Weight gain after starting a healthy lifestyle?!

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kimsimmons_
kimsimmons_ Posts: 1 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Help!

For the past few months I have struggled with this issue: I have gained nearly 15 pounds in almost 4 months after starting up my healthy lifestyle. Beforehand, I never excercised or even thought about doing so—I simply watched my caloric intake and managed to maintain my weight of 125lbs for almost 2 years. But then, this past summer, I decided to change that. I wanted to eat right, join a gym, and treat my body right...and I did just that! I’ve gone to the gym 3-4 times a week for the last 4 months, doing a mix of cardio and strength training, and eaten between 1200-1600 calories a day (before I was eating 1500 to maintain). I have a pretty solid diet, I eat very well. Help!! Why have a gained weight? If it is muscle, is it possible to have gained that much in that short amount of time? I can’t help but feel insecure that my goals are far reaching now. Thanks for any insight!

Replies

  • SCoil123
    SCoil123 Posts: 2,108 Member
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    There’s probably some water retention from the activity increase but my question would be how are you measuring your calories?
  • koalathebear
    koalathebear Posts: 236 Member
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    Same comment as the one above. Suggest you might want to look at the fitness chef's instagram. https://www.instagram.com/thefitnesschef_/?hl=en He's really good about highlighting how a lot of healthy food is still high in calories so if you're not counting calories, you will still gain weight.
  • Cahgetsfit
    Cahgetsfit Posts: 1,912 Member
    edited September 2019
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    Hm. One thing I have noticed when people say they decided to be "healthy" is that they will eat all sorts of "healthy" things that are actually massive calorie bombs, but they are unaware of it. Because it's a paleo gluten free keto avocado brownie, then it must be healthy and therefore OK to eat the whole tray. However, one slice of the thing not only tastes worse than a proper flour and sugar laden brownie, but also has twice the number of calories.

    But you say that you are tracking, so I'm assuming you are tracking correctly and including all your "healthy" keto paleo gluten free whatevers.

    Sorry, I'm not trying to come across all bitchy or anything, it's just something I see all the time when people I know decide to be healthy and lose weight so they eat packets of nuts at work and gluten free banana bread and put on weight and can't understand why.

    Apart from food I really can't see why you'd be gaining weight and not losing weight. And I highly doubt you put on that much muscle.

    Give everyone your stats, that's what people will ask for - age height sex weight.

    oh - and possibly open your diary so we can see it. If you're using cups instead of lbs/grams for example, you could be eating way more than you think.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 13,718 Member
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    Are you tracking your calories is the exact same way you were before?
  • apullum
    apullum Posts: 4,838 Member
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    How are you measuring your calories? Are you using a food scale to weigh ALL of your food?

    How did you decide on a range of 1200-1600?

    Because you don't mention a food scale and you don't seem to have a specific calorie goal, my best guess is that you are hungrier due to your increased activity, and you are inadvertently eating more than you think. To gain a pound of fat per week, you'd need to be exceeding your maintenance calories by about 500 each day.

    It's also possible that you're seeing some muscle gain. I would guess that the 15 pounds in 4 months is not all muscle, however.

    Finally, it's possible that you're retaining some water if any of your exercise is very new to you. If you've been doing the same exercise for 4 months, however, that should have subsided.
  • Machka9
    Machka9 Posts: 24,930 Member
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    kimsimmons_ wrote: »
    Help!

    For the past few months I have struggled with this issue: I have gained nearly 15 pounds in almost 4 months after starting up my healthy lifestyle. Beforehand, I never excercised or even thought about doing so—I simply watched my caloric intake and managed to maintain my weight of 125lbs for almost 2 years. But then, this past summer, I decided to change that. I wanted to eat right, join a gym, and treat my body right...and I did just that! I’ve gone to the gym 3-4 times a week for the last 4 months, doing a mix of cardio and strength training, and eaten between 1200-1600 calories a day (before I was eating 1500 to maintain). I have a pretty solid diet, I eat very well. Help!! Why have a gained weight? If it is muscle, is it possible to have gained that much in that short amount of time? I can’t help but feel insecure that my goals are far reaching now. Thanks for any insight!

    Why not eat the way you were before?
  • zebasschick
    zebasschick Posts: 909 Member
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    are you weighing ALL your food and measuring all your drinks?
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,811 Member
    edited September 2019
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    kimsimmons_ wrote: »
    If it is muscle, is it possible to have gained that much in that short amount of time?

    Not at all likely.
    2xny043klg9h.png
    Copied from
    https://bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/muscle-gain-math.html/

    Four months at 0.5% - 0.75% with bodyweight of 125lbs would be more likely in the ballpark of 2.5lbs to 3.75lbs with a decent training program.

    Your need to look elsewhere to see why you are in a clear and sustained caloric surplus.
    "Eat right", "healthy lifestyle", "solid diet" don't preclude a caloric surplus, start off by accurately verifying your food intake logging (including weighing your food) would be my suggestion.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,947 Member
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    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

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