Unusual weight gain in 4 months

Hello. I am new to this forum and just looking for advice and information. When i had my daughter 6 years ago my post birth weight was 175 (i had fained 50 lbs during pregnancy). since then i havent gained much or lost much either other than fluctuating between 172-182. In june of 2018 i weight approximately 180. By mid july i was 196. And now mid sept i am 218. I dont understand why its happening, I have not done anything differently in the last few months as far as how much i eat. If anything once i saw i weighed 196 i tried eating less although i dont eat large amounts (or frequent) of anything to begin with. I have had a slew of health issues lately though. I was diagnosed with sleep apnea recently (get my cpap next week). Recently diagnosed with chronic migraines (just had nerve block done). Had sinus surgery at end of july. And my dr found a benign lump on my thyroid. My neurologist says the weight gain could be a side effect of the sleep apnea and migraines because my body is essentially sleep deprived and in constant pain so its not functioning properly. Does this sound accurate? Im really concerned because its a lot of weight in a short amount of time i even started walking more around the river in my town (about a mile to start). Light workouts. Eat less. I got a new job recently and im on my feet the entire time so i dont understand why i keep gained more and more. The last 22 lbs came on in a matter of 6 weeks. Please help.

Welcome. =)

Have you had WLS? And if so, which surgery and when?

The maybe most obvious reason would be what's going on with your thyroid. People mistakenly blame their thyroid for weight gain all the time and it's usually a big red herring. But you actually had a lump (thankfully benign) right there. Did they remove it? Did the doc rule that out completely as a factor in your gain?

A few other possibilities:

1) eating more than you think you are. Do you track your food & beverage intake? It might not seem possible to eat that much extra food, but there are desserts and such that have more calories in one serving than I eat in one day. Eating a lot of white carbs and sugars almost guarantees consistent gains.

2) fluid retention. I know that's a lot of weight to chalk up to edema, but that could be at least a partial reason. When I have a bout myself, I can gain and lose 12 or 13 pounds all within the same week. Before I had surgery it wasn't unusual for me to gain and lose 30+ pounds within one month.

3) your metabolism. Have you talked to your doc about possible impacts the meds you're taking might having on your metabolism? We say a calorie is a calorie. And, that there is no way around the fact that gaining a pound means you've eaten an extra 3500 calories, period. That's true, BUT. Our metabolism affects how fast we burn those calories and thus how many calories we actually burn in a given day. So changes to metabolic rate can be a factor.

What does a days eating look like for you? Can you post yesterday's menu here? Sometimes others can see things that we cannot see for ourselves. If you'll do that and answer the surgery question it will be a big help in framing your concerns. 35+ pounds in three-ish months is a big gain. Big enough that there has to be a solid reason or combination of reasons. The more information you can provide, the better.

Good luck in getting this figured out.

Are you measuring your servings? "Eating less" sounds like you are guessing. Log and track every bite. Don't eat crappy carbs. I know I was in denial when I gained 10 pounds in a month. When I actually measured and tracked my food I realized just how much I was eating.

Work more closely on your eating as you work on your other health issues. Good luck.

Your body gets adjusted to the amount of calories you eat and learns how to use them efficiently to gain the weight it wants.

You will go for long periods without gaining and then the metabolism slows down and the same amount of food causes gain. Through life we have to eat less calories to stay the same because our body slows down with age.

Most women can maintain on 10 calories a day per pound. Men do well on 12 calories a day per pound.

So a 180 pound woman needs 1800 calories a day to stay there. If she gets up to 2200 calories a day, she will often end up at 220 pounds. The difference is not that much, a Big Mac, some pizza and a beer, a trip to the Dairy Queen, an extra helping at dinner, or eating desserts.

The only way to find out is to track every bite and every calorie. You don't have to share the information with anyone else, but you do need to know it for yourself. Once you know exactly how many calories you are taking in then you can figure out how many you need to cut out to lose the extra weight (if you want to do that badly enough).

You?re getting lots of great advice. I also have sleep apnea (which I feel like is improving as I?m losing weight). It does have an impact on weight in the sense that a more tired body is more likely to seek quick, easy energy (eg, carby food) and less likely to want to exercise. Sleep deprivation also can help boost cortisol, which tells your body that you are in crisis, which may in turn make your body want to hold on to calories. I would not be surprised if it also messed with a lot of metabolic processes. That is a big weight gain to just be attributed to that, however. What did the doc say about your thyroid?