How on EARTH am I gaining?!!

**ncarolina** · February 21, 2007, 08:46 AM

Re: How on EARTH am I gaining?!!

I am in a VERY similar situation, so I can certainly sympathize! I have stalled for weeks now, and the only thing I can figure out that I'm doing strength training three times per week and maybe that's making a difference in the rate of loss...? But I am lifting light to moderate, not heavy, and more reps. I am losing some inches, but the scale has stuck. You are so smart to not weigh often!! I decided to do the same this morning after yet another weigh-in with no change. Am doing water, supplements, and following plan exactly.
I'll be interested in others' comments about exercise and stalling...

**pgmr_64804** · February 21, 2007, 09:44 AM

Re: How on EARTH am I gaining?!!

Maybe you could post some menus and we can see if you are eating something that makes us gain.

I know processed food makes me gain (no matter what the carb count on the lable says).

**Maerow** · February 21, 2007, 09:57 AM

Re: How on EARTH am I gaining?!!

One thing I noticed with me was, when I started losing weight again after maintaining at 155 lbs, when I finally started using fitday again, I realized I had jumped right back to what I was eating at the tail end of my previous weight loss. In other words, I was using low carb stuff I normally didn't use while I was losing.

Just a thought.

**SuperDork** · February 21, 2007, 10:16 AM

Re: How on EARTH am I gaining?!!

Foodwise - here's a couple of days.

Breakfast - 2 eggs, 6-8 oz Steak (cooked on a grill, only salt and garlic powder on it)

Lunch - 1 1/2 cup of lettuce with a few strips of grilled chicken (grilled by me at home) couple radishes, a bit of fennell and about half a stick of celery cut up in it and dressed with EVOO (extra virgin olive oil) and vinegar.

Dinner - Hamburger patty with a small slice of mozzerella and a few slices of each cut up and eaten raw - bell pepper, jicama anc cucumber. Just salted usually.

=============
Breakfast - Grilled chicken breast shredded mixed with a spoon of Mayo, about half a stick of celery cut up, half a homemade pickle cut up and a hard boiled egg.

Lunch - 1 1/2 cup lettuce with 1/4 of an avacado cut up in it, stick of celery, couple radishes, half a cucumber and half an egg and then dressed with a couple tablespoons of sour cream kind of whisked with some water to thin it out and mixed with a little chili powder, garlic and salt (kind of southwesty tasting I guess).

Dinner - 1 Can of tuna, mixed with spoon of mayo, dill, little celery and 1 hb egg...eaten over a bit of lettuce or spinach. Few slices of bell pepper.

Those are just a couple days. I'm trying to stay away from anything processed. I buy my meat from our organic small market here that buys animals from the farmers and such here, so it's meat from around here and there's nothing in it. I'm not eating much cheese, just a piece here or there occasionally or on my meat or salad. And every week I try to mix my veggies up a bit and have some orka or something different that's on the low sugar side, so I don't get bored with them.
Snacks - I'll grab just few slices of pepper or jicama or cucumber or whatever I've gotten fresh. Or I'll marinate and grill up some chicken or steak and cut it up into strips so I can just grab a couple.
And water - I'm drinking 100 oz at least a day.

**Lyssie** · February 21, 2007, 10:45 AM

Re: How on EARTH am I gaining?!!

How many calories are you eating per day? Sometimes when you don't eat enough, it can make you not lose weight... are you not noticing inches lost too or just pounds?

**julirama723** · February 21, 2007, 11:47 AM

Re: How on EARTH am I gaining?!!

I think your food choices sound good (it's actually making me drool

) but I agree with Lyssie, that perhaps you aren't consuming enough calories and your body has gone into starvation mode. It's important to eat at least 1200 calories per day, and even better to stay around your BMR (basal metabolic rate), which is how many calories you burn each day just keeping your body functioning.

Also, if you've lost inches, this does not constitute a stall. If you're losing inches, this means you're losing fat and replacing it with lean, active, calorie-burning muscle. This is the goal! Right now it might cause you to think evil thoughts of the scale, because the numbers aren't moving even though you're shrinking. In the long run, this muscle will help your body burn more calories and it makes you a healthier person.

**sallyseachange** · February 21, 2007, 11:51 AM

Re: How on EARTH am I gaining?!!

The title of this thread confuses me a little. You say that so far you haven't yet reached 20 (compared to previous 48 lbs lost)... but you wonder how on earth you're gaining? Sorry... maybe I'm missing something, but it seems you are losing something, just more slowly.

That does seem to happen, second time around, to some people. Hang in there and it will happen. Focus on direction rather than speed. You can do it!

I just recently tweaked my maintenance menus after a post Christmas whooshie in the wrong direction. It took me six weeks to lose 2 lbs... but they went, eventually.

