Can a swollen ankle cause weight gain?

glassyo

Obviously not *real* weight gain but maybe masked water weight or something?

I've had a swollen ankle for about a month (seeing a podiatrist tomorrow) so my exercise has been somewhat reduced as has my food intake. I also cheated less (didn't underestimate logging stuff I just had no idea the calories of) and my sodium was the same as it usually is but had a lb and a half of weight gain at my last weigh in on Saturday.

I don't really care if I lose any more weight...I just don't want to start gaining again and I'm curious.

shadowfax_c11

I've had a swollen ankle since july. It hasn't stopped me from losing weight. It has slowed my activity down a little but not enough to really matter.

Alatariel75

Swelling is fluid collecting at the site of an injury, so by it's very definition, swelling will be water weight.

shadowfax_c11

Alatariel75 wrote: »

Swelling is fluid collecting at the site of an injury, so by it's very definition, swelling will be water weight.

Yes but it is pretty unlikely that a swollen ankle contains 1.5 pounds of water. If it does then OP needs to get to a Dr ASAP.

Alatariel75

shadowfax_c11 wrote: »

Alatariel75 wrote: »

Swelling is fluid collecting at the site of an injury, so by it's very definition, swelling will be water weight.

Yes but it is pretty unlikely that a swollen ankle contains 1.5 pounds of water. If it does then OP needs to get to a Dr ASAP.

This is true. That's a lot of water.

PAV8888

There are many reasons why your water weight can vary by 1.5lbs, even 3lbs, even 5lbs in a month without any actual weight gain. In fact you could easily scale weight on the 30th 3lbs up from what you did on the 1st and still have lost 2lbs of weight that month.

Start using a trending weight app.

Please save your sanity.

Libra-Android
Happy Scale-iPhone
www.trendweight.com, which I like and use, requires supported scale, or free fitbit.com account (available without a fitbit product)
www.weightgrapher.com, allows for direct manual data entry in addition to supported scale or fitbit.com account)

glassyo

shadowfax_c11 wrote: »

Alatariel75 wrote: »

Swelling is fluid collecting at the site of an injury, so by it's very definition, swelling will be water weight.

Yes but it is pretty unlikely that a swollen ankle contains 1.5 pounds of water. If it does then OP needs to get to a Dr ASAP.

LOL that's a really good point. The ankle isn't huge or anything.

Please save your sanity.

Ask a myriad of people. I think it's pretty late for that.

It would have been a nice easy answer to the weight gain tho. With these last few pounds that I don't care if I lose or not, my picture is the definition of non linear. Up a pound one week, down .4 oz the next, down another .2 the next. 1 1/2 was a big jump and there's this part of me that's worried about gaining and not stopping without thinking I changed anything because that's what happened when I hit a plateau on weight watchers and started counting calories instead. 30 lbs and a fitbit later it started coming off again.

So thanks for the answers!

shadowfax_c11

I can't see your diary but I would suggest looking at your recent sodium intake. I tend to eat a lot of it and also go through times when I don't drink much. When I get consistently high sodium numbers and low water intake I always pick up a few pounds of water until I remember to bring my fluid intake back up.

cwolfman13

Any kind of inflammation causes weight gain because inflammation causes you to retain fluids for repair. This is why you can gain scale weight when you start a new workout or do something different, etc...when you're sore, you have inflammation and thus fluid retention. This is also why people gain scale weight immediately after a surgery or other trauma.

That said, there are a myriad of things that can cause you to retain fluids...more carbs than usual...more salt than usual or unbalanced electrolytes, hormones, etc. I doubt a swollen ankle is contributing 1.5 Lbs, it may be part of it but probably not the whole story.