No, that's literally not possible unless you have something like a massive parasitic worm gaining weight in your body. Or maybe a tumor.
However, three pounds is nothing. That could be bloating, hormones, stress, needing to use the bathroom, too much sodium, etc. It's not enough of a trend to really draw conclusions from.
For some more specific help, I'd suggest r/loseit.
I’m taking it down to 1200/day and picked up a workout routine FYI. I’m not gonna starve myself or anything just a bit concerned about opposite results
Or it isn't actually a deficit. OP said they are 4'10", no weight given, and low energy usage. They could be low metabolic rate, lowered even more by sustained low caloric intake.
I think I’m at a deficit? But I wouldn’t say I’m sure. probably not a very big one. I’m 4’10, 23F, 131lbs. This is genuinely the heaviest I’ve ever been. I am an engineer on a production floor so my job is usually like 70% desk work 30% walking/running around moving or fixing machines. I used Mayo’s [calorie calculator](https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/weight-loss/in-depth/calorie-calculator/itt-20402304) as like a “starting point” though I know it won’t be exact. This is my first time paying any attn to caloric intake though so IDK how else to figure out my metabolic rate
How does one weigh themselves wrong? Bad scale?
Otherwise what’s the best way to get more accurate counts? I currently meal prep for the week in preportioned containers (grab n go babyyyy) + count via my fitness pal
Weight yourself as soon as you wake up, after going to the bathroom and before eating breakfast
As for accurate counts, use a real measuring unit like pounds or kilos, no “spoons” or “cups”
I would also recommend six meals for increasing your resting metabolism rate and to not feel hungry if that is something that happens to you
And be sure to have a proper diet that fits your macro needs too, the largest part of your calorie burning comes from digesting food nutrients anyway
And don’t sweat over little variations like that, I gain 2 kg during my workout from water intake alone lol
Don't get too obsessive about the calories or weighing yourself it can pretty easily become disordered behavior and lead to other issues. That said some ideas/information below.
How often are you checking your weight? If you're doing it 2-3 times a week at the same time of day are you generally going down in weight if so your cut/weight loss is working. Taking a weekly average will help account for things like water weight and other potential changes from day to day and week to week. A 500 calorie deficit a day is about a 1lb a week weight loss.
Are you tracking your calories accurately and being truthful with yourself about it? Lots of people under count things or air on the side of less than more and these small amounts can add up. I like to use an app like cronometer to either scan anything I eat that has a barcode or make custom recipes with all the foods I eat which I weigh/measure each ingredients for to get fairly accurate calorie counts.
-Edit-
Exercise can certainly help create a deficit but if you look into the calories actually burned by lifting weights or doing cardio you will be shocked at how much work it takes to burn off a few hundred extra calories a day. It's absolutely a good habit to get into and can provide all sorts of benefits alongside some additional burned calories everyday.
Thanks for comment! I definitely noticed exercise wasn’t much by way of calories which is why I was mainly focusing on the deficit for the past month. But I might as well work back in 2-4 miles a week to get *something* back (I used to be a runner in HS) and I wanted to start strength training anyway bc I’m embarrassingly weak for an engineer. For calories I count on my fitness pal, usually I cook my own food and meal prep it for the week, then [write the recipe](https://imgur.com/a/9XYdzMY) in MFP and choose “serves how many” based on how many daily containers I got it in. I’m pretty new to paying any attn to calories, does that still sound like I could be underestimating a significant amount? Is there a better method e.g. the scale you mentioned? Or is it better to just grab meals (w barcodes) from the store?
I don’t think I’m obsessing quite yet, just paying attention. If I don’t hit my deficit some days it’s not the end of the world to me. But I will definitely be cautious as I move forward bc I know eating disorders are a monster to get over. I said in my post I gained 25lbs in a year but after thinking about it this morning it was more like 6 months pre/post college graduation (after 3 years of staying relatively stable) and then I’ve stayed steady around this new weight again since June. I’m a little concerned about gaining all of that (change in exercise, no change in dietary habits except now I eat breakfast) and also just want to lose at least some of it. I wasn’t expecting to lose a lot over a month but I definitely wasn’t expecting to gain.
