Why am I gaining so much weight? I watch what I eat and I exercise what can be causing it?

Question

I am 28 yrs old, 5'2" and I weigh 155 lbs! I have gained so much weight in the past month and can't understand why! Any advice? Only serious answers please.

Answer 1

It can be a number of things. You may be eating things with a high sodium levels wich is causeing you t retain water. Or it may be glandular... You may have a Thyroid disorder, in which cases I highley recommend getting tested for it because there are meds to keep it under control. ALso, (f you're female.. sorry I don't know) You may have someting called Polycystic ovarian cysts that causes radid weight gain and should also be checked out.... if you're female that is... but if it's none of those... then I recommend trying to eat organic foods!... Try shopping at Whole foods and eating organic and you'll see a world of difference in how you look and feel.... most people only look at fat or caloric contents, but they don't think about all the other junk and pesticides are in the processed foods.... Well anyways.. the best of luck to you!

Answer 2

Pay more attention to your clothes than the scales. If you are exercising the pounds may go up but you will be smaller due to muscle replacing fat.
Other questions to ask yourself:
Are you on insulin, it can make you fat?
Are you on any kind of steroids, they can cause wt. gain.
What about salt, too much can make you hold water. You don't need more than 2000 mg/per day, read labels and stay away from fast food.
Keep a food diary meticulously. And look up the calories and carbs for each food and each portion. you can find caloric info on the net. Your ideal body wt for 5'2" would be 110 +/- 10%, so your range would be between 99# and 121#
Your caloric need to lose would be at about 1200 a day.
Hope this helps. One other thing I have found in my practice is that people who drink a lot of diet sodas don't lose weight, there isn't any studies that show this, it just has been my personal experience. And they make the stomach big too.

Answer 3

Some medications (often anti-depressants and anti-psychotics) can cause you to gain weight no matter what you eat...if you are taking any long-term medications (or, perhaps, have a thyroid disorder) consult your doctor about the side-effects.
A few other "hidden culprits"

1. Splenda: not good it is actually a mix of sugar and chlorine: the chlorine makes it somewhat toxic (would you really drink chlorinated pool water in bulk?) and increases your hunger. Same goes for other artificial sweetners, although they don't contain chlorine.

2. Even if you eat very healthily, for example, too much fruit (if you eat more calories worth of fruit than you burn in exercise), you can still gain weight. Vegetables and fish (especially light ones like tilapia) are much safer than even fruits concerning calories.

3. Wheat is bad: even whole wheat is fairly high glycemic potential and white bread is nearly as bad as sugar. Stay away from any products made from bread: use moderate amount of beans (and a bit of fruit) to get the minimal amount of carbohydrates you need to stay healthy. Beans are the best: they have almost no glycemic potential and are much more likely to be converted to muscle than fat.

4. Caffeine has an equally devastating effect on blood sugar as sugar. Avoid all caffenated drinks.

5. As another answerer said, if you've been gaining muscle from exercise, the muscle often weighs more than the fat it replaces. The way to judge if you're gaining weight in muscle, as opposed to fat, is to see if your exercises are getting better (faster for aerobic, higher weights for weight training).

6. Eating a good deal of protien slows down glycemic potential of sugar and promotes efficient use of food in exercise rather than becoming body fat. Don't have too much protien, however, or the body will convert the protien into body fat.

7. Exercise as early in the day as possible and prefferably near the peak of the cardiovascular zone (should be 150-160 beats per minute at your age) for 40 minute to 1 hour. This will boost your body's metabolism early in the day so more foods you eat later on will be burned instead of stored as fat (until you go to bed). You might think this sounds a bit tough but it's not dangerous, I do my hour workouts at 164-166 and I am 26 nearly 27.

8. Coincidentally, eat large breakfasts, moderate-sized lunches, and smaller dinners...this way you have very little food in your stomach when you sleep (sleep often converts food to body fat as your body does not need to burn the food into energy while sleeping).

>>>>
Remember, on the whole, how much weight you lose = how many calories you eat - how many you burn, so, no matter in how healthy a form, don't have too many calories and don't have most of your calories too late in the day.

Best luck!

Answer 4

I am now not a surgeon however I will ought to disagree with yours. I was once at the depo for virtually two years and I piled at the weight it doesn't matter what I did. If any person might have instructed me years in the past what that shot might do I'd be so much greater off now. GET OFF OF IT!! Are you having a constant cycle? That is principal bc its popular for preventing that and regardless of how fine it's not to have one its now not healthful.

Answer 5

Lots of processed foods?(in a can, in a box, ready to eat crap?) Stay away from that whenever possible. The factories don't always mark down the sugar and fat content in them. Yeah sugar is fattening. It is not just a matter of watching, it is a matter of evaluating why you are eating....am I actually hungry or am I bored?

Answer 6

Have you had your thyroid checked? That would be one reason. Chemical imbalance is another. Slow metabolism is another. As we get older our metabolism slows down. if none of these is it maybe you have a cyst or tumor. I don't mean to scare you but you should really get a complete check up and find out what is going on
Good luck!

Answer 7

Have you been having any extra stress? Stress can sometimes cause you to gain weight.

Answer 8

depression can also cause gaining weight
if your depressed then try to brighten up you day
or maybe your not that active try to excercise more but dont kill yourself

Answer 9

if you are exercising than it makes sense because muscle weighs more than fat