ok, so I have been doing this since Oct.... I steadily was losing a little, at my most, I lost 40 lbs. Then, I just started gaining.
I work out at the gym at least 4 days a week sometimes more. I'm working out hard... not just lightly. I take weight classes, cardio classes, I train with a personal trainer once a week... I'm spending LOTS of money, and working my A** off.
I eat healthy... I don't count calories, but I would guestimate 1500 cals a day or so. Sure, I am not perfect... I slip here and there, but before I started it was cheeseburgers and french fries 3 times a day... eating at least 4 times the amount I'm eating now. I haven't had a cheeseburger or fries in months.
So... I gained 5 pounds... ok... no big deal... maybe I had a bad week, maybe it was TOM... maybe I ate too much... I didn't freak out, just kept working out. Then this morning I weigh and 5 MORE pounds!
TIME TO FREAK OUT!
My trainer says to stop weighing...it's just muscle... but I'm sorry.... I weigh TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY FIVE POUNDS.... at that weight I should be losing if I'm trying this hard. I mean... it's not like I'm at 140 or 150.... I know it gets harder then... but this is different... I have LOTS of fat that needs to go... and it's not going!!!
I am SOOOOO frustrated. I want to throw in the towel. I want to give up.... what is the point... what is the use.... why not just enjoy food and why work myself to death every day at the gym... it's not worth it.
I haven't been to a doctor in a couple of years... the one I had and like moved away. I haven't been able to find one in the area that is taking new patients. When I last went, all lab work was normal, so I'm kindof assumming it still is.
I just don't know what to do... I don't know how to keep doing this and not give up...
Maybe it is time to count those calories and see what you are truly taking in? I am sure some of it is water retained within your muscles, but I wouldn't think 10 pounds of that.
have you considered that maybe with all the working out you are doing you are not eating enough calories?
Your body might be going into starvation mode and holding on to everything you eat because of the low number of calories in comparison to the amount of work you're doing physically.
I'm not an expert, by any means, but when my mom was stressing about the same issue - she and I are doing the same things and I keep losing while she was gaining - I told her she probably wasn't eating enough, and when she consumed more calories, the weight actually started coming off again.
I'm really not trying to be lazy... but with my job, and the gym and the family... counting calories just takes up too much time. I am eating mostly whole foods, and in my past experience with weight watchers, I truly believe I am eating right.
Counting calories is something I guess I may have to resort to, but I know it's something I won't stick to... I can't imagine doing it for the rest of my life.
I agree with the above poster. It's very easy to over estimate or under estimate caloric intake. Try a food journal for a week. Be honest, weigh/measure the food, and the condiments you use. High sodium will skew your results, as will not enough fluids.
Just because you're eating in a much more healthy way than you did before does not mean you are creating a calorie deficit. Your body doesn't give credit on the scale for making healthier choices, it only gives credit for taking in fewer calories than you burn. Count for a week and see what you are truly eating; if you can find time to work out that much, you can find time to log your foods using one of the free sites and see where you really stand.
Also, be careful about accepting your trainer's opinion that it's just muscle. Building even a couple of pounds of new muscle can take months for a woman and isn't going to explain ten pounds. Google "how long does it take for a woman to put on muscle" for more info.
You may not have to calorie count every day for the rest of your life. It may be enough to do it for a few days and get an eye-opener about how many calories you are really eating. (That's what I do, by the way - I count calories for a few days each month, for a reality-check, and then after that eat according to patterns and habits that are similar to the days I counted rigorously.)
What if that is the reason for your apparent gains - what if you are overeating without realizing it? Isn't spending a few extra minutes a day for a few days measuring and recording your food worth the effort, if it helps you fix whatever's gone wrong with your process?
And even if it turns out you're eating right on target, that is a useful thing to know as well, so that you can look for other solutions knowing you have your eating in hand.
You're willing to do all this exercise - it must take so much time! so - just for a few days, spend some of that time measuring your food and counting your calories. There is really no reason not to.
Plan ahead.
Find a day you have time to plan a weeks menu, within your budget and stick to it. Have to have to have to stick to the menu.
For the longest time that's how I was able to get my calorie counting in, and the upside of that . . . I didn't have to plan everyday for meals, ended up saving me more time in the long run.
You can definitely still eat too many calories on healthy foods. If I let myself, I'd do it everyday. I hear you on being busy...but it truly is worth the effort. I use fitday, and once the things I regularly eat are in there, it's really easy to plan my day and enter it. Measuring things using my kitchen scale or measuring cups takes a few more seconds, but it's an integral part of my weight loss. Try it for a week or two and see where you're at.
I'd say you need to count your calories, even for a short term like a month. Count your calories, weigh and measure your food and get a firm handle on what and how much you're taking in each day.
There are so many web-based and smartphone tools out there for counting calories....it makes it so fast and simple to do. I spend maybe 15 minutes a day on logging my daily food intake. We all have 15 minutes a day to spare to help us on our journey!
You could even just write down what and how much you eat and then sit down on one of your days off when you might have more time to spare to figure out the calorie counts for a whole week of meals.
Once you're journaling your food, be sure to keep track of carb/fat/protein ratios as well as sodium too. Different bodies can need different ratios for optimal weight loss. Sodium can really derail the best efforts otherwise by retaining more water.
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There are plans where you don't count calories, and it is a fact that if you exercise more than the substantial nutrition you require, the body fights you back by gaining. I expect your workouts may be biting you in the butt!
To easily track calories, I suggest thedailyplate.com It has most brands of supermarket food, food out to eat at chains, and you can create recipes that you cook and tell it how many portions you ate and it will calculate calories. It also stores them so you can look back at your patterns over time. It takes me 5 minutes to track what I've eaten.
I was going to suggest calorie tracking for a little while as well. I find myself overeating often on healthy foods, and don't always realize. Raisins are a big offender with me.
There are a lot of online resources where you can plot your food items and they will track for you. I use Livestrong, but have heard good things about a lot of the others as well. Once you get into the swing of it isn't nearly as time consuming as people who don't do it think. I don't know that I even spend 15 minutes per day anymore.
ugh so frustrating eh???? My doctor told me once that it takes a LONG time to gain pounds of muscles, I'm not sure how long you've been at it???
As boring as it sounds, I'm thinking the culprit is food. I know when I started looking up the calories in things I was like WTF????? for the assigned portion and not what I was taking (usually 2 or 3 servings!) Not saying that's what's happening to you, but i bet you'd be shocked to see the calories in EVERY SINGLE THING you eat in a day -- you don't have to do it every day for the rest of your life believe me, just try it for a weekend or something, it's eye opening! and once you get the hang of it you remember a lot of the staples and it's not so bad -- even now, I'll have my plate ready and for the heck of it check the portion sizes, and they do creep up and up and up at times!!!
As frustrating as it is to work that HARD and not get the results you want, it's only a matter of a little tweaking and then everything will be working in tandem and then WHOOOOOOSH off it goes!!!
Why am I GAINING weight.... please... anybody....
