gaining weight and exercise

Is it your first week of dieting? If so, I would give it another couple of weeks before you decide something is wrong.

But if you've been doing it for a while then you should definitely be losing and something is going wrong.
Could you be:
a) underestimating your calories?
b) overestimating your exercise?

Maybe you could see a doctor or a nutritionist to help you out?

I think you may need to eat more -When you exercise this puts you at a deficit. It seems like a lot of people do better when they eat their recommended allowance PLUS their exercise calories.

So now we can figure out where your goal should be.
Go to the tools section and figure out your BMI:

Generally someone with a BMI over 32 can do a 1000 calorie a day (2 lbs a week) deficit
With a BMI of 30 to 32 a deficit of 750 calories is generally correct (about 1.5 lbs a week)
With a BMI of 28 to 30 a deficit of 500 calories is about right (about 1 lb a week)
With a BMI of 26 to 28 a deficit of about 300 calories is perfect (about 1/2 lb a week)
and below 26... well this is where we get fuzzy. See now you're no longer talking about being overweight, so while it's still ok to have a small deficit, you really should shift your focus more towards muscle building, and reducing fat. This means it is EXTRA important to eat your exercise calories as your body needs to KNOW it's ok to burn fat stores, and the only way it will know is if you keep giving it the calories it needs to not enter the famine response (starvation mode).


http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/10589-for-those-confused-or-questioning-eating-your-exercise-calo

I will probably be flamed for this, but I had the same problem when I exercised a lot and relied on exercise to create the calorie deficit. I used to diet with the old WW points plan (the same as calorie counting basically as the points equated to calories for the most part) and lost very nicely. I bought a stepper and went on it every day to boost my weight loss, so far so good. I got too fit to use home equipment as I broke the first stepper and couldn't get a decent workout on the replacement one so I joined the gym. All was well until I took the advice that I should be eating more due to the enormous number of calories I would be burning off doing hours at the gym every week- this was a lot of cardio- machines, classes, spin, and weight training 3x a week on top.

I stopped losing any weight. I asked the trainers in the gym to look at my food diary- still very sensible but maybe a few hundred calories higher per day than I would be on if I wasn't burning almost 1000 a day in the gym- the numbers seemed to add up to a massive deficit. They said it wasn't my diet, so I upped my exercise even more. No effect. Eventually after a year of rigorous gym usage and not one pound lost I got disheartened, stopped going to the gym and got slack on the eating habits, gained weight again.

In conclusion, I believe that for SOME people it is possible to be using a lot less calories to complete the exercise than the average person, or else our bodies cannot metabolise fat in the same way if the deficit comes mostly from exercise and for us it is necessary to restrict the diet in order to create a deficit. Other people seem to be able to melt fat off going to a couple of classes each week, but for some unfortunate individuals, even the most gruelling of training schedules seems to do NOTHING if you 'eat back' any extra calories.

as everyone has stated, you're eating too little. Some days when I'm busy I don't eat much..around 700 cals. On the days I eat 1200 I lose WAY more. Your body needs fuel!!

If you are only netting 950 calories a day after you excercise - that is not enough! If you are already lost 36 lbs, your body had become pretty efficient at storing and burning calories so you need to fuel you body, especially if you have developed more muscle .....Also, muscle DOES NOT weigh more than fat - a pound of muscle is the same weight as a pound of fat; however it is smaller and more dense, ie., you could be losing inches but not weight as you have turned your fat into muscle...So fuel your body!

As you get closer to your goal, it is harder and harder to lose those last few pounds (I remember it took me almost a month to lose 2 lbs to get to 40 lbs lost, frustrating)....how is your sodium intake? If this is not under control you could be retaining alot of water...also, try switching up some of your excercise routines to make your self work harder (when i first joined the gym the treadmill at 4 mph and 15 incline would nearly kill me, now I hardly break a sweat as my body has gotten used to it)....

its not a diet, its a lifestyle change. try to focus on long term as well as short term.

my first 4 weeks really doing this i basically lost 4 pounds a week because my body was in shock. last two weeks i lost 1 pound. it is easy to lose motivation and dedication, but thanks to the boards and reading other ppls problems with pleteauing, i was able to move past it.