Hi people

So I have been sticking to 1200 cals pretty steadfastly for 3 weeks now. Yay me, right?

Wrong! Week one and 2 were great! I lost 6 lbs and it was a piece of cake. Week 3 I began exercising MWF, and still ate around 1200-1300 cals. I weighed in thursday, and I was up 3.6 lbs. Figured it was swollen muscles/water retention, so no biggie. I weighed in today and I was up again, 2.4 more lbs!!!!!

I regained ALL 6 POUNDS I lost in the first 2 weeks!!

What's up with that?! My calories stayed the same, but my activity level went up, shouldn't I be burning more? HELP!!

from my history, you sent yourself into starvation mode. You were doing well until you began to exercise because your body only needs a certain amount to do day to day activities and you were within those limits. Once you began exercising your body needed much more than what you were consuming and felt as though you were starving it thus holding on to whatever you took in. Up your carb count to around 1500 - 1600 (approx. 500 below normal for a woman which is what is recommended) and see if you begin to loose again. I have made the mistake before, less is not always best!

Good luck!

are you positive that your calories are staying the same? i know it's often difficult to keep track of all the little 'extras' throughout the day, so if you're grabbing a lunchtime latte or a handful of pretzels that you forget to count, that could explain the gain.

are you taking measurements? it's also possible that you're losing FAT but gaining muscle, which would be a good thing!

Uggghhhhh I knew it!! Haha

Should I up calories on the days I work out, or everyday?

Hi seidlet- i usually overestimate my cals and I write everything down the SECOND it goes in my mouth, lol... even licks and nibbles. i'm not measuring, but I did notice a jacket of mine felt looser the other day--except that today my pants felt tighter again. Could all be water retention from eating too much salt yesterday, but 6lbs?? And it's possible that I'm building muscle but 6lbs in one week and just 3 workouts? that seems unlikely, too, doesn't it?

I'm fairly new to the science of it all though, so maybe. idk!

shasha -
if you're overestimating and writing everything down you should be okay! i don't think you've actually gained six pounds of muscle in three workouts, but the combination of muscle gain & water retention could possibly account for that weight. i know that when i started doing strength training at the gym years ago i gained about 12 pounds in the first two weeks and then the weight literally melted off.

Upping your calories is certainly something you could try to see if it works for you! It's just never worked for me (I have to be very vigilant about keeping a super low-calorie diet to lose weight until I build quite a bit of muscle) so I'm a little leery of recommending it to others - a lot of other ladies report success with increasing calories though, so who knows!

Some of weight is probably water retention from sore muscles. When I started working out I gained a few pounds too and it took about 2 weeks or so for the scale to start moving back down.

You mentioned eating too much salt, that would definitely add several pounds. I eat low sodium, so anytime I have salt (e.g. cheetos) the next morning the scale will jump up a few pounds (and stay there for a few days).

Make sure you're drinking enough water. It sounds weird but if you're not staying hydrated it can cause your body to retain water. Plus, drinking water helps to flush the sodium out of your system. Finally, our bodies are fickle things and some of the weight could just be normal fluctuations (e.g. TOM).

It's really frustrating when you're doing everything right but the scale isn't budging. You've got to stay strong and keep on plan and you will begin to lose. Good luck!

Ya, I guess it just seems odd to me that I was doing so well sitting around and eating 1200 cals. And then the second I start some exercise (which seems pretty minimal to me, I do push ups, squats, and sit ups 3x a week, plus a low-impact aerobic workout. No weights, just moving my body around.) is precisely when I gain it all back. Seems to give weight to the theory that your body will store whatever food it gets if it's burning more than it gets.

OK, all the online calorie calculators tell me I should be eating around 1500-1600 cals a day, and the lowest any of them say being 1291 for "extreme weightloss."

these are the ones I tried:
http://www.freedieting.com/tools/calorie_calculator.htm
http://nutrition.about.com/library/b...tion_guide.htm
http://www.shapefit.com/calorie-intake-calculator.html
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/cal...ulator/NU00598


Thanks for the input, ladies. I guess I'm upping my calories...