Why am I putting on weight - Help

Why am I putting on weight - Help

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Joey Ramone

Original Poster:

2,150 posts

124 months

Friday 5th February 2016
quotequote all
So. 42 year old male. 5'10, quite a big frame but carry weight around the middle. Presently 15 stone, or thereabouts. Would like to be 13.5 stone ideally, but 14 would be ok realistically. Until a few months ago I was 14 stone and had been so for a few years.

Here's my problem. I'm eating healthily, I'm eating no more than I have ever done, on the other hand I'm exercising as much or even more than I have ever done, but my weight is slowly creeping upward.

Activity levels:

1) I walk for 1 hour each day, without fail. 5 days a week to and from work, and on the weekend I take a circuitous route to buy the papers. So that's 7 hours walking each week, before I factor in anything else (walking around at work, and at home).
2) 4 cardio sessions a week. One is a hard 57 min interval session on a wattbike or similar (on a Monday), the other three (Wed/Thur/Fri) are a combination of cross-trainer and incline walking (15% gradient on the treadmill at 5kmh)
3) One fairly robust 90-120 mins weights session on a Saturday. Mainly deadlifts, squats, bench and standing military press and/or shrugs. Not heavy by people's standards here, so lets say about 170kg max for deadlift, 140kg reps (maybe 4) for squats, 130kg max for bench (weakness in left arm due to previous trapped nerve), 75 kg for military press and 120kg for shrugs. Only been doing these sessions for about 4 months now. Hadn't touched weights for about 15 years previously.

Diet
Breakfast: Either two slices of brown toast with butter, or a bowl of cereal. Occasionally I'll have 3 eggs scrambled
Lunch: Three chicken breasts. Seasoned with spices. Nothing else. very occasionally I'll have a sandwich from work, but that's rare (x2 a month, maybe)
Dinner: Around 1/3 cupful brown rice, three eggs scrambled into it, and handful of prawns. That's typical. Or maybe a big bowl of homemade veg soup.
Snacks - I don't. The odd dry cracker here and there maybe, or the odd slice of ham. Don't really eat chocolate or sweets/crisps. Used to eat lots of cheese, don't anymore
Soft Drinks - 1 diet coke a day, maybe 2. Always drunk this amount for years. Probably don't drink enough water.
Alcohol: Past couple of months I've been having one large measure of spirits of an evening. No beer/cider at all.

The above is honest. I know exactly how much I eat because I stick to a routine during the week at least. And on the weekend I usually only eat twice a day - one big breakfast late morning, and a dinner.

So, what's going on? Those weights sessions aren't enough to account for the stone of extra weight that I've put on in the last 3 or four months. Water retention? Any ideas? It may be that changing my exercise from only ever cycling to suddenly incorporating both weights and other forms of cardio might have something to do with it but I would have thought the hours of walking would have compensated to some extent.

Mothersruin

8,573 posts

98 months

Friday 5th February 2016
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It was like a switch being flicked when I turned forty. I'd been trim all my life and I suddenly started getting a bit of a belly. I'd not changed my diet or lifestyle at all.

My metabolism obviously slowed and I now need to exercise more and watch my diet a bit.

bosshog

1,574 posts

275 months

Friday 5th February 2016
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Well if nothing has change except you have started doing weights in the last 4 months perhaps the extra weight is muscle. However I do find it odd you eat 3 chicken breasts for lunch, one chicken breast totally fills me up (plus veg/salad), so I suspect you eat a much larger quality of food that I ever could. (43, 12st, medium build). But weigh gain is all about cals in vs cals burnt (which depends on your active and metabolism), unless you have a gland issue.

Foliage

3,861 posts

121 months

Friday 5th February 2016
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your eating to much

also weight is a terrible metric, are your clothes getting tighter? whats the shape of your body like? egg shape or carrot shape?

Edited by Foliage on Friday 5th February 13:58

Shaoxter

4,048 posts

123 months

Friday 5th February 2016
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Worst "I bench 130kg after 4 months of training" thread ever wink

Joey Ramone

Original Poster:

2,150 posts

124 months

Friday 5th February 2016
quotequote all
Shaoxter said:
Worst "I bench 130kg after 4 months of training" thread ever wink
Smith machine, so it's cheating

johnwilliams77

8,308 posts

102 months

Friday 5th February 2016
quotequote all
Foliage said:
your eating to much

also weight is a terrible metric, are your clothes getting tighter? whats the shape of your body like? egg shape or carrot shape?

Edited by Foliage on Friday 5th February 13:58
Exactly. Better to take some bf% measurements too.

shakotan

10,679 posts

195 months

Friday 5th February 2016
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Use My Fitness Pal to track your calories and give you a better understanding of what you are putting into your body. It's a much better way to understand it than looking at the food alone. If MFP tells you your daily intake is 2000kcals or less then there really isn't any nutritional reason why you are putting on weight. You'll burn ~1800kcals per day just by lying in bed.

