Started Exercising and Dieting but gaining weight - HELP!!

[joemerald]

I really only want to lose about 10 pounds and tone up, so I changed my diet, cut down on carbs and started exercising -treadmill and Jillian Michaels - but it seems like I am putting on weight not losing. My clothes are fitting tighter around the waist which is where I want to lose the weight. It has only been about 2 weeks but I feel like doing something drastic, like the Cabbage Soup Diet, for quick loss. Please advice, what should I change?

TIA

Jo.

[Iansan]

What are your calories like?

[Blondell]

1) Please don't do anything too drastic. It tends to backfire.
2) How many calories are you eating and what do you weigh?

[joemerald]

I really have no ideas how many calories I am eating. I have a shake/smoothie with my vitamins in the morning. For lunch steamed veggies and some baked chicken or pork. Maybe a little pasta, not very often. Some almond nuts during the day for snacks, quite a bit actually. And sometime a very light dinner if anything, usually a cheese sandwich. I also drink at least 8 cups of water during the day. I weigh 150 lbs and am 5' 9". So I am not overweight, but I want to get to 140lbs.

[Keen]

I really have no ideas how many calories I am eating. I have a shake/smoothie with my vitamins in the morning. For lunch steamed veggies and some baked chicken or pork. Maybe a little pasta, not very often. Some almond nuts during the day for snacks, quite a bit actually. And sometime a very light dinner if anything, usually a cheese sandwich. I also drink at least 8 cups of water during the day. I weigh 150 lbs and am 5' 9". So I am not overweight, but I want to get to 140lbs.

It's probably your calorie intake. Start tracking your calorie through myfitnesspal.com and see what it tells you. Also check out the Belly Cure diet thread. I also only have about 10 more lbs (or less I hope) to go.

[joemerald]

The thing is I was not putting on any weight before. I was at the same weight forever, and now I start eating less and exercising more I am putting on weight. This is crappy.

[JustKiya]

You should start tracking calories - working out often causes you to eat more, esp. if you aren't aware of it. So really, you might think you are eating less, but you aren't.

Also, if you are building muscle, that is going to cause the number on the scale to go up, and your size to shift slightly, until your body starts burning the fat that you are already carrying.

[joemerald]

Trust me I am eating less. Before I would eat a bagel with cream cheese in the morning, lunch with rice, meat lots of carbs, and then a sandwich for dinner, that part has not really changed. But now I am so conscious of not eating. Plus I am exercising, before I neeever did. I am not weighting given the fat vs muscle debate I am going by how my clothes are fitting.

I was researching and it says if you consume too little calories you could also put on weight as the body is hoarding. I hope this is not so. I will give this thing one more week.

[Keen]

Trust me I am eating less. Before I would eat a bagel with cream cheese in the morning, lunch with rice, meat lots of carbs, and then a sandwich for dinner, that part has not really changed. But now I am so conscious of not eating. Plus I am exercising, before I neeever did. I am not weighting given the fat vs muscle debate I am going by how my clothes are fitting.

I was researching and it says if you consume too little calories you could also put on weight as the body is hoarding. I hope this is not so. I will give this thing one more week.

I think this will happen if you change your diet and start consuming lots of calories. But that should only happen for a few lbs then your body should stablelize.

[Nonie]

Eating less IMO is one way to put on weight. When you eat less, your metabolism slows down. The secret is not to eat less but eat less of high calorie foods and more of low calorie foods. If you don't cut back on the amount of food coming in but just change the type of food coming in, you fool your body into keeping your metabolism on a roll. Eating less tells your body there's a famine so it's slows down to preserve itself.

Also I don't think eating cheese at the end of the day is a good idea. And if you keep in mind that eating less makes your body's metabolism slow down and that at night when you're sleeping your metabolism slows down, then one way to jump start it is to have a good sized breakfast. A shake is such a "small meal" that your body doesn't get it that "fuel" is coming in and will be coming in so no need to slow down. That's why when I make the food that breaks the fast my largest and my dinner my smallest, I lose weight w/o even trying. My dinner is always the lightest meal coz I'll soon be in bed and not using much energy so no need to consume a chunk only to store it as fat.

[TrustMeLove]

Yea, you could have stalled your metabolism. I would start eating more and still exercise. See what happens.

[Avaya]

Is your friend visiting this week? Could you be bloated? Are the pants just tight around the waist and nowhere else? Make sure you eat a MUFA at every meal. That is the best way to get rid of belly fat. Avocados, olive oil, almonds, dark chocolate, etc are examples of MUFA's. HTH!

[chinyere1]

You may just be bloated. The week when Im ovulating and the week of my period I gain almost 2 inches in my waist, so basically every 2 weeks. Also cut back on the processed foods.

[FluffyRed]

what kind of exercise are you doing?