Experience with initial gain after going to maintenance

alexandrakendal

Hi everyone,

Last week, on bed rest from exercise and recovering from gastric, I ended up breaking my diet and eating more, 1200-1600 depending on my stomach. Now I'm ten pounds heavier and just devastated...it's only been a week!

Has this happened to any of you beforehand? Does it go away? I feel uncomfortably heavy and my clothes don't fit, so it's not like it's just the scale. I refuse to believe it's fat.

Also now that I'm eating more to maintenance, I find myself super hungry! I had a lower appetite before, what gives?

I can't wait for pi day at this point *_*

ARGriffy

You've bloated yourself out from poor diet choices in my guess, the same happens to me I can be super lean one day, then gain 7lbs and feel puffy and horrible the day after! Continue on, your scale and body will catch up

alexandrakendal

What, is Beans on toast and cocoa supposed to be evil now? Ugh! Truly I don't feel like I ate either junk-ily or excessively, just a few hundred calories more of my usual fare.

I feel ya though on those 7 pounds. I just hope it goes away SOON.

dlmciver

It doesn't sound like you went into maintenance. It sounds like you went off plan when you reached your goal. I'm finding my maintenance plan is not much different from the way I ate when I was losing, just more calories and healthy fats.

AnnPT77

Ten pounds heavier by eating 1200-1600 . . . that many over maintenance? For a week?

Ten pounds = about 35,000 calories.
1600 over maintenance times 7 days = 11,200 calories.

So, no, if that data is correct. That would be a little over 3 pounds of actual gain (such as fat), and almost 7 pounds of what is probably water weight (which would make you bloated). The water weight should drop off fairly rapidly once you're back on your healthy routine (though it could be a little slower than usual while you're recuperating or on bed rest). Once you're fully healthy again, you can worry about losing the 3 pounds.

It's going to be OK, truly. Just focus on feeling better, and sticking to your healthy habits, for now.

As far as being hungry, perhaps try changing up the timing of your eating, or the nutritional composition of what you eat (while staying in a healthy range for your macros/micros, of course). Sometimes that makes a difference in satiation/satisfaction.

And consider a new hobby, something that keeps your mind and hands occupied (bonus if it requires clean hands ;-) , like maybe knitting or embroidery or somesuch).

macchiatto

I agree with @AnnPT77.
Also I'm not sure how long you've been at maintenance.
I just started last week and the scale bounced up 2 lbs but it's back down 1. I'm trying to increase my calories slowly though; about 100 calories for now and after about two weeks I'll go up another 100/day and so on.

LivingtheLeanDream

It's likely that you are bloated from the surgery - quite often for procedures they pump us full of gas/air which would lead to a temporary gain but it won't be real. Give your body time to recover/heal, keep eating at maintenance and you'll find all will be ok.

alexandrakendal

OH, not over maintenance, just 1200-1600 gross. I'm learning Python

AnnPT77

alexandrakendal wrote: »

OH, not over maintenance, just 1200-1600 gross. I'm learning Python

Then not a chance that it's 10 pounds of actual gain. Muscle repair (from exercise) can make your body hold water weight (part of the repair process, I believe), so I suspect that healing from the surgery could also add water weight.

I had laparoscopic gallbladder removal during weight loss, and my weight did increase a bit then hold there for quite a while after the surgery, before loss resumed.

Please don't under-nourish yourself while healing from the surgery . . . in retrospect, I wish I had gone up in calories after surgery (maybe all the way to maintenance) for two weeks or so - I think I would've felt better, faster. Nothing really bad happened, but I was more fatigued than I needed to be, I think.

Orphia

AnnPT77 wrote: »

alexandrakendal wrote: »

OH, not over maintenance, just 1200-1600 gross. I'm learning Python

Then not a chance that it's 10 pounds of actual gain. Muscle repair (from exercise) can make your body hold water weight (part of the repair process, I believe), so I suspect that healing from the surgery could also add water weight.

Yes, that.

You can't have gained that much fat so soon from cocoa and beans on toast.

Your body is holding water to aid repair.

Also, your situation is not normal for switching to maintenance. Illness and surgery aren't part of the switching plan. Sorry you have been through this.

Keep us updated on your progress. I expect and look forward to hearing about the "whoosh" back down!

dlmciver

OH, not over maintenance, just 1200-1600 gross.

Oops ! Sorry.... misunderstood.

alexandrakendal

I'm still puffy today but I don't feel oh-so-heavy anymore. Definitely still higher in weight though, so much so that I'm too chicken to check out the scales, and won't be doing so until I feel back (mostly) to the way I was. I'm pretty sure it's water too, since I'm sweating like crazy in all my workouts, and sometimes even abit at night. That's good, right? Metabolism perking up?

Rocknut53

alexandrakendal wrote: »

I'm still puffy today but I don't feel oh-so-heavy anymore. Definitely still higher in weight though, so much so that I'm too chicken to check out the scales, and won't be doing so until I feel back (mostly) to the way I was. I'm pretty sure it's water too, since I'm sweating like crazy in all my workouts, and sometimes even abit at night. That's good, right? Metabolism perking up?

My husband just had colostomy takedown surgery (not the same, I know), but his stomach got huge for several days after surgery. I could tell his whole body had retained fluid. It is now just starting to go down.

nxd10

My husband does that too. It's quite impressive. His problem is caused by gluten sensitivity. Other people react to other things.

It's not a real weight gain - it can't be. Go back to a more comfortable diet and your body will go back to being it's happy self.

alexandrakendal

I'm approaching normal again, I think. My normal, anyway.

I think the sudden blow up may have been an indication of overexercise. I did some research, and people with eating disorders where extra-extra damage is inflicted to the system-- think bulimics, or hypergymnasts-- tend to gain massive amounts of water retention. Similar to the swelling of twisted ankles. (???).

Now that I'm better I'm back to working out, though I'm a bit worried that the same thing will happen if I decide to go camping and not exercise for a week!

HOWEVER. One huge benefit of all this? Stopped using the scale. If I weigh in again, it'll be on a monthly or longer basis. Anxiety and stress and temporary relief of stress is not worth never having soup again.

nxd10

You should do whatever reduces your anxiety.