trying to get a handle on the way it goes and an introduction

[Idahowalker]

I've been losing weight for the past 2.5+ years. The max weight I've lost is 77 pounds. My goal weight is 180. My lowest weight so far is 183.2. This AM I weigh 187.4. I run 5 miles every other day. I do stretch band workouts on non-run days.

My current dilemma is with gaining weight

Oct		10/1/2022	10/2/2022	10/3/2022	10/4/2022	10/5/2022	10/6/2022	10/7/2022	10/8/2022	10/9/2022	10/10/2022	10/11/2022
weight		183.8	186.8	184.8	184	184.4	185.8	185.6	185.4	185.2	187.4	187.4
change		-1.2	3	-2	-0.8	0.4	1.4	-0.2	-0.2	-0.2	2.2	0
bmr		1673.37	1692.01	1679.58	1674.61	1677.10	1685.80	1684.55	1683.31	1682.07	1695.74	1695.74
BMR*1.375	29122.31	2300.88	2326.51	2309.42	2302.59	2306.01	2317.97	2316.26	2314.55	2312.84	2331.64	2331.64
calories eaten	16370.00	1875	1510	1755	1330	1745	1710	1490	1665	1720	1570
should eat minus did eat	12752.31	425.88	816.51	554.42	972.59	561.01	607.97	826.26	649.55	592.84	761.64	2331.64

I'm trying to figure out why I am tending towards quickly gaining weight. As one can see I am eating far less calories than maintenance. So far I've gained 4.4 pounds this month and it seems to be a trend. Oh, I've had my resting rate tested, 3 months ago. My basial resting is 1872 calories per day and I typically eat less than that. I've been having this issue since March.

I am eating less than 120g of carbs per day. I am eating a high protein moderate fat diet. For this month I have been eating leafy greens for a salad. Typically, I have a 3 egg cream cheese omelet and coffee (365 calories) for breakfast. I will bring 2 GU's on a run and will typically consume one at the 2.5 mile mark. Lunch is 2 grass fed hamburger patties and a leafy green salad with olive oil and vinegar dressing (165 calories max). Dinner amounts to 4 ounces of salmon, konjac or salad (600-800 calories). The rest is filled in with protein bars or coco water (only 1 liter on run days). I have high blood pressure, so I do not do salt. I am not on high blood pressure meds, I take my BP daily and it is typically green/green. I use to be on 5 blood pressure meds and needed a CPAP. I no longer am on the meds nor do I use the CPAP anymore. I am under the supervision of a doctor. My BP this AM was 111/76 with a heart rate of 64 this AM.

I take daily one Dr. Bo COLON MAGIC pill to keep myself regular.

I drink a minimum of 3 liters of water per day.

I weigh and record everything I eat.

Anyways, since March I keep getting these weight gains and I do not understand why. If anyone has any ideas on why my weight is tending upwards, I'd like to hear them.

[KraftyJo]

Based on what I'm seeing, it looks like your body fat probably isn't going up and down, but that you're experiencing a change in body composition that is making the overall weight go up and down. That you're exercising regularly is likely maintaining and possibly building muscle mass. So sometimes you'll be building that faster than you're burning fat so it'll look like you're plateauing and/or even gaining slightly. The other factor is the use of your laxative use. Doing that regularly will wreak havoc on your digestive system. It'll cause your body to retain and flush water and bloat and release waste. Maybe talk to your doctor about how to wean yourself off those. If you've been using them for a while, you will likely be advised to go off them slowly.
I really think those are the two factors affecting your weight, based on what you've said.
Consider measuring and recording your size around areas like your neck, chest, waist, thighs, and upper arms. That could help you to know where size is being gained and lost. That can give you some more clues as to what is going on.

[treehuggertodd]

you've tracked everything! I'm trying to get a hold of all the stats, but I'm a bit confused by the last two categories. The ones relating to calories. What do those two represent?

[Idahowalker]

you've tracked everything! I'm trying to get a hold of all the stats, but I'm a bit confused by the last two categories. The ones relating to calories. What do those two represent?

