Weight Gain with birth control (muscle, lifting, gym, treadmill)

[etjaipleure]

I recently got off a birth control I was on and I gained a considerable amount of weight. I'm barely pushing overweight in my BMI. I have NEVER been overweight or anywhere near it. I am 5' 1" and I have always weighed between 100-115 lbs and now I am pushing 140. I have cut my calories down to 1000-1200 a day and since August I have been going to the gym 5 days a week, working out an hour or more and burning about 300-400 calories. To give you an example of how this has not worked for me I weighed 125 in August when I started exercising and in November I weighed 140. I didn't take a break at all during those months so I don't really understand what to do! I have been off the BC for over a month now and have not been able to lose any weight! Has this happened to anyone else? Any suggestions? I am going to Los Angeles in February and I want to be able to wear all the cute clothes I bought that I can't wear currently. Any exercise websites or suggestions to help me? I want to lose weight and tone but I have exercise induced asthma so I can't run but I can do the treadmill, etc.

Thanks!

[suzy_q2010]

Originally Posted by etjaipleure

I recently got off a birth control I was on and I gained a considerable amount of weight. I'm barely pushing overweight in my BMI. I have NEVER been overweight or anywhere near it. I am 5' 1" and I have always weighed between 100-115 lbs and now I am pushing 140. I have cut my calories down to 1000-1200 a day and since August I have been going to the gym 5 days a week, working out an hour or more and burning about 300-400 calories. To give you an example of how this has not worked for me I weighed 125 in August when I started exercising and in November I weighed 140. I didn't take a break at all during those months so I don't really understand what to do! I have been off the BC for over a month now and have not been able to lose any weight! Has this happened to anyone else? Any suggestions? I am going to Los Angeles in February and I want to be able to wear all the cute clothes I bought that I can't wear currently. Any exercise websites or suggestions to help me? I want to lose weight and tone but I have exercise induced asthma so I can't run but I can do the treadmill, etc.

Thanks!

By birth control do you mean birth control pills? Being on the pill can increase appetite and contribute to weight gain, but you can control the gain with diet and exercise.

That means that you are either consuming more calories than you think you are, or your workout isn't burning as many as you think it is.

If you are no longer gaining, that means you are in balance: calories in and calories burned.

I suggest counting the calories for a while: get out the measuring cup and the scale. Don't forget the mindless nibbles add up, especially this time of year, so plan for snacks and plan for parties.

Reevaluate what you are doing for exercise. If it is mainly working with weights, adding more cardio may do it.

Your gym may be able to do a total body fat measurement for you. You may have added some muscle and lost some fat with the exercise. Can you tell a difference in the way your clothes fit?

Doing a body fat measurement now and in a few weeks after tweaking the diet and exercise may be very instuctional.

[foxywench]

odd, usually comming off birthcontrol makes it easier to loose the weight...

my first question is are you keeping a food journal...and by that i mean a brutally honest also keeping track of liquid calories (alot of people forget to count the calories in their coffee ect)
if it goes in your mouth it shoudl be written down.

and as suzy said, your excersize routein could also be contributing, muscle weighs more (as its denser) than its equivalent in fat. muscle is good as itll help you burn more calories when 'resting' but it will make your scale a very bad judge for you.

try keeping track of your measurments instead of focusing on your weight.

also remember carbs like pasta and white bread are empty calories so id try and focus on plenty of protein (a serving size is about the size of a deck of cards) and a bright plate (lots of colorful veggies), lots of sugar and caffine free liquids. write everything down, every nibble, every sip

[etjaipleure]

I count my calories everyday. No I was not on the pill, I was on an implant called Implanon. Many women have had problems with gaining weight while on this but I can't find anything about how people lost weight after being off this. I thought I would lose at least a few pounds but since last week I have gained another 2 pounds. I am very confused about this and it is getting bad enough that I am thinking of asking my doctor to put me on a diet pill. I have not gained any muscle at all as all the clothes I just bought last month no longer fit me. I only have two pairs of pants that fit me now. It's frustrating because I have had to buy new clothes almost every other week with this weight gain. Firstly, I know something is wrong and secondly, I do not have the money to keep buying clothes! Lol I have an exercise routine created by a marine for me, most of it is free weights but I don't really do those. I always do cardio, at least 30 minutes everyday before I start lifting any weights. All the machines tell me the calories burned so I don't think I'm wrong about that. I just really don't understand what's going on.