**cincywbbw** · February 21, 2007, 12:02 PM

Re: How on EARTH am I gaining?!!

Maybe this little graphic might help, I found it on a post awhile back.

**sallyseachange** · February 21, 2007, 12:25 PM

Re: How on EARTH am I gaining?!!

That is such a cool graphic Cincy!

**SuperDork** · February 21, 2007, 01:07 PM

Re: How on EARTH am I gaining?!!

Originally posted by sallyseachange

The title of this thread confuses me a little. You say that so far you haven't yet reached 20 (compared to previous 48 lbs lost)... but you wonder how on earth you're gaining? Sorry... maybe I'm missing something, but it seems you are losing something, just more slowly.

Sorry! I just forgot to add that part... (I'm not very bright, haha)
I got to about 280-282, and then it's just kind of gone up and up and I was back to 300 this morning. That was the gain I was talking about...And it's been in the last two weeks that it's gone up. (not near my TOM, so I don't think it's that either)

And it's not just pounds, I've been measuring and I'm not noticing much of anything there going anywhere either. Maybe half an inch at best in a couple spots, but that's all.
I understand about gaining muscle because I've been trying to do that...so if I was doing that and gaining and then inches were disappearing, that wouldn't bother me. It's just that nothing much is changing... =/

And calorie-wise. I went to fitday and entered in several of the meals I've been eating during the days and such...and all of them (snacks included) were between 1300 and 1900 calories.

Maybe I'm just being a big baby. lol.

**sallyseachange** · February 22, 2007, 03:28 AM

Re: How on EARTH am I gaining?!!

Ok...gotcha! Tks.
In that case, I agree with the others... it seems you could be eating too little and might have gone into starvation mode.
Perhaps you should try to add a bit and see how things go.

**Diva217.5** · February 22, 2007, 03:21 PM

Re: How on EARTH am I gaining?!!

Ok, I think I can help. I have been stalled since last year, same 2-3 lbs up and down. I googled low carb and found a few sites with all sorts of different forums. I looked thru them and stumbled across a very large group of people who do Meat and Eggs either as a WOL or to fix a stall. I love atkins, so I am their strictly to break my stall. I read hundreds of posts and than decided to give it a try. You can go back and check my recent posts, and see I was complaning similarily like you, well I started strict meat and eggs (no calorie counting, BUT must be strictly meat or eggs ) on Friday, and I am already down 5lbs. If you would like to PM me I can show you where I got this info from.Hope to help you and anyone else.
This is just my opinion, I am sure there are many others here who think you should rectify it using the atkins diet, but thats upto you.I know nothing else worked for me.Good luck in whatever choice you make.

**julirama723** · February 22, 2007, 03:29 PM

Re: How on EARTH am I gaining?!!

Atkins is NOT about meat and eggs.

Yeah, some people out there do a meat and eggs fast. That doesn't mean it's good for you.

Where are the veggies you're supposed to be eating? Where are the healthy fats?

For those who are metabolically resistant, Dr. Atkins suggests a fat fast, consisting of 5 200-calorie high-fat meals a day. This moves to 4 300-calorie high-fat meals a day, and proceeds to induction. A fat fast is only for those who are SEVERELY resistant to weight loss, and can actually be dangerous for those who are not resistant.

In fact, a meat and egg fast might actually make you GAIN weight. Eating too much protein can cause it to be converted to glucose and ultimately stored as fat in our bodies.

My advice is to write down every single morsel of food that goes into your mouth, measure foods exactly, keep drinking your water, and keep exercising. It could be that you have a food allergy and that is causing water retention or causing a stall. Expirement with the foods you've been eating to see if you have a sensitivity or allergy. Also, check out information on Candida overgrowth--many are affected by this and stall when they eat cheese or fermented/pickled items.

**Nightporter** · February 22, 2007, 04:16 PM

Re: How on EARTH am I gaining?!!

Hey Superdork.

ONE: I love your icon! TWO: The same thing happened to me. This is my 4th time around on Atkins and so far so good... Kinda sorta... However, the first time I did Atkins I did NOT excersize a bit and I lost 30 pounds in 3 months... The second time I did it, (About 2 years later) I excersized every day (Or nearly) and ate very strictly. I barely lost 4 pounds the whole time! I wondered what I had done wrong, and I think it was because I would eat those Atkins bars on induction. I am starting induction over again (And extending it through the end of March) and I am doing it very strictly. I have not lost much weight this time either, however, when I pee on a Ketostick, it shows me as being the darkest of the colors... I would reccomend you pee on a stick, if you are even in trace you are burning fat! If you are in the darkest of the dark you are definitely burning fat! I think I read on here that your fat cells may retain water because the fat is gone for a little while... That would explain no inches and no pounds lost.

I hope all works out for the best, I'm sure it will--A year and a half is a long long time!

-N-

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