the past two days I've gained weight, however, I have exercised the calories that I have eaten- One day I burned off more calories than I had even eaten that day, yet I am still gaining. This can't be a plateau, I just started dieting about a week and a half ago and please don't say it's muscle either, I'm looking for some real answers and possibilities to my dilema. How can I stop this?

Thanks so much!!

How about a little information... we aren't mind readers

It's not muscle gain and I doubt it's a plateau...

1. What is your current age/weight/height/gender
2. How many calories a day are you eating and how are you keeping track?
3. How are you measuring and weight what you're eating
4. How and when are you weighing and measuring yourself?
5. What are you currently doing for exercise?

To answer your questions:

1. What is your current age/weight/height/gender

I'm 20, Female, 5'9 and 195.8 as of this morning

2. How many calories a day are you eating and how are you keeping track?

I eat between 800 and 1200 calories a day, writing what I eat in a blog.

3. How are you measuring and weight what you're eating

I just measure out the exact portion for one serving and that's about it.. I don't realy get this question.

4. How and when are you weighing and measuring yourself?

I weigh myself on a digital scale, each morning before eating anything and always wearing the same thing.

5. What are you currently doing for exercise?

Currently, I am going to a gym for exercise. I use the elliptical, cross trainer, and the cycling machines (both, the one where it's like a regular bike and the one where you extend your legs out). I am also doing some light weight traning with weights and sit ups.
I go to the gym 5-6 times a week for cardio and weight train about 3 times a week.

What makes you think eating that few calories at your current weight is ok?

For instance, not all food comes in nice little packages. In fact, most of the 'good stuff' doesn't come in packages. So how do you account for this? If you eat chicken, how do you measure and track the caloric intake of said chicken?

I measure it raw and then look how up how many calories it is for that amount of chicken.
I want to see results which is why I'm doing 800-1200 cals a day. I'm not hungry or anything like that.

I also have a hypoactive thyroid, have had it for 8 years. I also had lymphoma in my thyroid in the past.

But I've been taking medicine for it!!

Obviously.

We're asking HOW DO YOU MEASURE THIS SORT OF FOOD?

Do you use a food scale?

Meats are usually measured after cooking, btw.

By results, I'm assuming you mean you're solely interested in seeing the number on the scale drop.

You're not interested in things like looking good, being healthy, and keeping the weight off once it's gone.

Yes, I'm being a smartass.... but pretty much everyone should know that starvation types of dieting are horrible in terms of success rates and permanent lifestyle modification.

Have you had a dietary plan prescribed to you for this condition?

No.

Well I just assumed that you would know that I used a food scale to measure food out.. How else would you do it accurately? I'm not just going to look at it and guess.

Most people rely solely on measuring cups.

Hence the questioning.

If you're eating that few calories every single day, keeping your current weight in consideration, and your weight is going up.... I'd say your medication isn't working. Time to go back to the doc.

Could you write out for us exactly what you ate all day yesterday?

oatmeal
apple
quacker mini delights (90 cal packs)
hotpocket
meal consisting of grilled chicken and dark green veggies w/ one piece of whole grain bread.

My bad- I meant LEANpocket. it was a quick on to go type thing

Oatmeal packet or just plain rolled oats? Did you eat out for dinner with that chicken and greens? What about water, how much do you drink? Do you drink coffee?

I don't ask because I am going to give you a revelation but just curious about your situation.

No, I ate dinner at home, I do that a lot now.

I eat a reduced sugar oatmeal packet that is 120 cals.

I drink at least 64 oz of water each day, sometimes more, but no more than 80 oz a day.

Water retention or other random scale variation. Totally meaningless.

If you can't ignore random scale movement, you might try weighing monthly. Weekly is still too often to avoid random scale variation. I weigh every day, and I can tell you that even with a fairly large deficit (I was averaging 7.5 pounds a month), I could be up or down a couple pounds from one end to the other of any given 7-day period. But I can't find any 30-day period where my scale weight was higher at the end than at the beginning.