Help I'm gaining but I'm excercising and eating well!?

Alright so I'm having the little weight fluctuation dilemma again... and I was just wondering how on earth I am gaining weight even though I'm running for roughly 20-30 minutes a day (6mph). I also walk around quite a bit during the day especially at work. I eat between 1200-1500 calories a day sometimes more sometimes less but it usually equals out to what I should eat. I'm 5'6, 128 pounds today but I was on losing trend then i gained two-ish pounds?. Meausurements 33-25.5-36. Should I take a break from exercising or am i alright with what I'm doing? Advice please?! I'm perplexed as to why I am gaining weight.

I'm in your exact same situation. I recently started running the 5k and 10k run about 2 weeks ago and I haven't lost anything. I got down to 175.0 pounds but now I'm 176.6 and I keep bouncing back and forth between the two.

I know I haven't gained any fat cause I also eat the same as I always did to lose weight which is about 1500 - 1700 calories a day. I'm thinking I have hit my first plateau or my body just feels it's done.

I was told to eat something I havent eating in a long time. Right now it's usally veggies and baked chicken breast. Maybe I'll try some homemade fries and fry the chicken breast for a few meals this week (maybe 3) and see if that helps.

Just take it ease with weighting scales - most people weight to often , leave scales for few weeks and try it again later and reasons way you might gained some weight can be : water retention , changes in lean body mass and more . I would advise you to start some resistance training instead of a cv .

if your working out you could be gaining muscle. muscle weighs more than fat but it has a smaller volume than a pound of fat. so maybe you are replacing fat with muscle. thusly you might be getting smaller and healthier but gaining weight.

I'm also 5'6'' and 128 and have a couple suggestions....

Are you weight training? I realize that yes muscle weighs more than fat but in the long run, larger muscles burn an incredible amount of calories. Not bodybuilding, but a simple weight training regimen 2X or 3x a week will help tremendously.

Also, when you run, are you running at a straight pace for 30 min? There have been a number of studies that interval running is much better at burning calories. For example, if you run for thirty min, run hard for two min and then do a slower jog for one, run hard for two, jog slow one.....you get the idea. Doing this on the eliptical or arc trainer is helpful too.

Try drinking coffee in the morning and avoid white bread as much as possible. Coffee is a diuretic, and Non-whole grains can cause bloating and water retention (so although you haven't gained fat, the scale still goes up).

It's just fluctuation, you'll never weigh the exact same 2 days in a row.  I could fluctuate 5 lbs depending on how much water I drink.  Don't sweat the scales.  Look in the mirror, that's what you should judge yourself on.

I am in the same boat. I have only lost 4lbs over the last 2 months since I started going to the gym 5 days a week and eating 1200-1500 calories a day. I usually do about 3 miles on the elliptical and lift weights. I lost a pant size and can totally feel the difference in all my clothes, but 4lbs seems awfully low for 2 months. Here is the kicker. Last week I tried an experiment. I ate maintenance (1600-1800 calories) and only went to the gym 2 times. Guess what. Lost 1.5lbs. I'd like to say it's just fluctuation, but I weigh every day and am generally with in a couple of ounces. I just don't fluctuate much. Last time I counted calories, I didn't excercise and lost 12lbs in 4 weeks. Since I feel better when I excercise, I'm sticking with it but it is still discouraging.

Weight comes off a lot slower as you get smaller. It sounds like you are already a healthy size, so your body is not gonna shed it as easily. You could probably eat a little more than 1200 too....I lost about 8-10 lbs in a month eating appx 1600 when I was working out a lot. And maybe eating at maintenence for a little while will help???

Edited to add: I don't know any of your stats so forgive me if I am way off, but I put in age 21, 5'6'', 128, and moderate activity level in the calorie target tool. I got 1600 cals as a target to get to 120 by Oct. 15. Maybe your body doesn't like the 1200? I think that is the minimum for a small  woman older than yourself. If you are young and active, you might be able to loose eating a little more.

I think I do need to eat more because on tuesday I took a day off from exercising and ate a little bit more than i usually do and dropped back to 127lbs on wednesday. Then on wednesday i ate what I usually eat and went for a 3 mile run and today I'm back to 128.

Does anyone know why my weight would work out like that... gaining weight after execercising and losing it when i don't?

Our bodies are wierd. Sometimes I notice that I am up 2 lbs or so after weights. My best guess as to why that was was that my muscles were holding on to water or whatever to try to repair themselves???

But if you eat too little, you do plateau sooner. You can't cheat the system and go higher than 1000 cal defecit unfortunately. Have you run your cal target in the tool section?