First week of maintenance diet, gained weight

breadmonkey

Went on a diet near the start of April for 4 weeks and lost ~ 4.5kgs. This was a lot faster than planned but I put it down to (a) underestimate of correct daily calorie intake to lose at a rate of 0.5kg/week and (b) underestimate of calories burned during exercise. I logged *everything* with MyFitnessPal. Weighed myself once a week at the exact same day and time.

I've just completed first week of maintenance, logged everything with MyFitnessPal and I'm somehow +1kg! Seems like such a wild swing. Over the last week I actually logged an overall deficit of about 1200 calories. Any thoughts on what might be going on?

Diet phase daily calorie target was 1800 + exercise
Maintenance phase daily calorie target is 2300 + exercise
I've just been going with the targets automatically calculated by the app but they seemed reasonable based on past experiences?
Male, 34, 1.78m, 70.5kg as of this morning.
Exercise 5-6 times/week, alternating between short runs (~3km) and short strength sessions (about 30 mins of kettlebells and body weight exercises). I was running more at the start of the diet phase but had to cut back to manage an injury.

My feeling is that if 1800 was causing fairly rapid weight loss, then 2300 is not enough of an increase to cause rapid (?) weight gain. Should I weigh myself daily and monitor the natural fluctuations? Any thoughts....?!

Alf Veedersane

Could just be a fluctuation with some water weight. Try weighing daily for a week or so and just seeing the variation.

There is always the chance that maintenance may be a little lower than the calc after a phase of dieting but not by enough to add a kilo.

Mars Bar

It's more than likely water retention if you've increased your carbohydrate intake too. 1kg really isn't that much and it's definitely not all fat. 1kilo is 2.2lbs. To gain 1lb of actual fat you need to consume 500cals above maintenance every day for a week. That's 3,500 calories in the week. So to gain 1kg you'd need to be over consuming by at least 7,000 calories and that's extremely unlikely.

It's just water weight and liteal weight from increased food.

It's really nothing to worry about.

breadmonkey

Thanks for the replies. Think I'll keep maintenance at the current level and see what happens over the next week or two.

I read up quickly on water weight. Definitely too much salt in my diet so will start addressing that at the same time and see what happens.

Mars Bar

breadmonkey wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. Think I'll keep maintenance at the current level and see what happens over the next week or two.

I read up quickly on water weight. Definitely too much salt in my diet so will start addressing that at the same time and see what happens.

Have you taken pictures and measurements? That would be a much better way of tracking your progress.

ILoveYourVibes

Over the last week I actually logged an overall deficit of about 1200 calories. Any thoughts on what might be going on?

Yes you might not be logging everything as accurately as you think. Unless you have been weighing food etc..that is probably true.

Or it could be weightloss isn't as simple as calories in and out right now for you...shrug. You probably know yourself.

Otherwise its water weight. Water weight can affect measurements too though.

Mellor

Mars Bar wrote: »

It's more than likely water retention if you've increased your carbohydrate intake too.
...
So to gain 1kg you'd need to be over consuming by at least 7,000 calories and that's extremely unlikely..

^This. 100%

1kg if fat is c.7000cals
1kg of carbs/glycogen is 800-1000cals (125cals/day)

breadmonkey

Weighed myself for the last 7 days. The day-to-day variations were surprising to me but my Googling tells me they are well within the normal range.

all in kg, all relative to the day before:
-0.5
+0.5
+0.3
-1
-0.9
+1
+0.6

Which happens to leave me at exactly the same weight today as when I posted this last week.

Relative to my weight at the end of the dieting phase, I was -0.5/+1.4 at the "extremes". I'd guess I'm carrying about 0.5 in water weight which is skewing the variation towards the heaver end. Anyway I'm happy enough with that so think I'll just go back to weighing myself once a week and take a closer look if I drift beyond, say +1.5.

Thanks for the input.