I need some advice.

Ok, so I started losing weight a little more than a month ago. The first 4 weeks went great and I easily lost 7.8 pounds, I could even see the difference. I had dropped from my starting weight of 172 down to 164.2, which was my weight as of one week ago. 

However, since last week I have supposedly gained 2 pounds and now weigh 166.2. I don't see how this can be right because I'd have to have eaten an excess of 7000 cals in the past week to gain that much.

I am 19 years old and I have been sticking to a 1700 calorie a day diet faithfully and I work out on our elliptical machine for between 30 and 45 minutes every day as well as taking the dog for a walk and occasional other light exercise. 

What could be causing me to GAIN this weight back? I'm getting very frustrated. If I need to provide any more info then I can.

http://www.bcm.edu/cnrc/bodycomp/bmiz2.html

Make sure, as a first stop, that you're getting the right amount of calories for your age, size and 'moderate' activity level.  Deduct 500-700 from the number you get back from the chart above, going no lower than 1500.  1700 could be a little on the low side and, ironically, one common reason for weight-gain is if you've been crash-dieting (even accidentally), you can see odd gains when you eat just a little more than normal.

Conversely.... the biggest reason for not losing weight is 'eating more than you think'.  So do make sure you're logging every single thing you eat and drink accurately, weighing and measuring rather guessing.

Good luck 

Are you weighing yourself at the same time every week? I weigh myself right when i wake up either moday or tuesday, tuesday usually gives me a lower weight because all of the water retention i have from the weekends is still there on monday...usually from drinking (yes I know drinkings bad). Post your stats it will help us get a better idea of what you should be eating. I would say change up your workout and definatly atleast add in weight training. Fair warning if you do decide to add weight training, which you should, you may gain weight the for the next week or so because of water retention in your muscles and also a gain in muscle tissue, remember weight gain isn't always bad, it doesn't always mean fat gain.

Keep it up, 7.8 pounds in a month is good you should be celebrating don't get hung up on the scale, keep working hard and you'll get through it, especially if you change up your workout, sorry last time im gonna say it :) 

good luck

Pasted from duplicate thread:

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Two pounds doesn't sound like much. You may find it's water weight. OR that exercise might be giving you some extra muscle mass (as muscle is denser than fat, this can make you trimmer while being at the same or higher weight). Some scales (like my dodgy one) can even change for no reason at all! Perhaps, instead of just looking at the scales you might want to try measurements around your waist etc. to see if there's any variation. 

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You'll notice fluctuations like this as you go the answer is invaribly water. The amount of water in your body varies throughout the day but also:

• Different times of the month women retain water
• New exercise makes you retain water
• Alcohol makes you retain water
• salt... you guessed it makes you retain water

If you drink plenty of water you can keep these fluctuations to a minimum but the trend is the important thing. To find out how much water you should be drinking try this tool http://nutrition.about.com/library/blwatercal culator.htm

Thanks for the responses.

I think what gi-jane said may be correct in that sticking to 1700 cals a day is actually too low for a person of my age. The link that you provided as well as this one (http://www.bcm.edu/cnrc/caloriesneed.cfm) tell me that I need about 2600 calories a day to maintain my current weight since I am moderately active, so a deficit of 700 calories a day puts me at 1900 calories a day.

I think I am going to try to increase my daily calorie intake to 1900 cals a day and see what happens.

If anyone else has any more advice that would be great

Original Post by jlpenfound:

I think I am going to try to increase my daily calorie intake to 1900 cals a day and see what happens.

Sounds like the best thing to do. Go for it!  

gi-jane, I think you were right on track! On Friday I upped my calorie intake to about 1900 and maintained that through Sunday, and this morning I weighed in at 164 even, which is the lowest weight I've seen so far!