Why am I GAINING weight?

[Gonfalon]

I started about 3 weeks ago. I've eaten 2-3 meals a day, when I snack it's on vegetables (and a few slipups where the snack was a small amount of nuts). My lunch is usually maybe 8 oz of beef stew with 3 cups vegetables (roast with compliant fats, or a big salad) and 1 cup mixed berries. Sometimes instead of the stew it's homemade turkey meatballs in tomato sauce, homemade chicken curry, or 3 eggs. There have been 5 meals where I have had potato or sweet potato, never more than one potato per meal, usually less. (Homemade hash browns). Always plenty of vegetables. Sometimes for dessert I have a banana. I'm drinking plenty of water. Once I had sashimi, but this is my basic meal template. I haven't been exercising much, just biking to and from work, yoga a few times a week (not this week) and I went on a run one evening.

And I put on jeans this morning that used to fit and I'm muffin topping over them. How? HOW is this happening? Either my portions are too large or I'm eating too much fruit. Can someone help me?

[jmcbn]

Ok, first off this is NOT a weight loss diet. Some people lose weight as a result of w=switching to a Whole food diet, but many don't, and if your focus is on weight loss alone you're likely causing undue stress which will raise cortisol levels & be counter productive to your efforts. If you've come from a back ground of over restriction it's fairly likely your body will hold on to whatever healthy food you feed it right now until it believes this to be a permanent change, for fear of a forthcoming 'famine'.  And if you're eating only 2 meals per day you could well be under-eating & causing the metabolism to slow down in a bid to preserve energy...

How did you eat before? Do you have any pre-existing medical conditions (your body will prioritise healing over all things)? How is your sleep? How much water are you drinking? How are your stress levels? Do you get enough Vitamin D?

Can you give us a more specific run down of what you have eaten over the past 3-4 days, indicating protein portions as they relate to the palm of your hand?

[Gonfalon]

Protein was beef stew or turkey meatballs in tomato sauce or boiled eggs or omletes. Three eggs at a time. 4 small meatballs. I would say the meat portions would overspill my palm but easily fit in 2 palms. Vegetables were roast cauliflower or broccoli or braised cabbage. Or string beans with onions, vinegar and a few chopped almonds. Or vegetables in olive oil and lemon juice. Or boiled peas. 2 of those at each meal, portions approx 1.5 cups. Dessert is either 1 cup of mixed bettres or 1 banana or 1/2 cup stewed apples. Plenty of water. I fill a 600mL bottle and drink it, plus a cup or 2 of decaf coffee or herbal tea. I may have had a snack of raw vegetables between lunch and dinner. The other day I had 1 serving of nuts as a snack. Yesterday, for dinner, along with the meatballs I had 1/2 cup of shredded sweet potato. 

Reading this it looks like my portions are too large but I don't eat a third meal so I assumed it balanced out. I'm not hungry first thing in the morning and don't have time to cook. 

No medical conditions. For 2 days I got little sleep and was tired all day, otherwise my sleep is fine. No stress, boring job. 

I have eaten no dried fruit. No bars. 

[SugarcubeOD]

Not eating breakfast is going to mess up your hormones and screw up your cortisol levels causing leptin resistance and poor overall health.  We really recommend eating within an hour of waking.  If you're not one to cook in the morning, there are plenty of threads on this forum for meals that can be made ahead of time.  Not being hungry in the morning is a side effect of this hormonal imbalance and not an indication that you shouldn't eat.  It may be difficult to power through for a few days but if you plate up a meal, eat as much as you can and then pack it up, take it with you and eat again as soon as you're able (not waiting for the next meal time) you'll start to be hungry in a couple days.

Peas are a legume and are not allowed on the program.

Fluid recommendation is 1/2oz of water per pound of body weight every day... so unless you only weigh 40 pounds, that's not enough.

The reason you're snacking is because you're not eating enough.... The need to snack should diminish when you start eating 3 meals a day.

You could try and let go of 'dessert' as we generally recommend not finishing your meals with something sweet to help get out of the need to eat 'dessert'.  Fruit can be eaten WITH a meal (berries or apple on a salad) and generally no more than a fist sized serving or two a day (altho zero is acceptable too).

When your body is not convinced that you are going to feed it regularly, it will hold on to everything causing temporary weight gain... once your hormones are leveled and your body is secure that you're fueling it properly every day, that weight should drop back off (if you have weight to lose).

[kirkor]

2 hours ago, SugarcubeOD said:

Not eating breakfast is going to MIGHT mess up your hormones and screw up your cortisol levels causing leptin resistance and poor overall health.

FTFY

[MeadowLily]

http://forum.whole30.com/topic/33695-breakfast-1st-thing-when-you-wake-up/

 

http://forum.whole30.com/topic/30873-another-question-about-hunger-meal-timing/

 

 

 

"You can complete a Whole30 while doing a lot of things we recommend you not do. You would seriously undermine the value of spending 30 days eating Whole30-compliant foods if you snack on fruit all day long. 

 

The best way to get your hormonal rhythms where they need to be is to eat a substantial breakfast of protein, fat, and veggies within one hour of waking in the morning and then eating two more meals that are spaced 4-6 hours apart. If you snack all day long, you will undermine your hormonal adjustments.

 

It is okay to snack if you are hungry, but snacks should be temporary, until you get the hang of eating enough at each meal to be satisfied until your next meal. You should not eat because you are bored, because you have a habit of eating, or because you like to eat so much that you want to eat all day. An important part of the Whole30 is establishing a healthy relationship with food."

[SugarcubeOD]

4 hours ago, kirkor said:

FTFY

No, I meant what I said. A person who is coming from a place of not being hungry and thinking their portions are too large when in fact it's not enough food for a single day is feeling that way because their hormones are messed up.  I get where you're going with this but we START with balanced hormones and a good relationship with food and THEN we delve into things like IF and Keto... it's not a healthy thing to do when a person is already down the rabbit hole... 

[Gonfalon]

On 2017-03-31 at 4:51 PM, SugarcubeOD said:

Not eating breakfast is going to mess up your hormones and screw up your cortisol levels causing leptin resistance and poor overall health.  We really recommend eating within an hour of waking.  If you're not one to cook in the morning, there are plenty of threads on this forum for meals that can be made ahead of time.  Not being hungry in the morning is a side effect of this hormonal imbalance and not an indication that you shouldn't eat.  It may be difficult to power through for a few days but if you plate up a meal, eat as much as you can and then pack it up, take it with you and eat again as soon as you're able (not waiting for the next meal time) you'll start to be hungry in a couple days.

Peas are a legume and are not allowed on the program.

Fluid recommendation is 1/2oz of water per pound of body weight every day... so unless you only weigh 40 pounds, that's not enough.

Thanks for this. I'll cut out fruit and add a meal. I ate peas because I realized I was confusing snap peas, which are allowed, with garden peas, which aren't. Do I have to start over? I'm so pissed at myself. I don't even like peas much - I just bought then because they were cheap.