Weight Gain and Tight Clothes

[MoonstoneWolf]

I'm in a Healthy Wage challenge to lose 49 lb by late April.  I keep bouncing up and down on my weight.  I also follow Intermittent Fasting for 3 months before signing up for Healthy Wage and was doing good.  Then add in step challenges, Waybetter HIIT, Stepbet games and all of a sudden the pants get tight and the scale shows increase in weight.  I eat good, went to doctor, no illness, no thyroid issue, no toxic liver, nothing.  I sleep 8 hours a day, meditate many times during the day (I'm retired), 10 years past menopause and drink more then half my body weight in oz.  I really don't understand this.  Along with that I'm trying to get used to the Fitbit Inspire 2 (sorry also have Apple Watch 6); do challenges on both and yet this happens.  I've been doing the HIIt and all for a month.  Walking, resistance training, smart weighted hula hoop since first of October.  Signed up for Healthy Wage on November 8th.  Anyone know what's going on here?  Oh I also walk 15K steps a day per my challenges.  This really bums me out.  I'm going to lose all my money now.  

[alexthecat]

Hello @MoonstoneWolf and welcome back to the Community! 

There's a saying that weight loss happens in the kitchen, not the gym. It's great that you're getting more active but, if weight loss isn't happening, it may be time take a look at what you're eating, how much of it you're eating, and when you're eating it. It's really easy to overestimate the amount of calories we burn through exercise and eat more than we should in response to that. Are you tracking your food? If not, that might be useful. 

[MoonstoneWolf]

Yes I'm tracking y food.  I get the recommendations for my age and weight, and gender.  I don't use a lot of salt as I suffer sodium poisoning so have to be careful.  I eat lots of green leafy veggies, no desserts as I despise sweets.  I don't snack ever as exercise of any intensity suppresses my hunger for 2 or 3 hours.  So I don't know.  But yea I'm burning more calories then taking in.  

[alexthecat]

@MoonstoneWolf I've moved this thread to the Manage Weight forum, as it is a better fit here. 

If you were burning more calories than you were taking in, you would be losing weight. You may want to double check your calculations. It's very easy to overestimate BMR or the calories burned by exercise. 

[MoonstoneWolf]

The Inspire 2 is what's telling me the calorie burn, as well as Apple Watch and both are the same in calorie burn (or active calories on AW).  Now I do have to ask, most of my weigh ins are on my rest day after doing heavy cardio or heavy strength training.  Should I wait until the day after my rest day before weighing in?  Sorry I just never had this issue before.  

[alexthecat]

I don't think it should matter which day you do your weigh-ins, as long as you are consistent. 

[MoonstoneWolf]

I was thinking for inflammation due to heavy workouts, weight gain temporary due to water retention.  Isn't that why athletes are advised to take a recovery day each week?  I'm not all that familiar with it but I spent 6 days a week at peak zone for 45 minutes straight during a session.  Again not an expert, just thinking of reasons why I'm doing all the right things and not losing.  BTW:  my doctor treats professional athletes, like the members of the St Louis Blues Hockey team but he's  booked up at the moment for me to go see him.  

[alexthecat]

That effect is going to be negligible for most people. Even if it weren't, you're controlling for it by weighing in on the same day. If you're seeing consistent weight gain, week after week, that is not likely to be the cause. 

[MargSB]

Hello, I'm a 57 year old female and I find that all of the fitness calorie calculating devices I've used (including fitbit) overestimate calorie burn for exercise. I'm not sure if it's an age thing, but if I eat as much as they say I can, then I gain weight. You might want to to use only about 1/2 of the "exercise calories" your devices suggest.

[MoonstoneWolf]

I am using half and Apple Watch shows the same thing as well as the Doctor says I'm burning same about as these two are.  

[MoonstoneWolf]

In other words (and why can't we edit our replies on here?) if let's say I'm allowed 1500 calories a day just to stay alive, I do drop that amount down to 1350 and that's it.  Whether the tracker says I'm allowed 500 more calories or 1K more calories.  I walk at a pace of 13 minute mile.  BTW:  Fitbit employees, the Daily Readiness Score is really not accurate.  I took a recovery day yesterday and the score tells me this morning that I exerted myself.  

