To be getting really confused about my weight?

[extremepie]

Ok, sounds stupid but I'm trying to lose weight and have recently decided to start doing some exercise, watching what I eat etc.

I weighted myself and was horrified to see my weight has gone up over 13st! I'm 5ft 4 so not especially tall and this seems like way too much to me!

However, I have also measured myself recently (hips, waist, bust etc) and am I pretty much right on size 14 measurements so below average. My sister is 5ft 2 and fairly 'petite' in frame (I am not!) but she weighs 8 and a half stone! And she's recently put on half a stone! She's a size 10-12 so only 1-2 sizes smaller than me but almost 5 stone lighter!!

Why am I so heavy! Now I know people say muscle weights more than fat but I'm not a bodybuilder, don't do huge amounts of exercise (yet :D), so what's going on! I tried using one of those body fat measure thingys and it said that my body fat was 40ish% (ashamed face :( )

Aibu to find this all very confusing? From what I've heard if I start doing exercise and stuff I'll put on weight rather than lose it?

Help!

It is possible if you are not eating enough.
Body goes into storage mode.
Also, if your body is not used to exercise in the first weeks it holds onto water more.

Seriously I am laughing at the idea you should not gain weight if you exercise. I have always been fat, and until recently ill have always done a lot of very active sports. Weight is to do with calorie intake versus calorie burn. It doesnt matter how much you exercise, if you eat too much, you will be fat.

Also remembering the dancers on our cruise. One was an obviously very fit and agile fat man.

I agree to measure by yourself with a tape measure in inches rather than weight on the scale. I have this too, I weigh much more than I look and it bothered me until I decided that if I felt that i looked ok and clothing fit the way I wanted...then the scale doesn't matter. who knows, maybe it's just something like bone density?

Are your scales accurate?

well, I'm 5'2 and weigh about 9st 12 and am a size 12. That is way too much for my build, I am tiny and should be a size 8/about 8 stone. So extrapolating that in a totally non-scientific way, I would say that 13 stone for even a large-framed 5'4 woman is too heavy.

The main reason that people gain weight is that they eat too much - but your fizzy drinks are a big red flag, they are just sooooo bad for you and will pile on the pounds, so definitely cut them out completely.

So, eat less is the main thing, with move more important too but in 2nd place.

A recent article I read made the point that it's very hard for us to lose weight once we have gained it because our bodies are still in hunter-gatherer mode, when you wouldn't know when the next meal was coming and so are designed to hold onto fat once acquired - of course, if you next decent meal was a week away you'd burn through it and anyway, chances are it simply wouldn't be possible to gain too much weight even if you'd just felled a mammoth.

extremepie you haven't said how much you weighed before it went up to over 13st?

Also, if you have only been eating healthily since Monday that is not long enough to see results. You have to commit to eating healthily forever, see it as a lifestyle choice, and in the long run you will see benefits.

Agree with those saying it will take time for healthy eating to work. Also 13st is quite a bit overweight at your height. I was 12 stone last year and lost 3 stone through healthy eating and exercise but it was about a month before you could really see any loss

sizes are very weird things, and i have been quite astonished recently by two friends who are easily a size 16 telling me they're a 'big 10/small 12', um, in what shop that was, i cannot imagine (Next, possibly, or gap?)... but even leaving aside that, i'd be more concerned about the 40% body fat...

In the early stages of a diet you can gain weight because of the type of food you eat and the amount of water you drink until your digestive system catches up. A pound of carrots will weigh a pound until processed by the body so if you change a choc bar for a pound of veg your weight will temporarily go up whilst you may actually lose fat.

Yes, I haven't really been doing it long enough to see any benefit yet but I am really trying this time as opposed to all my half arsed efforts before!

Not sure exactly what I used to weight as I went for a while without weighing myself but I know I have put on weight since I gave up work last September - I would estimate that I was 12 stone ish back then.

I know the fizzy drinks were one of my biggest problems as I rarely drank anything else but have totally cut them out, as well as alcohol :( Surprisingly though I'm not missing them as much as I thought I would!

