Exercising and eating under my calories but gaining weight :(

Unless you had one heck of a binge after weighing yourself in Monday, this is water weight. Even if you had a binge last night, some of this would be water weight.

You are doing great; stick with the plan.

ccruz985 wrote: »

This is 100% normal. We tend to fluctuate 1 - 5 lbs, if it doesn't go down for longer than a week or two, that means your body has most likely become accustomed to the changes you made and it's time to switch up/go more intense in your workouts.

The only time "switching things up" is essential is when we've lost so much weight that the X number of calories we eat, that was a calorie deficit for our fatter self, is now maintenance calories for our thinner self.

Switching up foods is unnecessary, unless it helps a person achieve their calorie goal with better nutrition or satiation.

Switching up exercise because your body gets used to it is mainly a marketing pitch to keep you buying a company's fitness products ("muscle confusion" - LOL).

For someone doing an activity in which the calorie-burning work is moving the body around, it's important to realize that moving a small body burns fewer calories than moving a big one, so burn decreases as you lose weight. For someone who's strength training, it's important to progress volume somehow in order to keep getting stronger (increase weight, say).

Beyond those factors, doing the same activity at the same intensity will burn close to the same number of calories no matter how used to it your body is. (Heart rate based devices will claim you burn fewer calories doing the same exercise as you get fitter; that's only one of many ways in which they mis-estimate calories.)