Gaining and very confused

Guys, I need some advice here.

I've been losing weight very consistently since August, with one maintenence period thrown in, but in the past two weeks, the scale started going back up! And not just one pound, but four.

At the start of last week, I was weighing in around 160-161 (female, 22, 5'9'') but for the past few days I've been going up and today I hit 164.5. Initially I thought it was just normal fluctuations but I've been consistently heavier each day when I weighed in.

I can't imagine that I'm gaining because of a calorie surplus; I excercise 4-5 days a week, alternating a day with 30-40 min weight training and 20-30 min light-moderate cardio and a day with 30 min moderate-hard cardio/ interval training. When I'm doing cardio, it's usually the interval setting on the elliptical at level 13-15 (out of 20) (The rest of the time I am generally sedentary because I'm studying, so I eat at the light activity level).  

I don't think I am going over calories; I looked at my analysis for the past month, and my average daily calorie intake is 1541, with the spread being about 1400 - 1800, so I should be in deficit basically every day. The recommended intake for weight loss at light acivity for my height and weight is 1600.

Am I eating too little? Or maybe too much? I don't know, maybe my activity level should be sedentary since I spend so much time sitting, even with the exercise. I just can't figure this out.

Don't weigh yourself every day.  Once a week is enough to see the trend and fluid levels can swing the scales quite a lot day to day.  If you're still 4lbs heavier at the end of the week I'd be very surprised.

did you consider personal reasons? ttotm? are the pipes regulated? no need to share if you think it's tmi.. but last week my weight was staying the same or increasing b/c of Easter dinner not leaving my body...

how about sodium? are you eating high-sodium stuff? it coudl be water retention?

there are so many factors when weight flucuates... try taking measurements :)

If your deficit has been constantly over 1000, your body will hold onto resources.

The same happened to me. My deficit was over 1000, so everything and anything I ate became fat on my body.

Should you have the deficit over 1000 then you are damaging your diet potentially.

you might be gaining muscle

I would love it if I'm gaining muscle. Hopefully that's it.

I don't think I have a deficit greater than 1000 unless I am drastically underestimating my activity level. But when I log exercise, the counter tells me I never burn more than 400 cals a workout, usually more like 350.

I guess I'll see how the scale looks later in the week. It's not really ttotm, and I rarely see significant weight increases because of that anyway. Hopefully this is just water retention.

I would change activity level to sedentary and then log all the activities you do. It might have worked with a more active level up until now, but since you are closer to your goal weight it will be a bit slower and more difficult.

Also, have you changed your weight in CC? Make sure you update that from time to time so the totals you get are accurate.

 

And don't worry, keep working on it, and eventually there's only one way your weight can go, and that my friend, is DOWN!!!! :):):)

 

Good luck.

It's possible that you have gained muscle. I haven't gone on the scale for about 6 months now. I use the mirror to check on my progress and it seems to be working for me. :)

You should use a body fat monitor in addition to the scale, because a scale doesnt tell you how much of your body is fat, just what you weight.

Two people can weigh the same and look completely different.

I would suggest either buying one or in my case my gym has a body fat monitor and if you go to a gym they should also have something that can measure your body fat.

Checking that every 2 weeks is good idea because it gives you a better idea of how fit you are even if you weigh the same that you did 2 weeks ago you may have less body fat.

Edit: I'm leaving this post as an example of the uncertainty of estimates.  But read my next post for a presumably "more accurate" estimate of your metabolic needs.

Parkagirl:

Man this sounds frustrating. Plateaus always are. I hit one for almost a year! In my case I wasn't eating enough for my activity levels. Also, after losing weight my "allowable" deficit had shrunk so that what had been a marginally safe deficit became a marginally unsafe one.

I agree with checking your body fat percentage. It's useful to help estimate what your intake and expected burn should be.

With just your age/height/weight/exercise stats you gave, below are the estimates I am able to come up with. Note that your recommended intake level is less than 100 calories more than your measured intake levels (which are just below your BMR); it seems too close to be blamed for your plateau, but on the other hand, your exercise and metabolism levels are just estimates as well.

Some other things to consider, with your age, gender and history: ttom (already mentioned), thyroid issues, anxiety/stress (school), age-related development (can increase your metabolism and require more food), pregnancy (congratulations?).

Keep in mind these are estimates and will vary from individual to individual. However with your activity level you should be able to eat as much as 2400 calories per day without gaining actual body fat. If you do gain weight at these levels, some of it should be muscle anyway.

Do check back in and let us know how your week went (scale-wise and otherwise).

Your Estimated BMR (calculated at http://phord.com/cc):
BMR=1553 :: RMR=1864

Your customized recommendation:
EAT 1607 calories :: BURN 2407 calories :: LOSE 1.6 lb per week

Reasoning:

Deficits: Your deficit is the difference between how many calories you eat and how many calories you burn. Your recommended deficit is 800 calories. This is the least of your Activity Deficit (854 calories), your Safety Deficit (800 calories), and your Maximum Fat Calorie Expenditure (which cannot be calculated without knowing your body fat percentage).

