I'm gaining weight. WHAT THE HELL.

[ebeth]

Maybe have a physical? It couldn't hurt.

I haven't read the responses, but 1400 calories doesn't seem like enough to support that level of activity, but you could be like 5'1" and just not need as much food. I'm sure someone brought up 'starvation mode'. and while I'd imagine such a thing would happen in prolonged periods of deprivation, you'd probably lose a little weight first. so it's weird to me that you lost 0 pounds and that's why I'd want to have a chat with a doctor.

[osulori]

The doctor appointment is a good first start, sweets. I don't have anything else that hasn't already been covered, but am about to text you a picture that I hope will make you laugh

[lovesherheels]

I'm sorry you're struggling with this, OP. I don't have any advice that doesn't echo what's above, but I'll be thinking of you and am sending hugs your way!

[tuggyruns]

I can't offer any advice, because I've been there. I've been the MFP religious. I've also lost 30 lbs, and I had no real rhyme or reason to it. I did it when I wasn't counting calories or my exercise- and then I gained 1/2 of it back when I stopped eating well.

For me I *THINK* it's all about ratios. I seem to do best when I follow Clean Eating's meal plans. That's the only way I lose weight. I know that's not very helpful, but I just wanted to say *hugs* and I've been there.

[katietornado]

Jan 23, 2014 12:42:22 GMT -5 emilyinchile said:

I am no nutrition expert, but you say that until August something was working for you. Can you try that again? Eating less than 1400 calories even on your birthday and ripping your pants sounds pretty miserable, so why not go back to something you know works for you for now while you look at whether in the future you need to eat more, workout less, etc?

It *was* working.

Up til August: eating well but not tracking (maybe 2500 calories a day), running 20ish miles a week, CrossFitting 5 or so times a week.  Maintaining.  Maybe losing a little.
August - October:  not eating great (not planning, lunches at Panera, etc), working out a lot less.  Gaining.  A lot.
October - December:  eating well but not tracking (maybe 2200 calories a day), running 20ish miles a week, CrossFitting 5 or so times a week (aka exactly what I was doing before).  Gaining.  Still.
December - now:  eating clean and tracking (up to 1400 calories a day), working out more than ever before.  Gaining.  Still.

I feel so miserably stuck.

[breezy8407]

Jan 23, 2014 12:40:19 GMT -5 lb2006 said:

Jan 23, 2014 8:28:59 GMT -5 breezy8407 said:

I won't say you aren't eating enough, because I don't think metabolic adaptation happens that fast so that you are in "starvation mode.'

Definitely get some blood work done.

Some ideas...try only eating at your deficit level 5 days a week. Try eating your TDEE two days a week, so that your deficit isn't every day. Calorie cycling might help break out of whatever funk you are in.

Next, I agree with eating around your workouts. A few years ago, I didn't eat breakfast (Blasphemy I know!) but ate a small lunch, a snack before my workout, then a larger dinner. It worked for me for over a year and I lost weight.

It sounds like you are meticulous, but do you weight your food? having a food scale really helped me see the actual portions. One cup of PB is not as much as you think if you weigh it.

Can you explain this a little bit?  Dumb it down a little for me?  I entered my info and although i run most days & crosstrain 2x week, i work a desk job.  Now i have a standing desk (with option to sit) - but my 9-5 is pretty sedentary.  I've been tracking through MFP as i'm trying to drop 3-5 lbs and now wonder am i eating enough??  From the BMR calculator it states for my height/weight/activity level (i used light since i'm sedentary during the workday) is 1728.  MFP gives me an allotment of 1260 per day + whatever the exercise of the day allotment is. 

any insight would be most helpful

I am thinking back to some concepts I saw about calorie cycling. That's what worked for me anyway. Knowing I had a day where I could eat more always made the harder days of sticking to my plan easier. 

A lot of people also do 6 days of deficit and then a "free day" where you just basically eat without really thinking. Not an all out binge, but a day where you have more calories and more fun calories

So the above bolded I meant figure out what your maintenance calories would be - meaning the number you would eat to maintain your activity not lose or gain. 

My ideas all came from Leigh Peele's work. 

www.leighpeele.com/

[emilyinchile]

Ah sorry, I didn't realize that when you started working out again Oct-Dec you were doing the same eating that you'd been doing before. I would say that maybe if you were maintaining at 2500 cal/day and gaining at 2200 and 1400, you might need to consider going back up to 2500/day and see if that stops the gains, but I think then you might run into what people have said about just not being able to lose weight at this activity level.* Good luck!

