Can you anyone explain this?!! Seems absurd.

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!
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Replies

  • wander_lustxo
    wander_lustxo Posts: 12 Member
    briscogun 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.
  • wander_lustxo
    wander_lustxo Posts: 12 Member
    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.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,253 Member
    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 calculated
  • wander_lustxo
    wander_lustxo Posts: 12 Member
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    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.
  • Nativestar56
    Nativestar56 Posts: 112 Member
    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.
  • wander_lustxo
    wander_lustxo Posts: 12 Member
    PAV8888 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?

  • wander_lustxo
    wander_lustxo Posts: 12 Member
    PAV8888 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.