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

and PEE ON A STICK!

Usedtobe if you want to avoid considering exercise calories, then try using this TDEE calculator (putting in the appropriate exercise level) and subtracting around 15% from that (or 500 calories, if you want a straightforward 1lb per week loss calorie count) and consuming that every day. That way you don't have to log exercise or eat back exercise calories or anything. It does mean that if you miss your workouts you're possibly over-eating by a couple of hundred calories here or there, but it's not going to ruin your diet.

Few things:

1. If you aren't losing on 1200 the diet isn't right for you.

1. Someone commented low carb diets are not sustainable or healthy in long run. Really? Read Dr John Briffa's book and see if you still feel the same way.

1. Def worth getting thyroid checked out.

1. Try low carb (or even moderate carb ie under 100g carbs a day, rather than ketosis).

SE body fat calculators here and here. They use different methods and I come out about 4% higher in one than the other, so I go with a rough average, which puts me in the middle of the 'fitness' range (but still rather fatter than an 'athlete' ), which seems reasonable. I think it's another thing (like weight) that is more useful as a comparison than as a cut and dried figure. My body fat has dropped around 5% in the past 2 months, for example, even though my weight hasn't changed a single ounce.

Hopefully Thanks for all of the great info on this thread. I'm pretty much in exactly the same situation as UsedTo.

I'm trying to stick to 1390 net cals a day. It's so hard though to get enough calories when you're working out, today for example, food intake was 1467cal, and my exercise was 702, so I'm way under my net target. I'm not hungry though!! Do I seriously need to sit here and consume 625 calories so that my body doesn't go into starvation mode?! AAARGH its a nightmare!!

AHEM, similar happened to me. Turned out I was rather PREGNANT

I have just googled starvation mode to see what I could find and opinion seems to be divided, weightwatchers, interestingly, thinks it's a myth. Couldn't see any authoritative source - this maybe? though never heard of them . It also talks about the "kick start your metabolism" advice that is often given out about eating breakfast.
Still - not convined their advice is necessarily right either.

ha ha, just looked at their board of directors page. Stuffed to the brim with Drs it is not :o
A guy who's eaten plants for the last 40 years, a journalist, and a scientist - but not in anything to do with health or nutrition. Nice try,NHA!

sorry 60 years, not 40 years

Viv I think the odd day of being way under is fine - it's when you're consistently netting low calories that starvation mode is a risk.

Steath I think one of the reasons starvation mode is so controversial is that people are all different, and bodies react in different ways to low calorie diets. I genuinely believe that starvation mode exists (although not a commonly as most people think), but I am also aware that I personally can eat 1,000 calories a day and the weight will fall off almost indefinitely, so have never actually experienced it (NB I haven't done that for years - I am too greedy!)

Yes, I am in the fortunate position of being overweight because my diet is crap. When I cut down, I do lose weight. When I don't lose weight it's because I'm not logging everything, and so am eating more than I believe I am.

Thanks Hope

I got my knockers in a massive twist yesterday with all this, then I made the mistake of freaking myself out royally by looking at the lo-carb threads.

I know that increasing my exercise, lowering my saturated fat intake, eating more wholefoods and veg and less processed food and refined sugar (all wrapped up in food diary like MFP) has worked for me in the past so I'm not going to get distracted and just stick with that :)

erm knickers

Thank you OP for starting this thread and Hopefully for all your advice.

I could have written the OP word for word, I'm doing MFP and exercising 5x a week yet gaining weight rather than losing. I never used to eat the extra calories I gained from exercising as I thought what's the point in burning off those calories only to put them back on.

So I have calculated my BMR and worked out I should be having an extra 440 cals a day. I only want to shift 6lbs so hopefully shouldn't take too long.

Thank you again to OP and Hopefully.

SeventhEverything, it was a one off day really, I took the dog for an hour brisk walk in the hills (as I do every morning) then in the evening cycled to Zumba and back because we unexpectedly sold my car before getting a replacement.... I was a bit @ >700 cals, but that's what it was according to MFP....

I never used to eat the extra calories I gained from exercising as I thought what's the point in burning off those calories only to put them back on

^^Exactly this. It's all so baffling.

I burn more or less 700 calories on days when I run and do Insanity. If I added in all the walking I do as exercise (I sometimes do, but not always), it can go up to 1,000. I have never had even the smallest problem eating them back .

Seriously, I think that eating back around half of your exercise calories is probably sufficient to keep fuelling your body, unless you're regularly netting 800 calories or something. I normally eat about 80-90% of them back, but I love food and basically only exercise to eat.

Spoke to my DB today who suggested I combine some of my really intense workouts (ie. kickboxing) with something less intense but more 'fat-burning' (eg. uphill power walking/cross trainer).

He suggested I get a heart rate monitor for those sessions to ensure that I stay in the fat-burning zone rather than just blitzing it. Usually I'm dripping with sweat and ready to throw up at the end of a kickboxing session so I'm more than willing to give it a try! Agree totally with Viv, I didn't want to be doing all this exercise just to eat all the calories again!

I'm going to keep trying dammit. Something has got to give at some point!

why the obsession over a couple of pounds?
you are well within a healthy weight range and there is no real need to lose any more
that is why it is proving hard
you should probably ditch the low cal, stick to healthy eating and if you are desperate to be smaller do a shedload of toning

I sympathize. I gave up chocolate and put on a 1/4 of a stone!

It's not that I'm obsessing over a couple of pounds, it's just that I'm carrying extra pounds that I didn't use to carry and can't fit into some of my favourite clothes. .

I only need to lose a little bit and those damn jeans would fasten again! I bought my first pair of spanx the other day. God those things are quite remarkably unsexy!

I know the feeling UsedToBeAContender. A few pounds can make all the difference when it comes to fitting in your clothes (or in my case my thighs not chaffing which is extremely annoying when you're only 9stone!).