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Forum Thread

Why am I gaining weight???NO OT if you please.

373 253 August 12, 2010 at 03:30 AM in Chat
Back in late May/early June I decided to go on a diet. Not only to lose weight but to learn to eat a little healthier since my diet was consistent on a lot of fried foods and soda and junk. I tried NutriSystem and found their food was pretty gross and I couldn't eat it so I am currently doing a Lean Cuisine type of diet.

My menu consists of a Lean Cuisine breakfast, lunch and dinner. They're generally around 230-300 calories each meal. I have a small snack in between each one. Breakfast is fruit snack, and lunch is a Nabisco 100 calorie pack of some type and then my dinner snack is a Skinny Cow ice cream (150 calories, low fat). This puts me at a bit below 1500 calorie intake daily. I drink water all day and the only downside is that I don't have much time to excersize so I only do about 15 minutes a day.

In the beginning things were great and I lost 30 pounds. I am nowhere near my goal and I've slowly started to put back a pound a week or so over the past 3 weeks. I don't understand why my weight is creeping back up and why I'm not continuing to lose weight. I have a lot lot more to go and shouldn't have reached a plateau this quickly and surely shouldn't be gaining it back....

It's really stressing me out, since I started this diet I've been obsessing about my weight and feel like I'm failing somewhere but can't figure out where...Any thoughts would be appreciated so I don't fall off my diet and give up...

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PiratesSayARRR
08-13-2010 at 09:44 AM.
08-13-2010 at 09:44 AM.
Honestly stop buying into gimmick diets.

1) You can eat healthy and it doesn't have to be processed foods. Portion control is also a key part.
2) You need to exercise more than 15 minutes/day. If it means waking up an extra 30 minutes you need to start sweating and elevating your heart rate.
3) You have to make a life change and adjustment...Do you honestly plan on eating lean cuisines for the rest of your life? Once you are down to your ideal weight what do you do then? You have to treat food differently you need to integrate health eating by preparing your own meals. I'm not saying that every meal needs to be a prepared meal and you can get by on a lean cuisine here and there.
4) This is your life and you need to do what you want with it...but I can tell you that if you get down to your ideal weight and go off your lean cuisine diet you will gain the weight back. You need to learn to cook for yourself.
5) Start a food and exercise journal. You need to be meticulous about detailing your daily routines. If you are still gaining weight and decide to seek the help of a professional the data in this journal will be extremely beneficial to them helping you.

Good luck with your quest.
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Last edited by PiratesSayARRR August 13, 2010 at 09:47 AM.
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Iczer
08-13-2010 at 10:19 AM.
08-13-2010 at 10:19 AM.
Quote from handyguy :
Your body is starving so your metabolism has slowed down & it's retaining fat. You should be eating at least 2000 cal per day.
you really have no idea. You don't know her height, weight, age or anything about her.
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MisterRunon
08-13-2010 at 10:51 AM.
08-13-2010 at 10:51 AM.
excercise is so important to a diet. i've lost about 25-30 lbs (kept it off too). i'm 5'11 170 lbs. the funny thing is that my diet is the same as it was before. i eat tons of junk food now.

the only difference is that i am semi-active, which helps my metabolism. i go to the gym to play basketball once or twice a week, and it helps me keep the weight off.

also, eating a frozen food (lean cuisine) with lots of sodium doesn't mean it's healthy for you. i wouldn't rely on it to lose weight or be healthy. a better bet for you is going to subwayand getting a turkey/chicken breast sandwich with lite mayo. just get a footlong and eat half of the sandwich at a time.
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tunguska
08-13-2010 at 02:23 PM.
08-13-2010 at 02:23 PM.
Quote from handyguy :
Your body is starving so your metabolism has slowed down & it's retaining fat. You should be eating at least 2000 cal per day.
I know that the idea that you can "slow down your metabolism" is commonly suggested as a reason why one cannot lose weight but you need to understand that there is a limit to what the body can do. I have seen studies on extreme cases of starvation (concentration camp victims and anorexic girls) that have shown that the body can go into starvation mode and reduce the body's caloric intact requirements by about 20%. I doubt any dieter can go this far so a 20% reduction in caloric intact reduction is the maximum change you can see. This is an insignificant amount! Let's say your body needs 2000 calories per day and when your body is in "starvation" mode, it needs only 1600 calories per day. If you try to get your body out of "starvation" mode and eat just 400 more calories you are going to end up in the same place you started and not burn any more fat. Therefore there is a very, very fine line where you can eat slightly more calories and lose more weight. However how does the average person find this magic point where you can eat slightly more calories and burn more fat? Given that most people won't even be able to change their metabolism by 20% this is another "fact" that is not very useful to a dieter! Telling people to eat more calories is not the way to lose weight.

