Why am I gaining weight despite diet and exercise?

Maybe you need to switch to a diet of fresh morning dew and hummingbird tongues.

There's no way to know without any information. I would guess either your exercise or your calories need to be increased. You need to eat correctly for the amount of activity you do.

Edit: I would post too late. x__x You seem to be eating too little some days and some of those foods have a lot of sodium.

u added an extra 0? i'm pretty sure you don't eat 12,000 calories. their telling you to increase your calorie intake if your doing exercises. people and medical people consider starving if the calories you have when you finish working out and eating are 800-900 calories

I would go to the tools section and figure out what your BMR is. 1200 calories is fairly low and you could probably eat more than that and still lose weight.

How does the 'net' work, exactly?

Also....I used to never ever feel full, no matter what/how much I ate. I could eat 3 whole meals and still not feel full. Lately though, I hardly get through half a meal before I feel full. @_@

i feel the same it may be that your metabolism slowed down already or that you are now accustomed to see food as food and not something to be overly-enjoyed. there was a word for it but i'm a fob i saw that quote on the internet.

Sometimes it takes a while for your body to adjust to the changes you're making, and results don't always happen over night. Some people are more prone to storing fat cells within their bodies then others, and the speed of your metabolism could have a lot to do with it. I know in my personal experience that sometimes I wasn't always being completely honest with myself about what I was eating and portion sizes, so the calories that I logged were not always accurate. It's important to exercise of course, but sometimes the exercise that you are doing isn't actually as effective as you think it may be. For example mindlessly chugging away on an elliptical without really exerting yourself wont accomplish that much, even though you're still at the gym which is in one way better than nothing... you will have to take into account your own diet and maybe you need to examine what you're doing and see if maybe there is something you are overestimating. Eating the wrong foods can play a big role too... if you start eating more wholesome foods and foods that promote a faster metabolism, you will see results.

If you're under-eating though... you're doing yourself more harm because you're slowing down your metabolism. Try to eat small meals every few hours to get your metabolism going, and introduce some of the known metabolism boosters into your diet. Drink lots of water, green tea is a must, and curb the extra salt... it could be making you bloat.

Read this!



Article taken from:
http://www.columbussports.com/content/writers/dan_falkenberg/ive-started-working-out-why-am-i-still-gaining-weight.shtml


By Dan Falkenberg
Here’s a question I hear all the time, and to be honest, even though I know why it happens, it can still be disheartening to see your client so disappointed because after a few weeks of working out very hard, he hasn’t lost any weight but has actually gained weight instead! This may have even happened to you and left you standing on the scale with a confused look on your face. I think this is a big contributor to why so many people aren’t successful at weight loss programs. Sure, some are just plain lazy and don’t exercise with enough intensity, but some become so discouraged with the scales that they simply just give up. Whatever you do, don’t give up! Here’s why.

I hope by now that we all know that losing fat takes time and effort. For many, simply hopping onto a treadmill and walking for 20 to 30 minutes isn’t going to cut it; for a very small number of people yes, but for many no. Most of us have to have a very structured and intense program to be successful at dropping the fat.

Here’s the first step to success. Are you ready? Ignore the scale. Here’s the first step to success. Are you ready? Ignore the scale. That’s right. Don’t even step onto a scale for the first month of your exercise program. I know it’ll be hard, but don’t do it. I know some of you are scale addicts; well, consider this Day 1 of your scale detox program. Remember, a successful “weight” loss program is based on the number of lbs. of fat burned off, not the number of overall lbs. burned off. This is why you see programs out there that guarantee 6 lbs. lost in 6 days. You know what they’re guaranteeing? They’re guaranteeing an eventual 6-10, or more, lbs. being put back on.

The “yo-yo” effect, I’m sure a lot of you have heard of it before. The “yo-yo” effect is when your body loses weight, then gains weight, then loses weight, and so on. That’s what these types of guarantees are. Sure, some overly obese individuals can lose more than 2 lbs. of fat in a week, but the majority can’t. Losing 6 lbs. is mostly muscle and water, which is a horrible thing. Muscle is vital to your body, so when it loses it, it wants to get it right back, and a lot of times, it’ll put muscle back on and bring excess fat storage with it. This can leave you having more body fat than when you originally started a “weight” loss program.

