Hi, I have been doing a low calorie diet. I lost 8 pounds the first month but then had a bump in the road and for a few weeks and gained the weight back. I restarted this past month and things have been going smoothly with eating and excersizing. I do a variety of kickboxing, jogging,yoga,pilates and weight training. I alternate between the different activies 6 days a week. I have a heartrate moniter and I estimate that I burn on avg 300-400 calories each day from my excersize. my average calories from this month is 1550. (I have a journal and I write down everything...I'd be lost without it)
Okay so that is what I have been doing for 4 weeks and I have gained two pounds. I am so depressed about it. The month i did just OK with my eating I lost 8 pounds. The month I do wonderful I gain 2. I am discouraged and starting to think something is wrong with my body. Any adivce? Am I doing something wrong?
You may be building muscle and losing fat/inches. Have you been measuring yourself?
How do you feel? Do you feel better about yourself? Do you feel in better shape? Do you feel like you have more energy?
Please don't go by the scale alone. You could try lowering your calories to see if that works. Not by much though. If not then you can try upping your calories to see if that works. It sounds like you are doing really well. Everyone is different in the amount of calories needed, so it's really a hit or miss untill you can figure out what works for you.
I did read that you can take your goal weight and multiply it by 8 to get the least amount of calories needed, and by 12 to get the most. Then you'll have a range to go by.
I'm sorry I can't give you any more help than that.
Thank you Brandi and Gloria for that info. I have been asking people all around about what is the correct calorie range, because I have checked so many sites and get so many different ranges. This info does make since, and when I just figured it out, it actually sounds pretty accurate!
First thankyou all for responding. I have taken my measurments as well as pictures. There is no change in that area. My goal weight is 125 (current is 153-157) So that would put me about 1000-1500 calories using your calculations (multiplying by 8 and 12. I am going to try and lower my avg. calories to 1250 and perhaps that will help.
I have felt much much better since I started excersing and watching what and how much I eat. I had a bad day yesterday with that weigh in but today is a new day and I don't have any plans on giving up just because I havn't seen progress.
Be careful in how low you make your calories. It is possible to slow down your metabolism by not taking in enough calories. Yet, if 1250 is working for you, then congratulations! Just make sure you are eating well and taking a multi-vitamin!
Ok...pet peeve is this saying "maybe you gained muscle weight." Strength train for a year and the average woman can put on about 5 pounds of muscle. And if you have any excess fat and you are training that hard then over the year you will lose more than 5 pounds of fat so you will still be down overall. Check out more info on this in the weighlifting forum.
More likely since you've upped your activity you're probably eating more...which you should be...but I find that when I increase my activity I focus too much on that and sneak in a lot more food justifying it with my exercise. Make sure you keep an honest written account of calories in calories out and after a few days you should be able to go through them and see where the problem lies.
Another option is that you may want to start cycling your calories (higher and then lower days) so that you can kick start your metabolism again. At any rate, don't get depressed because weight loss is highly experimental and you can keep tweaking it till you find something that works for you.
hahaha, KriWes, I have the same pet peeve! I see it all the time..."oh, you gained 2 pounds? It could be muscle!" He!! no, women cannot build 2 pounds of muscle in a week (or even in a month)--we just don't have the hormones. It's a nice, delusional way of dealing with weight gain, though
The only possible way I can see weight training directly affecting your weight in a short amount of time is if you weigh yourself the day after a heavy training session--muscles that have been worked and are healing hold onto more water during the healing process. I wouldn't think this would be enough to counteract any weight loss from limiting calories, though, so I try to never use exercise as an excuse for gaining weight
I would definately take the trade off Lena. Oh...another one that I read a lot that stumps me..."Muscle weighs more than fat"...yes and a pound of bricks weighs more than a pound of feathers. Yes...fat takes up more space but it's not just that easy. So unless I start taking steroids if the scale is consistently creeping upwards...no excuses!
I've seen a lot of people annoyed about the "muscle weighs more than fat" thing, but it does--you just have to look at it differently. No one says a pound of muscle weighs more than a pound of fat, but if you fill the same amount of space with each, the muscle weighs more because it is more dense. For example, if you fill a beach ball with fat and another beach ball the same size with muscle, the muscle one will weigh more, therefore making the muscle weigh more than fat. Make sense?
I'm certainly not saying it's a good excuse as to why someone would gain instead of lose weight via exercise, but it's not a completely false statement, either It is, however, a good reasoning as to why 2 women the same height and weight and shape and bone structure could feasibly be drastically different sizes--one could have very little muscle (making her bigger because the same weight in fat takes up more space than in muscle) while the other could be JACKED
Well yes, of course muscle takes up less space and you and I obviously both understand that, I just find that it's generally used in conjunction with the "You've gained more muscle and it weighs more and that's why you've gained weight." arguement. I just think it removes any confusion by changing it to "Muscle takes up less space than fat."
I believe there's one on the support forum right now...b*tch at will ladies! I usually just go take all my frustration out on some innocent gym equipment!
I could use some adivice please
Thank you