Joey Ramone

Original Poster:

2,150 posts

124 months

Friday 5th February 2016
quotequote all
Foliage said:
your eating to much

also weight is a terrible metric, are your clothes getting tighter? whats the shape of your body like? egg shape or something else?

Edited by Foliage on Friday 5th February 13:56
Body shape is essentially thickset around the neck, shoulders and chest but with an increasing tendency to run to fat around the waist. Trousers are not tighter but they sit round my hips, so the increase in waist size is less noticeable in terms of comfort. Definitely tighter round the midriff when wearing my wedding suit (3 years old) although I can still button it up without sucking my stomach in (just about). A tight black shirt that used to make me look quite slim now just sees the buttons straining to keep bits of me in.

I take the points about the volume of food but I've always eaten loads. That's an entirely normal amount for me and representative of the amounts I've always eaten. And yet the weight has suddenly shot up in the past few months, despite no real change in calorific expenditure over the week. In fact I probably burn more now than I ever did due to the simple fact of walking everywhere.

Granfondo

12,241 posts

205 months

Friday 5th February 2016
quotequote all
Joey Ramone said:
Foliage said:
your eating to much

also weight is a terrible metric, are your clothes getting tighter? whats the shape of your body like? egg shape or something else?

Edited by Foliage on Friday 5th February 13:56
Body shape is essentially thickset around the neck, shoulders and chest but with an increasing tendency to run to fat around the waist. Trousers are not tighter but they sit round my hips, so the increase in waist size is less noticeable in terms of comfort. Definitely tighter round the midriff when wearing my wedding suit (3 years old) although I can still button it up without sucking my stomach in (just about). A tight black shirt that used to make me look quite slim now just sees the buttons straining to keep bits of me in.

I take the points about the volume of food but I've always eaten loads. That's an entirely normal amount for me and representative of the amounts I've always eaten. And yet the weight has suddenly shot up in the past few months, despite no real change in calorific expenditure over the week. In fact I probably burn more now than I ever did due to the simple fact of walking everywhere.
Can't be the food then!
Must be the exercise. wink

Foliage

3,861 posts

121 months

Friday 5th February 2016
quotequote all
Joey Ramone said:
Body shape is essentially thickset around the neck, shoulders and chest but with an increasing tendency to run to fat around the waist. Trousers are not tighter but they sit round my hips, so the increase in waist size is less noticeable in terms of comfort. Definitely tighter round the midriff when wearing my wedding suit (3 years old) although I can still button it up without sucking my stomach in (just about). A tight black shirt that used to make me look quite slim now just sees the buttons straining to keep bits of me in.

I take the points about the volume of food but I've always eaten loads. That's an entirely normal amount for me and representative of the amounts I've always eaten. And yet the weight has suddenly shot up in the past few months, despite no real change in calorific expenditure over the week. In fact I probably burn more now than I ever did due to the simple fact of walking everywhere.
Weight doesn't just appear overnight, your 3-4st overweight, you've been eating to much for years.

Your Obese fella, use mfp to cut back.

Im thick set in the neck, chest and shoulders, and am 5'11 I weigh 12 stone currently heading down to 11 stone for summer. You can do it, I used to be 14.5 stone

anonymous-user

53 months

Friday 5th February 2016
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i count circa 1500 calories which should lose weight, i think your diet is wrong. you need fruit and veg, and nuts, too much protein, you need about 70grams which 3 chicken breasts would give you.

Shaoxter

4,048 posts

123 months

Friday 5th February 2016
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Seems like it's coinciding with your weight training so it's probably because you're putting on muscle as mentioned above. Especially if you've never done weights before.

The Mad Monk

10,474 posts

116 months

Friday 5th February 2016
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My years of scientific training, finely honed, tell me that you are consuming more calories than you are burning.

Now - where do I send my invoice?

LordGrover

33,531 posts

211 months

Friday 5th February 2016
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Joey Ramone said:
Diet
Breakfast: Either two slices of brown toast with butter, or a bowl of cereal. Occasionally I'll have 3 eggs scrambled
Lunch: Three chicken breasts. Seasoned with spices. Nothing else. very occasionally I'll have a sandwich from work, but that's rare (x2 a month, maybe)
Dinner: Around 1/3 cupful brown rice, three eggs scrambled into it, and handful of prawns. That's typical. Or maybe a big bowl of homemade veg soup.
Snacks - I don't. The odd dry cracker here and there maybe, or the odd slice of ham. Don't really eat chocolate or sweets/crisps. Used to eat lots of cheese, don't anymore
Soft Drinks - 1 diet coke a day, maybe 2. Always drunk this amount for years. Probably don't drink enough water.
Alcohol: Past couple of months I've been having one large measure of spirits of an evening. No beer/cider at all.

The above is honest. I know exactly how much I eat because I stick to a routine during the week at least. And on the weekend I usually only eat twice a day - one big breakfast late morning, and a dinner.
On the surface, you're exercising more than most and your diet should be producing a deficit so something may be askew.
Your intake is quite low anyway and some of the things you're eating contain few or no vitamins and minerals. If it were me, and I'm not saying this is what you should do, I'd lose the toast, cereal, rice, crackers,etc. and definitely the coke - and add loads of fresh fruit and vegetables.
No need to be a saint; the odd drink or bag of crisps won't make or break an otherwise clean diet - try to reduce processed junk though. Just try to eat 'properly' +80% of the time.

