Gaining Weight after stopping drinking!

mce2010

Hi, I've recently kicked the booze, I was drinking a lot, about 8 pints of Guinness most nights.. Hit the chipper afterwards.. No exercise, well very little.. Started doing couch to 5km.. Took me around three months with my drinking habit..

My weight was around 12 stone, I'm a male around 5 7"..

I'm now almost 3 weeks off the sauce and I've substituted the alcohol with exercise.. Course I thought the weight would only fall off me.. Jogging at least 5km most nights, we'll say 5 out of 7 per week.. Increasing distance, jogged 8km last night..

Anyway, weighed myself last week, first time since stopping drinking and I was 12st 2 3/4.. Didn't mind too much as I wasn't exactly sure of my weight before quitting..

I weighed myself again today, 1 week later and I've gained a pound.. Can't understand it.. I thought I was actually eating healthier too..

Anyone else come across this or am I a freak?!

Squatman

Weigh yourself in the morning, and on a digital scales. Analogue scales are ****, and if you step on them a few times, you will get a few readings.

Measure yourself using a tape too, (belly arms, legs etc.) this will show a decrease in size, which may not be a significant decrease in weight.

mce2010

Squatman wrote: »

Weigh yourself in the morning, and on a digital scales. Analogue scales are ****, and if you step on them a few times, you will get a few readings.

Measure yourself using a tape too, (belly arms, legs etc.) this will show a decrease in size, which may not be a significant decrease in weight.

Thanks for the reply. Yeah, that's a good idea with the measuring tape, I'll try that. I'm using a digital scales.. I'll fairly pissed off if knocking the sauce actually makes me look worse! Thanks again!

L'prof

mce2010 wrote: »

Thanks for the reply. Yeah, that's a good idea with the measuring tape, I'll try that. I'm using a digital scales.. I'll fairly pissed off if knocking the sauce actually makes me look worse! Thanks again!

You couldn't possibly look worse if you've quit the booze, started eating healthier and started running 5k+ 5/7 nights a week!

mce2010

L'prof wrote: »

You couldn't possibly look worse if you've quit the booze, started eating healthier and started running 5k+ 5/7 nights a week!

Ha ha, true that.. No definitely look and feel better, much better! Just would like to see a result on the scales.. It'd keep the motivation up!

marie12

I'm not an expert but maybe vary your exercise a bit. Swimming is great. Or trekking. Even swap one of your runs with a brisk walk.
+1 on the measuring tape. Do you feel any bit different in your clothes?
maybe reconsider your food and portion sizes? At least 2 litres of water.
I could have heard it wrong but I think 'eating right will lose weight, exercise will charge your shape'

Alf Veedersane

mce2010 wrote: »

Ha ha, true that.. No definitely look and feel better, much better! Just would like to see a result on the scales.. It'd keep the motivation up!

Why do you need a number to motivate you when you look and feel better?

You just need to get your head around the fact that being healthy and being lighter are not necessarily the same thing.

mce2010

marie12 wrote: »

I'm not an expert but maybe vary your exercise a bit. Swimming is great. Or trekking. Even swap one of your runs with a brisk walk.
+1 on the measuring tape. Do you feel any bit different in your clothes?
maybe reconsider your food and portion sizes? At least 2 litres of water.
I could have heard it wrong but I think 'eating right will lose weight, exercise will charge your shape'

Thanks Marie
I have been varing it a bit, cycled Tuesday and hiked last Sunday.. I've been eating well, but have started eating a large salad bowl from Tescos in the evening.. Mainly made up Pasta Salad, rice based salads etc.. Maybe I think that's healthy because it says salad, but it's prob fairly high on calories..

marie12

mce2010 wrote: »

Thanks Marie
I have been varing it a bit, cycled Tuesday and hiked last Sunday.. I've been eating well, but have started eating a large salad bowl from Tescos in the evening.. Mainly made up Pasta Salad, rice based salads etc.. Maybe I think that's healthy because it says salad, but it's prob fairly high on calories..

Maybe check the label, you'd be surprised! Does it fill you up or are you still hungry? Between meals top up on water. Dehydration can trick you into reaching for food.
When exercising are you sweating a lot and out of breath? You need to be.
Keep at it, good luck!

Essien

mce2010 wrote: »

Ha ha, true that.. No definitely look and feel better, much better! Just would like to see a result on the scales.. It'd keep the motivation up!

The mirror is the best gauge for success here imo. Personally, my body shape has improved over the past few months but the number on the scales has barely moved.

Post up a typical days diet (including weights / portion sizes). You'd be surprised how often a person who says they're 'eating healthy' is actually way off the mark.

mce2010

Alf Veedersane wrote: »

Why do you need a number to motivate you when you look and feel better?

