Can you anyone explain this?!! Seems absurd.
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wander_lustxo
Posts: 12 Member
Okay, little back story. I’ve been on and off a ketogenic lifestyle. I was doing great and lost a ton of weight and got down to 215 (My lowest weight in November) I got engaged, holidays blah blah... and started eating what I want and drinking and obviously I gained weight. Like 40 months over the next 4 months which seems absurd to me because I wasn’t eating THAT much or THAT bad. Fast forward.... I am now working out. I just did a three week program and ate low carb with only 2 cheat days. In 4 weeks, (those of which I was doing the program and walking 2 miles a day) I have gained 12 pounds in a month!!! Like how is that even possible?
And please don’t tell me muscle weighs more than fat. It doesn’t. It’s more dense. And I know y’all will say don’t weigh yourself and I only weigh myself once a week. Plus how can I not when I’m gaining weight like this?! In 6 months I’ve gained 47 lbs!!! How is that even possible?
I’m taking pictures and they look a little different but not by much. Can someone ANYONE explain to me that kind of weight gain while working out and eating better and staying within your allotted calorie range? Help!
And please don’t tell me muscle weighs more than fat. It doesn’t. It’s more dense. And I know y’all will say don’t weigh yourself and I only weigh myself once a week. Plus how can I not when I’m gaining weight like this?! In 6 months I’ve gained 47 lbs!!! How is that even possible?
I’m taking pictures and they look a little different but not by much. Can someone ANYONE explain to me that kind of weight gain while working out and eating better and staying within your allotted calorie range? Help!
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Replies
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How are you measuring your calories? Do you use a digital food scale? Whether you do keto, or any other named diet, you must be in a caloric deficit. If not, you won't lose. Weigh all your food and measure liquids for a week and I think you'll see the problem.18
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It's not muscle. There might be a small amount of water weight due to the increased activity but NOT 12 pounds worth.
Keto does not equal weight loss. Its a style of eating. You gain still gain weight on keto if you eat more than your body burns.
If you gained 12 pounds in a month that means you'd have to be eating over 10,000 calories/week OVER your maintenance calories. That's a lot. Barring any medical conditions, I would really look hard at your logging and tracking. Are you weighing everything? I mean, put every morsel that goes in your mouth on a scale? Not eyeballing, estimating, scanning packages for "servings"?18 -
It's not muscle. There might be a small amount of water weight due to the increased activity but NOT 12 pounds worth.
Keto does not equal weight loss. Its a style of eating. You gain still gain weight on keto if you eat more than your body burns.
If you gained 12 pounds in a month that means you'd have to be eating over 10,000 calories/week OVER your maintenance calories. That's a lot. Barring any medical conditions, I would really look hard at your logging and tracking. Are you weighing everything? I mean, put every morsel that goes in your mouth on a scale? Not eyeballing, estimating, scanning packages for "servings"?
Yeah, definitely not eating that much at all. I feel like that’s humanly impossible. Plus I was burning 300-900 calories a day in exercise. I would maybe eat back 300 of those calories but like.. what gives?! Seriously makes literally no sense. I was not measuring my food because I’m not new to this game and I can pretty much eyeball stuff. Plus with so much weight gain now, I have a lot to lose so it really shouldn’t be that hard. It’s insane to me that I’ve gained 47 pounds in 6 months!!!! I’m going to give this another month and then I’m going to the doctor because this is insane.
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I will NOT say don't weigh every day under the same conditions wearing the same or no clothes and using a firm unyielding surface while entering your data into a weight trend application or website and comparing your progress between similar points in your hormonal cycle.
At your current weight small differences in sodium or water retention due to novel activity can result in a lot of (water) weight movement.
A component of ketogenic diets has to do with the perfect normal but often misinterpreted loss and regain of water weight associated with the amount of carb depletion you're operating under. This can result in swings of several lbs.
You're interested in energy reserves (fat) which in spite of all my discussion above and given a 47lb apparent swing have obviously gone up instead of down, even if not exactly by 47lbs
Additional movement is excellent. It was actually my own very first goal and it got me started on a path towards engaging in active weight management and modifying my weight.
But movement does not by itself ensure and energy deficit
While ketogenic diets often help people control their calories by making hyper palatable foods off limits and blunting the appetite for people who are more satiated when they eat more fat and protein, this is not universal. And if high fat food (such as is available in ketogenic diets) is overconsumed, the Calories increase rapidly.
The only thing that counts for fat loss is a persistent Caloric (energy) deficit.
The energy has to come from somewhere and when you're using more Calories than you take in your energy reserves decrease and your weight level reduces!
