Gained almost 10 pounds in 2 weeks?

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HarlowAudrey
HarlowAudrey Posts: 42
in Health and Weight Loss
Since January I have lost about 28 pounds be cutting my calories back to 1200 (not eating back exercise calories) and exercising daily/sometimes twice a day doing cardio and weights.

Roughly 3 weeks ago I had completely burnt myself out, and ended up binging quite a bit.

I decided to increase my calories to 1600 as my BMR is 1500 or there abouts (5'5ft/72kgs/22/exercise 5 times per week). I was also eating little to no carbs, and have decided to eat a balanced diet incorpoating wholegrains into my diet (such as oats for breakfast).

All my new, small clothes are still fitting but my belly feels bloated. So I hopped on the scales and have gained 10 pounds!!!

There is no way this could be all fat is there? It seems like a lot to gain in such a short amount of time, especially considering how hard I had to work to get it off.

I am back exercising daily and am monitoring my calories but felt I was starting to get obsessive/borderline ED behaviours.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated?

Replies

  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,404 MFP Moderator
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    Probably 90% of the weight is water weight. When you start to incorporate carbs back into your diet, your body will store extra glycogen and water, which is why you gain weight.
  • AmyFett
    AmyFett Posts: 1,607 Member
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    maybe you're bloated from aunt flo? is it around that time? or not to jinx but pregnancy a possibility?? Could be a lot of things.
  • HealthierAndFitterMe
    HealthierAndFitterMe Posts: 52 Member
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    your body is probably getting use to what you're putting into it & since you were only taking in 1,200 calories & now are taking in an extra 400 calories , your body has to get use to it & process it . just keep exercising & take one day at a time . you'll eventually get back to where you would like to be . (:
  • HarlowAudrey
    HarlowAudrey Posts: 42
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    I haven't had aunt flo in months.. I went to the doctor and my hormones are all normal so it could be because I was äbusing"my body i.e not eating enough + over exercising.

    ... I wish I had been more sensible in my initial approach to losing weight.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,404 MFP Moderator
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    I haven't had aunt flo in months.. I went to the doctor and my hormones are all normal so it could be because I was äbusing"my body i.e not eating enough + over exercising.

    ... I wish I had been more sensible in my initial approach to losing weight.

    At least you get it now. Now your body just needs to stabolize and then it will lose again.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,404 MFP Moderator
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    Btw, limit exercise to an hour a day and concentrate more on resistance training and less on cardio. This will help with fat loss.
  • HarlowAudrey
    HarlowAudrey Posts: 42
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    Does 1600 calories seem ok?

    It feels like a lot in comparisson to how I was eating but I find myself still pretty hungry, even when I hit my calorie goal.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,404 MFP Moderator
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    Does 1600 calories seem ok?

    It feels like a lot in comparisson to how I was eating but I find myself still pretty hungry, even when I hit my calorie goal.

    I would have you more around 1900 calories based on your stats. Scary isnt it! But what you can do is slowly increase your calories by 200 a week until you reach that goal. I would aim for 35% carbs, 40 % protein and 25% fats. And you do not have to eat exercise calories.
  • avt85
    avt85 Posts: 64
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    i'd suggest flushing it down with alot of water intake....i find that after a binge for me or a sudden spike in weight for no reason, by increasing my water intake for the rest of the day, the weight seems to balance itself out at the end of the day.
  • ladyraven68
    ladyraven68 Posts: 2,003 Member
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    Probably 90% of the weight is water weight. When you start to incorporate carbs back into your diet, your body will store extra glycogen and water, which is why you gain weight.

    A more detailed explanation of what the fab Psulemon said.

    http://www.justinowings.com/understanding-bodyweight-and-glycogen-de/

    The initial water gain from the glycogen replenishment scares so many people when they up their calories from a previous low intake, they give it a week, get panicked by a gain, and then drop back down again instead of having a bit of patience.
  • Helloitsdan
    Helloitsdan Posts: 5,564 Member
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    Probably 90% of the weight is water weight. When you start to incorporate carbs back into your diet, your body will store extra glycogen and water, which is why you gain weight.
  • leannerob1984
    leannerob1984 Posts: 28 Member
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    Btw, limit exercise to an hour a day and concentrate more on resistance training and less on cardio. This will help with fat loss.

    Sorry to jump into the conversation, but what do you mean by resistance training? which exercises do you recommend?
  • katehad
    katehad Posts: 4
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    Definitely agree with previous posters about it being water weight. Also if you haven't had your period in months you are retaining even more water which was probably less apparent before because of the lower calorie intake. Give your body some time to adjust :)
  • Capt_Apollo
    Capt_Apollo Posts: 9,026 Member
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    Does 1600 calories seem ok?

    It feels like a lot in comparisson to how I was eating but I find myself still pretty hungry, even when I hit my calorie goal.

