How many calories make a pound of "water weight"

Espressocycle

So as most of us know by now, the body stores a certain amount of extra calories as glycogen and fills up those stores before converting excess calories to fat. This is the famous "water weight" that we all lose at the beginning of a diet and think we are diet superstars for losing four pounds a week.

We also know that when going over our maintenance calories, we put that glycogen water weight back on and gain three pounds after a single night of gluttony.

My question is, how many calories makes a pound of water weight? I've looked on the internets and found ranges from 300-600 calories/lb. Curious if anybody can point to a reputable source for a final answer.

BarackMeLikeAHurricane

Best I could do

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7068293

ninerbuff

I think it depends more on the macronutrient. Carbs are what store more glycogen and water than protein or fats.

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HeidiCooksSupper

Water weight has no calories because water does not burn. No amount of calories can be scientifically linked to water weight. Average adult human bodies are about 50% to 60% water. The amount of water your body holds is related to various hormones, salt consumption, and the composition of your body (for example, muscle cells hold more water than bone cells). Some research has shown that regular physical conditioning increases body fluid content somewhat. It is widely claimed that excess water consumption promotes weight loss but there is little scientific evidence for this.

CeleryStalker

I had always thought the water weight we lose the first week or so is directly related to the carbs we aren't consuming (provided you're consuming less carbs on your new eating plan....i've never lost a large amount of weight the first week if i wasn't consuming <100g carbs per day)

Along with this line of thinking, there is the fact that your body turns carbs into glycogen, stores it in your liver and muscles, and with each gram of glycogen, you store 3-4g of water. Therefore, if you deplete your glycogen stores (or greatly reduce them), you are also depleting the water you've been storing along with them.

This is very ad-lib. It's been a while since I've read up on the subject, but I could pull up some links if you're interested.

eta: found an old link quicker than i thought i could. here ya go:

http://www.houseofbodybuilding.com/competitors_guide/deplete_replenish_glycogen.htm
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/56/1/292S.full.pdf

CoderGal

So as most of us know by now, the body stores a certain amount of extra calories as glycogen and fills up those stores before converting excess calories to fat. This is the famous "water weight" that we all lose at the beginning of a diet and think we are diet superstars for losing four pounds a week.

We also know that when going over our maintenance calories, we put that glycogen water weight back on and gain three pounds after a single night of gluttony.

My question is, how many calories makes a pound of water weight? I've looked on the internets and found ranges from 300-600 calories/lb. Curious if anybody can point to a reputable source for a final answer.

You can gain 'water weight' deficient in calories. Just lift a ton of heavy weight, do a marathon, and hardly eat anything the day after. I've seen up to 7lbs go on over night eating at a deficit. I've also lost several pounds after eating in excess the next day. Many on the forums freak out over 'gaining weight' in a deficcit over a week and not the long run when really it's just your body trying to repair itself. Another example is if you are constantly excess in salty foods or heavily over weight you can retain a fair bit of water weight then say a slim person who eats salt regularly but not excessively. Thats why pounds seem to drop off in over weight individuals but they still appear fairly large after losing a significant amount of weight if they're restricting a lot of calories and not exercising.

Then try being a women. We retain water monthly.

Water weight is not the devil, it's helpful and keeps us healthy in a lot of ways. I'd be more concerned about retaining lean body mass (which helps keep you firm, water is included under LBM btw) and getting rid of that sagging fat..

CeleryStalker

You can gain 'water weight' deficient in calories. Just lift a ton of heavy weight, do a marathon, and hardly eat anything the day after. I've seen up to 7lbs go on over night eating at a deficit.

Agreed. Same thing with riding bikes. A nice long bike ride yields 7-10# of water retention for me that doesn't seem to go away for about 5 days. Always nice to see the final number on the scale when the water retention is gone AND the weight I've lost that week is accounted for as well. Not quite as nice to see the temporary increase, lol.

timbrom

Can't remember the source, found it on Google, but I remember reading that the amount was difficult to measure and can vary a lot from person to person, but that for every gram of stored glycogen your body would store 2-4 grams of water. So if you go carb-crazy and gain 3 pounds of scale weight, 65-80% of that would be water.

Martucha123

apparently you need about 3g of water to store 1g of carbs
so this is simplification but: 1g of carb =4 kcal, 1g of carb needs 3 g of water, total extra weight = 1g+3 g =4g
4kcal of carbs =4 g of water
1 lbs is about 450g, you need extra 450 kcals from carbs to pack 1 lbs of extra weight

CoderGal

I had always thought the water weight we lose the first week or so is directly related to the carbs we aren't consuming (provided you're consuming less carbs on your new eating plan....

Carbs are related for sure. That being said I think people need to be a whole lot less concerned about carbs and water. There's a lot of lean people out there that eat a fair bit of them. Whenever I meet people who are obsessed with depleting their water stores I suggest they obsessively run every day to deplete glycogen and not stop and obsessively give blood. My point being the body creates it for a reason and In a healthy body, it well come back. It's needed in a healthy body and even if you don't eat carbs your body will find a way to create water regardless. The goal should be to get leaner, not get rid of excess pounds via water blood boob jobs food restriction and hair and nail trims.

CoderGal

You can gain 'water weight' deficient in calories. Just lift a ton of heavy weight, do a marathon, and hardly eat anything the day after. I've seen up to 7lbs go on over night eating at a deficit.

Agreed. Same thing with riding bikes. A nice long bike ride yields 7-10# of water retention for me that doesn't seem to go away for about 5 days. Always nice to see the final number on the scale when the water retention is gone AND the weight I've lost that week is accounted for as well. Not quite as nice to see the temporary increase, lol.

Exactly and if you didn't have that 7-10 pounds and kept cycling chances are you'd be out some cycling legs because they wouldn't be repairing.

GinJon

bump to read later

Espressocycle

I just want to say how awesome it is that all of these replies offered thoughtful and helpful information. Forums: You're doin' it right.
450 cals seems about right for water weight related to eating above maintenance. I'm skeptical that only carbs would go to glycogen and other macros go to fat (i guess), but it's plausible. Never realized how much water weight results from muscle repair, but that's neat too. Which reminds me... I haven't taken a nice long bike ride in quite a while - mostly just around town.

CeleryStalker

Exactly and if you didn't have that 7-10 pounds and kept cycling chances are you'd be out some cycling legs because they wouldn't be repairing.

For sure! Takes some getting used to, but when the scale says something ugly after a bike ride, I know the jeans are singing a different tune shortly after. Bike riding is what got me thinner than I've been since high school!

SisterhoodoftheShrinkingPants

your not just Wearing a bow tie you really are that smart! You lost me after the first sentence

camtosh

bump to read later!