EATING MY CALORIES AND STILL GAINING

Options
kprine1
kprine1 Posts: 11
in Food and Nutrition
Alright guys pretty discouraged. Eating my prescribed 1200 calories, measuring, weighing, and counting every snack. Exercising 5 days a week for 1 1/2 hours burning between 600-750 calories.... WHY AM I STILL GAINING??? I get that I might be making muscle but when and how long will I have to wait for the scale to budge??
«1

Replies

  • kprine1
    kprine1 Posts: 11
    Options
    I am buring 600-750 per workout, not in total for the week!
  • eschwab855
    eschwab855 Posts: 258 Member
    Options
    I know its hard to do give it time I went the first 3 weeks ....nothing give it time it will work
  • skinnyme47
    skinnyme47 Posts: 805 Member
    Options
    If I go over on sodium, I gain weight.
  • eschwab855
    eschwab855 Posts: 258 Member
    Options
    oh and did you get a good set of measurements if not take them now I didn't till a month after I started I so wish i had now
  • harriet_tubman
    harriet_tubman Posts: 52
    Options
    i stopped weighing myself a while ago and just go by how my clothes fit. my scale tells me i've either stayed the same or gained (since August) but my clothes fit fine (and in some cases are looser)
  • BrideToBe101212
    BrideToBe101212 Posts: 81
    Options
    Are you eating your 1200 calories or 1200+ exercise calories? Also, are you using a HRM?
  • abigaylelayne
    abigaylelayne Posts: 1
    Options
    I am not eating all my calories; burning between 350-400 calories per workout - 6 days a week; and I am not losing either ! I have been doing this for 6 weeks. The first 4 weeks I lost 8 pounds, now nothing. I totally understand your frustration !!! What are we doing wrong???!!
  • XXXMinnieXXX
    XXXMinnieXXX Posts: 3,459 Member
    Options
    Try eating a couple hundred more calories. 1200 is low, especially if your exercising! X
  • BeautyFromPain
    BeautyFromPain Posts: 4,952 Member
    Options
    Alright guys pretty discouraged. Eating my prescribed 1200 calories, measuring, weighing, and counting every snack. Exercising 5 days a week for 1 1/2 hours burning between 600-750 calories.... WHY AM I STILL GAINING??? I get that I might be making muscle but when and how long will I have to wait for the scale to budge??

    Are you eating your exercise calories?
    Also, you cannot gain muscle on a deficit unless you are a flatout beginner which would be about 1 pound, nothing more. If you opened your diary, it would be helpful?
  • kerricolby
    kerricolby Posts: 232 Member
    Options
    Try eating back some of your exercise calories. I stayed the same for 3 weeks and was sticking to my calories and working out hard, but I was not giving my body enough fuel. This week I started eating most of my exercise calories back and I lost 5 pounds.
  • Blessedmommy_2x
    Blessedmommy_2x Posts: 419 Member
    Options
    Are you eating any of your exercise calories that you burned back? IF NOT its very likely that you are only netting about 500 calories a day. (1200 eaten -700 burned =500)

    Also are you watching your sodium intake and increasing your water intake. Water weight can add serious weight to you and make you hold on to weight.

    Sometimes the scale has a delayed reaction to the work you are doing... I have went a whole week before without seeing results and then all of a sudden then it'd start falling off.

    I am relatively new at this myself... But I think its VERY likely you are not eating enough calories! I have about the same amount to lose and I started this journey eating way more than 1200 calories a day - and as you can see (from my ticker) its helped. I'm still not at 1200 cals a day and I have already lost 30 lbs. You may need to up them some.

    ***Sending you a friend request, because we have similar goals.
  • kmfl1
    kmfl1 Posts: 15 Member
    Options
    Are you eating what you're burning? Although the program allows it, I've found to eat about half of what I've burned. Helps.
  • kmfl1
    kmfl1 Posts: 15 Member
    Options
    Also, are you taking your measurements? Sometimes, as my wife says, "the scale is not our friend!" Your body could be going in while the scale is going up!
  • david_swinstead
    david_swinstead Posts: 271 Member
    Options
    Number one reason people fail to lose weight: because they aren't eating enough.

    if you're eating 1200 a day, and burning off 700, then thaty's equivalent to only eating 500 calories a day (1200 - 700). This is not enough!

    You should never, ever go below 1200 calories a day NET (that means after subtracting exercise calories). This will make your metabolism slow down to compensate for the lack of food it has. Pretty soon it will slow down to a point where you think you're eating in deficit, but actually due to your metabolism being so low, even at 500 calories you're eating in surplus compared to what your body is burning.

    Open your diary and we can take a good look and give you better info, but initially it seems like an open and shut case of not eating enough.
  • david_swinstead
    david_swinstead Posts: 271 Member
    Options
    Also, as other people have said, yes it's possible to have some muscle gain, but this happens much slower than people might like to believe.

    Muscle gain is far too readily used as an excuse for not losing weight. Even for beginners (beginners gain muscle faster at first) you wont gain more than perhaps 2-3lbs a month (admittedly a bit of a guesstimate), and to do that you would have to be lifting heavy weights consistently and keeping up an excellent supply of protein. More realistically you'd gain a lot less than that.

    So in short, msucle gain isn't your problem.
  • dls06
    dls06 Posts: 6,774 Member
    Options
    Get a food scale to make sure your portions are correct.
  • lynn1982
    lynn1982 Posts: 1,439 Member
    Options
    Get a food scale to make sure your portions are correct.

    This!! If you haven't done so already, be sure you're measuring everything and measuring it accurately!! You may be eating more than you think...
  • bingohead
    bingohead Posts: 11 Member
    Options
    If you don't eat sufficient calories,your body goes into starvation mode and starts conserving food as fat in case it doesn't get enough to sustain itself, make sure you eat you full amount of calories,including any extras earned by exercising.
  • UsedToBeHusky
    UsedToBeHusky Posts: 15,229 Member
    Options
    I tell everyone to look at your sodium and potassium intake. These two nutrients create the balance of water in our bodies. Too much sodium and/or not enough potassium will cause water retention and it will look like a gain on the scale.
  • lynn1982
    lynn1982 Posts: 1,439 Member
    Options
    How long have you been doing this? If you just started (your profile says you joined in Feb 2012), it could be that your muscles are retaining water. That usually happens when you first start working out... Give it a few more weeks. After that, if you're measuring your food accurately and using a HRM so you know how many calories you've burned, it could be a medical issue.

Categories