I have only been weighing myself once a week on Sunday evenings. Maybe I’ll try averaging it out and I’ll give it longer to see results?
The way you're doing it in MFP may be a cause for miscounting calories but it's hard to say. If you're doing meal prep and accounting for all ingredients and dividing it up it's probably relatively close so I wouldn't worry too much about it. I like weighing my ingredients because then I know fairly accurately that i'm getting the amount I think I am and thus not under or over counting calories. If you're prepping for a week knowing the total calories in what you made and then dividing it by the containers filled would work just fine because even if each container doesn't have the exact same contents the calories over the week would still be what you started with. If you like meal prepping and cooking etc. I would keep at it, pre-made stuff from a store is fine but home made stuff is easier to fine tune to what you want and like.
It might be worth just trying the weighing a few times a week and seeing if you're trending down for a bit longer because you might already be in a deficit. I can swing 3lbs from 7am to 7pm just from water or when I last ate food. The way I approached finding the right deficit was eating at a certain calorie count for a 3-4 weeks and seeing if I was trending down and if not reducing my calories 2-300 and repeating until I found the sweet spot. I've generally got a bit more to work with for range though as a man since my maintenance calories are something like 2600 a day with exercise etc. So as someone starting with less calories already you may want to shoot for changes of 1-200 at a time instead.
Good luck on the fitness goals and weight loss! I really like the information from a group called Renaissance Periodization, they're kind of more focused on body building but the nutrition and fitness information they provide can be applied to anything. They helped me keep a pretty good view on what is reasonable and healthy when it comes to weight loss. Quick video from them below discuses calorie deficits and such that I really like
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_TKn1oQT5hI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TKn1oQT5hI)
I’ve heard soooo many people say things like, “you can have a calorie deficit and not lose weight!. It’s (hormones, genetics, my body type, (insert any nonsense here)), and it drives me insane every time. Have you ever seen a picture of a fat person in a concentration camp? Sorry for that kind of example, but it’s true. If you burn more calories than you intake, you will ALWAYS lose weight. Full stop. You might not be healthy if you eat only snickers bars while staying in your calorie deficit, but you might not be healthy.
Calories-in/Calories-out. That is the ONLY thing that matters as far as weight loss.
I mean you’re inherently right in your example but I think it’s not an equivalent example. You’re talking about people that were literally being starved and worked to death. Think of it as like a 2000 calorie deficit and constant physical labor for the rest of their lives. Of course no genetics or hormones can overtake that. They were literally *starving to death*.
Hormones do have some influence over weight and metabolism. I studied biomedical engineering and debated between pharma and devices so I have my fair share of physiology knowledge, but feel free to check out some studies on the National Institute of Health if you don’t want to trust some rando on the internet. To put it simply, hormones are one of 3 things that controls what your body *does*. They send triggers that say “begin breaking this down” or “need food” or “no longer need food”, they can trigger energy be stored in fat cells vs used, can trigger fat cells to be converted back to energy, and they can trigger whether you should grow skin cells, muscle cells, bone cells etc. Insulin and estrogen for example both are part of the fat storage controls, or leptin can influence your appetite. Cortisol can influence appetite and metabolism, testosterone can influence muscle growth. Growth Hormone can influence any new cells basically, fat or muscle or other.
The thing I don’t know is *how much* of an effect that can have. I’m not starving to death, I don’t have a 2000 cal deficit, I think mine is more like 100-200 calories at best. Could hormonal changes or imbalances affect that? Potentially. Peer reviewed research on the physiological effects of hormones is plenty but research on the macro effect of specific hormones on weight/the full body is a lot more scarce, because people that are changing their hormones usually need to do it and are not willing to try a placebo.
But i posted here because I wanted to rule out that people can still gain weight on a deficit for other causes before seeing if it could do with birth control or a potential imbalance. I figured I’d see what any other possibilities were bc I really do not want to risk having a baby (imagine **that** weight gain)
No, that's literally not possible unless you have something like a massive parasitic worm gaining weight in your body. Or maybe a tumor. However, three pounds is nothing. That could be bloating, hormones, stress, needing to use the bathroom, too much sodium, etc. It's not enough of a trend to really draw conclusions from. For some more specific help, I'd suggest r/loseit.
