Before I get started, I acknowledge that my starting weight in this thread was underweight. I do not wish to return to an underweight status. I simply want to stay at the weight I'm currently at, and that is causing me no end of trouble.

Starting in about October of last year, I weighed a shade under 100 lbs, was exercising 5 times a week, was eating a healthydiet but not tracking my calories, and maintenance was easy. All of a sudden, without changing any of my habits, I started gaining weight. I have gained 20 lbs since last October.

I started tracking my activity and calories on FitDay and am averaging 1300-1500 calories a day, which should be a caloric deficit at my weight of 118 lbs and height of 5'6", especially since I do at least 30 minutes of vigorous exercise 5 times a week. According to Fitday I'm burning between 1900 and 2300 calories a day.

Since October my body feels like it's turning into mush. My legs and arms feel mushy; no other way to describe them. They used to feel hard and muscular.

I researched common causes of weight gain and have elminated thyroid disease (levels are lowish but not subclinical), medications (not taking any), excessive sodium intake/water weight gain, lack of fiber, etc. as the culprits. I also get enough protein and I take a multivitamin.

Could it be I'm not eating enough? I've heard you can gain weight from not eating enough because it wrecks your metabolism. If that's true, how do I fix it?

I don't want to lose weight, I just want to stay where I'm at. I feel disgusting and out of control.

Start lifting weights. Heavy weights. Stop doing cardio. You are 'skinnyfat'. You don't need to lose more weight, you need to build some muscle. Eat enough to support that muscle.

At 5'6" and 118 lbs, you are nearly underweight. Nobody here will (should) tell you how to lose more weight. You can certainly lose fat and gain muscle. Your weight on the scale might go up, but your body will be smaller and you'll be healthier with more muscle mass.

Maybe your body is trying to find it's ideal weight.

I have weighed between 96-172 pounds. My body naturally likes to stay around 125 pounds. I can get down to 115 but I literally have to starve myself to stay there. Even at 120 pounds I can not eat more than 900 cal per day, whereas at 125 pounds I can eat hefty 1600-2000 per day. -- Strange.

I do strength train but at this point I doubt I'm doing it properly since I never seem to get any stronger, it's like I'm running in place, even when I go up in weight I get to a point where I hit a wall and no matter what I do I can't make myself lift more. I can do squats till the cows come home, wall sits for 60-90 seconds at a time, and I can hold a crescent pose for what seems like forever. I can't do reps quickly though and if I lunge quickly, I lose my balance. I have to lunge very slowly to keep from stumbling.

I take the Les Mills Body Pump class at least once a week at 24 Hour Fitness and if I can't take that class, I do at least one hour-long strength training session a week to make up for it. I also incorporate strength work into my other workouts; I am not a big fan of static cardio like running on a treadmill or sweating on an elliptical for 40 minutes, though I do it because magazines and websites tell me I should. Probably not the best source of info, but it's hard to separate myth from reality.

What advice would you give me? How long, how much weight, etc.?

Body Pump got me started in weight training, but it's not really strength training; you can't build much strength by doing 120 chest presses (I counted one night).

I would ditch Body Pump and focus on lifting heavier. Also, you could lift more frequently; once a week isn't enough to build strength. You could do full body strength training three times a week on non-consecutive days, or upper/lower body days back to back four times a week. Or a combination - say full body on Monday, rest on Tuesday, upper body on Wednesday and lower body on Thursday.

ExRx is a good resource for developing your own training plan.



I also agree that you need to increase your calories.

Agreed. You're not gaining strength because you're not eating enough to support muscle growth.

Google "Weightlifting bulk" and go from there. You need to eat a LOT, and lift HEAVY weights at low reps, if you want to gain muscle. You're going to have to deal with the scale maybe moving up a tiny bit, or staying the same. Don't panic. The goal is to recomp your body. You want to burn off the fat and feed the muscle.

You definitely need to eat more to build the muscles - those puppies need protein to grow. I'm your height and when I was 115 I couldn't gain strength either. I moved up to 125 and ramped up the strength training and the protein, now I find 132ish is perfect for me with my current muscle base and I wear the same size I did at 122-125.

Check out Krista Scott Dixon's page - www.stumptuous.com - she has sample training plans that can be done at home and are set up based on skill level and desired outcome. She also gives some great tips on incorporating strength training. I would say you need three weight workouts a week to build muscle - she has one that alternates light, medium and heavy with varying reps that worked really well for me.

Thank you guys for responding; when I hit the gym today I jogged for 25 minutes then I hit the weight machines for about 30 minutes and lifted the heaviest weights I could manage for 8-10 reps...by that time I couldn't lift that weight anymore. Is that low reps, or should I go even heavier for fewer reps?

I actually go a bit lower than 8-10 when I'm deadlifting. I know that right now I can lift 130lbs for about 5-6 reps for several sets. When I was deadlifting 115lbs for that long I moved up to 130. So do me this means I need to move up. Try a little heavier if you feel you can do it!

Echoing the above posters in that lifting can do powerful things for your body. I'll use myself for an example:

I got down to 107. It's barely within the healthy range for my height but was too thin for me; I could FEEL it. I looked gaunt and felt horrible. I needed to gain weight.

