Quote:
Originally Posted by Mama2Five
Still gaining!! Help!! I'm up 2 more pounds which makes 5 total in the last 5 days since going off low carb!!
I'm supposed to be around 1200-1400 calories a day to lose weight, according to the online charts....I have been doing around 800-950 a day. Not on purpose, I have just been so busy with all 5 kids home for the summer.....and sometimes I get hungry at night, like 8-9pm but I'm trying not to eat after 7 so I just don't eat then even if I'm hungry.
Is it because I'm NOT eating enough? I've still been doing the "walk away the pounds" 2 mile video, and I've added in a 20 minutes ab/butt workout too for the past 3 days.
I'm getting a bit freaked out about gaining every day!
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I don't know what your low-carb/high-carb weight discrepancy is, how long your body takes to make the transition, or how carb-sensitive you are, but I can tell you my experience.
My "high-carb" weight is about 8-10 lbs higher than my "low-carb weight." It's decreasing as I lose weight, so when I'm at goal I imagine the difference will be smaller, but who knows?
For me, it takes about 3 to 5 days to see the full difference, either way. For example, if I had switched to high-carb on friday when you did, then by today I would expect to weigh 8 to 10 lbs more than my low-carb weight (my weight on friday). The reverse is true too. If I switched back to low-carb today, then I would expect to lose those 8 to 10 lbs by Monday. Sometimes the transition is more rapid (2 to 3 days), but the 5th day seems to be the max (for me, for you it could be shorter, or longer).
I cannot stay on high-carb eating for the long-term, so I don't even try. When I eat high-carb foods, not only do I gain the 8-10 lbs in water weight, but I also am much more hungry, so I find it harder to stay on plan. I also experience more fatigue, so I'm less active. All that combined means that I can't stay on higher carb plans very long without my weight loss suffering (I'm losing so slowly mainly because I do have trouble establishing my ideal carb level and sticking to that).
I'm slowly realizing that low-carb may have to be the plan I follow for life, at least the majority of the time. For me, high-carb days are usually days that I'm choosing high-carb for convenience, such as when going to a family picnic, or on days I'm not feeling well (I still haven't mastered the art of keeping enough low-carb convenience foods in the house).
When I know I am going to have a high-carb day, I try to be extra vigilant with my food journal and calorie/exchange counts to prevent the extra hunger from resulting in extra calorie intake.
I've found it difficult to distinguish water-gain from fat-gain in the long run, so I try to keep my high-carb days infrequent.
Only experimentation will tell you what you need to do. You could stick it out a little longer (I'd expect you to taper within a couple days. If you're still gaining by friday, high-carb eating may just not be for you).
Good luck.