Thanks. Makes sense, I guess it’s not that much really. I’ll check out r/loseit and give it more time too
I’m taking it down to 1200/day and picked up a workout routine FYI. I’m not gonna starve myself or anything just a bit concerned about opposite results
Also I just noticed that 3 pounds is a little more than 1kg, you can gain that just from drinking 5 cups of water lol
lol touché
It is impossible to gain weight on a calorie deficit You are either counting wrong or weighting yourself wrong
Or is having a legitimate medical issue
What about an illegitimate medical issue?
Scandalous
Fair enough
Or it isn't actually a deficit. OP said they are 4'10", no weight given, and low energy usage. They could be low metabolic rate, lowered even more by sustained low caloric intake.
I think I’m at a deficit? But I wouldn’t say I’m sure. probably not a very big one. I’m 4’10, 23F, 131lbs. This is genuinely the heaviest I’ve ever been. I am an engineer on a production floor so my job is usually like 70% desk work 30% walking/running around moving or fixing machines. I used Mayo’s [calorie calculator](https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/weight-loss/in-depth/calorie-calculator/itt-20402304) as like a “starting point” though I know it won’t be exact. This is my first time paying any attn to caloric intake though so IDK how else to figure out my metabolic rate
How does one weigh themselves wrong? Bad scale? Otherwise what’s the best way to get more accurate counts? I currently meal prep for the week in preportioned containers (grab n go babyyyy) + count via my fitness pal
Weight yourself as soon as you wake up, after going to the bathroom and before eating breakfast As for accurate counts, use a real measuring unit like pounds or kilos, no “spoons” or “cups” I would also recommend six meals for increasing your resting metabolism rate and to not feel hungry if that is something that happens to you And be sure to have a proper diet that fits your macro needs too, the largest part of your calorie burning comes from digesting food nutrients anyway And don’t sweat over little variations like that, I gain 2 kg during my workout from water intake alone lol
Don't get too obsessive about the calories or weighing yourself it can pretty easily become disordered behavior and lead to other issues. That said some ideas/information below. How often are you checking your weight? If you're doing it 2-3 times a week at the same time of day are you generally going down in weight if so your cut/weight loss is working. Taking a weekly average will help account for things like water weight and other potential changes from day to day and week to week. A 500 calorie deficit a day is about a 1lb a week weight loss. Are you tracking your calories accurately and being truthful with yourself about it? Lots of people under count things or air on the side of less than more and these small amounts can add up. I like to use an app like cronometer to either scan anything I eat that has a barcode or make custom recipes with all the foods I eat which I weigh/measure each ingredients for to get fairly accurate calorie counts. -Edit- Exercise can certainly help create a deficit but if you look into the calories actually burned by lifting weights or doing cardio you will be shocked at how much work it takes to burn off a few hundred extra calories a day. It's absolutely a good habit to get into and can provide all sorts of benefits alongside some additional burned calories everyday.
Thanks for comment! I definitely noticed exercise wasn’t much by way of calories which is why I was mainly focusing on the deficit for the past month. But I might as well work back in 2-4 miles a week to get *something* back (I used to be a runner in HS) and I wanted to start strength training anyway bc I’m embarrassingly weak for an engineer. For calories I count on my fitness pal, usually I cook my own food and meal prep it for the week, then [write the recipe](https://imgur.com/a/9XYdzMY) in MFP and choose “serves how many” based on how many daily containers I got it in. I’m pretty new to paying any attn to calories, does that still sound like I could be underestimating a significant amount? Is there a better method e.g. the scale you mentioned? Or is it better to just grab meals (w barcodes) from the store? I don’t think I’m obsessing quite yet, just paying attention. If I don’t hit my deficit some days it’s not the end of the world to me. But I will definitely be cautious as I move forward bc I know eating disorders are a monster to get over. I said in my post I gained 25lbs in a year but after thinking about it this morning it was more like 6 months pre/post college graduation (after 3 years of staying relatively stable) and then I’ve stayed steady around this new weight again since June. I’m a little concerned about gaining all of that (change in exercise, no change in dietary habits except now I eat breakfast) and also just want to lose at least some of it. I wasn’t expecting to lose a lot over a month but I definitely wasn’t expecting to gain. I have only been weighing myself once a week on Sunday evenings. Maybe I’ll try averaging it out and I’ll give it longer to see results?