I was already lifting heavy so I simply increased my calories and immediately found my lifts were better and I was able to do more bodyweight exercises. I also had more energy and felt better. A few months ago I could not do dips, for example, and today I stood between two spin bikes, grabbed on and did some dips for the **** of it.

I gained weight too. I'm sitting around 112 now and while it's only five pounds it makes a world of a difference. In the feather weightlifters I also commented on the fact that I'm actually a smaller size than I was at 107! I'm certainly smaller than the last time I was 112!

I've slipped off into maintenance calories for now, but I might bulk again in the future. Having those extra calories made some of my lifts just amazing, but it was getting difficult for me to eat all of that food and make sure it was all healthy at the same time.

I guess I'm just feeling kind of lost and confused...what used to work no longer does and I guess I don't really know what to do. I can lift heavier weights and eat more but it seems counterintuitive. I gained another 8/10ths of a pound from yesterday, too. It's very discouraging. Plus, I can SEE the weight gain and some of my clothes don't fit anymore, it's driving me nuts. :-(

I just wish I knew what was causing this!

It is counterintuitive, but it works!! Listen to Sontaikle. She has great advice!! And she's fierce!

I just wanted to chime in and say that eating more could definitely help. Weight loss/maintenance isn't an exact math. There was a study recently showing that all calories are not created equal. For example, your body doesn't treat a sugar calorie the same as a protein calorie. Eating more protein, veg, fruit can help. I also do free days once a week to make sure my body doesn't go into starvation mode and hoard fat.

Also, I think stress could be a factor. It sounds like you are really distressed by this, and that can definitely cause weight gain. Perhaps some yoga classes can help ease your mind.

Lastly, a visit to the doctor might be in order if nothing else works. There could be a number of other health issues causing this.

I guess; some of it doesn't make a lot of sense to me, I don't know much about weight lifting. She's talking about 'dead lifting' 120 lbs, and I couldn't lift that much with anything except a seated leg press. Everything else is far, far lower than that. Doing 10 bicep curls holding a 10 lb weight in each hand is extremely difficult for me.


I've tried yoga and pilates, neither one works. Doctors refuse to put me on anti-anxiety meds since I am 'functional' and they're worried about addiction.

I have seen more than one doctor about this. My regular GP told me I wasn't getting enough sleep. Another tested my thyroid levels and said they were a little low but not in a treatable range. Doc #3 ordered hundreds of dollars worth of blood tests not covered by my insurance and found nothing unusual except for a positive Epstein Barr titer and elevated liver enzymes, which they always are and have been for years.

Trainers have told me to "eat fewer carbs" and to alternate cardio with light weight/high rep strength training.

None of it has worked.

Hi! I know how you feel as I have been in your exact position for a while. I am 5.6,5 and my lowest weight is been around 114. I have spent years in the gym doing spinning, Body Pump, Pilates, yoga, elliptical and other cardio machines and some weight machines. Some days I stayed in the gym 3-4 hours and could go easily 6 days a week. All this exercise got me exactly nowhere in terms of changing my body shape, I accummulate fat in my hips and butt and although I weight that little still had fat there. I was quite unhappy with myself and thought it was impossible to change.

In March I thought that if what I was doing was not working I had to change my routine. I thought i could try heavy strength training, so I bought the book New Rules of Lifting for women and started that. Since then I can tell you that my body has changed so dramatically that I am practically in awe with myself, I absolutely love my body now after a few months with the strength training. My scale weight is higher (126 as this morning) but I look at the mirror and pictures and I absolutely love myself now and i guess this is more important for me than the number in the scale at least if I stay in the healthy weight range.

Now, this is speaking about exercise. But diet is going to be the key to fat loss or muscle gain. I have maintain for some years now, I know how my body works, but since the strength training I am eating a lot more protein and I now eat more the days I lift as opposed to rest days.

Anyway, the point is what are your goals now, what do you want for yourself. Do you want a lower number on the scale? You will probably have to look at your diet very close to do that. I suggest you to try a different approach to what you are doing and see where it leads you.

I strongly recommend you to look up this FB group https://www.facebook.com/groups/fiercefitfearless/ It is for women that lift heavy, some of them have been in the exact situation where you are. My views about diet and exercise have changed dramatically thanks to this group. They follow a way of eating called IF based on the leangains website another approach you can try to see if it leads you where you want to go.

Good luck with your goals.

I've read the recommended links and have googled my tail off.

I'm still confused, I don't know what to do, where to start, what.

Basically I have so little faith in my own judgment and my own ability to separate myth from reality that I basically want to be told what to do. What to lift, how often, how much, etc. What to eat, how often, how many calories, etc.

For the last week I've lifted 'heavy', or whatever 'heavy' means to me...and have eaten more. All that's happened is I've gotten squishier and had to buy a new pair of pants.

Every decision I've made for myself for the last few months has been wrong. Everything I've tried has been wrong. I'm sick of getting squishier and heavier.

Please, please, someone help.

I don't mean to sound needy and whiny and in fact I'm disgusted with myself over it...in so many ways, for so many reasons.