Alright, so we’ve established that all weight is not the same. Losing a pound of muscle isn’t good for the body, while losing a pound of fat is (in most cases). Also, hopefully it’s clear why scales aren’t always the best indicator of fat loss. When I evaluate a client’s success, figuring out her body fat percentage is a lot more meaningful to me than seeing the number on the scale. If her body fat stays the same, but she’s smaller on the scale, then that tells me she’s either lost muscle or water. If her body fat is the same, but she’s bigger on the scale, then that tells me that she most likely is retaining water. When both her body fat percentage and weight on the scale drop, then I know that she’s actually losing body fat and achieving success.

For every gram of glycogen stored, approximately 3 grams of water are stored with it. For those of you who can’t seem to shake your scale addiction, here’s why you need to be prepared for what you’ll see at the start of your weight loss program.

Like I said earlier, it can be very discouraging when you step onto the scale and see that you haven’t lost any weight and may have evened gained weight. As long as you don’t give up and are doing the right things with eating right and working out hard enough, your body fat will slowly start to come off. You just need to be patient. Don’t give up.

When you first start an exercise program, your body is basically thrown a curve ball. Your body is used to having to use a certain amount of energy throughout the day, but now that you’re exercising, your body figures out that it needs a greater energy supply. So what happens?

If you remember, your body’s source of energy comes from glucose. Carbohydrates are broken down into glucose, the glucose is used to make energy, and your body performs how it needs to. Well, your body also has a “reserve tank” for excess glucose. Instead of storing all the excess glucose as fat, your body stores some of the excess glucose in an easier form to break down for energy; it’s called glycogen. Glycogen is long chains of glucose molecules that are stored in our muscles and liver.

Working out too intensely can cause muscle tears to become overly inflamed to the point where the mini-tears start to swell with fluid. Your body adapts to how much glycogen it needs to store in order to have enough “energy” on stand-by for when your blood sugar starts to drop because there isn’t enough glucose in the bloodstream from the food you last ate. When we start to exercise, our bodies require more energy and become more efficient at getting that energy, so as a result, our bodies start to store more glycogen. Here’s the kicker. For every gram of glycogen stored, approximately 3 grams of water are stored with it. This means that now your body has a larger amount of water and glycogen stored in the muscles and liver, and as a result, your body weight can go up by a few lbs.

Picture a piece of bread or pasta noodle. What happens when you put them in water? They’re like sponges. They soak up the water and expand. The same can be said with glycogen. Glycogen is a carb, and it sucks up water just like any other carb.

Here’s another culprit. If you go from not working out to working out very hard, your muscles will most likely be sore for the next 2 or 3 days. This is because when you work out, you essentially create mini-tears in your muscles. Working out too intensely can cause these tears to become overly inflamed to the point where the mini-tears start to swell with fluid. This excess fluid in the muscles can cause an initial, excess weight gain. By starting out an exercise program slowly and working your way up, you reduce the likelihood of tearing your muscles too much. To some extent, though, muscle soreness will occur when you first start exercising, but the amount of soreness and inflammation can be controlled by gradually working into a fitness program.

If you continue to stick to your weight loss program and don’t become discouraged by the initial weight gain that may result, you’ll slowly start to see the weight come off for good. Rest assured, even though you may be retaining water during that first month of working out, your body is still burning off fat. After a month’s time, that excess water weight and glycogen will still be there, but your body will have started to burn off enough fat to overcome the water weight gains, and you’ll start to see a difference on the scale.

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that the individuals who are the most successful with permanent weight loss are those who don’t see results in the first month. One thing I’ve noticed about my most successful clients, the majority of them actually gained a pound or two during the first month of exercising. My clients who weren’t very successful were those that maintained the same weight during the first month, the second month, and so on. Why? I’d have to say it’s because my most successful clients were working so intensely that they experienced extra glycogen and water storage. My clients who wouldn’t put in the effort didn’t need extra glycogen stored, so they didn’t see any initial weight gains.

You see, my successful clients saw an extra pound or two on the scale during the first month, but as the program went on, that extra glycogen storage meant their bodies had the extra fuel to stay revved up and burning off excess calories. It also meant that of the food they ate, less was going into fat storage and more was going into “high-octane” glycogen storage. Less fat storage equals faster weight loss.

So here’s my advice. Don’t be scared of delayed results within the first month. Your body is going through an adaptation process, and it requires some time to prepare itself for its new lifestyle. Keep your exercise intensity up, your eating habits right, and you’ll slowly start to see your fat loss results overcome your new glycogen and water storage results. You’ll slowly start to see that success you set out to achieve.

Dan Falkenberg is the cofounder of Your Live Trainers. He can be reached at DanFalkenberg.com.

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You are starving your self you need to eat at least your calories. Weigh yourself in the morning before you do anything.