I agree that there is a minimum number of calories that is safe but trying to manipulate your metabolism is not going to have a significant impact on your weight loss. It is just another diversion from the main principal of eating fewer calories than your body needs to lose weight.
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handyguy
08-13-2010 at 03:11 PM.
08-13-2010 at 03:11 PM.
Quote from tunguska :
However how does the average person find this magic point where you can eat slightly more calories and burn more fat?

More muscle tissue! More of that more calories you use.

I know people like to say muscle weighs more than fat, but 1lb of muscle weighs as much as 1lb of fat. Muscle tissue is much more dense however, so you can weigh the same but look a lot slimmer.
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warlock110
08-13-2010 at 05:05 PM.
08-13-2010 at 05:05 PM.
Quote from MisterRunon :
excercise is so important to a diet. i've lost about 25-30 lbs (kept it off too). i'm 5'11 170 lbs. the funny thing is that my diet is the same as it was before. i eat tons of junk food now.

the only difference is that i am semi-active, which helps my metabolism. i go to the gym to play basketball once or twice a week, and it helps me keep the weight off.

also, eating a frozen food (lean cuisine) with lots of sodium doesn't mean it's healthy for you. i wouldn't rely on it to lose weight or be healthy. a better bet for you is going to subwayand getting a turkey/chicken breast sandwich with lite mayo. just get a footlong and eat half of the sandwich at a time.

most body builder will tell you that exercise is like 10% of their work... dieting is really really important.

You can consume 800 calories in like 10min, you can run at a fast pace (5-6 min/miles) for 10 min and loose like 200 calories. It's all about intake/output..

working out built muscles that speed up your metabolism, sort of like an invisible extra burner through out the day, so that helps. As for dieting, just eat regularly in small portion instead of following crappy diets, when u go hungry and have no food the body shuts down and it reduces ur calories consumption.
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discoverEdeals
08-14-2010 at 03:56 AM.
08-14-2010 at 03:56 AM.
You should go to sleep hungry every night. Seriously. Eat a giant breakfast, pretty much as soon as you wake up. Fresh fruit, yogurt, cereal, nuts, greens. Eat only good stuff and eat until you can't eat anymore. Go for a walk, and go to work. Have a tiny snack about 11 or so, have a decent sized lunch around 1, have a decent sized snack around 330, and around 6-7 have once piece of boiled chicken the size of the palm of your hand. That's it. Then no more food until morning. You'll sleep better and you'll lose a shitload of weight. You just have to be comfortable being hungry every night.
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handyguy
08-14-2010 at 09:59 AM.
08-14-2010 at 09:59 AM.
If you weigh yourself at night & then again when you wake up you lose about 2lbs.
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tunguska
08-14-2010 at 01:14 PM.
08-14-2010 at 01:14 PM.
Quote from batgirllnj :
That was the point of my post...I intake 1500 calories daily..and dont lose weight. So this method doesnt -always- work, it cannot be guaranteed..I'm proof of that. I used to eat probably 3000 calories a day (which isnt hard to do btw) and now I was eating less than half of that and not losing.

Some of the posts here have had some good suggestions and as I mentioned before I'll keep you posted on the outcome. I'm not ready to give up. I quit smoking 2 weeks before starting my diet and that's gone much more smoothly and easily than trying to lose weight. So thats a double whammy of more healthiness that hopefully will allow me to live a happier, healthier and longer life.
OK but your body can't run on fewer calories forever without losing weight. It is like saying that you can start a fire and it will keep burning with no fuel - that is against physics.

