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

might you just possibly be PREGNANT????

When you dramtically reduce your calorie intake, your body automatically slows down your metabolism to burn fat at the slower pace. This coupled with building muscle due to your level of workouts is probably why your weight has gone up. Up your calorie intake so your metabolism goes back to normal and keep exercising and you will see a difference in a few weeks.

Erm..don't you have to be awake and having sex to get pregnant and not passed out in front of House on the sofa at 9pm??

Oh hang on girls....you've got me worried now.

I have a coil fitted so it's pretty unlikely, but now I'm still worried....

How much do you weigh? Are you underweight to begin with?

I'm 5'6" and now weigh 9st 12lb as of today. I'm trying to get back to about 9st 4lb.
The needle on the scales and my wobbly bottom however seems to have other ideas.

I know I'm not overweight or anything but at the moment I feel like a puppy on an icy slope just putting all this effort in and getting nowhere!

Yup, 3 DCs so sleep is usually 5-6 hours max (on a good night). My last meal is usually around 7-8pm so not late.

I think I'm definitely going to the docs!

I did MFP and logged religiously and didn't lose a bean.
I then did Slimming world, out of interest I logged it into MFP, cal intake was always way over the recommended amount but I lost 3 stone over 3 months. I don't understand this weight loss business at all!

I actually posted my daily diet into the weightwatchers calculator as well to see whether there was a big discrepancy but I was 1 point below my allowance for the day.

Thanks so much for the advice ladies. I'm determined to keep trying, just really disappointed!

I'm no doctor, but starvation mode is true (albeit not quite as common as most people think, from my understanding of it). Here's what happens when you don't take in enough calories:

1. Your metabolism slows down, so you are burning fewer calories just to stay alive. If you don't believe this is true, remember that your body is very clever. When you are pregnant your body becomes better at using the nutrients you feed it so it can grow a whole other person on no more calories at all, if it has to. Even if you don't want to risk losing weight when pregnant, you only need to eat an extra 150-200 calories a day. Not relevant to this, but an example of how much your body can alter what nutrients it draws from food.
2. Your body starts to digest muscle instead of fat. This is because muscle burns more calories just existing than fat. Your body is 'benefitting' itself twice, first by getting the energy from muscle and second by not needing to keep feeding that muscle
3. Your metabolism slows further, as you don't have that calorie burning muscle hanging around.
4. And so on.

In order to lose weight in any kind of sustainable way, you need to be eating at least your basal metabolic rate, really (your BMR - google it, it's v easy to calculate). You also want to NET (after exercise) at least 1,200 calories, and preferably no less than your BMR. So if you eat 1,200 calories and exercise and burn 400 calories, you have actually only netted 800 calories. Your body thinks you are starving it, and does exactly what I've described above. This isn't something the happens if you net a low calorie intake for one day, but repeated low calorie intake or burning too much from exercise without replenishing it will lead your body to do this. And then, when you finally cave and eat a couple of thousand calories, your body clings onto it for dear life and you gain albs instantly. And it's not always water weight and you might have to actually work to lose it.

Clear as mud, right? The easy answer is to exercise more, log everything you eat and do into MFP, and make sure that the end number is at least 1,200 (unless you're like 4'10", in which case you can eat a bit less!). And don't eat too much salt or processed crap - you'll retain water.

I think you're just not overweight, so your body is all like, Seriously? What's with the calorie deprivation

If you're a healthy weight but a bit wibbly, as someone said, focus on toning and reducing your body % percentage.

If your body looked as you'd like it to - toned and firm etc. - you might find you actually weigh more.

Body fat %, that should clearly read!

So how is it possible to put weight on??
If you stopped eating completely, you'd put weight on?

Oh, and yy to toning. I haven't lost a SINGLE OUNCE for over a month, but I am (almost) a full dress size smaller, just from doing lots of toning exercises (started with Shred, then Ripped, now Insanity. Don't ask).

and cutting way back on alcohol

following a diet of 1200 calories a day

and yet you are drinking alcohol? curious as to what you are eating to keep your calorie intake under 1200 per day and yet still have enough to fit in alcohol.

Stealth it's possible to put weight on because her body is being fed little enough to think it's in starvation, but not so little that it can't function, so it's desperately storing every calorie it can as fat. I'd also hazard a guess at a bit of water retention.

All this is assuming, of course, that the OP doesn't have some horrible thyroid disorder or similar. OP, if you are so knackered you can't move and/or have constant aches and pains, see a doc

Storing it as fat yes, but creating mass from where?

By absorbing more calories from food and turning that energy into fat, exactly like when you eat too much.

I vaguely recall that the body trying to get more energy from food also means food spending longer in the gut, which means more food weight in the body at any time (which is why so many women get constipated in early pregnancy - slower gut motility means more calories absorbed), but don't quote me on that.

Ah ok. So greater efficiency? So if I eat a chocolate cake now, i would absorb fewer cals than I would if I ate it wen starving?
So if you literally stop eating, you have to lose weight (not suggesting that btw)

Yup, exactly that. All the starvation mode in the world won't stop you losing if you stop eating entirely

For anyone lurking (and the poor op with her slightly detailed thread!) it is with noting that it is much more common to be horribly underestimating calories than to be in starvation mode. Weighing everything is essential until you know what a portion looks like.

I am repeatedly depressed by how little a serving of pasta actually is, for example.

Have your thyroid checked out - you could by hypothyroid.

I agree with hopefull - check and weigh your portion sizes.

If you are hyperthyroid you will have other symptoms - tierdness apathy, feeling cold, brain working slowly - there are more and you don't always get each symptom but going to the gym 5 times a week doesn't come across as someone that is feeling apathy and tierdness - though only a dr would be able to tell form a blood test.

Ah, starting to make a bit more sense! Thank you Hopefully for that incredibly useful post!

So basically I need to up my calories to be at least 1200 net of exercise. It's so hard to work out how many calories I burn when exercising that I though just ignoring them and eating my 1200 would be easier.

I do feel tired but I'm pretty sure that's because my dcs are rubbish sleepers and I'm usually up with someone most nights!!

BTW - by cutting back on alcohol I meant no drinking at all during the week and maybe 1-2 glasses of wine over the weekend. (And yes, it IS boring!)

You guys are a just a bloody great fountain of knowledge aren't you! Thanks so much for your responses. If I eventually figure it out I'll let you know!