Why am I gaining weight from exercise? Help?

Yes, I understood that, I am eating way way below my RMR too but mine was just a calculation based on age, weight (and I used the sedentary activity multiplier) not an actual test.  I am eating like 600-700 calories below what should maintain my weight and that is not even including the calories I burn doing exercise!!!  If I include those I am running at like a 1000+ calories or more deficit and I'm still not losing as fast as I technically should.  I also don't have a mal-absorptive surgery so I probably can't eat as much as RNYer.

I actually did try eating more for a week based on advice from folks on in the exercise forum to see if that would help but it didn't, I gained!   I corresponded with and actually spoke on the phone to Jeremy Gentles who is the exercise consultant for OH and he said right now until I hit goal continue to restrict my calories, that exercise wouldn't necessarily help me lose weight (why I didn't really get but...).  He told me that exercise is great for health and to get into a habit of doing for maintenance but that it wouldn't necessarily speed up weight loss.  I just was looking for his post but can't seem to find it.  I hit my goal of a normal BMI this week but I still want to lose another 10-20lbs so I am still restricting my calories.

Now I mostly eat @1000 calories a day but more or less on some days to keep my body guessing.  Who knows everyone is different.  The thing that worked for me was upping the intensity of my workouts and making them different so my body would not get used to anything.

It seems like it should be easier to figure out based on science but it just doesn't seem to be that way.  I would be interested to know if upping our calories works for you, let me know and best luck.

"It seems like it should be easier to figure out based on science but it just doesn't seem to be that way. "

It's because we aren't machines, I think. In the Minnesota starvation study, they put the subjects into a compound so they could control *everything* going on. They controlled what they ate and how much they exercised and kept track of everything.

But real life is not like that. It has many variables that can't be controlled.

All I know is that those formulas have never worked for me and, as I get older, I have to work harder to lose weight. And I'm not even in menopause yet! (I'm not even sure I'm in peri-menopause, but I might finally be.)

So I don't think it's the WLS... because they didn't work before I had it. I think the formulas work on averages and hardly anyone is average in every area.