Weight creep

mariannesacks2018
mariannesacks2018 Posts: 12 Member
edited December 26 in Goal: Maintaining Weight
I have been maintaining just below 119.9 for years. It is getting more difficult. My weight was slightly over 120 today. I am eating more snacks - chips, cheese, wine and it is having an effect. I exercise ( weight, cycle, walking) lots daily . The app says when I add in the exercise that I should not be gaining, however I am. I know there are no real answers- just eat less- however still looking for some salient supportive comments from this fabulous group
Marianne - USA

Replies

  • charmmeth
    charmmeth Posts: 936 Member
    What is your normal range for maintenance?

    If you are consuming more chips, cheese and wine than you have been during your period of maintenance, then (as you already know) you need to plan to consume a bit less elsewhere in your diet planning, or plan to move more in your exercise planning.
  • spiriteagle99
    spiriteagle99 Posts: 3,749 Member
    The chips and cheese could be causing water retention thanks to salt. I certainly wouldn't worry about it. I have a 4-5 lb. range and can bounce up and down within that range based on what I eat the previous day or whether I did a hard workout and my muscles are retaining water to heal them. Keep monitoring your weight over the next couple of weeks to see if the gain is real or temporary.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,622 Member
    mariannesacks2018 wrote: »
    I have been maintaining just below 119.9 for years. It is getting more difficult. My weight was slightly over 120 today. I am eating more snacks - chips, cheese, wine and it is having an effect. I exercise ( weight, cycle, walking) lots daily . The app says when I add in the exercise that I should not be gaining, however I am. I know there are no real answers- just eat less- however still looking for some salient supportive comments from this fabulous group
    Marianne - USA

    Has your routine changed in other ways? I'm seeing some posts where it seems like people are getting some creep (even jumps!) from pandemic-triggered changes in routine, potentially combined with weather getting colder in Northern hemisphere and reducing outdoor non-exercise activity like yard work.

    Either way, I empathize . . . creep happens. I let my weight creep up for quite a while after a multi-month period of stability right after major weight loss. It was maybe couple pounds a year or so, still total weight in healthy range. Lately, I've been intentionally creeping it down again with a tiny deficit, which is pretty painless.

    You've probably already thought of/done this, but in case not, another option to try (besides adding exercise) is focusing on adding movement to daily life:

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10610953/neat-improvement-strategies-to-improve-weight-loss/p1

    I'm sure you know that the "calculator" estimates for calorie needs are kind of rough ballpark-y, i.e., there's a statistical distribution around the mean. They're usually crazy far off for me - fortunately for me, they guess low in my case. (I guess I'm fidgety? 😆)
  • autumnblade75
    autumnblade75 Posts: 1,661 Member
    mtaratoot wrote: »

    That's a half pound. That's less eight ounces. I gain twice that much by drinking a pint of water.


    It's not just you... ;)
  • mariannesacks2018
    mariannesacks2018 Posts: 12 Member
    Thank you for all the great answers. This group is fabulous. I will continue to monitor. It helps so much to have people who understand. And the wine, cheese and chips are not helpful- just hard to resist. Thank you for saying that the calculator can be a bit off. I believe, for me, I cannot eat as many calories without gaining weight as it indicates taking into account my exercise. I like to track my exercise however maybe I should ignore it or cut the extra calories in half for food consumption purposes?
  • Ikeeptrying2
    Ikeeptrying2 Posts: 156 Member
    I've been in maintenance for about 5 years. 2-3 pound swings are 'normal' for me.

    However, I have been in periods where I got too close to my own personal high-end of my range. When this happens, I consciously begin logging and remain in a deficit until I get to the mid or lower end of my desired range.
  • mtaratoot
    mtaratoot Posts: 14,389 Member
    mariannesacks2018 wrote: »
    Thank you for all the great answers. This group is fabulous. I will continue to monitor. It helps so much to have people who understand. And the wine, cheese and chips are not helpful- just hard to resist. Thank you for saying that the calculator can be a bit off. I believe, for me, I cannot eat as many calories without gaining weight as it indicates taking into account my exercise. I like to track my exercise however maybe I should ignore it or cut the extra calories in half for food consumption purposes?

    If you really want to dial it in, you have to be very observant. You have to measure all your intake; food scale is the gold standard. You have to find the correct entries in the database that are realistic. You also have to have a realistic goal for daily net. Just like food, you have to track that exercise. If you include exercise in how you describe yourself (e.g. you set your level to highly active), then counting exercise on top of that is double counting. If you accurately describe yourself when you set your goal, you should eat back the exercise calories.

