7lb gain in 3 days- wtf!!

xjessicaxrx

So I was expecting a slight increase in my weight (maybe 2-3lb) after a big Chinese on Friday, quite a few drinks Saturday and a Pizza last night, but jesus christ 7lb!?
I did go for a 2.5 mile run on Saturday and horse riding yesterday which I do feel a bit achey from? But how de-motivating! Does anyone else ever get shockers like this? As you have probably gathered I am not very happy with myself.

girl_inflames

water weight. My weight loss is literally like waves...I lose and GAIN. I stick at the gain for awhile and then I lose even more...constant ups and downs. Don't feel too bad about it, just keep doing what you're doing!

ogtmama

Chinese and pizza are made of pure salt. Just give it a few days for the water retention to wear off and keep an eye on your sodium level on the nutrients screen. Plus achey muscles from exercise? Oy.

rsclause

Same here but I knew it was going to be bad after Nachos, Sushi and lots of beer. On the bright side when it goes on quick it can come off quick too.

mankars

...... too many carbs and sodium causes the alarming weight gains.
Happens to me most of the weekend.
But, keep up with your regular diet & exercise routine for this week & you will see the pounds go down.

minizebu

Anytime you have an increase in the amount of carbohydrate intake and sodium intake, above and beyond what you would normally average, then you are going to see a spike in your weight, especially if you have been limiting your carb intake prior to the splurge.

When you eat fewer carbohydrates, your body ends up using up its glycogen stores. Once you have a day when you eat a carbohydrate-rich meal or meals, your body utilizes the carbohydrate to restore its glycogen supply. Glycogen binds up with water, so you will have a water weight gain following the carbohydrate rich meal or meals.

After a few days or a week of eating your typical diet, your weight will likely stabilize back to what it was before.

Also, extra sodium in the diet can increase water retention, as well.

Lucy1752

Any time I eat Chinese or pizza my body reacts to the sodium with at least 3-4 pounds, so having both those things, plus alcohol - I would be way up for a few days. It takes my body several days to flush all that retaining weight sodium from my system.
Fluid retention can also be worse in hot weather and can cause you to have aches and pains.
Give it a few days to level out.
And don't beat yourself up. What's done is done and can be undone with more mindful eating this week.

AndyJBacon

Water and muscle. This is why I only weigh once a week. It evens out the BS fluctuations like this.
Keep at it. You'll probably drop 10 in the next week.

dolliesdaughter

Chinese and pizza, lots of sodium, lots of water retention. LOL, when I had a period, I gained at least 10 lbs around that time of month, all temporary.

Ready2Rock206

Drink up - lots of extra water this week to flush out all that sodium!

TrueHeart1430

Seems like water weight.

ogtmama

AndyJBacon wrote: »

Water and muscle. This is why I only weigh once a week. It evens out the BS fluctuations like this.
Keep at it. You'll probably drop 10 in the next week.

Do you find that? If I hit the wrong days I could go a whole month thinking I never lost anything. Weighing every day I can see what the real trend is and what's an anomaly. Funny what works for different people can be so far off

xjessicaxrx

Thanks everyone, I have just realised that its that time of the month soon too so that probs wont be helping either! Its just a one off bad weekend iv been on track for 4 weeks straight now so I just hope its not all "real" weight gain

cerise_noir

AndyJBacon wrote: »

Water and muscle. This is why I only weigh once a week. It evens out the BS fluctuations like this.
Keep at it. You'll probably drop 10 in the next week.

No, definitely NOT muscle. Muscle is hard to gain for women and it has to be on purpose with heavy lifting and calorie surplus... And newbie gains aren't that fast...

It is definitely water weight. For every pound, one has to eat 500 calories over their TDEE every day for a week.

Ahh, and TOM! Yeah, that's a doozy.

michelleepotter

eveandqsmom wrote: »

AndyJBacon wrote: »

Water and muscle. This is why I only weigh once a week. It evens out the BS fluctuations like this.
Keep at it. You'll probably drop 10 in the next week.

