How am I GAINING weight? Diet/Exercise Question.

[ConTheory]

Alright, so I'm dieting right. Lost 51 lbs so far and still have a decent chunk to go. I'm on a pretty harsh diet, but nothing too ridiculous. Enough to lose a good chunk of weight each week. I'm also doing cardio 5 times a week for 30 min on average + weight lifting. I recently started lifting again after 7 weeks due to an arm injury and weighed myself this morning. I not only failed to lose weight this week, I actually GAINED 4 lbs. How the hell is that even possible? I'm wondering if any health experts can help me with this. I've read that you can retain water weight after starting to lift, but that much? I have to imagine it's at least 6 lbs of water weight. I lifted on Monday, it's now Friday. The past 2 weeks before this I dropped 4 lbs each. It's driving me nuts and is pretty demoralizing. Any advice/help is appreciated, thank you.

Updates

+1 y

I can't imagine the diet is harsh to the point where I'm in starvation mode. I eat a 400-500 calorie breakfast, 400-500 calorie bowl of honey bunches of oats typically, a 500-600 calorie dinner, and after my cardio or lift I usually take in a little more (around 300-400 calories).

[dx021]

It's pretty simple bud-

When you go on a "Harsh Diet", your body goes into ketosis; your body thinks it is starving so it goes into conservation mode. You burn fewer calories and your metabolism slows down. you body tries to conserve as many calories as possible. You subconsciously crave fatty sh*t

Think of it as a hard wired program that evolution designed into you.

what you SHOULD do is eat whenever you want- the Caveat ; eat only HEALTHY organic non-processed foods, Eat in small portions, eat often, eat ONLY til your not hungry (NOT until your stuffed).

You do that and your metabolism will start to skyrocket. I eat so much that it's a running joke at my workplace, yet I'm in fantastic shape

[freefall7]

no man should care about weight. Its bf% and lean muscle fat that matter. For example, I weight just over 190 pounds. Someone with a 25% boyfriend at 190 pounds looks absolutely gross and pathetic. However, at 190 pounds and 7% boyfriend I look like a greek god.

[freefall7]

didn't mean to put "fat" after muscle.

[freefall7]

Or the numerous spelling errors that followed...I'm tired... time for a run!

[freefall7]

bf

[PinkAcid]

either you are eating too little and your body went into starvation mode converting what it can into fat and slowing the metabolism or you're gaining muscle which weighs around 3 times more than fat.

As long as you feel healthier and you start looking firmer and slimmer in the mirror don't pay too much attention to the scales, I'm leaning towards starvation mode though as youve only just started doing weights again. eat more calories just make sure its healthy food

[Anonymous]

what's this harsh diet you are on? Can you describe what you eat on a typical day?

[Jonny_]

Muscle weighs more than fat... So you can exercise and feel like you've actually gained weight... You can retain water, but that's generally if you're on something like Creatine.

[InquisitiveMale]

It's true.

You use not only your weight when tracking progress but also your body measurements such as waist line, bust, bicep, thighs, and neck.