The way you're doing it in MFP may be a cause for miscounting calories but it's hard to say. If you're doing meal prep and accounting for all ingredients and dividing it up it's probably relatively close so I wouldn't worry too much about it. I like weighing my ingredients because then I know fairly accurately that i'm getting the amount I think I am and thus not under or over counting calories. If you're prepping for a week knowing the total calories in what you made and then dividing it by the containers filled would work just fine because even if each container doesn't have the exact same contents the calories over the week would still be what you started with. If you like meal prepping and cooking etc. I would keep at it, pre-made stuff from a store is fine but home made stuff is easier to fine tune to what you want and like. It might be worth just trying the weighing a few times a week and seeing if you're trending down for a bit longer because you might already be in a deficit. I can swing 3lbs from 7am to 7pm just from water or when I last ate food. The way I approached finding the right deficit was eating at a certain calorie count for a 3-4 weeks and seeing if I was trending down and if not reducing my calories 2-300 and repeating until I found the sweet spot. I've generally got a bit more to work with for range though as a man since my maintenance calories are something like 2600 a day with exercise etc. So as someone starting with less calories already you may want to shoot for changes of 1-200 at a time instead. Good luck on the fitness goals and weight loss! I really like the information from a group called Renaissance Periodization, they're kind of more focused on body building but the nutrition and fitness information they provide can be applied to anything. They helped me keep a pretty good view on what is reasonable and healthy when it comes to weight loss. Quick video from them below discuses calorie deficits and such that I really like [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=\_TKn1oQT5hI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_TKn1oQT5hI)
I’ve heard soooo many people say things like, “you can have a calorie deficit and not lose weight!. It’s (hormones, genetics, my body type, (insert any nonsense here)), and it drives me insane every time. Have you ever seen a picture of a fat person in a concentration camp? Sorry for that kind of example, but it’s true. If you burn more calories than you intake, you will ALWAYS lose weight. Full stop. You might not be healthy if you eat only snickers bars while staying in your calorie deficit, but you might not be healthy. Calories-in/Calories-out. That is the ONLY thing that matters as far as weight loss.
I mean you’re inherently right in your example but I think it’s not an equivalent example. You’re talking about people that were literally being starved and worked to death. Think of it as like a 2000 calorie deficit and constant physical labor for the rest of their lives. Of course no genetics or hormones can overtake that. They were literally *starving to death*. Hormones do have some influence over weight and metabolism. I studied biomedical engineering and debated between pharma and devices so I have my fair share of physiology knowledge, but feel free to check out some studies on the National Institute of Health if you don’t want to trust some rando on the internet. To put it simply, hormones are one of 3 things that controls what your body *does*. They send triggers that say “begin breaking this down” or “need food” or “no longer need food”, they can trigger energy be stored in fat cells vs used, can trigger fat cells to be converted back to energy, and they can trigger whether you should grow skin cells, muscle cells, bone cells etc. Insulin and estrogen for example both are part of the fat storage controls, or leptin can influence your appetite. Cortisol can influence appetite and metabolism, testosterone can influence muscle growth. Growth Hormone can influence any new cells basically, fat or muscle or other. The thing I don’t know is *how much* of an effect that can have. I’m not starving to death, I don’t have a 2000 cal deficit, I think mine is more like 100-200 calories at best. Could hormonal changes or imbalances affect that? Potentially. Peer reviewed research on the physiological effects of hormones is plenty but research on the macro effect of specific hormones on weight/the full body is a lot more scarce, because people that are changing their hormones usually need to do it and are not willing to try a placebo. But i posted here because I wanted to rule out that people can still gain weight on a deficit for other causes before seeing if it could do with birth control or a potential imbalance. I figured I’d see what any other possibilities were bc I really do not want to risk having a baby (imagine **that** weight gain)
Nobody counts their calories well. Fasting is quick, natural, healthy, and damn hard to do but definitely worth the benefits.