Weight DOWN after a "cheat" day?

brinkbodin

Hello,

I've been eating around 2,170 calories a day and losing weight very slowly, on purpose. Normally eat 150-170ish grams of carbs per day.

Yesterday I got a good workout in and then proceeded to stuff my face with carbs. Chocolate muffins, brownies, soda. Ended the day around 3,100 calories.

So I wake up this morning, fully expecting to have put on 4 pounds of bloat and water retention, per the norm. Low and behold, I am down a half pound from the day before!

What kind of freak voodoo black magic is this?Should I be worried that an airplane will crash into me while walking down the street today?? What is the bro science behind this? Now I'm wondering if I should eat a surplus of cake more often...

Btw, I stay well hydrated.

Monsterdog1114

Sounds normal (for me). Despite all the expert claims, I think the change in plan helps.

Mentali

This happens to me a lot. I can't explain it, but despite the knowledge of how energy works a higher calorie day is often what it takes to break a stall for me. None of the theories I've heard have real scientific backing, so I just accept that it's a thing and don't think too hard.

JoshuaMcAllister

I totally feel you.
This has happened to me once or twice. A month ago, I had a 4 day weekend for a friends 30th, meal prepped for my standard calorie intake, consumed some many empty calories of alcohol on top of my daily intake with no exercise and miraculously I had dropped 5 pounds. No explanation for it but thankful, I definitely thought there would see an increase on return.

So yeah be thankful, I'm assuming it won't work like that every cheat weekend.

Probably no miracle for me, it was probably a drop in water weight from dehydration even if I tried to stay well hydrated over the 4 days.

AlphaCajun

You just experienced the miracle known as a carb refeed without even knowing what you were doing. Look it up and the science behind it. Leptin levels, fat cells and a bunch of sciency stuff.

erinc5

I keep a pretty low calorie and low carb diet all week (500-900 calorie deficit depending on the day), but then on the weekends, I usually end up having 1 huge cheat meal (not a whole cheat day) which brings my calories for the day up to maintenance and my carb levels about 4 or 5 times higher than normal. The day after or 2 days after this maintenance day is usually the day each week when I see the biggest drop on the scale.

I can't explain it either, other than, I know I'm still in a deficit. The body just reacts weird to the extra calories or carbs or something? I don't know? I'd probably be losing more if I didn't have a controlled cheat meal, but it seems to be working. Feel free to have random meals where you eat more than normal, but just remember, you still have to be in a deficit overall for the week/month in order to see losses.

vismal

This isn't a magical phenomena, nor does it go against energy conservation (calories in vs. out). It's primarily based on water retention. A high calorie, specifically high carb, slight overfeeding often causes the body to release retained water. It has nothing to do with "changing things up" or "tricking the body". This article talks more in depth about what is going on for those interested: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/of-whooshes-and-squishy-fat.html/

Energy conservation still applies. While a post cheat day weigh in might show a weight loss, it's not because of fat loss. Doing regularly scheduled cheat days with the intention of losing more fat will be a failed endeavour. There are benefits for occasional cheat/free days or controlled refeeds but they relate more to psychological benefits or benefits to training. They can have a minimal effect on leptin and other metabolic adaptations that occur with prolonged dieting but if that your intention is to correct those, a 2 week diet break is FAR more effective than a single cheat/free meal or refeed.

StealthHealth

I've experienced this but only when I've also had alcoholic drinks, so in that instance it was dehydration.

zyxst

My non-science-y reply is you ate food you really, really enjoy (I'm jealous reading your OP) and it helped release stress in your system.

Or go with what vismal said.

Mouse_Potato

I generally don't have cheat meals or cheat days, but I do have days when I just can't seem to control my appetite. I give in and stuff my face a bit more than normal and the next day or two shows a loss. I was starting to wonder if my body wasn't already "scheduled" for that loss and the ravenous hunger was a last-ditch effort to keep it from happening!

Azdak

Weight loss/gain doesn't follow a 24 hour eating/living cycle.

brinkbodin

vismal wrote: »

This isn't a magical phenomena, nor does it go against energy conservation (calories in vs. out). It's primarily based on water retention. A high calorie, specifically high carb, slight overfeeding often causes the body to release retained water. It has nothing to do with "changing things up" or "tricking the body". This article talks more in depth about what is going on for those interested: http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/of-whooshes-and-squishy-fat.html/

Energy conservation still applies. While a post cheat day weigh in might show a weight loss, it's not because of fat loss. Doing regularly scheduled cheat days with the intention of losing more fat will be a failed endeavour. There are benefits for occasional cheat/free days or controlled refeeds but they relate more to psychological benefits or benefits to training. They can have a minimal effect on leptin and other metabolic adaptations that occur with prolonged dieting but if that your intention is to correct those, a 2 week diet break is FAR more effective than a single cheat/free meal or refeed.

Oh ok. I was always under the impression that it was the other way around. That you'd retain water after a high carb day. This stuff is so confusing and all over the place.

vismal

It can get confusing from time to time but the best way to handle all of it is through the averaging of daily weights. Day to day weight is completely meaningless for so many reason (water fluctuations, food in stomach, sodium intake, etc) that while I weigh daily, I pay almost no attention to the number. Rather I take an average of daily weights each week. Then after a month, compare those weekly averages. This is far more telling about what your weight is actually doing. If there is not a downward trend then you are most likely not in a calorie deficit either through miscounting or having calories set too high.

pipmcgrath

Called the whoosh effect. Google it, it makes sense!

StacyChrz

AlphaCajun wrote: »

You just experienced the miracle known as a carb refeed without even knowing what you were doing. Look it up and the science behind it. Leptin levels, fat cells and a bunch of sciency stuff.

Yup, it's something like this.

MonkeyMel21

Happens to me often! It's perplexing and awesome at the same time, lol. It's when I go all out for more than two days that I encounter a several pound gain that slowly goes back down over the next week of resumed calorie restriction.