Please help I've gained more fat since diet n excercise :(

[Olly101]

Hi all im hoping someone can give me some insite as to what is happening to my body right now.
I starting dieting and excercising in april 2014 after gaining just over a stone.
Since I have been doing that, I have gotton fatter especially around my stomach, thighs and bottom.
I go to the gym 4-5 times a week doing cardio and strengh training including les mills body combat and body pump burning around 1000+ calories each time.
My calorie intake is never above 1000 so I just dont understand how ive gotton fatter and flabbier???
Ive gained fat inches all over my body and its really getting my down now. I thought that by going to the gym and dieting would help my lose the weight I gained and tone up but its done the total opposite, im fatter than ive ever been and still the same weight, please i hope someone can give me some advise as to what im doing wrong.
Thank you in advance

[1stepcloser]

You need to eat more. This sounds stupid but others will tell you the same. Your body is holding onto everything because it cant afford to lose anything. Up your calories to 1300 or 1400 a day. Also eat as healthy as possiable. Your body understands fresh foods more then processed. I just finished "the shred" diet it helps break your meals up, gives you varitey but most important it works(atleast for me it did). The main thing right now is you need to eat more.

[KC12]

Unless a doctor has told you to eat 1000 calories a day and you are under strict medical supervision, you are eating far too few calories. I highly recommend you see a doctor for a full check up (be sure to mention your weight loss plan so they order the correct tests). 6 months of starving yourself and overworking your body could have caused serious problems. Simply eating more might not be enough to get your body back to a healthy place.

[SunsetRunner]

agree with first poster that overal calorie intake is too low....

but even more importantly, what are you eating to get those calories?  Processed foods trigger fat storage REGARDLESS of the total # of calories.  And for most, processed foods can tend to added a bit more 'pad' around the stomach, hips, etc. as opposed to a slightly too high calorie diet which can spread the excess around a bit more.

A diet full of rich, earth-grown and ideally  mostly plant based foods is key.  Honestly, if eating a diverse plant-based diet, almost impossible to overconsume and you can skip counting calories, fat, etc. altogether  but that's a diferent topic..

Your activity sounds good, consistent.  I'd also suggest consider what and when you eat certain things too.  Fuel up for what you're going to do, replenish for whatever you just did.

(And Les Mills COMBAT Rocks!!! A little quality time with Dan and Rach! -- I did ultimately pick up some 4lb weighted gloves to get more workout esp in the shoulders and firms up the arms and your back too!  Some of the weighted glove options have removeable weights so you can start lower and add in more as you get stronger.!)

Also for some variety you can throw in some Max and Paddy's exercise video (DVD -- from a few years back, Peter Kaye.....brilliant!  and actually legit exercise with comedy....haha!)

[Olly101]

Thanks for all your replies guys my diet consists of healthy unprocessed foods with the occasional treat at the weekend. KC12- I'm concerned now about what you have said regarding the damage I may have done to my body, could you expand on this please. As I was eating 1000 calories I didn't realise this was classed as starving myself ?? I might give the doc a call tomorrow just 2 get checked out.

[ChellS20]

Hi!

I did a little Googling and here is what I have found about some of the side effects of eating too few calories. The biggest one is that it slows your metabolism way down and makes your body store everything as fat (hence, the added fat around your middle, etc). It can also affect your gall bladder, cause fatigue and lack of focus as well as hair-loss, and constipation.

[Heybales]

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@ChellS20 wrote:

Hi!

I did a little Googling and here is what I have found about some of the side effects of eating too few calories. The biggest one is that it slows your metabolism way down and makes your body store everything as fat (hence, the added fat around your middle, etc). It can also affect your gall bladder, cause fatigue and lack of focus as well as hair-loss, and constipation.

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It will slow your metabolism down. Undereating will also cause your body to just stop doing some movements daily, causing less burn that way.

And your genetic makeup determines where that level of stress is that causes the negative effects. And then you have other stresses in life beside diet. Frequent intense unrecovered exercise is one, food sensitivities/allergies, lack of sleep, life! All add up and can cause that effect.

But it's a myth it causes your body to store everything as fat. Unless you are actually starving and NOT eating at all.

All the normal processes of food allocation and energy source stay the same. You are still burning mainly fat at rest and easy part of exercise.

What happens is you are burning less than before, perhaps even eating at almost maintenance.

So every binge day is now an actual surplus of calories - that is going on as fat indeed.

So your goal was 1000 - but looking over records - how often did you actually binge or splurge or have cheat meal or day, or not log well, ect, and eat well over 1000 calories?

No, you don't gain fat with starvation mode, but it does make it a whole lot easier for any times you eat way over for it to be then stored as fat.

So just know the maximum suppression studies have shown is about 20%, so if Fitbit says you burned X calories in the day, and you did indeed cause max suppression (and you likely did), then you actually burned X-20%.

If you want to recover, you need to start eating more, SLOWLY.

Eat 100 more daily for 2 weeks.

Then add another 100 to what you eat daily for another week.

Keep doing that, until you work your way up to what Fitbit says you are burning.

