My goal is to lose weight, but even with eating clean and sticking to my workout schedule I have gained four pounds in the first week of my transformation (239 to 243). My menu isn't the same every day, but I balance things out to 40p:40c:20f and aim for 2000 calories a day from among the following foods: whole wheat bread, whole wheat bagels, peanut butter, chicken, bananas, apples, broccoli, asparagus, cottage cheese, sunflower seeds, beef jerky (lowest sodium kind I could find), vector bars.

My workout schedule is 45 minutes of cardio daily, with some 25 minute HIIT days whenever I feel good about doing it. I haven't been able to hit the gym, but I do pushups (decline and incline to hit different muscle groups), crunches (straight and twist to hit obliques), and squats to supplement that.

Am I doing something wrong? People say my calorie intake is too low, would that be causing this? The conflicting thing is that I see myself visually losing inches, at least I think so. Stepping on the scale after being so disciplined and having it go the wrong direction is very frustrating.

Scale is okay as measurement guide but I suggest you get yourself a tape measurer or skinfold calipers. If the scale is moving up but measurements are going down, then you are making progress. There's a saying around here that the scale is a liar. Also, if you visually see for sure that you are getting leaner, then you probably are making progress. You can also take progress pictures to make sure that your eyes aren't fooling you.

For the scale to mean anything you need to keep things constant. Same time of day. Between first thing in the morning and after dinner I "gain" four pounds. By the time I go to bed I've lost usually half that then by the next morning I've lost the other half.

Then you've got diet issues. A sodium spike will cause your body to carry more water. Four pounds isn't that much.

I'm also guessing you are working out more now then before. Your body might be carrying some extra water because of that.

Also depending on what your diet was like before just changing your diet might make you gain a little.

Basically just ignore the scale right now. If you need to look at the scale do it first thing when you wake up after dumping your water.

If you have a tape measure you can use that.

My goal is to lose weight, but even with eating clean and sticking to my workout schedule I have gained four pounds in the first week of my transformation (239 to 243)

Hello Caesium.

firstly make sure your scale is accurate and consistent.
secondly make sure you are consistent in the day/hour/state of your weight ins.
thirdly get a tape to measure yourself weekly/bi-weekly.

and If all of this does not help I'd still not recommend panicking :eek: until you've got a couple of more weight ins under your belt. You're doing some drastic changes atm, give your body a little while to adjust.

Shahar.

Be consistant with your weigh in's. As already said weigh in first thing in the morning right after your morning pee, and make sure your always wearing the same clothe's (of your birthday suit).

2 scale readings is by no means any reason to get distressed, it sounds like your on the right track, so just keep plugging away at it and you should see results.

Off the top of my head heres a few things I can think of that can mace scale weight inaccurate.
1. Water weight. If you ate a meal with allot of salt for dinner last night your body may still be retaining more water then normal.
2.Clothes. I found that between normal street clothes and my birthday suit I weigh 10lbs less. Even a t-shirt and boxers has a weight.
3.Inaccurate scale. Most scales suck and if you step on them 3 times you get 3 different readings. I went to 3 stores looking for a digital scale, and my only criteria was that I had to be able to get on it 3 times and get the exact same reading each time. It took 3 stores to find one that would actually read accuratly each time! I musta looked like a tool stepping on every scale in each store 3 times only to walk out and not buy anything, but in the end I got a scale that I trust to give me an accurate reading each time.

4.Depending on when the last time you went to the bathroom was you may be holding a lb or more of crap in your system.

Add these things up, and your scale reading could go up by 20lbs or more even if you actually lost a lb, so the scale really isnt such a hot measuring tool. Use it, but use it wisely.


Chris.