Do you find that? If I hit the wrong days I could go a whole month thinking I never lost anything. Weighing every day I can see what the real trend is and what's an anomaly. Funny what works for different people can be so far off

I was always too scared to only weigh once a week. At least once a week I have one day that my weight is totally off from the rest of the week, and I think, "What if that was the only weight I saw?" For example, today I'm a bit up because of eating out last night, and last Monday I was low, so if I only weighed on Mondays I'd think I'd gained a pound and a half! I weigh daily and then every Monday I do an average of all of my weights for the past week and log that as my "official" weight. Doing that, I can see that I've actually lost 1.2 pounds this week.

ryry_

Take a deep breath...Its water weight...Its temporary...It will level out...Everything will be fine.

Raptor2763

Chinese food is full of MSG, which acts like salt to retain fluid. Ditto the pizza - especially if it's got pepperoni or anything like that as a topping. Also - WHEN did you eat? It's important to remember the 3-hour rule: dinner should be at least 3 hours before bed. Last thing to bear in mind - you can't exercise away a bad diet.

janejellyroll

Raptor2763 wrote: »

Chinese food is full of MSG, which acts like salt to retain fluid. Ditto the pizza - especially if it's got pepperoni or anything like that as a topping. Also - WHEN did you eat? It's important to remember the 3-hour rule: dinner should be at least 3 hours before bed. Last thing to bear in mind - you can't exercise away a bad diet.

Why should dinner be at least three hours before bed? I often eat dinner very late and go to bed less than three hours later. It didn't seem to be a problem with losing 40+ pounds and maintaining that loss and I know there are multiple other posters here who also eat later in the evening and have success.

xjessicaxrx

Doing something is better than doing nothing though? Plus I enjoy it! What difference does the time I ate make?

Ricksh1000

Wow i've learned a lot from this thread alone!

Keep at it and don't lose faith

Rick

gertmeister

It's water weight. You have to eat an excess of 3500 cal to gain 1 lb in stored fat.

Carnhot

I seem to have acquired 1.5k which I can't really account for, so I am taking all this good advice for myself.

xjessicaxrx

Would that 1lb show up straight away, like within 24 hours of eating the excess food?

janejellyroll

xjessicaxrx wrote: »

Would that 1lb show up straight away, like within 24 hours of eating the excess food?

It would take more than 24 hours for your body to process and store the energy in the food. In the 24 hours range, the actual food itself is still in your body and any extra weight is from the food and the water retention associated with processing high amounts of sodium and/or carbohydrates. Also, if you exercise enough to experience muscle pain, you may also be retaining water to help your muscles recover (this is quite common when people exercise hard).

Ob30470z

You can gain muscle without eating at a surplus, provided your calories don't get too low.
Though I agree with the rest of the above, lots of water retention. Don't panic!

xjessicaxrx

How long until it goes away then do you think? I drink lots of water every day anyway, at least 10 pint glasses.

ccrdragon

It varies by the person - I can lose water weight in 1-2 days but others have posted that water weight can hang around for several days.

As to the poster above you, it is darn near impossible for the average individual to gain muscle when eating at a deficit. You can increase strength pretty easily (especially at the beginning of a new weight routine), but 99% of the people will simply maintain muscle mass (or minimize muscle loss) in a caloric deficit.

ogtmama

It's also coinciding with your tom so you might ave to be patient a little extra long

ashliedelgado

xjessicaxrx wrote: »

Doing something is better than doing nothing though? Plus I enjoy it! What difference does the time I ate make?

It doesn't, that advice is bunk. If you want to eat dinner 7 seconds before bed, do you girl. The deficit counts, not the time of day.

ashliedelgado

As far as how long it takes for water weight to go away, a wild weekend could take me a day or two to get off. But TOM... my experience, 3-4 days for that water weight to go away

itsthehumidity

It's either increased water weight, or you consumed 24,500 surplus calories. I'm thinking the latter is more likely, there's no way it's extra water retained from all the high sodium food.