[Glenda]

@MoonstoneWolf   If you click on the 3 little dots in the right top  corner you might have a drop down option to edit.

[MoonstoneWolf]

I have done that to edit and it still won't allow me to edit.  

[Baltoscott · Accepted solution]

@MoonstoneWolf - as far as editing goes, make sure you are signed in (if you can post at all, you are signed in), and, of course, you can only edit your own posts.  

If you are still having problems try a different browser.  I've had problems with Fitbit's website using Safari on my mac, but chrome seems to be fine. Also, restarting your computer may help.

Any progress on your weight loss goal?  It is not uncommon to see variation due hydration. That will work itself out over time as @alexthecat pointed out.  I weigh myself in the morning every day but only pay attention to my weekly average on Fitbit (or my moving average if looking at a third-party site like TrendWeight).  Sadly I'm up a couple pounds this month! 

If you are "allowed 1500 calories a day just to stay alive" (i.e. if that is your BMR), don't go under that amount, especially for weeks at a time. Your body will compensate for reduced calories by down-regulating your BMR. 

[MoonstoneWolf]

Yes but I'd have to be signed in to be able to even post.  But I'll try on Chrome in the future and see.  

[TobiGail]

Good morning, Moonstone.

So many of your earlier responses say you are working hard to lose weight, yet you are gaining weight. Is it possible you might be putting on more muscle than intended? Muscle weighs more than fat. Are your clothes not fitting well? If they are still fitting as they should, or perhaps even fitting looser, you are putting on muscle/weight and losing the fat. I've been told that one pound of muscle burns 50 calories a day just sitting still. I am sure others on this forum will correct me if I am wrong. I hope they do.

Another thing to consider...There is more than one kind of thyroid test. The one General Practitioners usually order is the simple TSH test which is enough to identify hypothyroidism in over 99% of the tests performed. However, there is an expanded or full thyroid panel, which often include tests for TSH, total T3, total T4, free T3, free T4, anti-TPO antibodies, thyroglobulin, and reverse T3. (Disclaimer:  I'm not a doctor, but I've seen every episode of House, plus I googled this information. And it was a T4/T3 test that finally revealed my thyroid problem.)

Good luck going forward. Don't give up.

Remember this is your temporary body.

Hugs from Texas. 🙃

[MoonstoneWolf]

And this is another thing.  What if you use a couple of different apps, each one gives you a different BMR.  So like if one app I hodssays I need 1700 to stay alive, and Fitbit says I need 1439 and yet another app that you use to track and upload to fitbit says you need 1689, which one do you go by?  Each one seems to have it's own idea as to which total amount of calories you need.  

[Baltoscott]

@MoonstoneWolf -- of the three BMR estimates you mention Fitbit sounds like the outlier. I'd try to eat at least1700 most days. And I agree with others that Fitbit estimates of calorie burn tend to be overly optimistic, at least for me.

I think the body planner website on the NIH is about as accurate as it gets in terms of figuring out how many calories you should be eating. One thing that I like about it is that will tell you how many calories a day will keep you where you are now, how many you have to cut to get to a certain weight after a time period you put in, and how many you would eat once you get to your target weight. In the end though, these calculators are just starting points. You have to adjust your eating patterns if you aren't dropping. If you are eating your estimated BMR and still not losing try switching what you eat.   

[MoonstoneWolf]

I found the culprit.  I had severe inflammation in my ankle.  It went down yesterday after resting my feet and dropped 5 lbs.  With that said, regardless Fitbit gave me a new reading and in 2 months I went from poor in cardio health to very good.  Says same on Apple watch and doctor noted same with cardio health.  For the record, I never ever ate back in calories that I burned.  It's senseless.  If I'm going to push myself to burn say 1K calories I'm not going to waste it on chips.  That to me sounds like eat more fat to lose fat.  

[Glenda]

Moonstone  lots of us are interested and wish you well.  I hope you will let us know how you are doing.  Maybe that will even help motivate you to do even better?