You just need to get your head around the fact that being healthy and being lighter are not necessarily the same thing.

True, I know I look better in that I don't look wrecked from beer, complexion better, no bags under the eyes. dunno if I look lighter tho

mce2010

marie12 wrote: »

Maybe check the label, you'd be surprised! Does it fill you up or are you still hungry? Between meals top up on water. Dehydration can trick you into reaching for food.
When exercising are you sweating a lot and out of breath? You need to be.
Keep at it, good luck!

Thanks for the advice. I drink a good bit of water, but there's no label on the salad bowl because you fill it yourself.. But I reckon it mightn't be the healthiest because it tastes so damn good!

Yep, plenty of sweat, and pretty out of breath, but not as much lately because I bought a heart monitor and try to keep it below 145 so I can run longer, maybe I should be going a bit harder.. I think the measuring tape is something I should try.. All I want is my waist to decrease.. Get rid of that beer gut I've spent so much time and money cultivating!

Typer Monkey

Well done on your lifestyle change!

Do you know how many calories you are eating in a day? You can use myfitnesspal to track calories. Your diet has a greater influence on your weight than running. Those pasta and rice based 'salads' are far more calorific than you think. How is the rest of your diet?

mce2010

Essien wrote: »

The mirror is the best gauge for success here imo. Personally, my body shape has improved over the past few months but the number on the scales has barely moved.

Post up a typical days diet (including weights / portion sizes). You'd be surprised how often a person who says they're 'eating healthy' is actually way off the mark.

Cheers
Dont really know weights or portion sizes but a typical day would be:

Breakfast & Supper - bowl of fruit and fibre, semi skilled milk, table spoon of sugar

Lunch - work canteen, meat, potatoes and two veg..

E.g yesterday, chicken Parma, potato croquettes, carrots and peas

Dinner - large fill your own salad bowl with stuff like, pasta salad with pepperoni, salsa, beet root, cucumber, grated carrots, curried rice, paella, pad Thai noodles.. It's a big bowl

Snacks - I had kit kat a twix finger and probably a pint of lo fat milk

That to me is healthy after my pints and chipper previous diet.. It may not be healthy really tho!

mce2010

Typer Monkey wrote: »

Well done on your lifestyle change!

Do you know how many calories you are eating in a day? You can use myfitnesspal to track calories. Your diet has a greater influence on your weight than running. Those pasta and rice based 'salads' are far more calorific than you think. How is the rest of your diet?

Thanks mate, I'll check out that my fitness pal, I've posted a typical diet on my last post. I suppose my snacks, sugar and those salads are a prob, I guess I just thought after quitting the booze and upping the exercise that I could eat anything and still lose weight..

Alf Veedersane

Bear in mind you're only 3 weeks in and you've made what sounds like a massive improvment to your diet and added a good bit of exercise.

You have made all the big changes already so you've a large part of the work done.

ch750536

Forget about weight, how do you feel? Long term weight loss is based on feeling great.

Typer Monkey

mce2010 wrote: »

Thanks mate, I'll check out that my fitness pal, I've posted a typical diet on my last post. I suppose my snacks, sugar and those salads are a prob, I guess I just thought after quitting the booze and upping the exercise that I could eat anything and still lose weight..

Unfortunately not! I train quite a lot but without controlling my diet I'd never get the results I want. Just a few small tips which I think would help you a lot.

1/ myfitnesspal is a fantastic app. Log honestly what you are eating and it'll be very obvious where you are going wrong. You'll get an idea of how many calories you should be eating in the stickies in this forum. I'd advise investing in a small digital scales too. You can get them in Argos for less than €20. Guessing portion size is a waste of time and accurate logging is important initially until you get used to judging quantities by eye.

2/ cook for yourself! It's impossible to know what's in the canteen lunch and the deli salads. You could make a big salad yourself with chicken, lettuce, peppers, cheese, avocado, tomatoes, cucumber, egg etc and bring it for your lunch. You don't need the pasta or rice included to full you up..honestly!

3/. Try eating porridge or eggs for your breakfast. The fruit and fibre isn't ideal and full of sugar and cut out the spoon of added sugar too!

You've made huge changes already with cutting out the excessive boozing and upping your running which is great going. The nutrition is important but will come in time if you spend some time on reading up about it.

Good luck and well done again

Fieldsman

MCE don't panic as your on the right route now. Remember what the famous golfer once said 'the more I practise the luckier I get' so I'd say to you just watch the diet and increase the mileage. Like you many years ago I was much over weight, smoking, fairly heavy drinker and couldn't run up a stairs without spending a couple of minutes trying to get my breath back. Now nearly forty years later I'll running the Dublin half marathon on Monday and the full marathon a few months later and about six stone lighter so the medicine does work.

mce2010

Typer Monkey wrote: »

Unfortunately not! I train quite a lot but without controlling my diet I'd never get the results I want. Just a few small tips which I think would help you a lot.

