Why am I gaining weight?

[Steph0312]

Hi guys, wondering if anyone can help me, I'm a little confused and discouraged!

I've been back at the gym for about 3 months now. I'm 20, female, and initially weighed 64kgs. At first I gained 2kgs in muscle from working out, then I got sick and stopped the gym for about a week (also ate badly for that time), and have bounced back for about 3-4 weeks now. I eat between 1,100-1,200 cals/day- recently increased because before I was only on about 800-900. I also workout 4-5 times a week, and have recently upped my cardio in attempts to lose weight, and will do 20-30mins of interval cardio, and then free weights focusing on one part of the body (legs/arms/core/etc). Wednesdays I do an ab class, a free weights/cardio class, and yoga.

My diet is basically lean protein with fruit and veggies. Lots of water. No added sugar and oils except maybe some olive oil in salads. I rarely eat carbs just out of preference (I feel lighter and more comfotable), don't drink soda, weigh myself the same day and time every week. On the weekends I'm less strict but only give myself one day to eat up to 2000 cals (otherwise I make sure I work out to balance it out!).

In the past two weeks I've put on 1kg and have seen no change in my measurements in that time so it's not muscle gain, and before that I gained 2kgs in muscle when I started going to the gym (although my waist has gone down about 6cm since starting a few months ago).


I have friends on 1,200 cals who don't work out as much as me (or eat as light/fresh/well) and are losing weight while I'm the same or gaining. I know the way I'm eating and working out CAN equal up to 1kg loss per week (not that I'm aiming for it, but just saying)....so why am I still the same?

It's really discouraging and I'm trying to figure out if someone else can see something I'm obviously missing? What's going on!?

[SydneyPT]

Please list all the foods you are eating at the moment and the exact amount and I will be able to help.

[Steph0312]

Thanks very much-- I didn't want to go information overload on anyone haha.

Breakfast: 2 boiled eggs (sometimes with a slice of salmon/turkey breast, and some steamed broccoli) OR Porridge with lite soy milk,1 tbsp light greek yoghurt and strawberries
Mid morning: Soy Cap when I get to work, plus a piece of fruit
Lunch: Lean protein (usually chicken breast or fish) with salad or steamed veggies (no sauce, olive oil as dressing)
Afternoon: small handful of fruit/nut mix or another piece of fruit
Dinner: Lean protein (steak/chicken breast/fish) with veggies/salad (again no sauce, maybe a bit of olive oil)
Snack: fruit, or light greek yoghurt with fruit, or 4 vitawheats with tomato and light tasty cheese

Over the weekend I'm less stringent-- same breakfast and lunch, but nights are social and always get me. I'll have takeaway one night for dinner, or glass of red wine, maybe some cheese and crackers or chips or dessert. If I end up having two nights "off", I try to workout at least one of those days, so one day might be 1,500 because I've exercised, and another might be 1,800-2,000.

1. Is it the weekends throwing me off?
2. Is 1,500 a better number to aim for?

Thanks!

[SydneyPT]

Firstly, your food intake. I am using approximate figures.
2 eggs- fat 8.4g, protein 9,5g
slice of salmon/turkey- ~3.0g fat
Let's us say 100ml of lite soy- 4.8g carbs
Porridge- lets say an average serving of 170g- 17.3g carb and 2.4g fat
yoghurt- 1.8g carbs
strawberries, lets say 1/2 punnet- 5g carbs
soy cap, lets say you have a small one- 6g carb and 2.7g fats, more carbs if you add sugar
piece of fruit, i am going to take a guess and say banana? or an apple?- average of the two fruits, so let us say- 10-15g also depending on size of fruit
lean protein, let's say you had 100g of either one, so, chicken breast- 3.6g fat and 31g protein OR fish, which i am going to guess as salmon- 20.7g protein and 13.3g fat
salad and steamed veggies, also depends on which veges you have.
Bit of olive oil- lets say a tbsp- 15g of fat
Handful of fruit/nut mix, let us say ~50g, carbs 21.7g and fats 14.2g OR fruit, lets average it again at about 10-15g depending on portion size
lean protein- as mentioned above, with salad/veges (again, need to more more specifics) and olive oil, again 15g fat
fruit again for snack, so lets say 10-15g carbs again, light greek yoghurt- 1.8g carb OR vitawheat 14.8g carbs and 1.7 fat, tomato- ~1g carb, light tasty cheese, lets say 1 serving- 6g fat

As you can see, everything adds up very quickly. Esp with the oliveoil on salads, protein all has fats in them(trade off between protein and fats), nut mix and add in the cheese (which was only 1 serving) and you can see you are going way off your daily fat requirements.
Carbs may be hovering at about your body's requirements or over depending on what option you take for snacks/breakfast.
You did not tell me much about fluid intake. Do you drink sodas? Or just water? Cordial? You have to be EXACT.