What is the apparent deficit you believe (logged) that you're achieving?
For how long have you been doing so?
Activity setting on mfp? Are you/are you not logging your walk as a separate exercise activity?
If you're not using a food scale, please consider doing so.
I note that I always thought that carbs were loafs of bread, mounts of pasta, and boxes of fries. Preferably with lots of butter and cheese.
I've discovered that boiled or BBQ potatoes (straight on the grill baby potatoes, skin and all, not even oil) and apples are also carbs.
Not all carbs are equally filling. And a lot of carbs get their calories from the fats they're cooked with or served with.
Look for food that provides you with maximum satiation for the calories, and profit!
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You aren't consistently logging on MFP, many days are blank and a lot of your entries are cups or things like 4 teaspoons of mayo. Those measurements are not accurate at all. Based on that, it looks like you're probably eating more than you realise.
Weigh and log everything for at least 3 weeks (that should account for any normal fluctuations in weight, although 4 weeks would be better) and then re-evaluate.19 -
You need to weigh everything you eat and measure everything you drink.
You also need to log everything you eat and drink.
Make sure the entries you select are current / match the calories and nutritional info on the packet as things change.
In the last week, only on Saturday do you seem to have a full day logged - and you were 1300 calories above what MFP allocated you to eat. Multiply that by 7 days and it's very possible to gain 12 lbs in a month.
Re-look at your MFP set-up to make sure it's accurate - don't set too aggressive a weight loss rate - look at how many calories you're allocated a day, track everything you eat and drink for 6 weeks and see how you're doing then. Maybe aim for losing at a rate of 1lb or 1.5lb a week. Log your exercise and eat a fair percentage of the calories earned from that too.16 -
Nativestar56 wrote: »You aren't consistently logging on MFP, many days are blank and a lot of your entries are cups or things like 4 teaspoons of mayo. Those measurements are not accurate at all. Based on that, it looks like you're probably eating more than you realise.
Weigh and log everything for at least 3 weeks (that should account for any normal fluctuations in weight, although 4 weeks would be better) and then re-evaluate.
I was using carb manager at the time.0 -
As exercise you mentioned 2 miles walking presumably about an hour.
Due to peculiarities on how net vs gross calories are calculated and the duration of certain exercises I would either consider myself lightly active and not count the walk on top, or, for a 2mph walk, consider my net calories to be in the 40% range. MFP has already assigned BMR * 1.25 calories to the time slot that have to be subtracted for net Calories to be calculated0 -
The 12lbs may be a red herring. The 47 overall, isn't. Not currently being in a significant deficit or other reasons for water weight gain a possibility. Please consider weight trend, not scale weight and absolutely kitchen scale especially for high calorie healthy items suitable for ketogenic diets (I'm looking at your nuts and avocado!)
Visit the larger loser subforum and say hi!8 -
Well, looking at your food diary I think I can see the issue. Nothing logged yesterday, Saturday was logged but over goal, and nothing logged for Friday. I didn't go back any farther.
It didn't look like there was any measuring on the one day that was logged so I'm glad you opened up about that.
At the end of the day, if you aren't trying to accurately track and log your food then the rest is just an exercise in futility. You say you're "not new to this game", so you should hopefully understand the rules. It's like any other kind of data gathering exercise: garbage in, garbage out. Your ability to manage the situation is only as good as your data collection and entry. Without that, you have nothing to gauge your true success or failures on.
Best advice is to truly buckle down and use the MFP tool as it supposed to be used. It's a lot of work, but it gets easier once you start logging things over and over and create your favorite recipes and have foods you create that you can go back to again and again.
Hope that isn't too harsh, just trying to help with the info I'm seeing.15 -
I will NOT say don't weigh every day under the same conditions wearing the same or no clothes and using a firm unyielding surface while entering your data into a weight trend application or website and comparing your progress between similar points in your hormonal cycle.
At your current weight small differences in sodium or water retention due to novel activity can result in a lot of (water) weight movement.
A component of ketogenic diets has to do with the perfect normal but often misinterpreted loss and regain of water weight associated with the amount of carb depletion you're operating under. This can result in swings of several lbs.
You're interested in energy reserves (fat) which in spite of all my discussion above and given a 47lb apparent swing have obviously gone up instead of down, even if not exactly by 47lbs
Additional movement is excellent. It was actually my own very first goal and it got me started on a path towards engaging in active weight management and modifying my weight.
