Ahh! GAINED weight not lost?!

  • I started WW on Saturday (yep, less than a week ago!), but for the two weeks prior to starting I had changed myself to a 1200 cal diet and was definitely seeing results. I lost about 6 lbs with calorie counting (and of course was making sure those calories were good foods too- although I did use Slim Fast for a little too).

    Well with WW, they have me eating 33 points per day and after some research I found out that it's 1650 calories (give or take)!
    I have *GAINED* 2 pounds since starting! AND that's with working out. And also, I have not once used all 33 points because even though I'm big, I just don't eat very much. My problem was my PCOS/Insulin Resistance and the fact that what I did eat wasn't good for me.

    So what do you all suggest? I don't want to quit WW- I LOVE the support and the good information I get.

    Has anyone else had this problem? Any ideas of what to do?
  • Whenver I start working out I think I gain and it drives me crazy.

    Suggestion for you: track your weight each day. Compare each day to each day (Wednesday to Wednesday). I bet you'll show a loss.
  • I think the 'gain' is from working out. Give it some time, you should see results soon! I also second what SkinnyCow said- track your weight for a week. It took me a while to figure out which day showed a loss and it's easier to find out by tracking ur weight on scale, you know? Another thing could be water retention- do you eat food with a lot of sodium? If so, drink more water on top of that to counteract that or go with lower sodium items.

    I think WW is a great program with a healthy focus on healthy oils, water, fruit & veggies and whole grains. Also some people notice they do not lose with weekly points or activity points so you will have to play with the points to see what works for you be it half of weekly along with your daily points, etc. You can do it! GL.
  • 1200 cal is pretty low - if you were to stick with that and then hit a stall, you couldn't really drop lower as your weight drops. Sounds like the ww level is a good starting point until you're down more and then you'll drop down to the lowest points as you progress (29).

    Yep - as you work out, your muscles will retain water as they rebuild fibers ... common to see a small gain in the first month or so of working out.
  • 33 points is not 1650 calories. If you look at the formula a point is by itself about 35 calories. For me, a point -- including zero point foods eaten during the day -- works out to between 37 and 38 calories. For people who eat more fruit a point including zero point foods works out to about 40 calories. So 33 points probably works out to between 1250-1320 calories. I've been tracking both points and calories for months so have very good records on this.
  • Thanks everyone.. .I'm going to stick with it and see how it goes! It makes sense after reading what you guys said about the exercising and the water retention!

    Koshka - thanks for cleaning that up! Someone had told me that each point was 50 calories- which is where I got 1650 from! Definitely happy to hear that it's not that much!!
  • Focus on meeting your daily points range. You'll notice your leader will mention that it is important to reach it. WW has worked hard in developing the new system and the points is what you should be consuming to lose weight, safely. I am at 37 points a day. I meet those points each day and I also dip into my allowance points too (not all, but some. between 5-15 usually in a week) You don't have to eat more to meet the points range either. My friend was having trouble meeting the range too. She started incorporating full or half fat products instead of fat free like milk, cheese and yogurt. She found with this easy substitution she could eat the same amount of food and still meet her target, and she continues to lose eating full fat products. You will notice a loss. Good Luck!!!
  • linalin - our stats are crazy similar, down to the PCOS (I'm not IR)! It's WAY too early to think the plan isn't working for you. I ate pizza this week and the next day I was up over 2 lbs. The next day it was already gone. Just from your original post, I can think of 2 reasons that you may be carrying water weight - 1) working out more and 2) your food intake may have increased a little bit. Both of these are temporary. I can easily gain a lb and I can't even think of anything I did to cause it. Then a few days later that lb and another one are both gone. Give it time. For your PCOS/IR it really helps to pair protein with any carbs you eat.