.
I've never had a problem with workout motivation. Right now I've been going to the gym at least 5 times a week. Doing 35-45 minutes of fasted cardio, followed by 35-45 minutes of strength training, throwing in 15 minutes of abs every other day.
This is AFTER doing CrossFit for 9 months and.finally quitting because I barely saw results.
I'M STILL GAINING WEIGHT and it sure as heck doesn't look like muscle
I just wonder if anyone else has had this problem and knows how to combat it? I've heard that people who have lost weight tend to have a bit of a weird metabolism, sometimes needing even 20% less daily calories than the norm to maintain.. could this be my case? Is this something best left to a professional dietician? Are my goals ridiculousy unrealistic?!
Help!
I've lost quite a bit of weight, when I hit my goal weight of 140lbs I was sitting at almost 100lbs lost!
Unfortunately that lasted about a week and I've been steadily gaining weight since... In the past 3 years I've gained back about 35 - 40 lbs and it feels like I've EVERYTHING to keep this from happening!
When I hit my goal weight I wasn't really watching my diet even though I was on my 6th round of doing the BeachBody Insanity program. It's hard to remember specifically what my diet looked like when I had reached my goal weight, other than being brand new and much more strict vegetarian. I've been counting my calories - focusing on macros, and limiting sodium - for the last year and a half. I would say the worst part about my diet now is that there's a lot more sugar in it than there used to be but I still do my best to limit the intake.
I've never had a problem with workout motivation. Right now I've been going to the gym at least 5 times a week. Doing 35-45 minutes of fasted cardio, followed by 35-45 minutes of strength training, throwing in 15 minutes of abs every other day.
This is AFTER doing CrossFit for 9 months and.finally quitting because I barely saw results.
I'M STILL GAINING WEIGHT and it sure as heck doesn't look like muscle
I just wonder if anyone else has had this problem and knows how to combat it? I've heard that people who have lost weight tend to have a bit of a weird metabolism, sometimes needing even 20% less daily calories than the norm to maintain.. could this be my case? Is this something best left to a professional dietician? Are my goals ridiculousy unrealistic?!
Help!
0
Replies
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How tall are you. How many calories are you eating to maintain?0
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I'm struggling with following your timeline. Did you lose 100 pounds in three years and then gained 40 pounds in three years?
Not knowing what to do when goal weight is reached, is very common. The real problem is actually believing that we have to do so many things to maintain weight. All we have to do to not regain weight, is to not start overeating again. Whatever you eat, if it's cake, meat, bread, or celery, you gain weight if you over time get in more calories than you burn. You don't have to exercise; having your total daily expenditure in line with your total daily calorie intake, over time, is what matters for weight management. Using your body and eating a balanced diet is of course important for health and for your ability to be active and not eat too much.
Most people who have lost weight have been overweight... Overweight people tend to overeat, and will often underestimate food intake. Unless that person has changed their eating habits and their way of thinking about food, permanently, they will regain. There's nothing mysterious about it. Your metabolism isn't broken, and you don't need a dietician. You just need to eat less, consistently. Calorie counting is just a tool, and it has to be used correctly to work as intended.
I don't know if 140 pounds is a healthy weight for you. If it's within a healthy BMI, it probably is. But you have to find a goal weight that is easy to maintain as well as comfortable to "wear". We often have to weigh these two against eachother; many of us want to be thinner, but we also like to eat. Finding a balance you can live happily with, is a challenge that will pay off tremendously.4 -
If you're gaining like that, you're eating too much.
Have you ever kept a food diary? Calculate a modest calorie deficit and monitor your intake with a food diary. Weigh and measure what you eat and drink and crunch numbers. Set up a system of controlled weekly weigh ins to track your progress.
Give the process time to work. You will have to experiment with your calorie target. All these fitness gadgets give people the idea our bodies run like machines. They don't. Working out like you do, you need to eat enough to support your workouts, but not so much as to gain. It's not a big target. Keep experimenting and you will get it.
I lost the last 40lbs of 100 by tracking my intake. After I made goal, I kept tracking for 5 more years before I could maintain without it. Tracking works. Try to get yourself on a livable downward trend and be willing to put in the time to ride the trend. Think now about how you will maintain.0 -
Weigh your food. Use the MyFitnessPal app to calculate your calories. Stay within them. Lose weight.4
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Fast weight loss is undesirable as it usually results in too much muscle loss. Subsequent weight gain (if not a controlled bulk) is going to be mostly fat. In other words, worse body composition & lowered metabolism. The less lean body mass you have the lower your BMR.
Take a reasonable deficit, follow a progressive lifting program (what are you doing currently?) & eat enough protein.
4 -
Weight loss at this time is the same as always. Follow all the tips on this site and in the sticky posts.
When you get to maintainence, set a 5-10 lb range. When you get to the edge of the range adjust 100-200 calories per day til you're back in mid range. It might take a day or a month, depending on whether it's a water fluctuation or a fat gain. That's how you keep control.1 -
I'm 5'5"
I counted calories to lose the weight, lost about 70lbs in less than a year. The weight loss significantly stalled when I was around 165lbs but I stopped counting calories when I started the Insanity program, in this time I got down to 140. I stopped doing the Insanity program and steadily started gaining the weight back. I have been counting calories (this includes weighing food) for the last 2 years.
Since I started this MyFitnessPal app I've been aiming for 1200 calories (slightly more on training days) focusing on a variety of different macros. I've played around with low carb, vegan, even completely cutting out alcohol but nothing works!
kommodevaran: I think you may be right about ideal weight. I focused on 140 since it seemed like a good middle range but my body seems to hit a plateau around 160 pretty regularly. When I hit 140 I know for sure that my strength was minimal compared to what it is now. Is this a case where I need to stop obsessing with the scale?
I know that that I still have a significant amount of excess skin so this makes it difficult to measure results without using the scale... is there another measure that would be better to focus on?0 -
There you go
Most of the time I don't track my exercise on the app because I don't want my calorie allowance to go up0
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