*Side note: I don't really understand this, but I've seen people mention it a few times here. I will happily take an explanation but also don't mean to hijack your thread.

[Susie]

Jan 23, 2014 15:32:43 GMT -5 katietornado said:

It *was* working.

Up til August: eating well but not tracking (maybe 2500 calories a day), running 20ish miles a week, CrossFitting 5 or so times a week.  Maintaining.  Maybe losing a little.
August - October:  not eating great (not planning, lunches at Panera, etc), working out a lot less.  Gaining.  A lot.
October - December:  eating well but not tracking (maybe 2200 calories a day), running 20ish miles a week, CrossFitting 5 or so times a week (aka exactly what I was doing before).  Gaining.  Still.
December - now:  eating clean and tracking (up to 1400 calories a day), working out more than ever before.  Gaining.  Still.

I feel so miserably stuck.

In December you were eating 300 fewer calories/day than when you were maintaining/losing - to me that does not seem like "exactly what you were doing before."  I don't know exactly what the answer is, but I think 2100 calories/week is material.

[Deleted]

Are you giving your body a chance to recover from these workouts? Full on rest days? When mine is in a constant state of stress from working out, it's hard for me to lose until I rest it to let my muscles repair themselves.

[gt7301b]

Well hell if you were eating 2,500 calories and maintaining I say drink wine and eat chocolate tonight!!

[wiscodisco]

Long time lurker, finally jumping in to contribute here....

I always gain during my period, at least 2-3lbs almost overnight. When you said you were up since December, was it gradual or did you jump on the scale after a few weeks?

[katietornado]

Jan 23, 2014 17:23:27 GMT -5 wiscodisco said:

Long time lurker, finally jumping in to contribute here....

I always gain during my period, at least 2-3lbs almost overnight. When you said you were up since December, was it gradual or did you jump on the scale after a few weeks?

I weighed myself at my parents' house while I was home before Christmas, and then again yesterday (we didn't own a scale until yesterday...our old one broke and I hadn't replaced it).

The fact remains though, that I'm working my ass off and at best not losing, and at worst gaining.

I found a sports nutritionist who works with weightlifters and strongman competitors to lose fat but not muscle.  We're going to chat on Sunday and see if we can come up with a plan.

[rugbywife]

At one point I followed Leigh Peele online (www.leighpeele.com/about-this) and she is a firm believer that you can either focus on losing weight or training hard, but not both.

The times I focused on weight loss with minimal focus on hard core training, I lost weight. The times I focused on training (for my first 10k, for a sub 30min 5k, increasing my lifting volume in CF) I changed by body but the number on the scale never moved.

[savan]

Honestly, the sure fire way for me to lose weight is to stop exercising and cut calories. When I'm running or lifting I find it's much harder to balance taking in enough calories to support my training, but not enough to gain. I never lose weight when I'm training hard.

[Brit]

Jan 23, 2014 12:54:33 GMT -5 mainewifey said:

I find that I get the best results, strength and endurance wise as well as fat loss by sticking to 2-3 days of high intensity (1 day Insanity, 1 personal training day, and one open day for whatever I feel like) and then doing the rest of the week with mostly mixed cardio stuff- body weight exercises, plyo, spinning, running etc. I'm not saying work out less, just maybe work out differently.

This is totally me. I went through a similar issue in the past few months (plenty of exercise, reasonable eating, and weight gain) and in the past few weeks I have cut back to 15 miles of running/week and 3 hours of (hard) yoga and suddenly my pants are getting loose again. It is totally frustrating, but that is just how things go for me.

[Brit]

Jan 23, 2014 12:54:33 GMT -5 mainewifey said:

I find that I get the best results, strength and endurance wise as well as fat loss by sticking to 2-3 days of high intensity (1 day Insanity, 1 personal training day, and one open day for whatever I feel like) and then doing the rest of the week with mostly mixed cardio stuff- body weight exercises, plyo, spinning, running etc. I'm not saying work out less, just maybe work out differently.

This is totally me. I went through a similar issue in the past few months (plenty of exercise, reasonable eating, and weight gain) and in the past few weeks I have cut back to 15 miles of running/week and 3 hours of (hard) yoga and suddenly my pants are getting loose again. It is totally frustrating, but that is just how things go for me.

[Deleted]

I don't think you are eating enough. An if you are exercising as much as you say you are then you may need to up your carb intake.