These past several weeks I've done nothing different -- or at least nothing worse than normal. I haven't upped my calories and have been eating on plan. I've been working out and burning calories, even if it's taking longer these days (I've "gotten used" to everything I have access to). In fact, I've become even MORE active, doing some some light physical labor on weekends and even walking the dogs most nights a week in addition to the workouts five days a week.

My weight? Not stable. Started at 140, then hit 141. Then 142. Then 143. Now 144, and close to 145.

Kinda freaking out here. Why has the "creep" started with absolutely NOTHING different? I eat 1,800 to 1,900 calories a day, and have a documented (HRM) burn of 2,300-2,400 calories per week, NOT including the extra physical exercise I'm getting. I'm drinking my water every day, not having anything carbonated, getting plenty of fruits and veggies. No fried food in months. Not even potato chips in two weeks.

Has anyone else experienced this?? What gives?!

Welcome to the world of weight creep. I have nothing definitive to tell you, except that increasing your exercise probably isn't going to help--don't think you can fight it that way. All I can suggest is that you lower your calories a little bit for awhile. Nothing drastic, though. Don't try to get rid of 5 pounds in a week, for example... (Not that you would.)

Jay

It's just frustrating and weird! I'll drop 100 or so calories for a while and see what happens...maybe my body is too used to what I've been doing for so long.

Thinking about it, I also wonder if it's sodium. I've maybe been slacking on watching that number...I'll go back in Sparkpeople and see what my sodium levels have been...

Added:

Apparently my sodium intake has stunk.
May 8: 4,901
May 9: 3,725
May 10: 4,535
May 11: 5,985
May 12: 6,873 (and today was my first 144-nearly 145 day)
May 13: 3,386

Sneaky sodium. I see those kinds of spikes after I eat Chipotle (holy crap, that's a lot of salt in the rice) and sushi (soy sauce extravaganza).

And that's just the sodium I KNOW about...I don't count any extra sodium from the salt I put into things. Eek!

For a long, long time I stayed away from pre-packaged foods...but in the past several weeks I've been OBSESSED with Boca burgers, which aren't bad on their own, but I've also been eating more canned veggies in an effort to stay away from potato chips at lunch. Dinners have involved canned soups and canned tomatoes a lot.

Maybe I'll start watching the sodium intake, jack up the water consumption and stick with my normal calories and see what happens....

The same thing has been happening to me the last six months or so. I know I don't always eat the best foods, but I've eating the exact same things in the same quantities as the last three years. I also have increased my exercise in frequency and intensity, and still the weight has creeped up. I have looked back and I've been eating a lot more sodium than I realized, too. Plus I switched out daily yogurt for oatmeal about the same time that the weight creep started, so I just recently started taking a probiotic and that has helped a lot with the bloated feeling.

I like the watch the sodium and push the water idea. The canned veggies, soups, tomatoes, and even the Boca will really push the sodium up there. If that doesn't help some then you may need to trim the calories back a little.

Today I'm back down to 141. Crazy. I'll definitely keep an eye on the sodium! Have a bunch of Boca to eat, but I'll plan my days better for a while and see what's up...

Thanks for all your help, everyone!

Mindi-
Since you are tracking anyway, perhaps one or two more things won't hurt. How about your carb levels and your hormonal cycle? Not just TOM but ovulation as well. I found some interesting patterns when I started observing these additional events as well. Keep us posted.

I track my carb levels now, just using Sparkpeople's recommended numbers. Sparkpeople recommends 181-262, and other than a couple of high days over the past week, I stay around 230-250. So on the high side.

For the next weeks I'll track my weight daily and then compare it to my Sparkpeople stats...

Monday, May 16 = 142
Calories: 1809, Fat 51, Carbs 255, Protein 121, Cholesterol 252 (eek!),
Saturated Fat 8, Fiber 60, Sodium 4,580 (eek again!), Calcium 56
Tuesday, May 17 = 141.6
Calories: 1712 (as planned), Fat 23, Carbs 296, Protein 130,
Cholesterol 141, Saturated Fat 4, Fiber 65, Sodium 4497 (eek!),
Calcium 148

Mindi, that's a lot of sodium! Where are you getting it all from?