But movement does not by itself ensure and energy deficit
While ketogenic diets often help people control their calories by making hyper palatable foods off limits and blunting the appetite for people who are more satiated when they eat more fat and protein, this is not universal. And if high fat food (such as is available in ketogenic diets) is overconsumed, the Calories increase rapidly.
The only thing that counts for fat loss is a persistent Caloric (energy) deficit.
The energy has to come from somewhere and when you're using more Calories than you take in your energy reserves decrease and your weight level reduces!
What is the apparent deficit you believe (logged) that you're achieving?
For how long have you been doing so?
Activity setting on mfp? Are you/are you not logging your walk as a separate exercise activity?
If you're not using a food scale, please consider doing so.
I note that I always thought that carbs were loafs of bread, mounts of pasta, and boxes of fries. Preferably with lots of butter and cheese.
I've discovered that boiled or BBQ potatoes (straight on the grill baby potatoes, skin and all, not even oil) and apples are also carbs.
Not all carbs are equally filling. And a lot of carbs get their calories from the fats they're cooked with or served with.
Look for food that provides you with maximum satiation for the calories, and profit!
I lost a lot of weight doing keto and felt the best I had ever felt but was not working out. Once I started working out, I discovered keto does not work for me. I’m pretty versed in keto. I admit I was not logging food because I was a vet at that stuff and I didn’t recently start working out and doing all of this until 3 weeks ago. All the weight gain up until then I understand is my fault (though it still seems extreme) but I’m more upset about the last month. I do not sync my watch for calorie burns so I only eat the calories I’m allowed. I will be logging on MFP pal and not carb manager. But with working out and eating better (low carb and calorie) I would have the very least expected a maybe 3 lbs flucuarikn but 12 lbs? That is what boggles my mind. My eating does not constitute that.
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Strudders67 wrote: »You need to weigh everything you eat and measure everything you drink.
You also need to log everything you eat and drink.
Make sure the entries you select are current / match the calories and nutritional info on the packet as things change.
In the last week, only on Saturday do you seem to have a full day logged - and you were 1300 calories above what MFP allocated you to eat. Multiply that by 7 days and it's very possible to gain 12 lbs in a month.
Re-look at your MFP set-up to make sure it's accurate - don't set too aggressive a weight loss rate - look at how many calories you're allocated a day, track everything you eat and drink for 6 weeks and see how you're doing then. Maybe aim for losing at a rate of 1lb or 1.5lb a week. Log your exercise and eat a fair percentage of the calories earned from that too.
That is true and I did have a rough day that day. I also don’t have my calories burned that day which was 700 for my over an hour workout but I did over eat. And I wanted to make sure I lifted that for instances like this. I’m still trying to transition out of carb manager to MFP. So I will fully transition to this platform and hope that helps. Thank you.5 -
I was using carb manager at the time.
Okay, I'm guessing that's also a calorie counter? I was going by what you had put in your post, and it looked like you were using MFP.
How have you been logging on there? Do you weigh everything? Do you do a quick check to make sure the entries are accurate? (Some of the user submitted entries can be very inacurate) If you're using cups and not weighing everything, I still think it could be a logging issue.1 -
Until you've logged all your food and drink for a couple of weeks, you can't say for certain whether your eating does or does not constitute a 12lb weight gain.
Also, do log your exercise and eat at least some of the additional calories. You will have expended more than zero calories, so should eat some of them. If you're walking, MFP is pretty accurate at calculating calories for that as long as you're accurate about the speed that you walked at and for how long. It's less accurate for calories burned during workouts so perhaps eat 50% of whatever it gives you for that.5 -
Forget veteran at dieting status other than to consider what did not work in the past so you should be looking to do it differently
Water weight is entirely possible to account for most
You are also extremely likely not in a significant deficit yet
The walking is great. Absolutely to be encouraged.
Currently only about 40% of these calories are not already included in your hourly allotment of 1.25*BMR that mfp gives you at sedentary. In fact, you have to engage in about ~45 minutes of moving around the house to fulfill the sedentary level. This has to be considered, though aiming for 2lbs a week may be initially counterproductive7 -
Forget veteran at dieting status other than to consider what did not work in the past so you should be looking to do it differently
Water weight is entirely possible to account for most
You are also extremely likely not in a significant deficit yet
The walking is great. Absolutely to be encouraged.
Currently only about 40% of these calories are not already included in your hourly allotment of 1.25*BMR that mfp gives you at sedentary. In fact, you have to engage in about ~45 minutes of moving around the house to fulfill the sedentary level. This has to be considered, though aiming for 2lbs a week may be initially counterproductive
So I typically do a 30-40 minute workout every single day that includes cardio and strength training and then a 2 mile walk. I don’t sync my exercise to MFP because I’m not sure how accurate the calories are so I just changed my activity level to lightly active. Should that suffice?
