Advice please!

[flowerpots2]

I'm very confused and am hoping some wise mumsnetters can provide some guidance!

I have two DCs and about a year after DC2 was born I began IF. Over the last two years I went from 15st 7lb to 10st 13lb. I didn't calorie count as well as the IF, but was more conscious about what I was eating. There were some months that I plateaued but overall the weight was coming off steadily.

In March this year, I signed up to the gym and began going 2/3 times a week (including seeing a PT once a week).

Since then, I've steadily put on weight and am now 11st 10lbs!

I thought perhaps I was accidentally eating more than I realised due to the increased exercise so for the last 2 months have been using MFP religiously (including calories for seasoning / oil for cooking etc) and my calories are limited to 1400 (at my PTs advice) but the weight is still increasing!

After a bit of a rant about it to my DH, I did my measurements, as he suggested maybe it was increased muscle mass and perhaps I'd actually lost inches rather than pounds, but my measurements have increased.

I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to try next!

I'm 5ft4 so I need to be 10st 5lbs to be within a healthy BMI. My goal weight is 10st ideally.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks in advance!

Are you still fasting? It’s possible that although you are eating within the limit you have been set it is still higher than when you were not calorie counting. Other possibility is you are approaching peri menopause or going through stress? Have you read ‘why we eat’ - it’s very interesting how our body adapts to exercise by reducing energy expenditure in other ways.one last thought was a check at the gp for your thyroid. I hope you get done good advice

As someone who has lifted for a long time, in all honesty you won't have put that weight on in muscle mass, especially as a woman.

Perhaps try another approach eg tracking calories and see how that goes.

I am still doing 16:8 - I wondered if maybe my body had 'adjusted' to that way of eating after 2 years and so I was no longer seeing the benefits of it! I don't know if that 'explanation' has any science behind it or if I'm just scrabbling round for explanations!

I'm 31 so think (hope) peri is a few years off yet?

I haven't read that, I will though, thank you!

Yeah I think I realistically knew it wouldn't be the case - but was secretly hoping my well meaning husband was right 😂

Maybe I'll try to reduce from the 1400 a day for a few weeks to see if that helps!

Thank you ☺️

@Clearingaspace sorry I missed off half your points when replying.

I don't think I feel stressed other than what I would expect to be normal day to day - no major life changes or new worries - but there is obviously the usual scheduling struggles between two DCs and working full time etc.

I hadn't considered thyroid and don't know too much about it. I haven't noticed any other symptoms other than the weight gain (but don't know what symptoms thyroid issues cause) .. I'll have a cautious google!

Good luck @flowerpots2 - sorry I just threw loads of random thoughts at you! The autocorrect on my phone also drives me insane as I have fat fingers and sometimes my messages don’t make complete sense!

very unlikely to be menopause then and if you feel well otherwise it’s probably not thyroid or anything medical, but unexplained weight gain could potentially be worth talking to the GP about if it continues. To be honest it might be that your metabolism has slowed because of your weightloss so far. I think this is definitely what I am experiencing too unfortunately.

one thing you could try is increasing your fasting window a little but keep calories the same. Or change your fasting window so that you eat breakfast instead of dinner. Apparently it is really important to eat 30g of protein when you break your fast so that your body is triggered to build muscle. I am adding egg whites to eggs or having biotiful kefir protein youghurt to meet this target at breakfast.

You could also make sure you are eating enough protein. I am currently reading intermittent fasting for women which is also interesting on this topic. It’s by Megan Ramos and she suggests that calories in calories out is not helpful and a lot of weightloss is controlled by our hormones. Having said that she recommends extremely intense fasting schedules and low carb which wouldn’t be ideal for you as you haven’t much to lose. I also think that with any diet it should be something you are prepared to carry on doing even when the weight is off, so nothing extreme.

Oh sorry just to add when I mentioned adjusting your fasting window this wouldn’t need to be every day - just once or twice a week to shake things up!

Thank you @Clearingaspace!

Eating dinner is quite important for me as we eat together as a family and I have two very nosey inquisitive children who would definitely ask lots of questions about why I wasn't eating with them!

But I'll definitely try adjusting my calorie intake and reducing the fasting window in an attempt to shake my metabolism up again!