I lost weight but now I'm gaining it all back again??

Evergreenium
Evergreenium Posts: 2 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I'm just at a loss really. I've started my weight loss journey again a month ago because I could finally leave a stressful period in my life behind.

I started logging my food intake every day, I make my own breakfast, lunch and dinner from recipes that I get from these instagram foodies. Delicious recipes that are low calorie but high in protein. My daily intake ranges between 1250-1460 kcal with at least 80gr of protein. This went really well the first few weeks. I've always had a hard time losing weight as my body is very stubborn and just doesn't want to lose anything until I basically starve myself. I've been training consistently 2 times a week and am going to start training 3 times soon. I do weight training and MMA/kickboxing. Burns a bunch of calories on these exercise days around 600. I always walk around 45min every day and my smartwatch calculates it equates to around 300 kcals. I have a mostly desk job which is why I incorporate the 45min in my lifestyle. I do it every single day.

A BMR calc says my body needs 1900 to survive in sedentary state. My smart scale says 1700 so I've played it safe and said 1500 kcal max. I'm not hungry and this is easy for me.

I lost almost 3kg over a period of a month. I was happy. On Monday I weighted 104.7 and then suddenly on Tuesday I weighted 106.7

How???? I told myself it must be water weight as I had too much sodium the day before and probably didn't drink enough water. Just now this morning I weighted myself again and I'm down to 106.1

HOW?! Once again... I only consumed 1200 kcal yesterday. How is it possible to gain so much weight?? My smart scale says its all fat mass...

Can anyone help me?

Replies

  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,458 Member
    yeah, five pounds either way is a normal scale "weight" fluctuation. There can be a lot of different reasons it happens.

    Weight loss is not a day-by-day downward linear process. There will always be ups and downs. Stay the course.

    Here's a good thread about fluctuations:
    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10683010/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-fluctuations/p1
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,885 Member
    edited December 2022
    For your peace of mind, I would suggest using a weight trending app like Libra or Happyscale. Day to day fluctuations are normal, it's the long-term (as in: at least one month/menstrual cycle) trend that counts.

    PS: ignore the smart scale, it isn't smart. Just taking a bath could influence your bodyfat percentage, the scale just measures electrical resistance, it doesn't measure fat.
  • Evergreenium
    Evergreenium Posts: 2 Member
    Lietchi wrote: »
    For your peace of mind, I would suggest using a weight trending app like Libra or Happyscale. Day to day fluctuations are normal, it's the long-term (as in: at least one month/menstrual cycle) trend that counts.

    PS: ignore the smart scale, it isn't smart. Just taking a bath could influence your bodyfat percentage, the scale just measures electrical resistance, it doesn't measure fat.

    Thank you for the suggestion. I just downloadedibra and filled in all my data from the scale but now Libra is scaring me 😭 the linear data shows my weight is going to go up to 112kg by the end as a prediction 💀
  • saggynaggy65
    saggynaggy65 Posts: 68 Member
    I started working out twice a week and the scale went up 3 pounds. Today I am back down 3 pounds. Be patient and give your body time to adjust. Any little change can influence your body weight.
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,885 Member
    saggynaggy65 wrote: »
    I started working out twice a week and the scale went up 3 pounds. Today I am back down 3 pounds. Be patient and give your body time to adjust. Any little change can influence your body weight.

    And (new or increased) exercise is a very likely cause for stalled weight loss/water retention. It's just water, nothing to stress about, patience is indeed important.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    These are completely normal fluctuations. Losing weight isn't a linear thing, and we aren't machines. The human body is comprised of anywhere from 55-65% water and that composition is always in flux all on it's own and/or can be exacerbated by things we do or do not do. Hormones also play a roll, particularly with women and hormonal cycles. You also will always have varying degrees of inherent waste in your system.

    Individual data points are just that and on their own provide you with very little information...but when many data points are present, appropriate analysis of trends can be done. This is what losing weight looks like IRL for everyone when plotted on a graph. The red line is the important one as it shows the trend over time...notice the individual data points are all over the place.

    Weight-Loss-Reality-Feature-1024x538.png
  • COGypsy
    COGypsy Posts: 1,365 Member
    Also note that it's physically impossible to gain 2 pounds in 24 hours unless you overate your maintenance (NOT weight loss) calories by 7,000 calories or so, and even then, it's doubtful the change would happen that quickly. Relatively large changes like that are always water retention and completely natural and expected day-to-day. Seriously check out the article linked above. It will probably save your sanity.
  • vbachtold
    vbachtold Posts: 5 Member
    I would also like to add to only focus on bfp. If your doing mma/kickboxing your gaining muscle as well which may make your scale go up. bodyweight doesn't really matter to be honest. Gaining muscle is a good thing. Just keep doing it. Muscle is a good thing it will eventually help you in your journey of taking that fat off. I know I am not the best to be talking at 174 and 25% bfp right now but I have done this game a few times with success and just now starting back :smile: My issue is that once I reach the goal I seem to get bored and fall out. I need to find out why and stay with it for once and for ever!
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,266 Member
    edited December 2022
    Yeah, daily weight fluctuation is perfectly normal especially someone that is fairly active. Electrolyte levels, sleep patterns, hormones like estrogen and progesterone in women, food and the fluids a person drinks have weight, constipation, glycogen replenishing in the muscles are examples why we should focus on timeline and not something static like 1 day because these normal bodily processes can influence weight dramatically and 5 lbs over a 24 hour period is quite common. Cheers.
  • zebasschick
    zebasschick Posts: 1,071 Member
    edited December 2022
    gaining 2 pounds overnight requires either eating just over 7000 extra calories (assuming your body can even absorb 7000 extra calories) or else it's water weight, some food in the body that hasn't been excreted or perhaps after working out, muscles holding water for repair.

    btw, since you're using recipes from insta, are you sure their calorie calculations are correct? i've often found third-party recipes have incorrect info regarding calories, macros and other nutrients.

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