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wander_lustxo wrote: »It's not muscle. There might be a small amount of water weight due to the increased activity but NOT 12 pounds worth.
Keto does not equal weight loss. Its a style of eating. You gain still gain weight on keto if you eat more than your body burns.
If you gained 12 pounds in a month that means you'd have to be eating over 10,000 calories/week OVER your maintenance calories. That's a lot. Barring any medical conditions, I would really look hard at your logging and tracking. Are you weighing everything? I mean, put every morsel that goes in your mouth on a scale? Not eyeballing, estimating, scanning packages for "servings"?
Yeah, definitely not eating that much at all. I feel like that’s humanly impossible. Plus I was burning 300-900 calories a day in exercise. I would maybe eat back 300 of those calories but like.. what gives?! Seriously makes literally no sense. I was not measuring my food because I’m not new to this game and I can pretty much eyeball stuff. Plus with so much weight gain now, I have a lot to lose so it really shouldn’t be that hard. It’s insane to me that I’ve gained 47 pounds in 6 months!!!! I’m going to give this another month and then I’m going to the doctor because this is insane.
It's really easy to undercount calories by eyeballing, to forget about a snack earlier in the day, and to overestimate exercise calories.
The body cares a lot about the quality (healthy vs unhealthy) of your diet, but in terms of weight, only calories matter. I know people who gained weight on keto because that meant they can easy all the bacon they want. If you like doing keto that's fine, but it's not automagic weight loss.
A man in his early 20s awash in hormones, lifting heavier all the time, eating all the protein and carbs can put on 47 pounds of muscle in two years. Unfortunately building muscle is really hard and slow, it doesn't just happen by accident. I'm agreeing with what you said in your OP and giving a little more detail or perspective on that part.
Cheat meals are like splurging while you're saving money. If it's only a little cheat it's not big deal, but it's possible to undo a whole week of eating reasonably with one big delicious meal. It's also possible to "save up" calories for a few days so it isn't cheating at all.7 -
Gaining 47 pounds in six months means eating an extra 900 calories a day, essentially. Even though that seems like a lot, with fat-dense food, it is really easy to do it really easily if you aren’t WEIGHING and tracking every bit of food that goes in your mouth, and every beverage you drink (that has calories — tea and water exempt; even black coffee bas calories). That’s the equivalent of three tablespoons of oil, three servings of mayo, and a few glasses of wine. Or just two very very very generous helpings of peanut butter. Very easy to have those every day if you aren’t tracking and weighing.13
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wander_lustxo wrote: »Forget veteran at dieting status other than to consider what did not work in the past so you should be looking to do it differently
Water weight is entirely possible to account for most
You are also extremely likely not in a significant deficit yet
The walking is great. Absolutely to be encouraged.
Currently only about 40% of these calories are not already included in your hourly allotment of 1.25*BMR that mfp gives you at sedentary. In fact, you have to engage in about ~45 minutes of moving around the house to fulfill the sedentary level. This has to be considered, though aiming for 2lbs a week may be initially counterproductive
So I typically do a 30-40 minute workout every single day that includes cardio and strength training and then a 2 mile walk. I don’t sync my exercise to MFP because I’m not sure how accurate the calories are so I just changed my activity level to lightly active. Should that suffice?
I would be very very surprised if you were getting 900 calorie burns from that amount of exercise.14 -
collectingblues wrote: »wander_lustxo wrote: »Forget veteran at dieting status other than to consider what did not work in the past so you should be looking to do it differently
Water weight is entirely possible to account for most
You are also extremely likely not in a significant deficit yet
The walking is great. Absolutely to be encouraged.
Currently only about 40% of these calories are not already included in your hourly allotment of 1.25*BMR that mfp gives you at sedentary. In fact, you have to engage in about ~45 minutes of moving around the house to fulfill the sedentary level. This has to be considered, though aiming for 2lbs a week may be initially counterproductive
So I typically do a 30-40 minute workout every single day that includes cardio and strength training and then a 2 mile walk. I don’t sync my exercise to MFP because I’m not sure how accurate the calories are so I just changed my activity level to lightly active. Should that suffice?
I would be very very surprised if you were getting 900 calorie burns from that amount of exercise.
Not on average but that particular day I worked out twice and walked 2 miles. I had 90 minutes of excercise and I’m not a skinny girl. I’m asking for help and insight, I have no reason to lie. That won’t help me in the long run.
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