    Then you have to find a way to track your over/under on a daily/weekly basis for several weeks. See how the results compare to expectations. Then you can adjust the goal a little bit. But this does take full honest disclosure of your inputs (food) and outputs (movement).

    In your case it might be easier. You've been maintaining for years. What changed? Find a way to mitigate that change or change something else. If you were doing it before, you can do it now.

    Says the guy who has seen his mass slowly increase for two or three months....
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,622 Member
    mariannesacks2018 wrote: »
    Thank you for all the great answers. This group is fabulous. I will continue to monitor. It helps so much to have people who understand. And the wine, cheese and chips are not helpful- just hard to resist. Thank you for saying that the calculator can be a bit off. I believe, for me, I cannot eat as many calories without gaining weight as it indicates taking into account my exercise. I like to track my exercise however maybe I should ignore it or cut the extra calories in half for food consumption purposes?

    Others have offered useful perspectives on this post, and I'm not disagreeing.

    Sure, adding snacks *in addition* to one's normal maintenance eating is likely cause weight gain.

    On the "what to do" front, there are lots of options. If you're calorie counting, and want to address the problem primarily by eating less, then it truly doesn't matter (mechanically) how you cut calories. You can just knock off a hundred or two daily (depending on how fast you think your upward creep is going), and eat at that level. It doesn't matter whether you do that by ignoring exercise, using a smaller percentage of exercise, or simply whacking off some calories and setting a lower goal manually. Do whatever seems most straightforward to you.

    If you care about figuring out your own personal TDEE more accurately, it will make sense to work at logging more precisely (both eating and activity), plus cutting calorie goal. The mechanisms of weighing all food, etc., make sense there, combined with looking into the most accurate ways to estimate the specific kinds of exercise you personally do. (For example, HR monitors are good for some things, but kinda terrible for others. Exercise estimating is not perfectable, but it's often improvable.) If you care about estimating your personal NEAT (pre-exercise calorie expenditure), then that last bit, improving exercise calorie estimates, becomes even more important.

    If you want to keep the snacks (or equivalent calorie intake), increasing activity (either exercise or NEAT) makes sense.

    If you want to reduce the snacks for other reasons in addition to the impact on the scale, then other strategies might be a good focus: If you're bored-eating, resume an old absorbing hobby, or adopt a new one (ones requiring clean hands, or creating dirty ones, are especially useful for snack-avoidance, IMO). If you're stress-eating, then focus on better stress management in other respects (sleep, meditation, prayer, journaling, music, aromatherapy bubble baths, whatever works for you). And so forth.

    If you want to make long-term investments in getting a little higher allowance, then things like strength training can make a *small* contribution, rather slowly; dietary composition may make a tiny impact; and NEAT improvement (via ingraining new habits) may also be a good route.

    So: What are your objectives, *besides* stopping the weight creep, if any? What constraints apply? (For example, if you don't have time for more exercise while keeping good life balance, and would dislike/be fatigued by more intense exercise within the same time-allowance, then exercise is not a good option).

    IMO, thinking through your personal goals and preferences is key to the "how" piece. All we can do is suggest alternatives for you to consider.

  • happyness4me
    happyness4me Posts: 58 Member
    Good luck getting it under control. My weight started creeping up about a year and a half ago and I neglected to get it under control. I have gained about 14 total pounds from my previous maintenance weight. I'm hoping to lose it again and do better at maintaining the next time around.
  • mylittlerainbow
    mylittlerainbow Posts: 822 Member
    That's why I log. Confronting that unforgiving software and having to put in chips, cheese, and wine would serve as a huge deterrent for me. Kudos to you for clamping down on it when it's only a pound that you've gained instead of just throwing up your hands and giving in "to the inevitable"!
  • J72FIT
    J72FIT Posts: 6,009 Member
    mariannesacks2018 wrote: »
    I have been maintaining just below 119.9 for years. It is getting more difficult. My weight was slightly over 120 today. I am eating more snacks - chips, cheese, wine and it is having an effect. I exercise ( weight, cycle, walking) lots daily . The app says when I add in the exercise that I should not be gaining, however I am. I know there are no real answers- just eat less- however still looking for some salient supportive comments from this fabulous group
    Marianne - USA

    I am going through it now as well. It's normal. Don't overcorrect. Just keep showing up...
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