[foxywench]

the readouts on the machine are based on a general spectrum and NOT accurate, this was told to me by 4 trainers and my dr and nutritionalist.

no self respecting dr is going to give you a diet pill at your weight...they have an incredible amount of dangerous side effects associated and are generally used as an absoute last resort for the morbidly obease before surgery if everything else has failed.

secondly the hormones in birthcontrol of any kind do not MAKE you gain weight, they do hwoever make you feel mor ehungry, crave salty/sweet foods and carbs and tend to make you retain water...
people gain weight on birthcontrol because they dont pay attention to thiese cravings (and the fact they are giving in to them)
ive been on deppo provera for over 8 years now and its a huge complaint that the deppo "makes" you gain weight...
its a lie, it doesnt make it easy to loose the weight you do gain but you gain weight because your consuming more calories than your expending, plain and simple.

given youve just stopped birthcontrol/had the implant out and you say your being very aware of your calories the first thing id do is head to your primary care and ask for blood work including metabolic/thyroid pannel.
explain your situation with your weight gain and if your insurance covers it it might be worth seeing a nutritionalist. if you do, take your food journal with you (dont just count the calories, seriously write EVERYTHING down, and weigh/measure everything too...) and the nutritionalist will be able to look through it and see if theres places you can change, things to cut out, things to add ect.

but honestly i wouldnt be messing with diet pills, they CAN kill you. heart palipitations and kidney function issues are common side effects.

[etjaipleure]

Thanks! I don't want diet pills but for my height/weight I am overweight. I am actually on a vegan diet, that includes eating a lot of pasta which I try not to do or I only eat a cup of the pasta that I measure out. I don't want to go on diet pills but I am desparate to lose this weight. I hear over and over and over that if you exercise 3 times a week and eat this amount of calories you can lose 1-2 pounds a week and it hasn't happened so I am going to my doctor to look at my thyroid. Also, I have heard that BC makes you hungry but I gained an abnormal amount of weight in a month...15 pounds, and this was while I was working out everyday and watching calories and not drinking soda so I do not see how 15 pounds is possible. They say the hormones don't cause weight gain, but I was pretty active and ate healthy and gained 15 pounds, I couldn't wear my clothes anymore so it wasn't muscle. Could've been water weight but that seems awfully high. Anyway, will go to my doctor ASAP

[foxywench]

even a cup of pasta is too much for a carb sensitive person. im allowed 4 oz (weight) of while grain pasta since surgery. you need to focus on the protein (in your case is going to be alot of soy products if your vegan) and LOTS of fruits and veggies.

deifnatly check with your dr. best to be safe than sorry.

[etjaipleure]

Originally Posted by foxywench

even a cup of pasta is too much for a carb sensitive person. im allowed 4 oz (weight) of while grain pasta since surgery. you need to focus on the protein (in your case is going to be alot of soy products if your vegan) and LOTS of fruits and veggies.

deifnatly check with your dr. best to be safe than sorry.

Well I only have pasta about once a week or every other week so not really worried that's where all the weight just suddenly came from. But I am definitely going to call my doctor because this is really abnormal for me. About a year ago before I went vegan I lived off junk food and sodas...all I ate was junk food and I actually lost weight while doing that. I never went about 115 pounds, ever. And I never exercised. At all and I was taking the pill. It just seems really weird to me that now a year later healthier than before and exercising consistently...I gain massive amounts of weight. Just seems odd.

[h886]

Yeah, definitely call the doctor. That seems like a lot of weight to gain in one month, particularly when you're being so careful about working out regularly and watching what you eat. Of course it's possible that you're eating more than you think, burning less than you think... but since you are trying to be careful about it, I find it unlikely that you could gain so much so quickly unless something else was going on. As others have said, might be the thyroid... who knows.

In any case, you're always suppose to check in with a doc if you have sudden unexplained weight gain or loss, so it's a good precautionary measure.

[Houston_2010]

perhaps have your thyroid checked. sometimes it gets out of whack and make people's weight to go up (Hypo-thyroid) and sometimes to go down (hyper-thyroid).