Why am I GAINING?!?!

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Oblivio Accebit

New member
Hello everyone. I am a 19 year old male and currently weigh 257.2lbs. At previous times i weighed upwards of 310+ but with the help of my doctor i managed to lose ~60 lbs; that was over a year ago. When getting to college weight loss was not as important so i stopped exercising and just managed to keep the weight i had lost off.

I started execising and eating right on monday. I started at 260.8 and am now down to 257.2. but the thing is...i was 256.8 yesterday. why am is the scale going up by a little? shouldn't it be going down by a little?

I am eating probably around 1200 cals a day (hard to count at college)
I am going on the elliptical for 20 mins a day, and lifting weights for 20 mins a day (this is something i never did, i'm feeling rather sore).

So long story short im vastly reducing my intake and vastly increasing my exercise...so why is the scale being an asshole lol.
 
I started execising and eating right on monday. I started at 260.8 and am now down to 257.2. but the thing is...i was 256.8 yesterday. why am is the scale going up by a little? shouldn't it be going down by a little?

Because your weight fluxuates daily. You can lose or gain several pounds in one day based on water weight and other factors. That is why they suggest checking only once a week to give you a better idea. I mean you didn't lose 3 pounds of fat between monday and friday. (post edited after re-reading your post)
 
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Jericho said:
I think you have your answer right there. We tend to underestimate our calories quite a bit when we aren't focused on it. You might be thinking 1200 calories a day but if you are still gaining weight, I'd say that it isn't 1200
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Either way...weight loss is a decrease in calories with an increase in calorie burning. I know what i was eating...and i know i'm eating less now. That coupled with exercise which i want doing before should make me lose.

And here is what i ate yesterday

-Breakfast - Nature vally bar (half) - 90 cals
Lunch - Grilled chicken on wheat wrap, no cheese or dressing (with veggies)
Snack - Other half of nature valley bar - 90 cals
Dinner - 2 pieces of grilled chicken, brocolli, side salad

you be the judge - i would say thats under 1200
 
If there's one thing I've learned through years of trying to lose weight it's that the body doesn't understand the concept of 'SHOULD'. It is what it is and it does what it does. There is not one thing it does for no good reason. It's just a matter of shifting the steering wheel from you to your body and letting it decide what's best. Think of it like when we do what's wrong for our bodies and don't give a crap about what we eat, our poor bodies are in our arena and there's nothing they can do about it; our rules, our timing. But when we turn around and start showing an interest in our bodies, eating what's right and exercising, we effectively place ourselves in our body's arena and make our body the boss. Body's rules, bod's timing. Be patient. And by the way, weight never goes down all the way like a straight line graph. It goes down, then up a tiny bit, then down more and so on. It's like those graphs you see of the stock market; there are always waves because that's how life works, in waves, with an up and a down. Why don't you try weighing yourself once a week? That would show you a better indication of how much FAT you're losing, as opposed to water. You're doing great, don't get discouraged. :)
 
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Shinsplint said:
If there's one thing I've learned through years of trying to lose weight it's that the body doesn't understand the concept of 'SHOULD'. It is what it is and it does what it does. There is not one thing it does for no good reason. It's just a matter of shifting the steering wheel from you to your body and letting it decide what's best. Think of it like when we do what's wrong for our bodies and don't give a crap about what we eat, our poor bodies are in our arena and there's nothing they can do about it; our rules, our timing. But when we turn around and start showing an interest in our bodies, eating what's right and exercising, we effectively place ourselves in our body's arena and make our body the boss. Body's rules, bod's timing. Be patient. And by the way, weight never goes down all the way like a straight line graph. It goes down, then up a tiny bit, then down more and so on. It's like those graphs you see of the stock market; there are always waves because that's how life works, in waves, with an up and a down. Why don't you try weighing yourself once a week? That would show you a better indication of how much FAT you're losing, as opposed to water. You're doing great, don't get discouraged. :)
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Thanks for the advice. And im not sure if i can go a whole week without weighing myself, maybe i'll cut it to every other day.
 
I would suggest you put your weight on a day vs. weight graph so you can see the overall trend. It's perfectly normal for weight to fluctuate, as long as the overall trend is downward you're losing weight.
 
I was going to mention water weight. If you drink different amounts everyday, you're weight will fluctuate because of it.
 
Amanda2010 said:
I was going to mention water weight. If you drink different amounts everyday, you're weight will fluctuate because of it.
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Amanda is so right about water weight - I drink about 3 litres of water a day, plus more when I exercise - 3 litres of water weights 6 1/2 lbs - obviously I dont drink it all at once, and it all gets flushed through (no pun intended) during the day/night but my weight (I am about 248lbs at the moment) can easily go up by 3lbs in a day, and then drops the day after. This is especially true if I eat something like moules mariniere (high in salt/sodium) - it may only be 500 hundred calories for a large bowl full but my weight will be way higher the day after as the sodium seems to trigger water retention.

I tend to weigh myself daily (a bit obsessive) but I do what Shinsplit suggests and graph it on a little spreadsheet - the trend is always down over time, but some days it zooms up. Other times I stick at the same weight for 4 or 5 days then drop like a popped baloon - go figure!

Remember - calories in vs calories out is all that really matters, although there are huge numbers of variables that differ for each individual. You need, theoretically, to have a calorie deficit of 3,500 calories to lose a lb of weight. Not sure how tall you are but your BMR is probably around 2,350 a day and with the exercise etc you are doing you are pretty active so your "Calorie Need" is probably closer to 3,350 a day.

As you are eating, on average, about 1,250 cals a day, then on average you are about 2,100 cals a day in deficit. Thats 14,700 a week, or about 4lbs of weight loss each week! You will also find that some weeks its 2lbs, some weeks 5lbs, but over a month it will average out at around 3 to 4 lbs a week

You may find your BMR is lower or higher (your height is a factor) but unless you are 4' tall you will still achieve a big loss!

As a caveat, no formula is perfect and I have lost, on average, about 25% less than I "should" have done based just on the maths. Also don't forget that as your weight drops, so does your BMR and your deficit - as 1,200 calories is pretty low, the only way to keep the weight loss linear is to increase exercise, but eventually you will see the rate of loss slow as you reach your goal.

On final thing - if your weight goes up by 1lb a day, it is almost certainly NOT an increase in fat - you would need to consume 3,500 calories ABOVE your Calorie Need, do put 3lbs on - somewhere around 7,000 calories in a day!

You have done amazingly so far - keep it up and you will be loving the scales eventually!
 
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I weigh myself in on my Wii Fit. I weigh-in about 3-4 times a week. Depending on what I have eaten and how much water I've had my weight can fluctuate each time. But it's nice to see the graph moving downward overall. You could use a program like MS excel to log your weight and create a graph to give you a nice depiction of your overall progress.
 
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