Sudden weight gain

So are we talking about two pounds, or four?

Look, there’s no one single number that is Your Weight. All of us exist within a range of a few pounds. The lowest number you’ve ever seen on the scale isn’t your actual weight, and it’s one you’re not likely to see all that often. Ditto the top of your range—the number you see at night after a day of “treat” meals, for example. Those are both outliers, and as long as your scale stays more or less between the two of those you’re maintaining.

I'm going through something similar. Just started gaining even though I didn't think I was eating any more than usual. First off I learned a few things from a personal trainer. I've been doing the same exercise for over two years. She told me my body has learned how to cheat and I'm probably not burning as much. That's not probably alot of calories different but it counts. I had also skipped a day here and there. Next I noticed I've been snacking a bit here and there. Just a few chips or nuts nothing big but not counting it, After all who logs 5 peanuts? Then I had quit weighing my food thinking that after 3 years I knew how much a serving is. So to make a long story short, calories were sneaking in. I got back on track exercising 6 days a week, started weighing my food and logging every nut, chip etc. I'm down 3 pounds now. I've learned that constant vigilance is the key for me. Many folks don't need that but I do. I also took up weight lifting because there is no way I can live on 1400 calories/day for the rest of my life and I want to build some muscle. Sometimes it's a temporary water weight gain but sometimes its just life. You will have to be the judge.

cmriverside wrote: »

She told me my body has learned how to cheat and I'm probably not burning as much.

This is suspect. It takes energy to do movement. That energy doesn't disappear, and your body can't "cheat" physics. Your heartrate may go down during exercise (therefore giving you altered readings off cardio machines) but that isn't less energy expended - it's cardiovascular conditioning/lowered heartrate, nothing more. You also burn fewer calories as you lose weight, but that's not because your body is adapted/cheating, it's because you weigh less and it's less mass to move.

I suspect all of your gain , Cheryl, was from your lax logging or from less exercise in general and eating the same amounts. So - moving less eating the same or a little more. You can't possibly know if you aren't logging.

Your body does not "adapt" it just gets more efficient with the motion. Much like motor memory. You just get better at doing something. I don't listen to trainers about such things. Hell think you can get a trainers license off the back of a wheaties box these days.

There is no such thing as ruining your metabolism.

If you are absolutely certain that you're eating below maintenance, then you didn't gain fat. It's well worth double checking both your food and exercise logs to be absolutely certain that you are eating at least at maintenance.

Beginning a new exercise program often causes water retention that probably explains what you are seeing, assuming that you are definitely not exceeding your maintenance calories. If you have recently eaten larger meals, higher salt meals, etc. than usual, this may also lead to water retention. And if you have a menstrual cycle, then you will probably see water weight gain at some times of the month.

Do you live in a cold climate, and if so, does your daily life change in Winter? I tend to gain a little over the Winter, in part because I move less.

In the summer I do a lot of minor things that don't get logged as exercise: Wandering around the yard, pulling weeds here and there in flowerbeds; going to events like art fairs and music festivals where there's walking rather than to indoor concerts/plays where I just sit; more likely to keep outdoor errands (outdoor shopping plazas where I walk store to store) at a minimum if the weather's really bitter; that sort of thing. Chores are a bit more indoor, sedentary hobbies come to the fore, social activities are more likely to be sitting rather than walking, and more.

This kind of stuff adds up.

Even if you're not affected by weather in this way, has anything else in your daily life changed (not intentional exercise, but chores, non-exercise hobbies, job, child care, etc.) in a way that results in less movement/activity?

How recent was your "low calories in"? If quite recent, are you feeling fatigued? Or have you increased your walking enough to be fatigued from the increase? Fatigue = more rest = lower daily-life calorie burn, too.

It's unlikely that a whole pound a week was added in this way (that'd be around 500 calories less movement daily, after all), but a change in habits of this type, maybe a little portion creep on the eating side, some water weight from your new exercise regimen . . . it'd be fairly easy to get to 4 pounds in a month (probably not all of it fat, not all of it permanent).

Also, you say you've been eating "below maintenance". Where did that maintenance estimate come from? (MFP, TDEE calculator, fitness tracker, previous experience (how recent, and at what body weight?). . . ?)

If the walking is new, are you eating back the calories from that exercise, and if so, how did you estimate them? Has your dancing or how you estimate your dancing calories changed lately?

I know, that's a lot of questions . . . but you did ask us to be detectives, essentially.