Water weight I think

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Gibby349
Gibby349 Posts: 119 Member
in Motivation and Support
Okay so I gained 3 pounds over the last 3 to 4 days by eating at maintenance. I have no idea why this happened but I have drank lots of water yesterday to try flush it out . Today when I weighed I'm still up the 3 pounds .Does this go away or is it an actual gain ? I am actually freaking out

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  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
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    For it to be an actual gain you would have needed to eat 10,500 calories over maintenance. So yes, it's a combination of water and the food sitting in your system. Give it a few more days and it should drop off.
  • rankinsect
    rankinsect Posts: 2,238 Member
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    It's certainly not fat gain if you were eating at maintenance.

    It's probably water gain by your muscles and liver storing more glycogen (the animal equivalent of starch, and the storage form of carbs in the body). When you're on a prolonged deficit your body is going to have lower glycogen levels than when you're on a prolonged maintenance, because on a deficit, some of that glycogen is being consumed for energy and not being replenished fully.

    Glycogen needs the cell to gain about four times the glycogen weight in water weight, and the water stays as long as the glycogen does. So if you go back to a deficit, you'll eventually lose this water weight, but if you are going onto maintenance for good, this is simply your maintenance weight. It's not unusual to maintain at a higher weight than your minimum you achieved on a deficit by several pounds.
  • Gibby349
    Gibby349 Posts: 119 Member
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    malibu927 wrote: »
    For it to be an actual gain you would have needed to eat 10,500 calories over maintenance. So yes, it's a combination of water and the food sitting in your system. Give it a few more days and it should drop off.

    Thank you .It's so great to be reassured on here otherwise I'd go insane lol.So relieved to know that it will go away in a few days
  • Gibby349
    Gibby349 Posts: 119 Member
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    rankinsect wrote: »
    It's certainly not fat gain if you were eating at maintenance.

    It's probably water gain by your muscles and liver storing more glycogen (the animal equivalent of starch, and the storage form of carbs in the body). When you're on a prolonged deficit your body is going to have lower glycogen levels than when you're on a prolonged maintenance, because on a deficit, some of that glycogen is being consumed for energy and not being replenished fully.

    Glycogen needs the cell to gain about four times the glycogen weight in water weight, and the water stays as long as the glycogen does. So if you go back to a deficit, you'll eventually lose this water weight, but if you are going onto maintenance for good, this is simply your maintenance weight. It's not unusual to maintain at a higher weight than your minimum you achieved on a deficit by several pounds.

    Will I lose just the water weight in the next week or more with the deficit as well and no I'm not going to maintenance still staying in a deficit of losing one pound a week

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