Scale weight increasing despite deficit and exercise

[Leafyleaferson]

From 1st September I have been on 1500 calories daily and mostly getting 130ish grams of protein.
Ive been back in the gym 4 times a week strength training and hitting 10k steps daily on average.
usually this is what I do when I’ve gained some weight and it falls off.
why oh why am I 2lbs UP from the beginning of September? I have never been the weight I am now. I’m really confused.
in the gym I’m getting noticeably stronger and I feel ‘tighter’ and not as conscious of my belly. I’m in the same size clothes I was in 8lb ago.
I have tracked via myfitness pal and logged weight daily and weekly averages are going up not down! What can I do now? I really don’t want to reduce my calories even lower as I cannot function on 1400 and find my overall energy and gym performance suffers.

Most likely it’s a combination of building muscle mass and potentially water retention.

Also if you’re pre menopause, I’d expect fluctuations of a couple of lb around your period that can throw even averages off.

Depending on your age, it gets harder to lose weight, it was easy for me in 2018/19 at 39, much harder now at 47.

A lot also depends on your starting weight, the more you have to lose, the easier it is (at first).

You’re doing all the right things, even if you calorie calculations are a little “out” (because it’s hard to be precise), keep going, don’t be disheartened.

It's not unusual. Muscle weighs more than fat. Keep at it.

Too many calories. It is impossible to be in a deficit and not lose weight.

Have you worked out what calories you should be on? I’m 5ft 3, weigh 61.8 kg and on 1350 calories a day and lose about a pound a week. Thats with 100g protein and 8,000 steps a day. I’m a bit inconsistent with weights.

There are diseases/conditions which affect your body and weight. They can cause pain (depending on the stage/woman) and in the past, people were blamed for overeating or not moving enough. Lipedema (spelling?) is one, but there's lots of serious and minor reasons, Don't let your doctor ignore you-one woman who had put on weight and got ignored by the doctor/people blamed her had something that was very serious.
The days of saying that weight is a choice, not bad luck, should be over. Sadly some people congratulate themselves simply for being lucky, and don't care about those doing everything right, but suffering through no fault of their own.

I’m 5’5, 39 and today weighed 9st 8 which is 6lbs more than in May. I’ll see how this week goes and consider lowering calories and see if that makes a difference.
thank you for the advice

Are you tracking every single thing that you eat and drink? Are you weighing things? Maybe try 1400 and see if it starts to shift.

Muscle weighs more than fat, so building muscle and losing fat can make your scales weight increase.

You’re a healthy weight then, gaining muscle, probably losing some fat from your description? Is there actually a problem here?

Dont lower your calories as it can have an adverse affect on weight loss especially if your weight lifting and extremely active, you need the calories to continue to burn. Id say your building muscle or your retaining fluid for some reason.

Ignore those saying you have gained muscle it's impossible to have gained enough to impact you right now.

Make sure you are tracking every single calorie if that is what you are doing.

Cals in Vs cals out... And if not working a visit to the Dr.

Make sure you’re tacking every single thing that enters your mouth, including drinks, finishing off kids food etc. Weigh everything with a scale, including scrapes of peanut butter/butter, bread etc.

You might need to drop your daily calories by 100.

Although, a month isn’t a long time, I’d probably keep it going for a few more weeks before making changes.

Also, make sure you’re measuring with a measuring tape and not just focused on scale weight. When I get serious about weight training, the scale goes up but my waist and thigh measurements go down.

I’m 5’6 and 1750 is maintenance for me.

Also, make sure you weigh yourself daily, ideally first thing in the morning, after a wee but before eating or drinking anything. The scale will naturally fluctuate, but it’s the trend line that you’re interested in.

Thank you for all your replies.
I do weigh and track everything and pretty much eat a rotation of similar meals where everything is tailored to my macros.
I know I’m not overweight but a jump of nearly half a stone was a bit of a shock and when I’ve wanted to lose a few pounds to stay around ‘my weight’ in recent years 1500 and increased activity usually results in about a lb a week loss so it’s a bit confusing why my weekly averages are trending upwards.

I will keep going at where I am for another month and see what happens.

thanks again

It won't be muscle gain, that's impossible at those figures. Could be water retention? Is your period due, are you having any constipation issues? Are you weighing daily, weekly or monthly?

I’m weighing daily in the morning after a wee. I know it’s not muscle gain, I’d be delighted if I was gaining muscle that fast. Period isn’t due, I’m around ovulation at the moment. No constipation issues either.

Why do people still trot out the bollocks about muscle weighing more than fat? It’s a nonsense. Educate yourselves with a quick google

OP you’re a completely normal weight so this is always going to be a struggle. I’m 5 ft 3 and 9 stone 10 and I’ve accepted it is what it is. Weight loss can be quite tricky when you don’t have much to lose

At your height and weight you don’t have much to loose. I can’t explain why you have put on half a stone only my personal experience when I use to row. Started at 9 stone. 6 months of rowing and lots of resistance exercise I was 2 stone heavier but very fit and healthy, so people here saying muscle doesn’t gain weight, it can do depending on what type of muscle group you fall into. However unlikely with regular gym work for 1 month!

You surely don't think that you gained 28 pounds of muscle from rowing?!

What is your TDEE? You need to eat under that amount to lose weight. 300-500 calories a day under. Walk. A lot.

A kg of muscle weighs the same as a kilo of fat but takes up less volume. So it’s possible to gain weight but lose an inch or two around your waist if your body composition is changing, especially since you may be mostly gaining the muscle is say, your legs whilst also tightening your core and losing subcutaneous fat from all over. Not sure why you think this is controversial?

Because it's extremely difficult for women to gain new muscle. It requires a very specific diet and training program, is usually impossible in a calorie deficit and even where women do gain muscle it's in the grams not kilogrammes! Additionally, if a woman is in a calorie deficit and gains a small amount of muscle, the scales will still go down as the fat loss will far outweigh the muscle gain.

Nope not all of that was gained from rowing. There is a lot of carb loading with rowing and I was training 6 days a week for 2 hours per day. Water and gym training so it’s a lot more intense than many people realise. My quads and glutes were enormous and my waist tiny, I could not wear regular trousers as they would just not fit my lower half and drown my waist. Like I said this response to this level of resistance training depends on which muscle type you dominantly have slow or fast twitch muscles which I won’t bore you with.

I’m working out hard again since the holidays are over. I have gained 4lbs. It’s water weight from the muscle tear and repair. Plus I react quickly to cortisol and retain water when I put my body under stress. Happens every time. I find it quite depressing but is what it is!

Ok, but you're still saying you gained 28 pounds of muscle? Or by carb loading do you mean you gained fat?