How in heaven's name am I gaining weight?!

[Tiffany]

Hi everyone,
I recently went vegan again, after switching to lacto-ovo for about 8 or 9 months.

During the time I went lacto-ovo I gained over 30 lbs! Its horrible and I'm trying to lose it now! But the cakes, cookies, ice cream, etc. were too much to resist, lol. I can definitely understand how I gained weight during this time, as I ate with no restriction and didn't exercise. I ate all crap and that's a fact. So I accept the weight gain... as hard as it is. I plan on changing that though. (But HOW?)

HOWEVER.

Now its been about 3 months that I've been vegan again. And currently I feel bigger than ever, and I cannot explain it.

I don't eat: meat/milk/egg products and absolutely, positively NO sugar - if the ingredients has sugar listed as an ingredient, even as the last one, I do NOT eat it. This includes glucose/fructose/sucrose and corn syrup. I have completely cut out sugar and will never eat it again. Ever.

Literally the most fattening thing I'll eat is a cup of beans or a baked potato for dinner (with no butter). I mostly eat raw veggies and occasionally some whole grain rice (never pasta)... I'll have a cup of soy milk 3 times a week. And its light. So I honestly don't understand how on earth I've gained weight. I have really cut calories, but not enough for my body to go into starvation mode.

Also, I have been at the cottage for 4 days a week since a month ago and swimming and kayaking up to 4 hours daily. This cannot be muscle weight as my pants are definitely tighter and I am looking noticeably rounder. I feel constantly bloated as well.

I cannot understand this... especially after eating nothing but chips, cookies, ice cream and creamy soups... I thought my body would lose weight like mad when I decided to go vegan and cut sugar - but the opposite has happened!

I am very frustrated and perplexed right now. I am a vegan for ethical reasons so the choice of adopting another diet isn't really an option for me. Also, my body is sore from all the swimming and kayaking I do, so I can't really increase my exercise without damaging my body...

Also I just halved my antidepressant about a month ago to counteract the weight gain associated with it. I'm now on the minimum dose. If anything I should have lost some weight after doing this... but nothing.

Does anyone have any guesses what I'm doing wrong? Or anything I can do differently to lose weight? I am at my wit's end now and very depressed over this.

Thanks,

Tiffany

[Est]

Have you added anything to your diet that you didn't eat/drink before? The bloating could well be an intolerance to something.

Also, it's not just cutting calories that makes your metabolism slow down/go into 'famine mode' - a radical change in diet, so that your energy is coming from different sources, can also make this happen.

[sandra]

Hi Tiffany, perhaps you should get checked by your doctor to rule out other causes............under active thyroid etc.
Once you know there is no medical cause for your weight gain you can concentrate on losing the weight healthily.

[Tiffany]

Thanks for your answers,

I will definitely get a checkup because something must be wrong...

The last time I went vegan I lost 30 lbs, going from 130 lbs to 100 lbs (I'm 5'8 so boy was I thin!) in just a couple months. I've always been very slender before I went back to vegetarian...its only when I added junk like ice cream and cookies to my diet that I gained all the weight. What surprises me is that the weight hasn't yet come off - at all. Even though I've been eating so healthy and exercising.

I haven't added anything to my diet besides fruits and vegetables which I avoided like the plague when I was lacto/ovo.

I'm just hoping its my imagination... I'm not allowed to weigh myself because of a potential relapse to anorexia, so its all guessing. I'm just praying that its my imagination and that I'll be able to see clearly when the diet really has time to take effect. Its only been a few months afterall...

I do need to get a checkup as there have been other symptoms. For the past week I have had severe ovarian cramping, horrible diarrhea several times a day, nausea after eating or riding in cars (I never got sick in cars before a couple weeks ago) and, like I said, a constant bloated feeling in my stomach. I'm hoping that once the bloat goes away I'll really be able to determine if I've lost weight. Its impossible tot tell now because I am always soo bloated, it looks as though I have a baby bump now just from the amount of the bloating. If I hadn't had my period since the last time I had sex I would be convinced I was pregnant! :O Hehe. I just thought it was a bug or a cyst bursting, but it has been going on for awhile so I'm not sure...

[sandra]

You have been having a bad time of it Tiffany!

Do you really need to lose any weight? Perhaps it's just the 'bloated' feeling that's making you feel over weight. Either way, I would see a doctor just to get things checked out.

[Tiffany]

I am not really overweight. I was very, very thin when I was a vegan before, so I just became about normal sized when i went back to lacto-ovo and am still normal sized now. However I prefer being very thin and would like to get back down in weight. I do think my perception of weight gain may be due to the bloated feeling. I will have some tests done and see if I have an intolerance or something. Think I'll leave out the details about me going vegan though, doctors like to blame anything on that, lol.

[Adena]

My sisters friend was always bloated/bowel problems, and had a foot intolerance test to find out what was going on because she was trying to lose weight also and was finding it very hard. She was told she was intolerant to tomatos, which she loved, but she stopped eating them from that day on, lost about a stone and a half and felt so much better for it! So that's a possibility. I get very bloated if I excersise more than usual but don't drink enough to counter it.
Make sure you're getting enough fluids!

[Tiffany]

Just to let everyone know, it was a false alarm! Dropped over 20 lbs in two months, woohoo!

[missbettie]

Thats a lot of weight to lose in two months!!! are you okay?