Weight loss does not take weekends off. And yes, this will definitely contribute to your weight gain. Take away, desserts, cheese and crackers, again all depending on WHAT and HOW MUCH, will definitely contribute to your weight gain. Also, alcohol plays a negative impact on weight control at almost double the calories of carbs meaning twice as hard to work off.

You can not out-train a bad diet. Does not matter how hard you workout. Most people are pooped after 30-60 minutes of exercise, depending on a couple of factors. If you are having takeout, alcohol, desserts, then you would have worked off about 1/4-1/2 of the calories, and that is being very generous on my part.

Again, it is all about your food intake. You are simply eating more than your body burns off. Workout your intake, write a diary and keep on top of it.

[Steph0312]

Thanks very much for that analysis. I knew my fat intake was higher than normal, but figured that when you do low carb/high protein, fat increases because you're replacing carbs with protein?

If this helps, this week as an example my ave daily intake (and this is higher than usual because I had a bit of a relaxed week) was:
Cals: 1,500. Fat 66gms. Carbs 149gms. Fibre 17gms. Protein 88gms. Sugar 62gms.

Any suggestions as to what I should be doing food-wise in this case?

I workout between 1-1.5hrs, and that includes 30-40mins of interval cardio, and then either a circuit using my own body for weight (aka lunges, squats, etc) or light free weights. At 20 years old, female, 65kgs, my maintenance at this level is apparently around 2,000...but my intake is usually 1,300ish.

I don't have any soda during the week, just at least 8 glasses of water a day, peppermint or green tea and don't add sugar to anything.

[SydneyPT]

Thanks very much for that analysis. I knew my fat intake was higher than normal, but figured that when you do low carb/high protein, fat increases because you're replacing carbs with protein?

If this helps, this week as an example my ave daily intake (and this is higher than usual because I had a bit of a relaxed week) was:
Cals: 1,500. Fat 66gms. Carbs 149gms. Fibre 17gms. Protein 88gms. Sugar 62gms.

Any suggestions as to what I should be doing food-wise in this case?

I workout between 1-1.5hrs, and that includes 30-40mins of interval cardio, and then either a circuit using my own body for weight (aka lunges, squats, etc) or light free weights. At 20 years old, female, 65kgs, my maintenance at this level is apparently around 2,000...but my intake is usually 1,300ish.

I don't have any soda during the week, just at least 8 glasses of water a day, peppermint or green tea and don't add sugar to anything.

The way you are currently eating is definitely not a low-carb diet.
Sugar is carbs, carbs is suger. Fibre is also part of carbs.
So your TOTAL carb intake is (judging by what you have told me): 228
Fats: 66
Protein 88
You are not having enough protein. General society are having too many carbs and fats and not enough protein. You are a small girl at 64kg. I have a client who has a leam body weight of about 65kg and their carb limit is approx 75-85g, 90g max per day. Fats would be no where near 66, more like in the 25-30g range, 35 at most. Protein would definitely be high, in the 3digit range.

Why are you using light free weights? Just lift heavy. Girls want that 'tone' look and aim for the lower weight but higher rep range. I will use an example. Imagine a girl who wanted to 'tone' up used 2kg weights and did about 30 reps with that weight. There is no way the muscles will grow because there simply isn't enough stimulus to promote growth. Lift heavy. Girls can't get as big as guys simply because you do not have enough testosterone in your body. Also, building muscle takes a LOT of hard work, proper nutrition and heavy lifting, which most do not do.

[Steph0312]

Oh, okay this makes a lot more sense. I guess I just made the mistake of thinking "Oh, I'm basically cutting out all processed carbs in the form of bread/pasta/rice (we used to have it with every meal), and increasing veggies and lean meat= low carb, high protein, but I guess it's not quite as simple as all that...

I understand where the excess fat is coming from, but most of my carbs are from from fruit and veggies...does that mean in cutting carbs, I'm having less fruit and veggies?

I switched to lighter weights and a little more cardio than before, because it seems like I can put on muscle easier than losing fat-- I'm actually aiming to be around 60kgs, before improving body fat percentage and gaining muscle

[SydneyPT]

Yeah, almost everything we eat has some form of carbs in them. There is nothing wrong with what people call 'white foods'. Just eat it to your body's requirements and you can have white rice, pasta etc.
Regardless of where the carb comes from, if you eat excess amounts, you will gain weight. Your body doesn't know you are eating an apple or a broccoli. All it knows is it is getting nutrient x or y. And yes, cut down on it. The government is saying fruits and vegetables are good, which is true, but it mentions nothing about carb content of different fruits and vegetables.

[Steph0312]

Okay, thank you so much for this info-- I've asked a lot of people
and no ones been able to give me any useful info like this, not even the trainers at my gym!!

Thanks again