Gaining weight while cutting calories

maxtanner1
maxtanner1 Posts: 1 Member
edited December 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
Hello, I'm 6'3'', large body frame, 27, male, and I work at a job where I'm standing and moving around 8-9 hours a day. Over the last 6 years or so I've bounced between 235 and 270lbs. About a year and a half ago i was 235, but after taking in a couple stressful children I have slowly gained weight. On 1/28/19 I weighed in at 257lbs, so I decided to start counting calories to lose weight again. Aiming for 2000-2200 a day (500 breakfast, 600 lunch, 200 snack, 700 dinner), cutting soda, fast food and meeting it, I gained 4 lbs by saturday 2/2/19. I didn't count calories on super bowl Sunday, but I didn't go nuts, then yesterday 2/4/19, had 1936 calories, now this morning I'm up 2 more lbs at 263.4. This amount of calorie intake has worked in the past, can anyone give me some guidance as how go the other direction, extremely frustrating.

Replies

  • L1zardQueen
    L1zardQueen Posts: 8,753 Member
    It may have been the sodium from Sunday. Keep at it, those pounds will disappear in no time. Nose to the grindstone.
  • lin_be
    lin_be Posts: 392 Member
    Have you started to exercise recently?
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    Weight fluctuates up and down. Please read this:

    http://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations/
  • ahoy_m8
    ahoy_m8 Posts: 3,054 Member
    ^^ definitely check out the above. Scale weight is frustrating. Many factors. Don't stress over any data point in isolation. Context matters. There are apps that trend your scale weight data points to smooth the fluctuations, or if you are a data loving kind of person, you can put your weight in a spreadsheet and look at a trailing average over the last number of days, 7-day low, average with x% outliers removed, etc. Or just know that its totally normal and wait for the number to bounce the other way without stressing. Men your size commonly fluctuate 5 lb or more on any given day.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,055 Member
    lin_be wrote: »
    Have you started to exercise recently?

    @maxtanner1 if you are not retaining water from a new exercise program or the Super Bowl, 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
  • Seffell
    Seffell Posts: 2,249 Member
    Weightloss and fatloss are not the same thing. Cutting calories leads to fatloss. Your day to day weight is mainly dictated by the water, food and waste in your body.
  • csplatt
    csplatt Posts: 1,435 Member
    it could just be food from sunday still sitting in your gut.
  • amy19355
    amy19355 Posts: 812 Member
    OP- are you using a scale to weigh food portions, so that you can be confident of the calories you are consuming each day? It's one of the best tools available to help on our weight control journeys.
  • UptownGirl2009
    UptownGirl2009 Posts: 4 Member
    lin_be wrote: »
    Have you started to exercise recently?

    I came here to find out if exercise truly can make someone gain weight. I decided to search before I made a post of my own. I have been losing weight consistently every week by just watching what I am eating but this week I decided to start exercising. I’ve gained 1.5 pounds just this week, although my official weigh in isn’t until Monday. It’s very frustrating. It’s possible I am eating too many calories but I know that when you exercise you do need to eat a little bit more. Also for some reason MFP jumped my calorie goal from 1800 to 1920 randomly. I can’t figure out how to get it to change back.
  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,174 Member
    UptownGirl2009 wrote: »
    lin_be wrote: »
    Have you started to exercise recently?

    I came here to find out if exercise truly can make someone gain weight. I decided to search before I made a post of my own. I have been losing weight consistently every week by just watching what I am eating but this week I decided to start exercising. I’ve gained 1.5 pounds just this week, although my official weigh in isn’t until Monday. It’s very frustrating. It’s possible I am eating too many calories but I know that when you exercise you do need to eat a little bit more. Also for some reason MFP jumped my calorie goal from 1800 to 1920 randomly. I can’t figure out how to get it to change back.

    If you've a tracker synced or you've added exercise, it's not included in your original calorie goal so the way MFP is set up the calories burned through intentional exercise are added on top of your calorie goal.

    As for exercise, yes it's totally normal for new or more intense exercise to cause a temporary gain on the scale (or many other things) I see water weight swings of up to 5lbs on a daily basis, depending on how much sodium I ate, how hydrated I am, how many carbs I ate, if I increased my exercise, if my period or ovulation is due.

    A helpful way to get to know how thing affect your bodyweight is to give daily weighing a whirl with a trendweight app like Happy Scale or Libra.

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