We are pleased to announce that on March 4, 2025, an updated Rich Text Editor will be introduced in the MyFitnessPal Community. To learn more about the upcoming changes, please click here. We look forward to sharing this new feature with you!

Gaining weight

ceveymarie
ceveymarie Posts: 6 Member
edited December 2024 in Fitness and Exercise
Does anyone know if it’s normal to still gain weight even though you stay under your calorie goal and workout at least 5 times a week.

Replies

  • so_cal_fit70
    so_cal_fit70 Posts: 250 Member
    Yes very normal. You’re gaining lean muscle. How often do you weight yourself? Just pay attention to how your clothes are fitting you. Those don’t lie. Lol
  • L1zardQueen
    L1zardQueen Posts: 8,753 Member
    edited April 2020
    How accurate is your calorie counting? Do you use a food scale? How do you calculate calories burned?
  • ceveymarie
    ceveymarie Posts: 6 Member
    I weigh about every other day it keeps changing on me and driving me crazy.
  • L1zardQueen
    L1zardQueen Posts: 8,753 Member
    Food scale or body weight scale?
  • ceveymarie
    ceveymarie Posts: 6 Member
    edited April 2020
    I use serving size on the labels and don’t eat after 6 pm. A body weight scale.
  • L1zardQueen
    L1zardQueen Posts: 8,753 Member
    When did you start counting calories?
  • ceveymarie
    ceveymarie Posts: 6 Member
    Only about 2 weeks ago
  • ceveymarie
    ceveymarie Posts: 6 Member
    I also have hyperthyroidism and have to take meds to slow it down a bit.
  • L1zardQueen
    L1zardQueen Posts: 8,753 Member
    Two weeks is not enough time to tell if you are doing anything wrong. What are your stats? Hyperthyroidism makes it a little tougher but not impossible to lose weight. Hugs
  • Avidkeo
    Avidkeo Posts: 3,213 Member
    First, weigh all your food. You cannot go by servings because they can be out by a lot. I have pita breads I eat and a serving (1 pita) is supposed to be 44 grams, but every single bread is over 55g. That's 25% more calories. And you will find that with most packaged foods, so that means you are eating up to 25% more calories than you think.

    Second, weight fluctuations are normal. If you weigh daily, consider tracking in a trending ap. Here is my trend, you can see it goes up and down, but it's the trend that matters.

    afce263pe8go.jpg
  • ceveymarie
    ceveymarie Posts: 6 Member
    Oh wow I didn’t know that.. thank you so much.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 35,283 Member
    ceveymarie wrote: »
    Oh wow I didn’t know that.. thank you so much.

    You might enjoy reading this article, it's useful:

    https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations
    Yes very normal. You’re gaining lean muscle. How often do you weight yourself? Just pay attention to how your clothes are fitting you. Those don’t lie. Lol

    This is a very unlikely explanation for lack of weight loss, in someone who's actively trying to lose weight.

    For a woman, under ideal conditions (but without risky performance enhancing drugs), a pound a month of muscle mass gain would be a really good result (maybe twice that, for a man). Ideal conditions include a well-designed progressive strength training program faithfully performed, good nutrition (especially adequate protein), relative youth, and a calorie surplus. (If nothing else, weight loss inherently counters that last: One is striving for a calorie deficit.)

    On the flip side of that, a pound a month of fat loss is such slow loss that one is very unlikely even to notice it amongst routine daily scale-weight fluctuations from water weight and digestive contents variations, for at least a month or two, even with a weight trending app. Most people, other than someone with a tiny number of vanity pounds to lose gradually (or who's trying for fat loss at constant weight via recomposition), would be deeply unsatisfied with a weight loss rate as slow as a pound a month.

    Therefore, no reasonably probable amount of muscle-mass gain is going to outpace most rationally-targeted rates of fat loss, particularly among women.

    Sadly.
This discussion has been closed.