Can you Lose water weight and fat at the same time?

HarlemNY17

I was just wondering due to the fact I never heard anyone speak on this before

kommodevaran

Water weight comes and goes all the time, independently from any fat loss.

CattOfTheGarage

Yes, of course. As @kommodevaran says, the two things have no real connection to each other. They're going on at the same time without affecting each other.

If you eat less food than you need to stay the same weight, you will lose fat at a fairly steady rate. But at the same time, water weight will be coming and going for all sorts of different reasons.

If you eat at a deficit one week (I mean really actually eat at a deficit, with accurate logging) and see no loss, it's probably because you have lost fat but incidentally gained a similar amount of water at the same time.

When you start a new weight loss effort and lose a large amount of weight in the first week, you have lost water weight and fat at the same time.

I hope this helps. It's worth asking these questions, because the better you can understand water weight, the better armed you are against being discouraged by fluctuations.

sijomial

Body fat is an energy store - when in an energy deficit you will be taking some of those stores away.

Water fluctuates for a whole host of different reasons unconnected with energy balance (sodium, alcohol, exercise, injury, inflamation, hydration levels.....) but one that is connected is your glycogen stores.
Glycogen binds with water so when you partially or temporarily reduce your glycogen (exercise or carb reduction) you get an exaggerated reduction in weight.

Here's a temporary blip in weight while on vacation, my guess would be 6lbs of water, 1lb of extra food in my gut and 3lbs of fat.
The dramatic dip is clearly mostly water and food related but hidden in there would be some of the fat loss too.

Machka9

kommodevaran wrote: »

Water weight comes and goes all the time, independently from any fat loss.

Yes ... this.

My water weight goes up and down depending on the amount of exercise I do, how much salt I take in, my TOM, whether or not it is hot outside, if I've taken a flight recently, if I have sunburn .....

My actual weight loss happens when I eat fewer calories than I burn.

TimothyFish

Yes. Some people have times during which they gain or maintain weight due to water retention. If during this time they continue eating at the same calorie deficit then when the water retention goes away they will weigh the same as they would expected had they not had the water retention.