The numbers don't add up!

I've printed out and added up all of my food and activity logs for the past week. 

Total calorie intake 8468

Total expenditure  13694

week deficit      &n bsp;      5226

I should have lot about 1.5 lbs.

WHY am I up .5??????????  There wasn't one single day where I ate more than my expenditure, it fact everyday I was below my expenditure....I averaged out to 1209 per day with very little fluxuation....I worked out, did cardio....

It's very frustrating to know I've done everything right, no cheats and I still gain....Doesnt promote the healthy diet life idea, that's for sure....For this I've given up peanut M & M's????? 

Anybody else going through this crapola?

Could be water weight.  I've been on a ridiculously long plateau, so I could be wrong.  I don't know about you, but I can drop around 5 lbs in water weight sometimes.  If you ate salty stuff, you could be retaining.  Don't give up.  Just grit your teeth and keep going.  It'll eventually be worth it.  At least that's what I tell myself.

of course, my weight fluctuates like that during the month.  One week I can't drop weight and even gain (no matter what my calorie intake is), another week I'm losing dramitically.  I've gotten used to it though.  Don't beat yourself up too much over it, you'll probably see a drop in weight soon.

I know for me I gain around 2 pounds around t.t.o.m and then over the next week I lose the 2 pounds and then after about another week I seem have a sharp drop in weight. 

thanks for your support...I'm not going to give up, it's just frustrating because I have soooo far to go...LOL I wish I could blame it on t.t.o.m. but that hasnt been an issue for many years!  And, i dont even own a salt shaker nor do I eat salty stuff...Wish it was that simple!  But, no sense fretting over it...just gotta keep on keeping on....but those peanut M & M's really do sound appealing!

oh, lol, sorry :p  But I would think that weight still fluctuates throughout the month though.  A few M&M's here and there won't hurt you though ;)  I have a few pieces of chocolate myself throughout the day.

LOL Iwill have those M & M's when I have have learned to just have a few here and there and not sit down with a 48 oz bag!

yeah, it's kind of hard to stop eating those when you start.  Avoiding them all together is the best option sometimes :p  I have to stop myself sometimes once I start eating candy so that I don't overdo it. I used to avoid it all togther (along with other sweets and foods) but I think I've gotten to the point where I don't splurge too much on it.  It just took me some time to combat the habit. :)

I seem to see that too.  When ever that time comes arround everything gets screwy.. cravings... weight is up weight is down.  I always mark under comments for my weight chart a little star or I write "friend" so I can keep track as to when this is happening and why.  So I can look back and see that spike up or down was due to the joy of woman hood! 

Thats just me though...

"If only I had known" that my metabolism would just about stop when I got old, maybe I would have done things differently....LOL like not blown out my back that forced me to basically not move for months at a time and consume massive calories along with bloating steriod drugs....LOL "anti-inflamatory drug" my aunt fanny!  LOL they inflamed my appetite and my rear end!

"If only I had known" that my metabolism would just about stop when I got old, maybe I would have done things differently....LOL


lol  Just said this to my daughter the other day.  I wish I had tried to seriously lose this weight sooner  -- maybe I wouldn't be struggling so hard now.

I'm not sure your body knows exactly when a week is up.  Try weighing tomorrow in the morning after using the bathroom and do good today!  I find that sometimes the scale will bow to my favor if I am willing to wait one more day.

Also keep in mind you might have gained 1lb in muscle, and are retaining a little water?

It may take you a little bit of daily weighing to see the changes. However, you're also barely eating 1200 calories a day, and that may not be enough for you. You may want to give it another week, and then up your calories a bit to see if that helps.

My weight can vary by as much as 4 pounds plus/minus on any given day.  It is strictly due to water retention (plus I take Lasix!!).  Am also premenupasal - so I can have 2 cycles a month which also contributes to water retention.  I average the 7 days of weighing in - that's my weight for the week.

The same thing happened to me.  I gained 4 pounds in the 1st 3 weeks of my diet.  I still dont know why, but I heard that if you are excercising more than normal than you will usually gain a few pounds of muscle before you start burning fat.  I am trying to only weigh myself once a week around the same time of day.

Hi jem599!

Thanks for writing... I just wanted to let you know that "yes", there are others experiencing the same thing. It is perplexing to say the least! In fact, here's a recent post of my own...

I don't know why we're not showing the losses we expect and which the numbers seem to suggest. I was thinking maybe it does boil down to some combination of "plateau" and the body's resistance to lose any more once you've reached an essentially healthy place...

Hang in there!

You are not eating enough.  Read this article on

Dieting and Metabolism

Ok, on my sedantary days when I dont go to the gym, my expenditure is about 1662 calories....so I eat my minimum of 1200...on workout days I burn about 2100-2200 so I eat about 1450 as CC recommends...on both workout and non-workout days both could vary +/- 100 calories....Don't see how I'm not eating enough.....Just gonna keep on for a couple more weeks and see what happens before I make any changes...It's taken me 7 weeks to get my calorie intake up to this level...

Hey, just a quick thought. If you don't consume enough calories and the right ones, your body will store what ever you ate because it has gone into starvation mode. What I mean is that we are programed to store food for the long hall. Nothing you can do about that it is evolution. So make sure for your age and gender you consume good calories, nothing a little research can't help. Also try several small meals instead of three regular meals. It takes some getting used to and fine tuneing, almost a month for me, but this is not a race and you must be in it for the long hall. Eat healthy and do some walking or something like that, because eating roght is only part of the equation. Best of luck. we have all been there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

tanjak I sent you mail.