Have you seen programs like Whole30? I can't claim to have direct experience but they sound like a very sensible approach for pretty much anyone, especially someone in your position.

MYOB

4,767 posts

137 months

Friday 5th February 2016
quotequote all
3 chicken breasts/3 eggs (scrambled) - too much - cut down.

Large measure of spirit - daily? If so, cut down to weekend only.

Diet coke - stop!

Cereal - hopefully only a handful, rather than a bowlful - lots of sugar in cereal.

Walks - hopefully at a "brisk" pace.

Cardio - 4 times a week, but only one weight training session a week? Can you not drop a cardio session and replace with an extra weight session? Doing weights one a week doesn't bring many benefits.

Foliage

3,861 posts

121 months

Friday 5th February 2016
quotequote all
Shaoxter said:
Seems like it's coinciding with your weight training so it's probably because you're putting on muscle as mentioned above. Especially if you've never done weights before.
Its not going to be that. Muscle weighing more than fat doesn't work how you think it works. Its never going to be a 1 for 1 exchange of weight in a uniform way.

RobM77

35,349 posts

233 months

Friday 5th February 2016
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OP: I'd suggest doing the maths. Spend an hour on the web working out your calorie intake and calories burnt. There's more to weight loss than that, but those other areas are usually over-stated and most of it just comes down to what you eat and what you burn. Also crunch the numbers on your protein intake, which to me seems very excessive. Three eggs for breakfast and sometimes three at lunch and you basically then eat an entire chicken every day?! Work that one out and compare it to what you should be eating!

Secondly, you're eating a vast amount of protein and lifting heavy weights with low reps. That's body building, not body shrinking wink Yes, much of your mass will be muscle and yes, they'll be a small increase in resting metabolic rate, but if you want to reduce your weight then I'd suggest you make some changes there too.

If you're interested in comparing, I'm the same height as you and also walk for an hour a day, do one or two weights sessions a week and focused CV (mainly cycling) at typically 4-5 hours a week in summer and an hour a week in winter. I also do quite a few sports on top of that (windsurfing, cycling, surfing, motor racing and climbing at the moment). We're quite similar, but I'm 67kg in summer and 70-72kg in winter (ETA: 10.5 to 11.3 stone). The one big difference is our diets - I'm eating the recommended amount of calories and protein for my activity level and I'm spreading it out throughout the day.

Edited by RobM77 on Friday 5th February 15:51


Edited by RobM77 on Friday 5th February 15:53

Otispunkmeyer

12,557 posts

154 months

Friday 5th February 2016
quotequote all
Shaoxter said:
Worst "I bench 130kg after 4 months of training" thread ever wink
Heh I couldn't bench 130 after 4 years of training !

http://arstechnica.co.uk/science/2016/01/why-the-c...

going to post this again because I think it throws a bit of a spanner into the "its so simple, its cals in vs cals out" arguments. Yes I suppose on the very bottom floor that formula is the trick, but above that theres so many bloody variables going on; from what calories are actually in your food, not just what was printed on the packet to how many calories your body actually extracts from food to how microbes in your gut might be affecting your weight.


Edited by Otispunkmeyer on Friday 5th February 16:17

Joey Ramone

Original Poster:

2,150 posts

124 months

Friday 5th February 2016
quotequote all
Thanks for the advice all.

The whole 'You're obviously eating too much because you're 4 stone overweight and people of your height shouldn't weigh that much' isn't particularly useful analysis. I'm just chunky. 17.5-18 inch neck, corresponding sized chest etc. Not saying I couldn't weigh significantly less of course, which is why I aimed for 13.5 stone. But 10-11 stone? Not a chance, unless you actually starved me. And although I'm sure you look lovely, I simply wouldn't want to be that size. And neither would my wife want it either.

The other made points about food are closer to the truth in some respects. I undoubtedly eat too much in some respects but I'm always famished. I mean constantly hungry. I could usually eat dinner twice over if i let myself. I did give up diet coke for about 6 weeks and it appeared to make absolutely zero difference. i will cut back on the spirits though. But as I said, I was eating the same amount when I was a lot lighter.

The weights? I suppose I'm just trying to stop my ageing body from turning to blancmange. Cycling was great for the legs but everything else, particularly my arms, was getting soft. Hence only once a week but quite heavy. And I'm not a complete novice when it comes to lifting some tin - I used to do weights when I was in my 20s for about 6 or 7 years, and a fair amount of bulk was left over. But i stopped to drop weight.

As stated, the thing that's puzzling me is why I have suddenly put on weight over the last few months after a few years at bang on 14 stone, even though I'm not ingesting more calories than I used to when I was that weight. In fact I'm probably more disciplined now than I was then. I don't know whether the sudden weight gain is a physiological response to a change of training regime, a matter of getting old, or a combination of both.