Calories "eaten minus should have eaten" is a calculation of the caloric deficit.

The BMR calculation is given my weight and age calculate the maintenance calories without exercise.

The BMR*1.37 calculates how much I should be eating with exercise to maintain current weight.

I also track total calories consumed.

[Idahowalker]

Based on what I'm seeing, it looks like your body fat probably isn't going up and down, but that you're experiencing a change in body composition that is making the overall weight go up and down. That you're exercising regularly is likely maintaining and possibly building muscle mass. So sometimes you'll be building that faster than you're burning fat so it'll look like you're plateauing and/or even gaining slightly. The other factor is the use of your laxative use. Doing that regularly will wreak havoc on your digestive system. It'll cause your body to retain and flush water and bloat and release waste. Maybe talk to your doctor about how to wean yourself off those. If you've been using them for a while, you will likely be advised to go off them slowly.
I really think those are the two factors affecting your weight, based on what you've said.
Consider measuring and recording your size around areas like your neck, chest, waist, thighs, and upper arms. That could help you to know where size is being gained and lost. That can give you some more clues as to what is going on.

Thank you. I will look into weaning off the laxative and begin regular measurements.

[Idahowalker]

I took some measurements this AM and entered those measurements into several different body fat calculators. I get a range of 37% (obese) to 20%(under-weight) body fat depending on which calculator I use. Anyone got a link to a good body fat calculator?

[Paplo]

I took some measurements this AM and entered those measurements into several different body fat calculators. I get a range of 37% (obese) to 20%(under-weight) body fat depending on which calculator I use. Anyone got a link to a good body fat calculator?

I don't think of a BMI as a reliable measurement. It's going out of fashion with doctors too. If you're not sure how you're doing, maybe talk to your doc? I agree with you completely. It's like every online calculator has a different opinion of what is healthy. This site has its own BMI calculator, and I do trust the quality of the tools on this site. I'm just not a fan of BMIs as a whole.

https://www.weight-loss-center.net/w...alculator.html That's the one from here that I found, if you want to try that one.

[Paplo]

I took some measurements this AM and entered those measurements into several different body fat calculators. I get a range of 37% (obese) to 20%(under-weight) body fat depending on which calculator I use. Anyone got a link to a good body fat calculator?

Just realized you said body fat calculator. I totally misread you. There's one of those on this site too. I agree with you. Body fat calculators are definitely useful. Sorry for the mixup.

https://www.weight-loss-center.net/w...alculator.html That's the one on this site if it helps.

[Idahowalker]

I dropped a little weight off. Still not back to my low of 183.8 but working on it.

10/17/2022	10/18/2022	10/19/2022	10/20/2022	10/21/2022	10/22/2022	10/23/2022	10/24/2022
186.6	187.4	185.2	185.2	185.6	186.2	185.4	185.2
1.6	0.8	-2.2	0	0.4	0.6	-0.8	-0.2
1690.77	1695.74	1682.07	1682.07	1684.55	1688.28	1683.31	1682.07
2324.80	2331.64	2312.84	2312.84	2316.26	2321.39	2314.55	2312.84
1330	1165	1215	1680	1645	1270	1660
994.80	1166.64	1097.84	632.84	671.26	1051.39	654.55	2312.84

Woot! Woot!

Daily weight
difference
BMR
BMR*1.375
calories ate
difference between ate and should have ate.

Oh body fat at 17.4%.

[Idahowalker]

This month ends up being a disappointment for weight loss. I ate 1/2 the calories for maintenance weight for the month and I only lost .2 pounds for the entire month.

Oct
weight	-0.2
change
bmr
BMR*1.375	67147.60
calories eaten	41085.00
should eat minus did eat	26062.60

[legendarytroy]

This month ends up being a disappointment for weight loss. I ate 1/2 the calories for maintenance weight for the month and I only lost .2 pounds for the entire month.