Yes - to recover you need to eat at maintenance and forget the weight loss. Hard to lose weight with an unhealthy body - and that's exactly what you caused right now.

You need to get your body healthy again.

So this means logging any non-step based exercise so you aren't creating more deficit because of Fitbit's low calorie burn that is invalid.

And always do the math for any fast water weight gains at the start.

If you were really eating 100 more than true maintenance, and your metabolism never went up - it would take 35 days to slowly put on 1 lb of weight.

Reread that and appreciate it.

So your 2 lb gain in first week was water weight. Exact same water weight you and everyone losses  when they start a diet. Muscle glucose stores with attached water. That's all.

[mavery]

Hi There!

I think what you need to do is consult your doctor about where to go to from here. It seems that you are eating too few of calories. After you get back on the right track, consider downloading a calorie counter app (I love using the Lose It! app, but I know a lot of people who prefer My Fitness Pal). Eating too few of calories can be just as detrimental (sometimes more so!) than eating too many.

Good luck!

[JabbaNoMore]

I agree with all the other posters....you definately are eating way too few calories.  A doctors visit is in order.  Talk all of your concerns over with your doctor.  Unexpected weight gain can be a red flag of some serious conditions.  Good luck!

[josephz2va]

It's based on multiple aspects to see yourself improving.

1. Nutrition 101: Eat To Build Lean Muscle - Try skimming through that for a calendar of foods you should eat. The correct amount of calories and good eating.
2. Cardio - At least 3 times a week you should be working on performing efficiently. For me, I utilize the elliptical trainer and have it set to HR Interval, minimum heart rate and my current maximum potential heart rate. At the moment I'm at 129 to 160 for 30 minutes working on 129 to 170 for up to 30 minutes. The key is to build on your performance in order to go longer until you're ready to go higher.
3. Weights - You can use bodybuilding.com for weight calendars or another site. Some gyms have one at their facility. It's best to work 3 times a week as well. The longer you can do reps up to 20 and 3-5 sets, you can increase intensity.
4. Personal Training - You can use Fitstar or a few other programs that also come with a nutritional guide. Personal Training sessions should be done daily.

For me I follow the PT calendar my workout program came with as my Cardio and Weights calendar. M W F cardio, T TH S weights. Since I have a long weekend, add cardio Sat and Sun if I have the determination.

[healthsidekick]

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@Olly101 wrote:
Hi all im hoping someone can give me some insite as to what is happening to my body right now.
I starting dieting and excercising in april 2014 after gaining just over a stone.
Since I have been doing that, I have gotton fatter especially around my stomach, thighs and bottom.
I go to the gym 4-5 times a week doing cardio and strengh training including les mills body combat and body pump burning around 1000+ calories each time.
My calorie intake is never above 1000 so I just dont understand how ive gotton fatter and flabbier???
Ive gained fat inches all over my body and its really getting my down now. I thought that by going to the gym and dieting would help my lose the weight I gained and tone up but its done the total opposite, im fatter than ive ever been and still the same weight, please i hope someone can give me some advise as to what im doing wrong.
Thank you in advance

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So per your above quote your week looks like this:

7,000(7x1,000) calories consumed- 4,000(4x1000 workout) calories burned=3,000 net calories for the week=

You have lost 0 weight and gained inches over the last 16 months of this activity

Lets solve the problem

Lets assume your answer is correct to the above equation. One thing people are generally correct about is the result they have received. 

than

Unless something else is going on(see a doctor) one or both of the other two variables are wrong because mathematically it does not add up. That is unless you are at a low body fat percentage and gaining muscle which it does not sound like is the case i.e. gaining fat all over.

answer to the problem

Get rid of all the B.S. -

Focusing on steps and exercise is for fitness, but when it comes to weight loss it's the foods and how much of it you are eating. The most important thing to focus on is your diet when it comes to WEIGHT LOSS.

Put your foods into Health Sidekick and ONLY log EXTRA activities into HSK not day to day B.S it is already in your weight loss equation so no need to track it. HSK will give you a weight loss # that is accurate. It will auto adjust for you. The best way is to lose weight its eating barely underneath your HSK Prime to lose. This way you body is getting plenty of food and it is the most amount of food you can eat while still losiing.

If you want to use fitbit to motivate you to do more exercise super. If you want to use it to motivate you to do more steps great. If exercise is your main focus and your goal is to lose weight, you have it backwards. 

[kaboomcanuck]

I don't think it is possible to continue to gain weight, when you are consistently burning more then you're taking in regardless of how hard your body wants to hold onto it. There is a difference however between how easy it is for your body to store the different macro nutrients but you shouldn't be crunching the numbers that strictly. If you’re not drinking alcohol and eating mostly fruit\vegetables (70-80% of your diet). You should be losing weight eventually. If you ramp up your exercise you will initially weight more as your body compensates for the extra work by storing water\sugars (basically) to better fuel your muscles the next time you work out. However after a few weeks you should begin losing fat and getting more toned muscles.

If this is an ongoing problem defiantly see your doctor as there may be an underlying medical condition that is causing your problems.

[kaboomcanuck]

I just noticed this is an older post too. Can you update us on your progress please? 😃