200 calories over and almost 2 lbs heavier!

I was 118.9 two weeks ago, and lost a little over two lbs last week and I was really proud of myself, yesterday morning I was 116.6 and I ate probably 1-200 calories over my allowed calorie intake...and this morning I am 118.5! I have no idea what happened, all I know is I feel like all my hard work up until now was basically for nothing since I am pretty much where I started, and I can't figure out how I could have gained that much overnight. I have a skimpy Halloween costume to fit into and I've been working out every day and eating what I should be eating and I have no idea what I'm doing wrong, or how to fix it, and I am just so frustrated. I always end up stuck between 115-118 and I can't break that plateau for the life of me. Just when I start to get closer to 115, I go right back up. I zig zag my calories sometimes so I can try to boost my metabolism, but it seems like that works for a few days and I end up putting the weight back on even when I've barely overeaten. A few extra hundred calories should not equal 1.6 pounds! Gaaaaaaah!

DON'T WORRY!

How long have you been dieting for? Are you inputting your weights into the weight log every day? If so, it gives you a blue line (your weight as you enter it) and a green line (the trend line). The green line shows trends over time and will show you your "real" weightloss/gain progress. Use this feature of the site, it is great for keeping motivation up and things more "real".

The extra weight"gain" is probably water weight or some other hormonally influenced fluctuation. 200 calories above your expenditure will only induce significantly less than a tenth of a pound increase (rouhgly 3500 calories above expenditure to gain one pound). The extra weight could also be scales error. Are you weighing yourself same time, same conditions every day?

Do not worry, if you are really sticking to your diet you have to look at things not on the day to day basis but on a broader scale. This extra few pounds will probably come off in no time at all and you will be back to losing.

Use the trend line!

That being said, just throwing it out there that (in my opinion) losing 2 lbs in one week for someone your weight is potentially A LOT. I think it's probably better for you not to expect such robust losses every week. Sometimes you might lose 2lbs, sometimes 0.5 lbs. 

What is your height and weightloss goal? Maybe you have also set weekly goals too high and are setting yourself up for disappointment rather than motivation?

I lost 20lbs in 7 months which is not a fast weightloss but by using the trend line and seeing my progress in the grand scheme of things I was able to keep up my motivation/mood/spirits for most of the time and ultimately able to keep the weight off. Also, sometimes I would lose nothing for 2-3 weeks and then *bam* 2 lbs overnight.

I'm guessing instead of 166.6 you actually mean 116.6?  Regardless -- you can't gain 2 pounds of real weight overnight unless you eat 7000 calories MORE than you burn.  Please read the article below -- it may help you understand what happens between the body and the scale:

http://primusweb.com/fitnesspartner/library/w eight/scale.htm

 

Thank you for the link coach K. It reinforced what I was assuming and helped me understand some things I wasn't sure about. I appreciate it. I always weigh myself right when I wake up after going to the bathroom and then again after I work out. I sometimes weigh myself before going to bed just to see what i'm doing at night but that helped!

Diana-

First off- this is the story of my life!  So I understand, but do remember that you would need to eat 7,000 calories ON TOP of what you would burn.  If you went 1-200 calories over I am guessing- from my experience- you are restricting calories too much, so your body is desperately grabbing onto anything extra.

  I was eating around 1200 calories- 1300 calories a day for a while and weight loss was SO slow and whenever I would even go 50 calories over or something it would show it on the scale- once I started eating more around 1400-1500 calories a day, weight came off much easier and I am much happier, and when I DO go over- I rarely see it on the scale.  I have lost more weight quicker- eating more- than I did when I ate less.  Try it, you might be surprised!

Also- how tall are you?  Did you consume these extra couple hundred calories in the evening?  Your body goes up in water weight easier when its starving.    I have seen this from sad experience!!

What is your ultimate Goal?

Hi Cmama-

Thank you! I think I may be eating too little - I eat between 1400-1600 calories plus fairly vigorous exercise (running, high intensity aerobics, and weight lifting) every day. I notice the weight will usually come off pretty quickly the first few days of the week, but then later on it slows down considerably. Maybe I need to be eating a little more and then more on days I exercise - I really am confused about this whole thing! I did one of those BMR calculators and it says I need 1245 calories to maintain  my weight, so that's why I was eating so little, because I was assuming I would eat slightly below that plus exercise and lose weight. When I take my total calories consumed minus how much I burn exercising, I end up taking in about 1,000-1,200 calories a day. I'm sort of scared to eat more because I'm not even really sure what amount I should be eating - I did the calculator on here to calculate how much I shoud be eating for weight loss, and it says I burn 2,00 calories in a typical day, which seems way too high! I guess I'm just going to have to try to find out what the right number of calories is for me.

I am very short (4'10") and I've lost about 25-30 lbs so far, so the weight is coming off much slower now that I've lost a considerable amount. My weight was a little high this morning but I am usually closer to 115-116 on average, and because I'm so short I'm not sure how much I should really be eating to keep losing. My ultimate goal is 105, and I've been stuck at this weight since February and I am just soooooooo frustrtated! I did eat those last few hundred calories late last night, so I assumed my weight would be slightly higher this morning but not by as much as I was. I guess it's back to the trial and error process for me, and hopefully I can figure out how much I need to eat to finally get where I want to be!

Perhaps it's not just the calorie intake you should be looking at. 

 Do you mix up your exercise routine?  I know that when I do the same routine exercises I usually hit a plateau and the weight starts to come back.  I think my body gets used to it. 

I shook things up a bit by trying a few new classes on different days and times and have recently started trying new machines at the gym (also a great way to meet new people!).  I've noticed that doing so can help get the metabolism going again along with proper diet.

 Good luck! :)

menstration cycle

water weight

*deep breath* the world has not yet imploded. you can still eat :)

plus, something like that could just be a scale screw up. i always weight myself at night after i'm sure i've finished eating (and drinking) ater i pee. even then it can go up and down .1 .2 depending on how many times i weight myself (usually 2ce, just to make sure the irst time it wan't just the way i was standing etc. which has happened before...)

P.S. coach_k: GREAT article!!

Thanks so much for that link.  This morning I was freaking out that I gained almost 2 pounds in 1 night.  That link totally made me feel better and I need to drink more water.

Im going to definitely book mark the link so I can go back to it when I feel down.