Oct
weight	-0.2
change
bmr
BMR*1.375	67147.60
calories eaten	41085.00
should eat minus did eat	26062.60

I'm curious. How are you calculating the calories you're saying you should eat? Do you know if you're also building muscle? You might see if you can use a scale to measure fat loss, not just overall weight loss, since you're pretty active, right? So your bathroom scale can't tell the difference between fat, muscle and bone or water. If you burn through fat, gain muscle and gain water weight, a bathroom scale will think you didn't do well, even though you did burn fat. I'm just curious about that since it does look like you're trying pretty hard. I'm trying to find the factors that could be skewing your results. What you're doing is really interesting.

[Idahowalker]

I am using the following formula to calculate BMR* 1.375

=(66+(13.7*(D232*0.45359))+ (5*182.8)-(6.8*66))*1.375

Where D232 is my current morning weigh in.

I weigh all my portions and round up the calorie count to the nearest 5.

Our scale which uses FFI (Foot To Foot Impedance) shows my body fat at 17.X for Oct.

My FFI readings were between 17.1% and 17.5%. My FFI this AM was 17.4%; started taking FFI readings on the 18th of Oct.

On-line body fat calculators using measurements put me between 26 and 28% body fat. I started taking measurement readings since the 18th of Oct.

My FFI or body fat calculations did not change from the 18th to the end of the month.

[Idahowalker]

End of last month.

10/22/2022	10/23/2022	10/24/2022	10/25/2022	10/26/2022	10/27/2022	10/28/2022	10/29/2022	10/30/2022	10/31/2022
186.2	185.4	185.2	185.4	185.4	184.6	184	185.2	185.4	185
0.6	-0.8	-0.2	0.2	0	-0.8	-0.6	1.2	0.2	-0.4
1688.28	1683.31	1682.07	1683.31	1683.31	1678.34	1674.61	1682.07	1683.31	1680.82
2321.39	2314.55	2312.84	2314.55	2314.55	2307.71	2302.59	2312.84	2314.55	2311.13
1270	1660	1340	1200	760	1410	1715	2700	1960	1325
1051.39	654.55	972.84	1114.55	1554.55	897.71	587.59	-387.16	354.55	986.13

This month started off good but quickly went to poo!

Nov		11/1/2022	11/2/2022	11/3/2022	11/4/2022
weight		184	184.6	184.4	185.4
change		-1	0.6	-0.2	1
BMR*1.375		2302.59	2307.71	2306.01	2314.55
calories eat		1325	1505	1420
should minus did eat		977.59	802.71	886.01	2314.55

I'm keeping my dietary carb intake to less than 30g per day. I'm running 5 miles every other day and I am not replacing those lost calories. I weigh everything I eat. I drink 3 liters of water per day. I only eat between 8AM and 2PM. My Basial test out at 1873 calories. Not sure how I can be gaining weight on those calories.

[jan]

Have you found that things are starting to make more sense in your tracking now, Idahowalker ? How's it going?

[Sydney Peritz]

I'm new here. Can somebody tell me how to join a discussion group without clicking on "New Topic" or "Reply" ? Just wondering because I'm sincerely depressed. I haven't stepped on a scale in years and when I did recently, it was much worse than I thought. I thought the difficulty moving and walking was just old age. There's a massive warehouse store called Ikea that has showrooms but no matter what you want to buy you have to walk the full distance through all the showrooms to get to the cashier at the end. Halfway through, I was sweating profusely and felt like I was going to pass out. I almost called out for an employee to bring me a motorized chair but I couldn't give in to that. So I sat down on one of the displays until I could shake it off and catch my breath. I'm getting up there but I'm not super old. Just turned 69. I still wear jeans and am not the type to play Bingo or dye my hair blue. I realize I need to exercise and control my diet better but I also have insurance for quicker invasive methods. I'm not trying to look young again, I just want to be able to walk and do normal things without feeling like an invalid. My whole life I got so tired of people telling me how skinny I was. I just never thought I'd see the day I would look and feel this bad with the opposite problem. Where to start?