I guess I'm just wanting to set myself some realistic achievable goals so that I have something to 'work towards' and don't give up as 'generally get fitter and more healthy' is a lot less concrete than 'lose 2 stone' - as someone else pointed out though even if I lost 2 stone I would still be 'overweight' according to the bmi thing so I don't really know what to aim for!

I think dress size comes into play more when you are at a size you are happy with then you can use your clothes as a bench mark.

Also if you are wearing tunics and leggings you can probably squeeze into a far smaller size than a fitted dress...

It's all relative...

"fish and rice for dinner"

Take care not to overdo the carbohydrates "because you are eating healthy anyway".

Keep these proportions for your typical plate:

1/2 salad or vegetables (with 1 tablespoon of olive oil)
1/4 protein (1 fish, meat, 1 egg...)
1/4 complex carbohydrates (1 slice of bread, a cup of rice, 5-6 tablespoons of pasta with simple tomato sauce, several potatoes...)

Côte portion sizes are really difficult for me as I have a really big appetite so I've been using those prepackaged frozen rice things with veg in so I know exactly how much I'm having - there's 235 calories in one of those and 115-130 in my fish depending on the size :D

I'm so bad with carbs, I can't trust myself not to overdo it :(

Losing weight takes time so you need to be patient and play the long game. Weigh yourself daily if you must, but realise that it takes weeks and months to lose weight safely and permanently. And it's the overall trend that matters, not the daily fluctuations.

If you've only started in the past week, your numbers won't mean much. Keep at it for several weeks, keep up the exercise, don't be too hard on yourself or strict or unrealistic in the early days or you won't last. Recognise this is a lifestyle change, not a fad that you do for a few months before you go back to your old way of life.

Also, have some intermediate goals along the way, and find some ways to treat yourself that aren't food-related when you reach those goals. Whatever is going to motivate you -- buying new clothes, treating yourself to a weekend away, guitar lessons, new gadget, whatever.

Food diaries and keeping a logbook of your daily exercise are good ways to stay on track and see your progress.

Well done for starting, and keep it up!

You can't eat frozen rice forever.

What else crap is in those packages? You need to start cooking from scratch. It is not hard to cook rice or pasta yourself. You can only eat as much as you cook, so portion control should not be that much of a problem.

If that is too hard, replace rice with one slice of bread. Have a large plate of salad or vegetables (with just one tablespoon of olive oil for seasoning), a poached fish, and one slice of bread. I guarantee that you won't be hungry and tempted to go binge on some more carbs if that portion of salad/veg is large enough.

It is confusing. I am 5'2" and weigh 9.5 stone, yet my body fat % is quite low, I think.

I have come to the conclusion I must have very heavy bones. I do actually have a pretty big head so that must weigh a lot too.

I'm also very surprised at weighing 11st at 5'3". I'm the same height, was a good size 16 at 11st (I was that recently after having a baby), I now weigh 8st 10lb and am a size 10.

""I've been on a diet since last week and upped my exercise to 5x50 minute sessions. My calorie intake is around 1000 a day and I've put ON a pound"

That is not possible, unless:

(1) You are spending less than 1000 kCal energy per day - i.e. your "exercise" isn't hard enough

Or

(2) You are eating more than 1,000 kCal per day

Or

(3) You have discovered a way of creating energy out of nothing (so you can spend it without burning fat in your body) and should claim your Nobel Prize"

Cote it's very possible as a temporary thing when upping exercise. It's common in fact. It's fluid retention. My weight always goes up by a couple of pounds temporarily when I start exercising/do something new, engaging new muscle groups. It soon comes off again once the muscles get used to the activity.

OP you need to take your waist measurement into account . It should be half or less of your height. In your case that = 32" .
Personally I would forget about dress size for now, unless it is one specific outfit that you want to aim for as incentive. Dress size isn' t a scientific method of analysing weight loss - clothes manufacturers can put any size label they want to in their clothes.

dress size doesnt really mean much either....different shops have different sizing (and sometimes even in the same shop sizes differ on different types of clothes)

My waist is 29in fat :)

You weigh 13 st and your waist is 29in? Are you sure? That seems unlikely.

OK, then your waist is in the safe area, indicating that you are not carrying too much visceral fat (which is a good thing).