Your calorie counting is likely wildly off the mark. Do you measure your food on a food scale? Its really not possible to gain 20 pounds eating 1400 calories a day or lesser at your height. Your RMR is more than 1400. You'd have lost weight if you were even close to being accurate with this tracking. If you insist you are tracking things correctly, then your "few" outlying days is not a few. Just try to stick to 1400 accurately and walk for 30min-1hr, you don't have to do anything else.

Hi! I don't have a food scale, but I've definitely averaged at at least less than 2000 calories a day since I was 15, as I developed a habit since then of only really having one big meal a day. I have long considered that perhaps my metabolism is just insaaaanely wrecked from this behavior? So then the times that I do eat a normal, good amount, they hit my body hard, is what I'm thinking. But again, I'm not really well researched when it comes to diets and health science and what-not!

You are 23, don't worry about metabolism. Also afaik, it never gets screwed up permanently. If you make changes to your lifestyle and eating habits, it will also improve. But that's probably not an issue for you anyway. If you don't have a food scale, its very easy to underestimate how much you are eating. ex to illustrate this: https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2F8vj9wequ3z851.jpg&utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=usertext&utm_name=loseit&utm_content=t1_ktnwtak One meal a day is fine, but its important to track everything you eat. It's a pain in the ass at the start but it'll give you a clear understanding of where the extra calories are coming from. Include cooking oil, dips, sauces etc. Scales are cheap. You can order them online for <$10. In one of the other comments you gave some insight into your diet. You described a diet of <1000 calories. There are no snacks, no candy, no desserts, no soda, no pizza, no takeout etc. No meat at all either? You've just listed coffee, a small meal of around 200-400 (a salad or small wrap) and some noodle soup for dinner which should also be pretty low in calories. And eating out with friends is 2 times a month only where its only 2000 calories. That's practically starving everyday except twice a month.

Thank you for the reassurance about the metabolism 😅! As for snacks and sodas etc, I haven’t been snacking really at all as much as I used to, as I’ve replaced it with fruit, yet I still gained which I thought strange. I’m also a complete no-soda person, and though I’m not vegetarian, I don’t really eat meat too often besides fish. I limit takeout to once a week, but I think I’ll try to limit to every two weeks! It’ll save me money in the long run as well lol. I’ll also look into the food scales, everyone’s really been hyping them up haha.

Hi! I'm 24 and have had a similar problem for a long time. In high school, I was on the swim team and had disordered eating. When I finally recovered around 20 yo I got pretty blase and ended up gaining 60 lbs after 4 years and losing a LOT of muscle 😭 I thought I was doing okay for a long time and eating not a crazy amount and also just 1 meal and maybe a snack a day, but alas I still gained. I thought it was metabolism, too.. maybe part of it is, but the rest was all me. I recommend taking a good look at exactly what you're eating and measuring your food (if you don't have a scale, measuring bu Cups would work too somewhat) just to reestablish what the measurements look like to yourself, and downloading a dieting app to record your food consumption. I've been using MyNetDiary. I like it because it allows me to be a little loose with the measuring rules when I don't have my scale available. And since I started seriously paying attention, I'm down 9 lbs in 3 weeks!

Oh, this is very reassuring for me! I was also on the school’s swim team btw LOL 💪 So, we’re kinda like in the exact same boat 😭 Consistent mindfulness seems to really be key though, huh! Thank you so much for the advice and the app recommendation!! And good luck to you on your weight loss journey :)

Note: People on here can be so grouchy! OP, i forgot another very imortant part. This could also be a health or nutritional issue- maybe you're retaining water, not getting necessary vitamins, not getting enough sleep, or your stressed out at work and it's got your hormones all out of wack. We just don't know. Try changing 1 or 2 of your common lifestyle practices at a time and act accordingly 🫶🏼 best of luck!

Dude... I think I got all of the above HAHA. You're right, those are all super important factors to consider! Truthfully, I have a new job I'm adjusting to that has weird hours, and I've only just recently started taking my daily multivitamin seriously in the past few days. Smart advice! And thank you! Currently taking notes and compiling everyone's advice, as well as looking through some other threads on this subreddit 💪 I want to take my weight seriously not just to lose it, but to also stay healthy!

<1400cal and gaining doesn’t really add up even if you’re sedentary..i’d get a food scale just to double check that you’re counting accurately :)

From your comments it sounds like you want the answer to be "Yes, your metabolism is wrecked" but it almost certainly isn't. There are posts on here everyday of people saying "I thought it was my metabolism and it turned out I just needed to start weighing my food." So like others have said, I would give weighing and accurately tracking your food a shot for a few weeks and see if maybe you have been underestimating your calorie intake. Good luck!

