I am so frustrated right now. I have packed on 3 pounds this past week. In my head, I know it cannot be "real" weight gain as I have not changed my diet at all (my calories are about 1500-1600), but that doesn't make it any easier. It is not time for TOM, so that isn't doing it either (I don't think so, anyway - I've been a bit irregular the last couple of months). What IS going on is that I've hurt my back. I think it is a pulled muscle. As the pain has gotten worse, my weight has gone up. The increasing pain and increasing weight are working together to stress me out -- which seems to make my weight climb even higher

Has anyone else experienced this? Weight gain associated with an injury and/or stress, without a change in dietary habits? I am continuing my regular exercise as best I can, but have to make certain adjustments to avoid making the injury worse. They aren't really significant enough to make a drastic change to my caloric expenditure - it is more a case of substituting things than eliminating things . Anyway, I know that weight training causes muscles to retain water as they repair themselves, but I wasn't sure if a pulled muscle would have the same effect. Anyone know? Also, whenever I get stressed, it seems my weight just takes a drastic upward spike (even though I eat the same things) and stays up there until I chill out. What is up with that??

To me, 3 lbs in one week just isn't significant. If I weigh myself during the week/month, it varies anywhere from 125 to 130 lbs, I just take an average. There are way too many factors that can cause a 3 lb fluctuation - water retention, time the month, the last time you used the bathroom, etc etc.

Worry about getting better for now. Looks like you are doing your best to keep everything under control. My weight goes up and down some weeks, sometimes it's TOM, sometimes not. Maybe I had too much sodium or my body feels the need to retain some water. Who knows?

As for stress, I just posted in LLV's thread a few minutes ago. Here's the link to the article I posted. Maybe it can answer some questions http://www.3fatchicks.com/forum/show...12#post1149812

If the pain keeps getting worse, you should get it checked. You wouldn't want all your hard work to do down the drain by hurting yourself even more! Nothing wrong with giving yourself some time to heal. Better to wait until you get back in full form and pick up from there than injure yourself further. Keep things simple until then, try walking a bit but don't overexert yourself.

If it were at different times of the day, I wouldn't really think so much about it, but I only weigh first thing in the morning (after I pee) to try to get as accurate a weight as possible instead of weighing what I've been eating and drinking. My weight normally goes up about 2 pounds total during the first few days of TOM, but I am between periods now. I'm trying not to be overly concerned, since my weight does weird stuff sometimes, but seeing the numbers on the scale going up and feeling my clothes getting tighter is starting to get me a little frustrated.