Weight Gain even when I ate under the calorie level?!

Find the same thing.. Kinda frustrating.

Hey guys,

During the past 6 months I've been using my fitness pal, sometimes I'll workout really hard, burn a lot calories, and then at the end of the day when I stay under my calorie goal; I wake up to find I've gained 2 pounds!!

Is this normal?? Can I actually gain 2 pounds in a night? I don't know what is happening, does someone??


Love,
A concerned college girl

water weight, glycogen stores. Its insignificant.
If weight loss is too slow, try increasing excercise, decreasing food intake. But only for short period of time.(2 weeks) or so

When you work out hard your muscles swell. Just stretch and drink lots of water. No one gains 2 real pounds in one night unless you binged on Jack n the Box

Yes.
You can gain a few pounds overnight, just stay on your goals. Go to the bathroom you could drop 1 pound.
Track your calories, Carbs, Fat and Protein. The food you eat, with additives, chemicals etc can be bad for you.
Good Luck!

When you work out hard your muscles swell. Just stretch and drink lots of water. No one gains 2 real pounds in one night unless you binged on Jack n the Box

Yeah this is true.

But forreal why Jack n the Box? We are getting them here in Indianapolis for the first time and I can't wait to see what they are about. Hope I don't go in there binge eating. :happy:

Google the article "Why the Scale Lies" and read it. You will learn all kinds of reasons why the scale and jump around over night... especially after working out like you are doing.

Very much possible especially if you have eaten something high in sodium. I try to stay away from it as much as possible, but I know if I have something with lots of sodium I can expect about +5 the next day.

A couple of possibilities are obvious. First, are you measuring your food? If not, pretty well everything is approximate...the exercise, the food, with all of it we do our best to "guesstimate" it right. Are you sure you know what a half cup of something looks like? A cup? Most people tend to give themselves too much when eyeballing.

Coupled with that, if you're eating back all of your exercise calories, you've introduced another approximation into the equation. The food is approximate, but so is the exercise. Did you really burn 500 calories doing X, or was it 350?

In other words, cut as much approximation out as you can if you want max results.

Gaining muscle doesn't happen that fast...sorry. Wish it did.

Drink at least 8 glasses (8 oz each) of water, plus another glass for each 25 pound overweight you are, plus for each caffiene drink - match it with water.
Then watch what is in your calories - high sodium, bromide, msg (read on web "other names for msg") .......all of these can cause water retention and lack of weight loss.

My guess is that you need to increase your caloric intake.

HAHAHA : )

Thanks to Jaclynn for term "scale *kitten*". Cracked me up this morning! Exactly describes my relationship with the scale! Been weighing myself everyday since I started last week. Need to stop!
Jean

Eating under doesn't always mean you're eating enough. I agree with pretty much every post so far but here's my two cents...


1. What time are you eating your last meal? Sometimes if you eat late at night and get up early, it can reflect on the scale because not everything has been digested. I tend to try and eat by 6at the latest (and i use to be a late night eater) and then if I need a snack later, I always save about 100 calories for a snack. If I eat later, the scale is always higher in the morning than if I eat earlier.

2. How often are you eating? Are you having 2 larger meals? 3 meals? Or lots of little ones? Maybe try changing up how you're eating. I used to not be a breakfast eater but now I at least have instant oatmeal or a granola bar every morning (both under 130 calories) and about 210-240 calories for lunch (I alternate between a few different ready to go meals), and usually a 90 calorie snack. That's enough to get me through the day and then I make dinner when I get home with the left overs but still save some for a snack...

One last thing. Make sure you are measuring your food (if you can). If you can't and you are just guesstimating. I'm not saying its wrong to guess but maybe leave a little room. I prefer to measure but when I have to guess, I mark it down as a higher amount. Like I think it's a serving size so I mark it down as 1.5.

Same thing happens to me. The day after weigh-in I will have gained 2-4 pounds. This goes on all week, day by day I can go up and down up to 4 pounds. Then I sweat and try all week to get them back off and I am lucky if the next weigh-in I weigh the same as I did the week before. I am under calories every day by just a bit, so it doesn't seem like it would be from not eating enough. I do eat 6 "meals" including snacks, so my calorie intake is pretty evenly spread throughout the day. I quit eating ALL of my exercise calories because I would end up gaining at the next weigh in. I agree with the OP it is VERY frustrating when you don't see any results for weeks after you have worked so hard. Hopefully, she will stick with it and not give up... like me.

Same time of day weigh on days after bowel movement, measure body fat monthly, and drink lots of water. Water increases metabolism. Weight gain is due to full intestines, increased muscle, or body fat.