My warning is that there is a lot of advise about losing weight quicker regarding changing your metabolism by the types of food you eat, when you eat, how often you eat, how much water you drink, e.t.c. but please don't forget that these are all small, secondary effects. "Experts" talk about these things because it is their job - they can't make a living by simply telling people to eat less. However I think that this often causes dieters to get caught up in all of these minor issues and lose track of how many calories they are eating and they always fail. Be patient and good luck!
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Noya
08-14-2010 at 06:21 PM.
08-14-2010 at 06:21 PM.
Quote from tunguska :
My warning is that there is a lot of advise about losing weight quicker regarding changing your metabolism by the types of food you eat, when you eat, how often you eat, how much water you drink, e.t.c. but please don't forget that these are all small, secondary effects. "Experts" talk about these things because it is their job - they can't make a living by simply telling people to eat less. However I think that this often causes dieters to get caught up in all of these minor issues and lose track of how many calories they are eating and they always fail. Be patient and good luck!
WRONG. Did you even read the OP's post? She's eating low-cal, but she's eating processed junk. I'm going to say what you eat is just as important as how much you eat for overall health.

Do you really think you can eat crap filled with HFCS, hydrogenated oils and all sorts of chemical preservatives/fillers and still lose weight like someone eating what bodybuilders call a "clean diet" that's as natural as possible with an emphasis on controlling insulin response to maximize fat burning? Not a chance in hell.

I posted a sample meal plan for the OP a few pages back and if she follows it I almost guarantee her bodyfat will decrease steadily, even without exercise.
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giannim
08-14-2010 at 10:26 PM.
08-14-2010 at 10:26 PM.
The most important thing you can do right now is start thinking positive again. It could just be that your diet is working and you are losing fat but it is not showing on the scale because water weight can cause such wild weight swings, especially for women. I am a male and I've seen my weight as low as 183 and as high as 190 in the same week while eating at around maintenance calories. It's VERY important that you stop being so stressed out and obsessed with your weight because cortisol can have negative effects on your metabolism along with many other things in your overall health. It can become overwhelming and out of control very quickly and easily. Stop worrying so much, you will reach your goal eventually.
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handyguy
08-15-2010 at 09:42 AM.
08-15-2010 at 09:42 AM.
The body needs nutrition & cheap food doesn't have much so you have to eat more & more to get the nutrition you need. That's why people that eat cheap food get so fat.

Also take a multivitamin if you can.
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tunguska
08-15-2010 at 09:06 PM.
08-15-2010 at 09:06 PM.
Quote from Noya :
WRONG. Did you even read the OP's post? She's eating low-cal, but she's eating processed junk. I'm going to say what you eat is just as important as how much you eat for overall health.

Do you really think you can eat crap filled with HFCS, hydrogenated oils and all sorts of chemical preservatives/fillers and still lose weight like someone eating what bodybuilders call a "clean diet" that's as natural as possible with an emphasis on controlling insulin response to maximize fat burning? Not a chance in hell.

I posted a sample meal plan for the OP a few pages back and if she follows it I almost guarantee her bodyfat will decrease steadily, even without exercise.
I agree that what you eat is important for overall heath but that was not the issue. The issue is what it takes to lose weight.

If there is some study that shows that chemical preservatives/filters has any meaningful impact on human metabolism such that it will actually slow down weight loss then point us to it. This talk about these kinds of things having any significant impact on weight loss is exactly the type of pseudo-science that is spouted about the internet and repeated over and over but has no basis in fact . . .
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Original Poster
batgirllnj
08-16-2010 at 04:00 AM.
08-16-2010 at 04:00 AM.
I am starting a new diet today thanks to the help of a special lounger who was thoughtful enough PM me some info that I found really helpful. I don't want to go into which diet it is as of yet because I don't want 14 pages of how it's not going to work blah blah blah.
It's not any processed foods, it's real foods..it's not calorie counting but it really comes down to bottom line portion control, no sweets, no in between snacking and a permanent change in lifestyle that you can continue even after you lose the weight. It's not going to be a rapid diet like most, it's going to take time and patience. (half a pound to 1 pound a week)

I also have upped my water intake starting over the weekend and found time to up my excersize more, not all in one shot but it's about a total of 45 min to 1 hour daily also starting this weekend. I will let you all know how it turns out but regardless I'm positive about the change in eating habits this will bring about and at the very least a healthier inside if not outside too.

Hugs to you all!
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abeo
08-16-2010 at 04:09 AM.
08-16-2010 at 04:09 AM.
Hey batgirllnj,

Good luck with the new diet and exercise!

Just remember, you will have good and bad days/weeks, the important thing is not to get discouraged, cheat and slack off.

Cool
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