Why am I gaining weight?

[InTheEndgameNow]

Started my fitness Pal about a month ago, I've used it before successfully.

Have stuck to it religiously, weighing everything.

Started at 10 stone 5, wanted to lose half a stone.

I also run 5-10k three times a week.

First two weeks I lost five pounds.

I've now started gaining it back and am back up to 10 stone 3. Why? I'm still calorie counting like mad. What's going on?

The first article also refers to semi starvation and severe food deprivation

HOW you achieve a deficit is relevant for some. I counted cals for years = net weight gain and pre-diabetes. The only thing that works for me is low carb tbh. Not NO carb, but i try to limit my carbs to vegetable sources only. Whereas reducing cals was hell and affected my work, leaving me with no periods, dry skin, brittle nails and hair loss not to mention living in hunger, low carb has fixed ALL of that. I now eat far more in general but losing weight.

Give it a go, if it doesnt work, at least you can cross it off the list!

Low carb high fat works for me and the best part is-you just don’t feel hungry. I second The Obesity Code and recommend Taubes’-Why We Get Fat. He explains the role of insulin in weight gain.
I don’t do chronic cardio because I don’t enjoy it and I don’t believe calories in/out is the full story so I would never exercise “to burn calories”-that is utterly depressing. That said since you mentioned the hike and it’s a goal you’re working towards to me that is a healthy outlook. If you like the running great but if you don’t I would try weights as they are very effective

@spugzbunny
I spent just two minutes googling. I'm sure you can do better. You could even find the ultimate demonstration that reducing calories does not change anything, with a worldwide sampling. Just let me know, I would be really happy to not be scared of what happens at the end of a diet.

@namechange0123

Or you could just out the reality, which any decent, qualified nutritionist would tell you. Work out your numbers, live in a deficit and you will lose weight.

For the vast majority of people, doing this with a balanced, nutritious diet is the best way. Then when a goal is achieved, the learned behaviour of a well rounded diet sticks, the volume just goes up to maintain.

The reality is, everyone wants a quick fix & will try all sorts of weird, wonderful and plain ridiculous methods to lose weight. But, cut away all the marketing & crap, the reality is if you want to lose weight, you need to live for the majority of time in a managed deficit.

Unless of course you have a medical condition which screws up your metabolism, or ability to process food, or are a scientific abnormality & have somehow managed to turn yourself into a solar panel, and can generate energy from sunlight ;)

And to clarify, I mean a proper, qualified nutritionist, not someone like Marjorie from Fat Fighters who's only skill is to relieve you of your £2 every week when you go to get weighed.

"Live for the majority of your time in a managed DEFICIT"

As it turns out! Deficit is not balance. It means forever eating less than what you would consume.

It's evolution, adaptation, come on. If I live out of half my required calories, my body thinks that it's time of famine, and adapts accordingly, reducing expenditure. That's why anorexic people lose their period/hair/nails.

Can you provide proof of the opposite evidence?

@conks eating too much carbohydrate does lead to weight gain. And it’s a ridiculous thing to say that a low carb diet is unhealthy.

not someone like Marjorie from Fat Fighters who's only skill is to relieve you of your £2 every week Amazing

@namechange0123

So let me clarify, you're disputing that in order to lose weight, you don't need to be in calorie deficit?

No, I'm talking about the stabilisation phase. I'm disputing that in order to maintain the weight loss you don't need to be in ever increasing deficit.

You do, unfortunately. Unless you increase the basal metabolic rate by exercising with weights and stuff to increase your muscle mass.