How soon does a "craving day" show up on the scale?

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tinascar2015
tinascar2015 Posts: 413 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I used to hear from weight-loss counselors that it can take 2-3 days for a bad dieting day to show up on the scale. How true is that? Or does overindulging one day show up on the scale sooner? It makes no sense to me that it would take more than a day.

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  • ahamm002
    ahamm002 Posts: 1,690 Member
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    If it's only one day, it probably won't show up on the scale at all. Your weight will fluctuate normally by a few pounds with water retention. Any damage you do on a single cheat day likely won't be significant enough to make difference (how many extra calories can you really eat in one day?).
  • jessicapk
    jessicapk Posts: 574 Member
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    Having a cheat meal or a very high calorie meal when you're normally cutting calories will almost always cause your body to dump a ton of water weight. I've been weighing daily and I always show a loss after a huge meal. The calories in / calories out theory still holds, however. What you're seeing is just water and it will come back. If your calories out are still more than your calories in, you will continue to lose weight, though it's anything but linear. If you weigh yourself daily, you have to understand the body does some amazing fluctuations in weight. Look at my profile picture and you will see my current chart for the past month. The red line is my true daily weight measurements. It's all over the place! But I'm losing and I'm losing about 1.5-2lbs a week. Kooky but it works. You just can't let yourself get frustrated with the scale since your body does some kooky things.
  • Holly_Roman_Empire
    Holly_Roman_Empire Posts: 4,440 Member
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    ahamm002 wrote: »
    If it's only one day, it probably won't show up on the scale at all. Your weight will fluctuate normally by a few pounds with water retention. Any damage you do on a single cheat day likely won't be significant enough to make difference (how many extra calories can you really eat in one day?).

    Agreed.

    If your craving day included something high in carbs or high in sodium, where on normal days you keep those two things in check, the scale could show it as soon as the next morning. But like ahamm said, the scale will show water weight fluctuations due to a number of things. Actual fat gain, well, one cheat day won't add a whole lot, if anything.
  • jessicapk
    jessicapk Posts: 574 Member
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    That's another reason I look at net calories for the week instead of focusing too much on every day. Your true loss is stretched out over time. If you have one bad day, make up for it the rest of the week. Keep your weekly net calories under the goal and you'll be ok. The net calorie function is in the nutrition part of the app (Android, not sure on iPhone) and you can hit "weekly" to see how you're doing over time.
  • nm212
    nm212 Posts: 570 Member
    edited March 2015
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    I've seen weight gain after 1 day of eating over my calories, but like he said, your weight fluctuates normally, so it's better just to get back on track the next day and not worry too much about it. Try to weigh in the same time and day , once a week. Good luck!
  • jkwolly
    jkwolly Posts: 3,049 Member
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    ahamm002 wrote: »
    If it's only one day, it probably won't show up on the scale at all. Your weight will fluctuate normally by a few pounds with water retention. Any damage you do on a single cheat day likely won't be significant enough to make difference (how many extra calories can you really eat in one day?).
    This.


    Unless you're eating like 3500 calories OVER maintenance, and even then it can still be variable.
  • zyxst
    zyxst Posts: 9,134 Member
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    A day for me, but it's the sodium that does it, not the calories.
  • orlandodenise
    orlandodenise Posts: 54 Member
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    I was greedy on Sat ( 3900 total cals - drink and chocolate for UK mothers day ) - only day ive been significantly over since 1st Jan. ive been losing 3 pound a week. On Fri I was 220, Sat 218, Sun 221 ( aaah ) , Mon 220, Tue 220 and today back to pre piggy day of 218. Ive been mega strict this week. I hope by Fri ( the day I actually count the weeks weight loss ) I'll be 217 or less. It mega easy goes on ! :)
  • jkwolly
    jkwolly Posts: 3,049 Member
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    orlandodenise wrote: »
    I was greedy on Sat ( 3900 total cals - drink and chocolate for UK mothers day ) - only day ive been significantly over since 1st Jan. ive been losing 3 pound a week. On Fri I was 220, Sat 218, Sun 221 ( aaah ) , Mon 220, Tue 220 and today back to pre piggy day of 218. Ive been mega strict this week. I hope by Fri ( the day I actually count the weeks weight loss ) I'll be 217 or less. It mega easy goes on ! :)
    Oh you meant weight, I thought you were talking daily calories and I was like OMG :o

    Good job haha! :)
  • tinascar2015
    tinascar2015 Posts: 413 Member
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    ahamm002 wrote: »
    If it's only one day, it probably won't show up on the scale at all. Your weight will fluctuate normally by a few pounds with water retention. Any damage you do on a single cheat day likely won't be significant enough to make difference (how many extra calories can you really eat in one day?).

    That last question? Hahahaha -- do you really want to know? One of these days I will log a typically really onerous day from my compulsive eating days, and then Ill delete it all after I get a total. I wouldn't be surprised if I did close to 10K calories on some days. >:)

    Thanks so much for your reply!
  • tinascar2015
    tinascar2015 Posts: 413 Member
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    BTW, I do know about weight fluctuations from day to day, and I don't weigh daily. I weigh when I'm curious, always at the same time of day, before shower and breakfast, or when I think I might be avoiding the scale. Scale avoidance tells me my brain is preparing to begin lobbying me to "give up that dieting nonsense".

    Shut up, brain!! I'm calling the shots now!

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