Posted: 8/25/2007 3:48:34 PM EDT
|
I've been gaining weight for the past three years in a really weird pattern. Three years ago, I was 185 pounds (6'0") and have been gaining weight in three to five pounds increments every few months or so (UNWANTED weight gains). The story basically goes like this: My weight would stay the same for many months and I can eat as much as I can and drink as much milk shakes and beer as I can and wouldn't gain any weight. And then one day, I would eat lots and lots of food and drink gallons of beers (as usual), and WHAM! The next day, I'd be three to five pounds heavier. And that weight would remain stagnant for months, wouldn't go up or down. Again, I'd be able to eat as much as I want and drink buckets of beers and wouldn't gain weight. And the story repeats: one day I'd get the munchies, for example, and eat lots and lots of food and WHAM! The next day, I'd be five pounds heavier. The cycle continued until now, where I weigh 210 LBs at 6'0". So why is that? I can understand if I gained the weight steadily from over eating and beer drinking, but that's not the case with me. My weight gain comes in waves / cycles.???? BTW, I do exercise regularly (moderate weight lifting and rigorous dancing 4X a week, two or three hours / session) and I do physical activities at work (about 5 hours total of moderate, sometimes rigorous physical activities; even though the shift is 12 hours, I do lots of non physical works i.e., paper work). I'm going to graveyard shifts for the next few nights, so thank you very much in advance for the replies. Sorry if I can't get back to you right away; I have a really weird schedule. And sorry for the long post. ~Lindy |
|
You're not gaining weight in a steady way because your calories are probably all over the place. That's really how most people gain that kind of weight, too. You'd see a much more steady gain if your diet was consistent and provided a consistent caloric surplus. Same with losing weight. You can cut back by 500-700 calories and begin to lose weight, but it may take a long time and bounce around (1lbs one week, 3.5 the next) if you're consumption isn't balanced. Do you want to stop gaining the weight, and possibly lose it? |
|
How old are you? I'm 40 now. I weighed about 160lbs until I was about 25, then my weight started going up. As you age your metabolism slows down. You might just need to eat less and exercise more to maintain your weight. have your thyroid and testosterone tested to be sure it's not hormonal. |
|
Contrary to popular belief, more calories doesn't always mean more fat and vice versa! I keep real close tabs on my weight (as a part of a exercise routine) and I have noticed some pretty weird stuff.... 1. I can cut my calories to 400 kcal/day under what I need to maintain my weight. I'll lose weight quickly in the first week or so (mostly water weight from loss of muscle glycogen). Then I'll slow down, then a week after I'll get a constant 1.5 lb/week loss of fat. 2. When I am cutting in the above manner, eating a crap load (+1000-1500 kcals/day more than I need to maintain) it actually results in faster weight loss for the next few days. Most likely my body took the excess calories, tried to build up glycogen stores and that boosted my metabolism. But here is the crapppy part: 3. If I eat a constant 300 kcals/day more than I need to maintain my weight, almost all the calories go to fat for the first few weeks. Even if I eat more, but still under my maintainence calories, I'll gain a little bit of fat. (This is while doing a heavy lifting routine). 4. When I eat excess calories, my lifts go up, but it takes almost a month for it to kick in! I'll just put on body fat in the mean time. But after a month, my lifts will start to rapidily increase and I won't put on hardly any body fat at all, almost all the extra calories go to building muscle. What is the lesson? Your body does strange things! Your body can't stop and turn on a dime. If it wants to gain fat it will do it whether or not you are exercising a ton. If your body is in a fat burning mode, it takes a bit of time for it start storing fat. To be honest with you, I like it better when I'm trying to burn fat that when I'm trying to put on muscle. When I'm cutting fat, I can eat whatever I want for 1 day out of the week and it actually helps me burn fat. When I'm trying to gain weight, I need to eat EXACTLY the right amount of calories, or else I put on fat real quick. You just need to find out what works for you. RF |