Why does one day 'off plan' cause so much damage?

WinoGelato

Derf_Smeggle wrote: »

1. Day to day weight fluctuates due to water retention, stool retention, etc as others have pointed out. This can occur because if what you ate and drank the day before. Hormonal changes can cause this. Level of hydration day to day can impact the numbers.
   
2. When we are in a weight loss/calorie deficit cycle, we should not compare day to day recordings. We are looking at overall downward trends over weeks and months.

We have to get away from this expectation that weight loss is a graphed as a linear diagonal line that either goes straight down our straight up. Heck, mine looks like someone gave an airplane to a drunken sailor with vertigo. The over all trend is downward, but it goes up and down day to day.

So much this and I love the "drunken sailor with vertigo" analogy!

OP as others have said, the scale increase you're seeing is temp water weight gain. I have been here for just over 1000 days (currently in maintenance) and have only not logged a meal or two, I've never even skipped entire days on vacation or holidays. I like having the numbers, even if they are wild guesses and/or o go way over my totals. For me it helps keep things in perspective because when you do look at the long term trends, you see that logging a 4000 cal day on Thanksgiving for example, results only in a temporary set back, not a total halt/reversal of your progress.

I think not keeping that perspective often leads people to think they should just give up or day, well I'm already over, might as well do it all again tomorrow too, what the heck!

rileysowner

christinasoonmrsnewton wrote: »

I'm just curious really

I went to 2 celebrations on Saturday and didn't calorie count at all. At a rough guess, I'd say I ate 3000 calories that day.

Yesterday I was back on 1570 cals.

I had a sneaky weigh-in this morning and I've gained 3lbs. All from 1 day off!

Why is it so easy and quick to gain weight, but so much slower to come off?!

Have I REALLY gained 3lbs from 1 day off?

As many say, it is water weight both from eating higher sodium that normal and from replenishing your stores of glycogen in your muscles, not to mention the food that is still working its way through your digestive tract. The likelihood of gaining 3 pounds of fat is minimal.

kshama2001

tmcracknell wrote: »

Out of interest how often do people have a diet free day?

I haven't decided whether or not I am going to log on Thanksgiving, but in general, if I want to eat more, I exercise more, and log every day.

cwolfman13

christinasoonmrsnewton wrote: »

I'm just curious really

I went to 2 celebrations on Saturday and didn't calorie count at all. At a rough guess, I'd say I ate 3000 calories that day.

Yesterday I was back on 1570 cals.

I had a sneaky weigh-in this morning and I've gained 3lbs. All from 1 day off!

Why is it so easy and quick to gain weight, but so much slower to come off?!

Have I REALLY gained 3lbs from 1 day off?

no...well, not fat anyway...that's not how your body works.

you consumed more so obviously you have more inherent waste in your system...waste has mass and thus weight. also, with increased consumption you are going to retain more water and you're going to replenish depleted glycogen stores...both have mass and thus weight.

body weight isn't a static number...3 Lbs is well within normal body weight fluctuations for most people.

weight management, whether you're talking about losing, maintaining, or gaining is all about trend analysis over time, not the day to day.

lorrpb

tmcracknell wrote: »

Out of interest how often do people have a diet free day?

I'm not "on a diet", so I never "go off" a diet. Before started I realized I needed to make changes I could sustain the rest of my life. My eating plan includes a few treats now and then. Quite frankly, if I gorge myself or eat a lot of food I'm not used to, it doesn't sit well & I feel horrible. It's just not worth it to me.

Sw 301
CW 183
GW 150
17 months

lynn_glenmont

mikevandewetering wrote: »

carbs retain more water. Bodybuilding.com says this: Every gram of carbohydrate you take into the body, you'll store four grams of water with this.

I believe this should be 4 grams of water for every gram of glycogen (a type of carbs your body uses for "quick-energy" storage) that you store, rather than carbs consumed in general. When you're eating at deficit, your body taps its glycogen stores, and rids itself of the associated water -- hence early big losses for many people starting a new deficit-calorie diet. When you consume an energy surplus, your body tops off its glycogen stores, and retains water along with the glycogen. When you go back to a deficit, your body will again tap the glycogen stores and shed the retained water.

If you're eating at deficit, your body isn't retaining 4 grams of water for every gram of carbs you consume. It's using those carbs, so it doesn't need to store them.

It's also likely that in your 3000 calorie splurge you consumed more sodium than you typically do, which can also cause your body to retain more water.

christinasoonmrsnewton

Thanks so so so much everyone. This has been so helpful!

nordlead2005

lynn_glenmont wrote: »

mikevandewetering wrote: »

carbs retain more water. Bodybuilding.com says this: Every gram of carbohydrate you take into the body, you'll store four grams of water with this.

I believe this should be 4 grams of water for every gram of glycogen (a type of carbs your body uses for "quick-energy" storage) that you store, rather than carbs consumed in general. When you're eating at deficit, your body taps its glycogen stores, and rids itself of the associated water -- hence early big losses for many people starting a new deficit-calorie diet. When you consume an energy surplus, your body tops off its glycogen stores, and retains water along with the glycogen. When you go back to a deficit, your body will again tap the glycogen stores and shed the retained water.

If you're eating at deficit, your body isn't retaining 4 grams of water for every gram of carbs you consume. It's using those carbs, so it doesn't need to store them.

It's also likely that in your 3000 calorie splurge you consumed more sodium than you typically do, which can also cause your body to retain more water.

And this is why I was able to eat ~3000 calories (approximately maintenance when I do 50 minutes of cardio) for a week and go up 2.6lb, and lose that entire 2.6lb two days back into eating at a deficit (and not even exercising outside of some yard work).

Ninkyou

Jruzer wrote: »

Can't repost this one enough:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/993576/why-you-gain-weight-if-you-eat-more-than-your-cut/p1

Yeeessss, this.