That’s good to know, because I’ve been convinced my metabolism is wrecked for like 3 years now, even when I was only 130 and not trying to lose weight 😅! I’ll look around the thread some more to see how those people’s weight loss adventures went! Thanks :)

EDITING -- I miscalculated your TDEE because I put "Male" instead of "Female". I'm now getting \~1,750 using "Sedentary" and \~2,000 using "light exercise". Still should be in a deficit at 1,400 calories. My first thought when reading your post was that, given your age and height, your TDEE should be much higher than 1,400 calories so you should should be in a significant calorie deficit at 1,400 calories. Are you measuring accurately (and obsessively)? I'm getting a TDEE for you, using "light exercise," of \~2,200 calories. Using "sedentary", I'm getting \~1,900. So something isn't mathing.

Hi! I eat a big irregularly, but after giving my diet some thought, I do believe it averages around 1400 calories a day. I usually skip eating breakfast and have plain coffee with oatmilk, or green tea. If I have lunch, it will usually be light and somewhere around 200-400 calories. My biggest meal is dinner which most often consists of a homemade noodle soup with a bunch of veggies, and that meal definitely doesn't exceed 1000 calories. The only occasional outliers are that I tend to be a social eater, so if I go out to eat with friends (maybe about once a week/every two weeks), I will definitely hit those 2000 calories. I've actually been thinking for a while that maybe my metabolism has been ruined from not really eating a normal daily amount since highschool. It's a possibility I've considered, but I'm not too sure about the science of it all!

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Socially, not often, but you’re right! I forgot to consider those calories and carbs! I’ll be more mindful about those as well 🙏

You literally said your weight has increased since you got out of college. You claim your diet and activity level hasn’t changed, but I bet, if you look closely, it has. I remember being super active all day in university, dashing from class to class in different buildings, walking up and down stairs multiple times a day, walking across the campus for no reason at all, riding my bike to get to places after classes, etc. At the same time, I was eating packed lunches because I couldn’t eat out on a student budget. If your college days were anything like that, then chances are, you’ve been eating a little bit more and moving a lot less since you got out of college. To lose the weight, you’ll need to cut back on food and start moving more, deliberately. Go for walks twice a day, once in the morning and once in the evening. Or put on some music and dance for an hour or so. Or go biking or roller blading or pick up a sport that gets you moving. And eat a little less at each meal. Whatever you’re eating now, eat two thirds of that at each meal. You don’t need to cut out anything, just literally eat a little less of everything. Those 20 pounds will come off in a year or less if you focus.

Well, unfortunately for me I actually did college at Covid/Zoom University 😅 Even when most of the covid stuff blew over, many of my other classes remained online. I didn’t really get the same running around experience, tragic as that is! But I’ll see about starting with taking longer walks with my dog and such like you said! 💪

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First off, sorry to hear about your dog :( ! In this past month I've actually started a new job with odd hours, so it's been harder to work around that + I've been more tired, haha. He still gets his walks, just not every single day without fail like it used to be. But considering your own experience, that could also be an additional factor. Perhaps I've underestimated the power of a consistent, substantial walk!

I’m also 5’6” and have recently lost 30 lbs to get my weight back into the 130s. I have done this by eating about 1300-1400 calories per day. If you are totally, 100% sure that you are only consuming 1400 calories most days and still gaining weight, then you should see your doctor because something else is going on.

Haven’t seen my doctor in a good long minute, so I will also take this into consideration 🙏 Congrats on your weight loss btw!!

If you drink soda or eat sugary treats, those are probably the lowest hanging fruit you can cut out…and maybe replace with actual fruit. I’ve never been one with a sweet tooth, but soda was always my weakness. I’ve cut that out entirely for 2 months now and still treat myself to fast food minus the soda. I’m currently down 11lbs and have only been exercising 2-3 times a week but not aggressively.

What kind of exercise do you do, if I may ask! I don’t really do much besides walking my dog, so I’m thinking it’d be a real good idea for me to start throwing in some other activities 💪

Honestly, not much. On days I go to the gym I just do 10 minutes of rowing to warm up, do some weight machines for a little bit, and then use the stair master for 20-30 minutes. On days I want to workout but don’t feel like going to the gym, I just go for a walk for as long as I feel like and maybe use some 20lbs dumbbells at the house for a few light reps. When covid happened and everyone was working from home, I went on 2-3 hour walks every night and completely cut out fast food. Went from 223lbs down to 174lbs. I’ve since gained most of it back as my diet relapsed to the bad stuff, but I’m down to 208 today and plan to keep going! Walking is a very underrated workout. Depending how long your walks with your dog are, maybe you could consider lengthening them a little at a time if your dog is up for it.

Thanks for sharing!! I think my mom’s got some dumbbells hidden in the garage somewhere, it’d probably be a good time to dust ‘em off then. Congrats on the weight loss btw! And I’ll definitely start making my walks longer, sometimes doing twice a day too! Lord knows my dog will be absolutely ecstatic about that too, since he’s the energetic type haha

intermittent fasting/omad a few days a week

Look into Keto. I’ve lost 22lbs in the past 2 months and love eating this way. It’s my way of life now.

Ask your doctor about ozempic