Why am I putting ON weight?

[Daffodilpup]

Can anyone help? I read all this stuff about what you should eat and do and what you shouldn’t and it all mixes up in my head so I decided to go simple.

I did a calorie counter and worked out to lose a pound a week I needed to eat 1700 calories. (I’m 14 stone and 5ft 3)

I did this the first week and lost a pound. Week 2 ,3 and 4 I have regained that oound and another 3!

I have started doing weights too so have heard the theory that while I might be loosing fat I will be gaining muscle but don’t think that’s the case when I’m bigger that when I started? Would understand if I was the same. Also I’m only lifting 2kg and 4kg weights as I’m a beginner.

just getting fed up that I’m eating healthily and in a deficit and exercising (walking too) and I’m bigger than when I started.

I just tried another online calculator there.

I put in five foot three, and fourteen stone weight.

It said to lose one pound a week, you need to eat 1428 calories a day.

I agree that 1700 sounds too much given your height. I’m taller and that’s only just under what I need to maintain. You definitely won’t be building muscle to the extent that it will have an impact on your weight but you can get some water retention when you start doing exercise which may be happening. It’s also worth remembering that hormones have an impact on weight too, I can easily go up or down a couple of pounds depending on where I am in my cycle/bloating.

I use it for logging my calories too but looking for a calculator to work out how many calories I should be eating. Tho k ill
just drop to 1400 though and see how I go. If I cut out breakfast I should be ok.

I just wouldn’t weigh yourself. Stick to measurement or photos so you can see a difference.

Weight fluctuates for lots of reasons; hydration, where you are on your cycle etc.

You could also reduce your cals by 100 and/ or increase your activity levels and see how you get on.

I read a great article about how the first 3-4 weeks are learning / trial and error when it comes to losing weight.

Good luck!
You can still eat quite a lot on 1400 calories.

I've been snacking on carrots and fruit throughout the day. So I've never been really hungry at 1400

OP check your hormone levels. At your age you may be perimenopausal. Your hormones may be off an impacting your weight.

Ultimately the injections have shown it’s all about calories in and out. Regardless of how bad the calories are. Are you really tracking your calories? Ie cups of tea or sauces like a previous poster said?

Look at the diet for type 2 diabetes. Ditch the potatoes, peas, white bread and pasta, and switch to carbs with a lower glycaemic impact - quinoa, buckwheat, wholemeal bread. Increase your intact of protein and leafy green veg.
www.diabetes.org.uk/living-with-diabetes/eating/what-is-a-healthy-balanced-diet

Im worried it’s making the weight loss harder though.

I also don't think that we HAVE to have three meals a day. Especially if we are overweight and trying to lose weight.

I usually skip one of the three meals these days. But If I skip breakfast I'll eat a healthy snack.

Or if I have breakfast, I skip lunch, then I'll eat a big healthy dinner later on

I've Been feeling much healthier this way. And I've lost weight.

When I was eating three meals a day I was overweight.

We need to listen to our bodies and do what's best for us.

What kind of low cal
meals do you eat? I think I need to vary things up a bit.

I would check my fasting sugar levels for a few days and if it's borderline to pre diabetes then I would start reducing my sugar intake and replace the banana with another fruit.

It’s not literally useless but given 10k steps (at a good pace) is about one standard mars bar… yeah, might as well use that time better if it’s actually for exercise. Get a sweat on!

I eat a lot of soups, tuna salads, chicken salads, omelettes. Sometimes for dinner I eat fish with a lot of vegetables. Or sometimes I have a vegetable stir fry with a small amount of rice. Low cal fry spray.

Em what else. If I eat breakfast I always have yoghurt or omelette. I wouldn't eat cereal.

I don't really eat things like pasta or potatoes in big amounts anymore, if I do I have a small amount of them.

I eat a lot of fish, chicken, fruit and veg. With a small amount of things like potatoes.

Good luck with it all! You can do it

Yes I was just thinking I might replace it with melon as that’s lower calorie. Going to have a rethink. If anyone is willing to let me know a typical days meals for them I would love to see it. Im doing the food shop on Friday so need to get some low calorie stuff in and have a plan for a few days

Too many carbs, especially at breakfast. Ditch the cereal and replace it with quality protein.

If you've just been doing this for 2 weeks then it's almost certainly water retention from the newly added exercise. Carry on for 2 more weeks and see what happens. You can't be gaining fat in a calorie deficit.

walking can be a fantastic exercise. but there is a big difference between walking 10k steps and WALKING 10k steps (engaging core muscles and getting dlightly out of breath).

Despite what my tde says, in order to lose weight I need to eat no more than 1280 calories a day. I am 5ft 8.
I think in a past life I must have been a highland pony designed to survive on very little no matter what activity level.

for goodness sake don't stop exercising, that's a ridiculous approach

I tried calorie counting like this and lost nothing. I’ve tried all sorts of things. So I decided to eat like an insulin-resistant type 2 diabetic person. No calorie counting, no increase in exercise, just minimising refined carbs, bread and potatoes, increasing fibre, protein and good fats, reducing snacks etc. I’ve lost nearly 2 stone since October and gone down 2 dress sizes, and I’ve never felt better.

I make your tdee 1800 calories, which means you're only in 100 cal deficit a day (not counting exercise).

Its not enough of a deficit to absorb calories miscalculation and weight fluctuations due to your cycles/water retention on any given day.

1lb a week loss needs a 3500 calories deficit a week, so eating 1300 a day average

Every single person’s body is different. The suggestions of how many calories you need per day are an average guide, not one size fits all. You need to trial and error to see what works for your body.

I am 5 ft 6. Used to be 13 stone but now I am 9 stone, after two years of hard work. I do 10-15k steps per day, do 45 min circuit training and HIIT classes 3-4 times per week, which include quite a lot of weights.

I can only eat 1500 cals to maintain my weight (have maintained for 6 months now.) To lose weight I can only eat 1000-1200. It sucks…. As I love food haha.

My sister is the same height as me, does very little exercise and can eat twice as much as me but never puts on weight. It’s the luck of the draw!

Try out different calorie amounts and exercise routines over a few weeks/months and you will learn to find out what your body needs to lose and maintain.

Don't have a caffeine drink until at least mid morning and after you've eaten something, it increases your cortisol levels and that interferes with losing weight.

Breakfast: 200mls unsweetened soya milk (I can't stand drinking cows milk) plus a couple of spoons of plain yoghurt, with some vanilla or other flavouring. Small portion of wholegrain cereal soaked in soya milk with some fruit - oranges, a few berries, pineapple or mango (I keep them ready chopped up in the freezer)

Midday: Home made soup, two slices of wholemeal toast with butter, a bit of chicken or a poached or boiled egg.

Dinner: Main protein meal, veggies, a portion of carbs such as chick pea and mixed bean salad.
Pudding is something like home made griddle cakes or a muffin, replace one third of the flour with buckwheat flour, some fruit or ginger to flavour.

Snack; some nuts, bits of cheese, a stick of celery and carrot.

Its pretty dull but my blood sugar is finally under control and I've lost 7lbs this year - its just melted off. I've got a couple of stone to go.

Why would you stop the exercise. 20 mins with 2-4kg weights is barely exercise anyway. Don’t stop. It’s good for mobility if nothing else.
walking is good for everyone.

This sounds interesting.

Could be worth reading around the societal, ingrained ideas about obesity.

Also to add reading 'Why we eat (too much)', does the same... and the 'Zoe' podcast on obesity (it honestly made me well up). Your 'set point' needs to change.