I gained 6 pounds in ONE DAY....

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jennagoogles13
jennagoogles13 Posts: 266
in Health and Weight Loss
Yesterday started off great for me. But then dinner came..and that meant a carne asada burrito (which happened to fit within my macros). But I ended up drinking a crap ton of soda at the movies, and then came home and had a total binge. I'm talking peanut butter, creme filled cookie wafers, chex cereal, and cinnamon toast crunch. All in all, I went over my daily budget by about 800 calories. Being curious as to what damage I did, I weighed myself this morning and I GAINED SIX POUNDS! I mean, after all, I was still under my net calories this week, so it couldn't have been fat...right? How much water weight can one retain in one day?!
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Replies

  • keeponkickin
    keeponkickin Posts: 1,520 Member
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    Don't let it worry you. No way did you gain 6 pounds of fat. Do the math and put yourself at ease when this happens. 1 pound of fat is 3,500 calories MORE than your maintenance. So 3,500 x 6...I doubt you at that much in one day. It's sodium. Drink water and it will flush your body.
  • babydiego87
    babydiego87 Posts: 905 Member
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    You answered your own question.

    :huh:
  • jzammetti
    jzammetti Posts: 1,956 Member
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    I gain 6 pounds every day between morning and night. it is water retention, sodium levels, but not fat.
  • wannabfit34
    wannabfit34 Posts: 23 Member
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    Sodium and carbonation will create a lot of bloat. Water and a couple days of healthy eating the scale should be back to normal
  • Annette_rose
    Annette_rose Posts: 427 Member
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    I can easily gain a couple of pounds of water weight overnight also. I am on Lasix for fluid retention so take that and it helps a bit, but high sodium definitely makes a difference with me!! If you drink a lot of water and cut back on the sodium, you will more than likely see this come off very quickly. I know it can be discouraging!!
  • baraccus
    baraccus Posts: 85 Member
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    Agreed, last weekend I put on 8lbs over a weekend while sticking to my diet, it was a combination of sodium and lack of water, basically it was all water weight. It left pretty quickly and now I'm back on track :) Don't worry.
  • s2konstantine
    s2konstantine Posts: 12 Member
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    If you have been keeping carbs low, you can gain alot. Glycogen storage. When I carb loads, I can gain 10 lbs + in <24 hours. Goes away after a few days. Just carry on as you were.
  • jennagoogles13
    jennagoogles13 Posts: 266
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    How long should it take for the water weight to go away if I just continue to do what I've been doing, and drink a lot of water?
  • HealthyStartsHere
    HealthyStartsHere Posts: 126 Member
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    it's not fat, its probably sodium but by any chance are you on medication because i know i gain a lot on certain meds.
  • lmorr7
    lmorr7 Posts: 11 Member
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    Water, tea and bananas can all help flush out the water weight. It's happened to me.
  • LydsVille77
    LydsVille77 Posts: 126 Member
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    How long should it take for the water weight to go away if I just continue to do what I've been doing, and drink a lot of water?

    My own personal experience, 1-3 days. I had a binge last Friday, and was back to normal by Tuesday, with a teeny tiny gain that stuck around. Just add a little extra deficit today if you want to be safe.
  • jennagoogles13
    jennagoogles13 Posts: 266
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    it's not fat, its probably sodium but by any chance are you on medication because i know i gain a lot on certain meds.
    Nope. no medication here
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,565 Member
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    Lol, a competitive bodybuilder can gain up to 20lbs or more in water weight after a competition. I've personally gained 15lbs after a contest. So don't feel bad.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal/Group FitnessTrainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,139 Member
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    you ate 21000 calories in one night??? Holy Sh$t ...You should report that to someone as that may be a world record!!!!
  • jbartelme
    jbartelme Posts: 3
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    you replenished your glycogen stores. if you've been eating at a deficit, there's a good chance they were low going into the day. All the carbs were converted into new glycogen stores (along with 3x their weight in water).

    http://www.livestrong.com/article/307905-glycogen-and-weight-loss/

    The good news is that little or none of the weight gain was fat. The REALLY good news is now you have a ton of stored energy for your activity this week.
  • Calliope610
    Calliope610 Posts: 3,771 Member
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    Yesterday started off great for me. But then dinner came..and that meant a carne asada burrito (which happened to fit within my macros). But I ended up drinking a crap ton of soda at the movies, and then came home and had a total binge. I'm talking peanut butter, creme filled cookie wafers, chex cereal, and cinnamon toast crunch. All in all, I went over my daily budget by about 800 calories. Being curious as to what damage I did, I weighed myself this morning and I GAINED SIX POUNDS! I mean, after all, I was still under my net calories this week, so it couldn't have been fat...right? How much water weight can one retain in one day?!

    So you consumed 21,000 calories yesterday, cuz that's the only way you can gain 6 pounds overnight. It takes 3,500 excess calories to make 1lb of fat. 3,500 x 6lbs = 21,000 excess calories. Yep, just water weight.
  • betoarango
    betoarango Posts: 222 Member
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    Actually I do not think it is possible to gain that weight in fat even if the calories are consumed, there must be a limited amount of "fat depositing" systems available, and I would suspect they are not able to deposit such an amount of fat... its just water weight..

    Besides your body does not divide days as we do.. So the fact that you happen to divide your calories into several 24 hour days (all under 1 over) does not change the fact that your body received less net calories in the period than it consumed...

    Your body keeps perfect score...
  • babydiego87
    babydiego87 Posts: 905 Member
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    Here's an idea:

    stop weighing yourself more than once a week.

    it's a mind f&%* you don't need.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,874 Member
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    Yesterday started off great for me. But then dinner came..and that meant a carne asada burrito (which happened to fit within my macros). But I ended up drinking a crap ton of soda at the movies, and then came home and had a total binge. I'm talking peanut butter, creme filled cookie wafers, chex cereal, and cinnamon toast crunch. All in all, I went over my daily budget by about 800 calories. Being curious as to what damage I did, I weighed myself this morning and I GAINED SIX POUNDS! I mean, after all, I was still under my net calories this week, so it couldn't have been fat...right? How much water weight can one retain in one day?!

    800 calories over your goal means you were probably still at a deficit considering a 1 Lb per week weight loss goal is 500 calories less than maintenance and 2 Lbs per week has an 800-1000 calorie deficit built in by MFP. To actually gain 6 Lbs of fat, you'd need to consum 3500 X 6 = 21,000 calories over your maintenance level of calories. The average women who does little exercise maintains at roughly 1800-2000 calories...so...you'd have to eat 23,000 in a day to actually gain 6 Lbs of fat overnight.

    You gained a lot of water because that burrito had a **** ton of sodium..you also basically did a carb load and loaded up your glycogen stores.

    You need to understand the actual mathematics and science of all of this or you're going to go bat **** crazy.
  • MostlyWater
    MostlyWater Posts: 4,294 Member
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    Boots, a winter coat, and clothes can all add like 9 lbs to your total weight. And water will also show up as an increase on the scale.


    Don't beat yourself up.

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