Bizarre Weight Gain

Lately I have been eating at maintenance, and yet not only am I gaining weight, but I am also hungry quite often. I eat grains, fruits, vegetables, protein, and so on, so I am not exactly sure what is going on. I am presently at a healthy weight, but would like to know where the extra weight is coming from. I engage in light exercise (i.e. walking at a moderate pace for 30-60 minutes every day), which probably does not produce much muscle. 

Ideas?

If you're eating more foods, there's a good chance that you might be taking in more sodium than you had been in the past when eating at a lower calorie level.

If that's the case, you might be retaining a little more water.

It could also be the weight from more foods in your system... *shrugs*

Has this been happening steadily? Or was it a sudden gain?

It was gradual at first, but then became more rapid. It has been going on since the beginning of this year. I have not gained a huge amount of weight, but I am nearing the 10 lb mark, which bothers me. 

I realize you`ve probably considered these possibilities, but just to be on the safe side:

Any chance you`ve overestimated your calorie needs?

Or could it be that you were undereating by so much while dieting that your metabolism is a bit messed up?

Agreed, 10lbs is a bit much for water weight. Do your clothes seem tighter also? If not, your scale might be broken.

Maybe you should also get bloodwork done?

I don't think I have overestimated my calories needs. However, that is only in terms of what I know for a fact. What I don't know is how well my metabolism is working for me at the moment. I have been eating between 1500 and 2000 calories pretty steadily for nearly a year now. As of late, though, I have been eating nearer to 2000 than I used to. This is because I referenced a calculator intended for teenagers which said so, not to say that the calculator is infallible. As for bloodwork, I doubt that will happen unless something more serious pops up. I am absolutely terrified of needles and will do everything in my power to avoid that scenario. 

Could my body just be adjusting to the higher intake? But then, that does not make much sense as it was supposed to maintain my weight, not increase it. Finally, I cannot ascertain the accuracy of the scale. I don't personally own one, I use someone elses. It is running low on batteries, that much I do know. However, even before then, my weight had been slowly going up. So, I don't really know anymore. 

Gosh, I sincerely hope someone will enlighten you in the end. You haven`t answered the question about your clothes - do they fit tighter now? Have you had to buckle the belt a bit looser? 10 pounds really tend to make themselves noticed. Of course, if you only wear baggy clothes, it`s a bit hard to tell, but at least your underwear should be a little less comfortable now..

Yes, my clothes are baggy. However, I do have to wear my belt a notch looser. In other words, the pounds do show, somewhat. 

Can`t believe it never occured to me to check your previous threads. Just a month ago you were complaining that you`d been overeating for weeks.. so this 'gradual' weight gain that 'has been going on since the beginning of this year' makes perfect sense. Sounds like you thought you could get away with it and what actually bothers you is that your overeating caught up on you.

I don`t know if you have alread seen a specialist about your disordered eating patterns; if not, I highly suggest you do, they can help you much more than we can do over an online forum. Besides, we don`t even know what your stats are, you could be still underweight, even with the 10 pounds added to your initially low weight. And also your body image might be skewed as a result of the ED, so these extra pounds might be making you look better and healthier than before, not to mention lowering your risks for heart attacks and other highly serious threats.

Original Post by ily51:

Can`t believe it never occured to me to check your previous threads. Just a month ago you were complaining that you`d been overeating for weeks.. so this 'gradual' weight gain that 'has been going on since the beginning of this year' makes perfect sense. Sounds like you thought you could get away with it and what actually bothers you is that your overeating caught up on you.

I don`t know if you have alread seen a specialist about your disordered eating patterns; if not, I highly suggest you do, they can help you much more than we can do over an online forum. Besides, we don`t even know what your stats are, you could be still underweight, even with the 10 pounds added to your initially low weight. And also your body image might be skewed as a result of the ED, so these extra pounds might be making you look better and healthier than before, not to mention lowering your risks for heart attacks and other highly serious threats.

Yeah, I have binged a few times, but even the worst case scenario I can think of does not yield 10 lbs. of weight gain. It seems excessive in light of the limited number of binges that I have had, none of which have been all that enormous. Using the calculator intended for use by teens, only three binges that I can recall have even hit 1000-calorie over mark. There were maybe five others were I hit 500-calorie over mark. And there have really not been any others aside from those few. Even if you add all of those up, they should have only yielded a weight gain of slightly less than two pounds. And yet, they appear to have resulted in so much more, which does not make sense. 

By the way, I am not still underweight, nor was I when I started gaining weight. 

Oh then, I am sorry for misjudging the situation, your other thread sounded like you were seriously alarmed, so I must have assumed the binges had been much more frequent than that.

If you measure everything religiously and go by portion sizes, it can only mean you`ve overestimated maintenance calories. You can either cut back on your eating or incorporate a bit more activity if you have the time.

Original Post by ily51:

Oh then, I am sorry for misjudging the situation, your other thread sounded like you were seriously alarmed, so I must have assumed the binges had been much more frequent than that.

If you measure everything religiously and go by portion sizes, it can only mean you`ve overestimated maintenance calories. You can either cut back on your eating or incorporate a bit more activity if you have the time.

I'll do both. Thank you for the advice.