1/ myfitnesspal is a fantastic app. Log honestly what you are eating and it'll be very obvious where you are going wrong. You'll get an idea of how many calories you should be eating in the stickies in this forum. I'd advise investing in a small digital scales too. You can get them in Argos for less than €20. Guessing portion size is a waste of time and accurate logging is important initially until you get used to judging quantities by eye.

2/ cook for yourself! It's impossible to know what's in the canteen lunch and the deli salads. You could make a big salad yourself with chicken, lettuce, peppers, cheese, avocado, tomatoes, cucumber, egg etc and bring it for your lunch. You don't need the pasta or rice included to full you up..honestly!

3/. Try eating porridge or eggs for your breakfast. The fruit and fibre isn't ideal and full of sugar and cut out the spoon of added sugar too!

You've made huge changes already with cutting out the excessive boozing and upping your running which is great going. The nutrition is important but will come in time if you spend some time on reading up about it.

Good luck and well done again

Thanks for that, excellent advice!

mce2010

Fieldsman wrote: »

MCE don't panic as your on the right route now. Remember what the famous golfer once said 'the more I practise the luckier I get' so I'd say to you just watch the diet and increase the mileage. Like you many years ago I was much over weight, smoking, fairly heavy drinker and couldn't run up a stairs without spending a couple of minutes trying to get my breath back. Now nearly forty years later I'll running the Dublin half marathon on Monday and the full marathon a few months later and about six stone lighter so the medicine does work.

Cheers, I'll keep at it. I know I'm only 3 weeks, and is very early days.. Just annoyed I was gaining weight, but thanks everyone for the advice!

generic2012

Exercise means you'll hold more water/glycogen in your muscles, it's needed for repair too (grossly simplified). If you've swapped the fatty foods for carbs you'll hold more water. 100g of carbs will mean 300-400g of extra water weight, but 400 calories where as 100g of fat will mean 900 calories. As was said don't worry about a number, the weight you've put on is probably active and benefit you in some way, through energy for muscles/repair etc, not like fat.

rubadub

mce2010 wrote: »

, 1 week later and I've gained a pound.

1lb is nothing, sure you might piss more than that.

If you were a heavy drinker you might have simply been going about dehydrated a lot. The calories from alcohol can have little effect on heavy drinkers, I drink a lot and do not even really count them. Its the chipper after which is the worry.

You should talke photos and measurements, changes are gradual and go un-noticed, like if you see a child growing on a daily basis, vs seeing them once a year or so, they can appear to have shot up. If you have a tight unstretchable pair of jeans or top they can act as loads of tape measures.

I remained at a fairly constant 12 stone for about a year. Losing fat and gaining muscle at around the same rate.

mce2010

generic2012 wrote: »

Exercise means you'll hold more water/glycogen in your muscles, it's needed for repair too (grossly simplified). If you've swapped the fatty foods for carbs you'll hold more water. 100g of carbs will mean 300-400g of extra water weight, but 400 calories where as 100g of fat will mean 900 calories. As was said don't worry about a number, the weight you've put on is probably active and benefit you in some way, through energy for muscles/repair etc, not like fat.

Cheers Generic, that's interesting, and makes me feel a lot better..

mce2010

rubadub wrote: »

1lb is nothing, sure you might piss more than that.

If you were a heavy drinker you might have simply been going about dehydrated a lot. The calories from alcohol can have little effect on heavy drinkers, I drink a lot and do not even really count them. Its the chipper after which is the worry.

You should talke photos and measurements, changes are gradual and go un-noticed, like if you see a child growing on a daily basis, vs seeing them once a year or so, they can appear to have shot up. If you have a tight unstretchable pair of jeans or top they can act as loads of tape measures.

I remained at a fairly constant 12 stone for about a year. Losing fat and gaining muscle at around the same rate.

Sound rubadub, photos are a good idea. I'll do that. Went looking for a cloth measuring tape today but couldn't get one.. I'll order 1 from Amazon..

conzy

Don't change a thing, weigh yourself every day or two, log it in myfitnesspal or a spreadsheet. check the graph in a fortnight or a month.

There will be highs and lows but it will be trending down, if its not, change something

Rinse Repeat Profit

BikeQueery

conzy wrote: »

Don't change a thing, weigh yourself every day or two, log it in myfitnesspal or a spreadsheet. check the graph in a fortnight or a month.

There will be highs and lows but it will be trending down, if its not, change something

Rinse Repeat Profit

And learn to make graphs in excel obviously :-P It is useful.