Activity Deficit (854 calories): This is the number of calories you burn in your daily activities (such as being awake, driving to work, exercising, doing homework, etc.). This is an estimate based on the amount of exercise you indicated you do each week in the form above, averaged out for daily deficit numbers. For sedentary individuals this is 20% of your BMR.

Safety Deficit (800 calories): Nutritionists say that you can safely lose no more than 1% of your body weight per week. For the weight you gave (160 lb), you can safely lose about 1.6 lb per week. Because each pound of body fat contains 3500 calories of energy, your safe deficit is 1.6 lb * 3500 calories per pound per week = 5600 calories per week, which comes to 5600 / 7 = 800 calories per day.

I see in your journal you posted a BF% of 32.3. That's pretty high for someone as active as you. Your BMI is just 22.3 (Normal), but your Body Fat percentage is just barely in the "obese" range for women (30%+).

When I adjust your metabolic estimates using your percent body fat, your numbers drop quite a bit. This is because lean muscle is what burns calories, and you have less lean than expected. There is a more accurate BMR estimate based on lean mass measurements, and your BMR drops almost 200 points using this scale.

I also noticed in another post in March you said you hadn't been to the gym in three weeks. Using your body fat percentage and a sedentary lifestyle, it does look like you are almost eating at maintenance levels (1660 is maintenance for you).

You are at a weight and lean-mass level where you must exercise to see appreciable weight loss.

It's amazing (and frustrating) to see what an extra data point can do to our estimates.

Your Estimated BMR (calculated at http://phord.com/cc):
BMR=1383 :: RMR=1660

Your customized recommendation:
EAT 1383 calories :: BURN 1660 calories :: LOSE 0.55 lb per week

Reasoning:

Deficits: Your deficit is the difference between how many calories you eat and how many calories you burn. Your recommended deficit is 277 calories. This is the least of your Activity Deficit (277 calories), your Safety Deficit (800 calories), and your Maximum Fat Calorie Expenditure (1594 calories).

Activity Deficit (277 calories): This is the number of calories you burn in your daily activities (such as being awake, driving to work, exercising, doing homework, etc.). This is an estimate based on the amount of exercise you indicated you do each week in the form above, averaged out for daily deficit numbers. For sedentary individuals this is 20% of your BMR.

Safety Deficit (800 calories): Nutritionists say that you can safely lose no more than 1% of your body weight per week. For the weight you gave (160 lb), you can safely lose about 1.6 lb per week. Because each pound of body fat contains 3500 calories of energy, your safe deficit is 1.6 lb * 3500 calories per pound per week = 5600 calories per week, which comes to 5600 / 7 = 800 calories per day.

Maximum Fat Calorie Expenditure (1594 calories): One study found that body fat in humans can be converted to energy at a maximum rate of 31 calories per pound of actual body fat per day. Any energy you expend beyond this rate comes from your intake of nutrients and the breakdown (catabolysis) of your muscles. Weight loss in most people consists of about 75% FAT and 25% MUSCLE. Since we can calculate the actual amount of body fat in your body using your Body Fat Percentage (if given), we can determine the optimal calorie deficit to focus on FAT BURN instead of MUSCLE LOSS. To optimize your FAT BURN instead of MUSCLE LOSS, you should choose a deficit that does not exceed this value. (Persons wishing to lose muscle as well as fat can ignore this deficit limit.)

Thanks so much for your post, phord. I know I need to adjust the calorie level when I'm not excercising; for the majority of the time I was sedentary I was eating 1300-1400 calories to compensate. I hadn't been to the gym because I was in the middle of grad school exams. Each day I tried to go for a half-hour walk, but it didn't always happen due to time constraints. But now I'm back to lifting 3 days a week plus 2 days of just cardio.

I know that I don't have nearly the muscle mass I should; I have muscular legs and strong abdominals as I was a ballet dancer  for many years, but my upper body is extremely weak (at the moment I struggle to do 3 sets of shoulder presses with two 15 lb dumbells.) One of my major goals is to build muscle, though that's not something you can generally do while in deficit, right?

I'm not entirely sure how accurate the bf percentage is that I posted, as I got it off the cheap monitor that comes with the scale that I got from Target. Do you know how accurate those scales generally are?

I'm going to use the adjusted levels that you've given and your calculator, thank you.

Original Post by parkagirl:

major goals is to build muscle, though that's not something you can generally do while in deficit, right?

I'm not entirely sure how accurate the bf percentage is that I posted, as I got it off the cheap monitor that comes with the scale that I got from Target. Do you know how accurate those scales generally are?

I understand the handheld units are pretty accurate.  The foot-standy ones work the same way, so I would expect similar accuracy.

I've heard you can't build muscle in a deficit, but I did it anyway.  Maybe I had bad readings, and maybe I only built on days where I didn't have a deficit.  I don't know.  Does "deficit" mean all the time?  Right after I eat lunch, I'm not on a deficit, you know?  Anyway, you can strength train on a deficit.  This is where your muscles learn to work better to lift more or something like that.  So definitely keep up with the weights.