1200 calories a day & gaining weight!!??

[UsedToBeAContender]

Am completely flummoxed really. Am working out 5 times a week, following a diet of 1200 calories a day and my weight has gone up by about a pound a week for the last few weeks!!??

I'm eating really healthily, snacking regularly and cutting way back on alcohol. I just don't understand that if the calories aren't going in, how can I be getting heavier???

I know muscle weighs more than fat but surely at some point the laws of physics have to kick in!? My clothes are tighter too so definitely getting bigger.

So fed up

OK a couple of things...

1. What age are you - weight loss can take a longer time to kick in once you are over 45 - the days of eating less for 2 days and losing a stone are over! I have found it takes me 3-4 weeks to show a loss when I cut back

1. Are you eating a lot of salty food - do you have water retention?

1. Are you eating a lot of carbs in your calories - have you tried a strict low cab diet to kick start?

If you are really sticking to the 1200 cals and not fooling yourself, then I would get checked out by a (good) doctor. Unexplained weight gain can be caused by various things. Have you noticed any other changes?

That said personally I think 1200 cals a day (esp if you are working out) is way too extreme anyway, so it may just be that your body is in "starvation mode" and hanging onto whatever it can. Maybe try bumping up the calories for a while?

I am no expert btw but that's what springs to mind!

1. I'm 38, definitely finding that weight loss is trickier than it used to be!

1. Not sure my food is hugely salty but water retention could be a factor I suppose. My workouts are quite strenuous so I sweat a lot and drink a lot of water when exercising so maybe that's it [hopes desperately it's just water..]

1. I think a low carb diet may be the answer. It just feels like I'm giving up more and more things and nothing is happening. So depressing, makes me feel like just giving up and getting fat since diet and exercise seem to be having no effect!

I'm doing myfitnesspal so definitely tracking my food intake, even weighing stuff to make sure I get the calories right!

I may make an appointment at the doctor as I definitely feel like this is getting a bit ridiculous!

Sympathies. I'm on 1200 too and its very restrictive.

I guess what I don't understand about the whole "your body is in starvation mode" thing (which has been said to me by a few people also) is WHERE is the weight coming from then???

If a person is essentially burning more calories than they are eating then how can they be gaining weight??

Sorry, am just plain ranting now!!

...seethes angrily and considers chucking scales out of window...

No I agree. Never got this, you won't lose weight if you starve yourself stuff. Energy cannot be created from nothing!

1200 calories a day is nowhere near enough food if you are doing 5 strenuous exercise sessions a week. 1200 is normally the minimum needed to just get through a day of pretty much nothing, anything less than this and your body will go into starvation mode which is completely counter productive. If you are doing myfittnesspal are you not entering your workouts? As when you do that it adds on extra calories which you are supposed to eat.

Exactly StealthPolarBear!

Sympathies, I do this for a bit and then get disillusioned at seeing no results. I don't understand it either, you see the skinnies on Supersize sometimes and Dr Christian's all "this person eats a ridiculous diet of 1700 cals per day" and they look like death on a stick. I know low carb diets are really popular round here at the moment but I'm not a fan of them personally, it's not very sustainable or healthy longterm.

It might be worth going to the Drs if it keeps up - I keep thinking if I manage to not get disillusioned and stick to my diet for 4 weeks and nothing happens I'm going myself.

What is starvation mode though? Surely a starving person loses weight?

Posh Spice looks like a starving person and apparently she eats pretty much lettuce all day. I on the other hand look like a rather chubby person who eats steak and kidney pies every hour.

Brighter minds than mine need to explain this to me....very slowly...

That sounds odd, 1200 calories would be very low for most people, especially if you're exercising regularly as well, you really shouldn't be gaining weight . Are you very short/petite? Though even so 1200 is hardly a lot!

Maybe give it a bit more time, but I agree about maybe seeing the GP if it continues, if you're sure there are no 'hidden' calories you're missing.

I know what you mean Ghost, it just makes you want to give up doesn't it

Def eat more....like everyone else says. Your body is just going to "cling" to the food you eat as it thinks it won't get any more so wont burn it off. And on 1200 calories it's right to hold onto them.

(I think the 'starvation mode' thing refers to when you follow a very low calorie diet for a while, then when you give up and start eating normally or overeating again, you pile on the weight more quickly than if you'd never done the diet. Not sure if that's true, but it's plausible at least!)

Google starvation mode and you will see

Unless my husband is shoving bounty bars into my mouth while I'm asleep I'm pretty confident that I'm calculating everything correctly.

I have the odd day when I maybe eat a bit more (if it's a family lunch or something) but even then I'd say I never go above about 15-1700. And that's just maybe 1 day out of 7 or 8 days of dieting.

My diet is very healthy so I feel good and I know I'm very fit but I just WANNA BE THINNER!! GAAAAAHHH!

Yes ephiny, could accept that, definitely. But Peope seem to think your body creates cals out of nothif, somehow

My opinion on myfitnesspal etc is that they don't need to be 100 pc accurate. If you have a cheese sandwich and Log it then its going to be right within a hundred cals or so. Sometimes you'll be over, sometimes under as long as you're not cheating or deluding yourself. It's the act of logging everything and considering what you eat tht works, rather than being a slave to the exact cals. Works for me anyway

It is the stock answer that people give, based on the fact that the starve/ binge cycle slows down metabolism. For example, if you eat 800 calories a day, for the first few weeks you will lose a lot of weight, but then it will slow down until eventually you need to drop to 700 to lose weight and so on and so on.

But essentially, if you eat less, or rather burn more than you eat - you should lose weight, although this will take longer as you get older (damn it) So something is a miss OP... go see a doctor.

Have you had your thyroid checked out by a doctor?

Gainig weight whilst on such a restricted diet should not really be possible.

Is there any chance you are pregnant?

I ate 1000 every day for three months last year and lost three stone in a few months... not saying it's right, just that "starvation mode" is bollocks.

If you look at what thin people eat, it is a lot less than us fatties. It's quite simple.

OK well I don't totally understand it either, but I think the idea is that if your body really isn't getting enough food, it can start shutting down some functions in order to hang onto calories that it would normally burn doing those things - so that it can protect your "most vital" functions. Kind of like how when you get really cold, it will pull in all the heat to protect your vital organs even if that makes your fingers drop off from frostbite... not healthy!

Also malnutrition can have strange effects, starving people can sometimes get a real pot belly for example while the rest of them is horribly skinny.

And the other possibility in your case is that there is something wrong, thyroid problems is one example that can cause strange weight gain but there are other possibilities too, so do get checked out if this continues (or has been going on a while already).

Agree - that I understand Ephiny. If I suddenly pig out then my body gains weight, but I'm not pigging out. I just don't get it.

Maybe I should check under the bed for bounty bars!

Incidentally, the 1200 calories is what myfitnesspal gave me based on my age/height/weight etc and lifestyle. I thought it was low too but actually I have found my diet to be much improved because I'm swapping unhealthy stuff for lower fat/calorie alternatives.

Typical day I'll usually eat something along these lines:

Breakfast- poached eggs on wholemeal toast/porridge with berries & honey/alpen with skimmed milk & a banana

Snack after workout - banana/ryvita with cottage cheese/oatcakes & houmous

Lunch - I quite often have those innocent pots or a fresh noodle soup or something with extra vegetables like spinach or something added

Afternoon snack - fruit/oat cakes/some rolled up ham or turkey meat

Dinner - Grilled fish/vegetables/stir fry/chicken etc.