dieting but gaining weight?

hnic76 wrote: »

AnvilHead wrote: »

Eating "clean" has nothing to do with losing weight. You have to consistently eat less calories than you burn, whether it's "clean" or not. You said you're "dieting", but you said nothing about your actual calorie intake, which is what matters.

Are you using a food scale to measure your meals, and checking the database entries to make sure the calorie counts are accurate? Are you in a consistent calorie deficit? Having any cheat days? Sneaking tastes/bites/snacks without logging them?

okay i quoted my original post and answered a lot of what was missing.. also forgot to add that i don’t weigh my meals but i always track everything i eat and exactly how much i eat of that food

If you aren't weighing your foods you have no idea how much you're eating. Purchase a food scale and start using it; it's going to be eye-opening.

hnic76 wrote: »

also forgot to add that i don’t weigh my meals but i always track everything i eat and exactly how much i eat of that food

If you aren't weighing your meals, you can't track exactly how much you eat, let me give you one (of many) example of why people push weighing your meals and getting a food scale.

There is a frozen type of brussel sprouts I buy and eat often as lunch on its own, or as a side with dinner. Its one of my favorites. The bag says it contains 3 servings, 80 calories each. So if I trusted what the label says as accurate and ate the full bag like I usually do, that would be 240 calories. But when I started weighing my food, and weighing what was in the bag, I found that there is almost always more servings than stated. Each serving is supposed to be 89 grams, which would be 267grams total. But when I weigh it, it is almost always over 300 grams total, I've had it be 390 grams before which is 350 calories. Thus if I just followed the label I would be constantly be eating 50-110 more calories than I anticipated. Now imagine if I didn't weigh everything I ate, how many extra calories a day am I eating without realizing it? I had issues when I first started loosing as well, getting a food scale REALLY helped out, I found out that a lot of food and drink labels under state the amount of servings in the package and I was at times eating up to 800 extra calories a day that I didn't know about.

I don’t weigh my meals but I do calorie count. I also weigh myself everyday - this helps me to see the daily fluctuations of my body everyday.
Regarding your 2lb increase - it could be that you weighed yourself on a “lower” weight day two weeks ago and a “higher” weight day this time. Think of water, sodium etc. it could be an increase in muscle. It could be a combination. Daily weigh ins would help you track this.

Weight loss has nothing at all to do with how "clean" or "healthy" you believe your food to be. The only thing that matters is that you eat fewer calories than you burn. If you aren't weighing your food, then you don't have complete information to ensure that you're eating fewer calories than you burn.