It sounds like the sodium may be the culprit, but if you can't track down a food-related cause of why your weight is going up, I would recommend seeing a doctor. Unexplained weight gain and unexplained weight loss are always worth checking out.

For me, which is not your body, that would indeed be high. Are you able to average out your values over a couple of months from sparkpeople? Trends: correlating or causitive with confounding variables are a pesky thing to sort out. It takes time to do so. Something I am aware of us is the downward trend my body will take over time- both in terms of carb sensitivity and lower calorie needs. I do not expect this to a gradual peaceful slope but rather one in fits and starts. Hence the broader need to look at data over time.

NaCl, for me, is an annoyance, but not the thing that puts fat on me. I prefer to add my own sea salt so I buy salt free anything whenever possible. But it is a matter of taste not health per se. If a meal was high in sodium, for me, I usually flush it out within a day or two of extra water drinking. Not so if the pounds have come from another source. They can take a week sometimes to drop off. The best thing you are doing is simply being aware of you, using patterns for you, to make the best decisions you can. Journaling a variety of observations is invaluable. I have come to think that the act of recording-weight & food daily- is probably the most important thing I do to successfully maintain. Keep us posted.

I looked at today...

After workout - Whole wheat and flax 60 calorie pita with fat free cream cheese, after my workout, was 90 cals and 490 mg sodium.
Breakfast - Fiber 1 Original mixed with Chocolate Cheerios, a banana and 1 cup Silk light soy milk - 340 cals, 447 mg sodium

Lunch - 2 pc. Sara Lee Delightful wheat bread, Boca Burger (I have 'em...gotta eat 'em), 1 slice 2 percent cheese and Lays Light chips, and a rice cake - 390 cal, 1170 mg sodium
On Lunch, if I substitute salad with FF Ranch for the chips, it INCREASES my sodium by 130 mg. The ranch has almost as much sodium (330 mg) as the Boca (380 mg)

Snack - Homemade 2% cottage cheese/Sugar Free Jello mixture - 88 cals, 408 sodium

Dinner - Homemade chicken and rice, roasted brussels sprouts, beans (canned...just cuz we have them), 100 cal ice cream - 792 cal., 1983 sodium

Dinner is high because I'm using a not low-sodium chicken soup in the rice...but in general it's high even without that. Even the boneless, skinless chicken breast has 578 mg sodium! I'm at a loss.

Here are some tips about sodium:
- breakfast cereals have a lot of sodium
- cheese has a lot of sodium (including cottage cheese -- you can buy low salt cottage cheese)
- crunchy snacks like rice cakes and chips have a lot of sodium
- grocery store bread has a lot of sodium (it's hit and miss with bakery bread)
- things that are fat free tend to have extra sodium and sugar to make up for it
- frozen processed foods typically have a lot of sodium
- canned foods typically have a lot of sodium, but you can often by a version that says "no salt added" on the can
- grocery store chicken has typically been plumped by injection with saline solution. Check the packaging and see if it says it contains any saline solution.
- seasoning blends tend to have salt in them unless you buy the salt-free version

Hope that helps!

Thanks for the tips, Papperclippy! We just discovered the seasoning blend situation over the weekend, and I know a lot of the other stuff. It's just that stuff isn't readily available here. In a town of 3,000 with one grocery store, the pickings are slim until we can go on a "big" grocery trip to a big store in another town...

We're trying to phase out cans for frozen or fresh as much as possible, but with some things, and our schedules, it's not always an option.

I don't know about anyone else, but this is what weight maintenance looks like so far to me:



It's a bumpy ride! But that's just totally normal for me personally. When my weight fluctuates up, I don't really do anything different except maybe drinking more water. TMI: it's usually all related to the digestive process for me. It took me a long time to accept weight fluctuations, but I do now. Truth: You cannot gain a pound in a day without doing something very extreme (like eating 10,000 calories or something). Not any meaningful pound. If you see the scale changing that much, it's a fluctuation.