    I would have you more around 1900 calories based on your stats. Scary isnt it! But what you can do is slowly increase your calories by 200 a week until you reach that goal. I would aim for 35% carbs, 40 % protein and 25% fats. And you do not have to eat exercise calories.

    i like this a lot.

    however i'll add that if you are increasing your calories, i would do it slowly, just like exercise. maybe increase an extra 100-200 calories a day, per week, until you get to the goal of 1900 a day. this will allow your body to adjust to the new calorie increase.

    so much of this is an experiment and you must use yourself as the guinea pig. and you have to try things for about 2-3 weeks. four is better.

    maybe you decide that you'd rather try and eat back your calories, you can adjust your intake to 1500 a day, and eat back your exercise calories based on how much you burn. but even that isn't specific. you might burn 500 calories on day, and not be hungry, but the next day you are starving!

    oh, and i say "eat" back exercise calories, but you can drink them in the form of a protein shake. i like a post work out shake made with a scoop or two of protein powder, 6-8 ounces of OJ, and a handful or two of frozen berries.
  • foxbat2828
    foxbat2828 Posts: 391 Member
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    Your body's adjusting to the new calorie amounts. If you've gone from 1,200 to 1,600, then you've increased your calories by 33%. The body takes at least a couple weeks or sometimes longer to establish a new equilibrium. I had the same thing, although only five pounds, happen when I upped my calories to maintenance level from the lose-a-pound-a-week level to break a two-month plateau. After a couple of weeks, the pounds dropped off again. And yes, I also had that "heavier" bloated feeling at first when I upped the calories.

    I also changed up my exercise a little too. I'd been trying to work out every day and sometimes twice a day. I've dropped back to about four or five times a week now and it's had a positive impact on the pounds too. The advice that someone gave about limiting workouts to about an hour or lower is probably a good thing to check out and the other advice about the water are both things that I've found helped when working on my plateau. The other thing that I did was increase my fiber.

    Edit: Also forgot ... I eat back my calories. I don't force myself to eat them back, but I often find that with the exercising, I'm hungry enough to eat them back. Most days, I'm within about 100-200 calories of my goal calories, but there are some days, with a good workout burn, that I might end up at a 700-calorie deficit if I've happened to eat lighter that day, but I don't sweat doing that every once in a while.
  • Helloitsdan
    Helloitsdan Posts: 5,564 Member
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    Btw, limit exercise to an hour a day and concentrate more on resistance training and less on cardio. This will help with fat loss.

    Sorry to jump into the conversation, but what do you mean by resistance training? which exercises do you recommend?

    Take off the running shoes and pick heavy stuff up.
    www.stronglifts.com
    This is a great source since it starts out with bar weight and works up.
    Youll be squatting over 200lbs in 12 weeks IF you can follow the directions.
    squat.jpg

    She doesnt do cardio.....
  • AlsDonkBoxSquat
    AlsDonkBoxSquat Posts: 6,128 Member
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    how do your clothes fit? If you gained 10 pounds of fat you'd probably be up 2 pants sizes.
  • AmyLRed
    AmyLRed Posts: 894 Member
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    Since January I have lost about 28 pounds be cutting my calories back to 1200 (not eating back exercise calories) and exercising daily/sometimes twice a day doing cardio and weights.

    Roughly 3 weeks ago I had completely burnt myself out, and ended up binging quite a bit.

    I decided to increase my calories to 1600 as my BMR is 1500 or there abouts (5'5ft/72kgs/22/exercise 5 times per week). I was also eating little to no carbs, and have decided to eat a balanced diet incorpoating wholegrains into my diet (such as oats for breakfast).

    All my new, small clothes are still fitting but my belly feels bloated. So I hopped on the scales and have gained 10 pounds!!!

    There is no way this could be all fat is there? It seems like a lot to gain in such a short amount of time, especially considering how hard I had to work to get it off.

    I am back exercising daily and am monitoring my calories but felt I was starting to get obsessive/borderline ED behaviours.

    Any advice would be greatly appreciated?

    Look up the group eat more to lose weight. Even if you dont join the group, there are some super helpful links there that talk about what to expect when you increase your cals to what you should be actually eating. SOme poeple see a gain, some maintain. They say to stick with it, it may take up to 6 weeks for your body to adjust. If you still have gained more by then, try decreasing by 100, etc. I cant say enough about that group, such a resource! Kudos to you for eating above your BMR. That is important.
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,404 MFP Moderator
    Options
    Btw, limit exercise to an hour a day and concentrate more on resistance training and less on cardio. This will help with fat loss.

    Sorry to jump into the conversation, but what do you mean by resistance training? which exercises do you recommend?

    Weight or strength training. You can also use resistance bands which can make it resistance. I

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