7555 cal burned, but going UP in weight

[mistapickles]

Hey guys. Been tracking my diet and weight for 2 weeks now and on my second weekly report I burned over 7000cal, which I thought was pretty good. My problem is I've gone up in weight. Now, my gf says I look better, but the scales dont lie. Just wondering if anybody had any insight into this and would like to share with me.

here's a snapshot of last weeks report

[Stephen1227]

Hi Nick.  First, how long have you been burning this many calories?  How many calories do you take in each day?  Are you eating a well balanced, mostly plant based and low fat diet?  The type / quality of calories you take in likely matters.  One of the benefits of Fitbit is being able to set up a food plan and log what you eat every day, calories in vs. out, etc.

Are your clothes fitting better?   And are you feeling better?  If you are concerned, I encourage you to see your doctor to rule out possible health issues that could be causing weight gain despite your efforts.  It if were me, that's what I would do. Best wishes!

[lukedga]

Muscle weighs more than fat. You could be adding lean muscle mass while losing fat. Either that or you're carrying water. Weigh yourself at the same time every time you do it. In the morning before eating, for instance.

[emili]

let's just clarify.. musle and fat weigh the same. density is different. 3 pounds of fat and 3 pounds of muscle are both three pounds. The difference is three pounds of fat looks bigger than three pounds of muscle. so you may weigh the same, but you look leaner. If there isn't a medical reason, then your calories in are more than likely higher than your calories out. to ensure you are staying within budget, you probably want to invest in a food scale and keep a log of everything that goes in. weigh your food and log it. this will show you the full piture of in and you will more than likely see the scale move in the direction you are hoping for. Good luck!

[lukedga]

10 pounds of feathers weigh as much as 10 pounds of lead, too. I get that. But if he's received comments on improved appearance, it stands to reason some of the bulkier fat may be leaving and is being replaced with lean muscle which weighs more in relation to the space it takes up under the skin. Still, unless he's bodybuilding, it's most likely water weight.

A food scale is a good suggestion, too. Measurements on labels and the tools to measure them vary wildly. I have some almond butter, for example, whose serving size reads 1/4 Cup/34g. 34g on the food scale is barely two tablespoons worth. Since there are 4 tablespoons in 1/4 cup, that leaves the door open to 100+ extra calories!

[Deksam]

Hi Pickles,

There are plenty of reasons you *may* be going up in weight.  First - the general rule for burning 1 lb is 3500 calories.  That means you must burn 3500 calories OVER what you're taking in.  That would mean that you've taken in less than what you're burning, but not enough to actually decrease weight. That being said, there are plenty of other reasons.  

If you haven't been active very often, you could be increasing muscle as you're decreasing fat, though generally you will drop weight drastically faster if you're sticking to a diet plan (and have enough weight to burn).  The more you have to lose the faster it will come off.

That being said, you should probably look into tracking things slightly more diligently and maybe paying closer attention to what you're eating.  There is a chance you could also be overeating without even noticing it.  If you don't feel thats the case it could be WHAT you're eating too, such as high starch foods that sit around for a bit, or high sodium foods that will make you retain more water than normal. (a lot of "diet" foods with low calories or sugars boost sodium content for flavor.) 

As long as you feel good and are looking better thats what should matter,  but I know how frustrating a scale can be.  Keep at it and soon enough you'll make progress.

[lukedga]

3500 calories (500/day) is for 2 pounds a week. A 1750 (250/day) deficit is the general rule to lose a pound a week. Everybody and every body is different, however. 

Drastic diets lead to disaster for a lot of people. Our bodies are pretty good at self-regulating once we get in tune with them. Tips like "Chew your food more throughly" "Drink more water" and "Stop eating when you're full" sound pretty asinine, but I've found harmony in them.  

[josephz2va]

Depends on the food consumption as well. A lot of people do not consume the correct kinds of foods and end up consuming bad choices like me. Bad food choices are all over the place. 7-Eleven, DD, McDonald's, etc. It's best to plan your food choices to gather from home what you're ready to consume. In my case, the way to avoid my bad food consumption is to go back old school with all credit cards shredded and only bring what's in the house to work and what cash I can withdrawal from the bank to buy more healthier choices. Plus up my ante in cardio like my schedule below.

[Deksam]

I'll just drop these here.

http://www.details.com/story/calorie-weight-loss

In that link you can learn a bit about losing weight due from calorie burn, as well as finding a calorie calculator and it gives you some information on muscle burn.  Burning a 250 deficit will eventually bring you weight loss... but it won't be a lb a week as you're noticing now. 

http://www.caloriesecrets.net/how-many-calories-should-i-burn-a-day-to-lose-weight/

the link above shows you how to use the calculator and some helpful information on calories.

[Raviv]

---

@mistapickles wrote:

Hey guys. Been tracking my diet and weight for 2 weeks now and on my second weekly report I burned over 7000cal, which I thought was pretty good. My problem is I've gone up in weight. Now, my gf says I look better, but the scales dont lie.

---

Are you getting good data to work with?  If you're going to weigh yourself, make sure you do it first thing in the morning, right after you've gone to the bathroom.  If you do it any other time, the data is going to be skewed based on a whole lot of things.  You have to compare apples to apples.

Also, if you're getting a full workout every other day (which is good) then the day after you will generally weigh a bit more.  The morning after that (so like Wednesday morning if you worked out on Monday) it should settle back in and be a more accurate measure.

You'll hear two camps when it comes to scales - weigh yourself every day or weigh yourself infrequently (if at all) and both have good points.  I weigh myself every day because then I can see the fluctuations and know that it's never straight line progress.  It's better for my head.

Other people will get hung up on what the scale says, as opposed to what your pants or your girlfriend says (which is really a better measure of leaning up) and they need to ignore the numbers for the most part.  It just depends on what works best for you.

Either way, it sounds like you are leaning up, you're just not losing pounds.  I prefer to look leaner to people than to a scale, so it sounds like it's going well.

[Maura-CA]

First off, the girlfriend is always right!  🙂 

I think you need to stay the course and continue on this journey as is.  2 weeks is not enough time for your body to fully transition to the new way of life/fitness and it adjusts in odd ways sometimes.  Weight can go up and then you will weigh one week and you will have dropped a healthy amount. 

There are lots of ways to measure success besides the scale and I would use all of them as an indication of how you are doing, rather than just the scale. 

How are you feeling also?  I would guess you are feeling MUCH better, being more active and more mindful of good healthy habits.

[mistapickles]

Thank you all for your responses.

I've been tracking everything I put in my body and now realise it was just water weight/undigested food. The pounds went away and I'm back on track. Thanks again,