is it possible to gain 6 pounds in 3 days?

allisonander11

i was recently away for a birthday party and i ate a lot of cake (like a lot of it.. i totally lost my self control) and i gained about 6 lbs when i checked my weight this morning. is it actual fat that i gained or is it just a fluctuation that will go away in a few days? i have just restarted dieting like i was before the party and i hope i can get my self control back !

tinkerbellang83

It will for the most part be water weight. To gain 1lb of fat you need to eat approx 3500 calories above your maintenance intake. So unless you ate 21000 calories on top of you maintenance it's highly unlikely to be fat.

firef1y72

Unless you ate over 20000 Calories worth of cake there's no way it's fat. Much more likely it's normal fluctuations with a little extra water weight thrown in for good measure. Drink plenty of fluids and you should see most if not all of it drop back off over the next week.

Chieflrg

No, it's not fat.

It's undigested food, water, and normal fluctuations of the body.

SundropEclipse

I gain up to 10lbs in water weight the week before TOM, and sometimes up to 5 on the weekend if I'm constipated. Remember, everything you eat/drink has mass as well, so until your body finishes doing its thing you'll be carrying more than just your own body weight. Resume healthy practices and if you aren't going to the bathroom regularly increase your fiber and fats a bit to help get your digestion back on track.

MaddMaestro

Yes.

Just stick with good habits and it'll come off. No need to worry about a day or 3 of bad food as long as it's not consistant

DietVanillaCoke

If it's me surrounded by alcohol, pizza and chocolate, yes, very easy. I think i gained 15lbs in a month just from cocktails on holiday and i was roughly logging, some days 4000-5000calories.

But for most people unless you ate 3500 calories over your maintenance, it's highly unlikely. I'd say it's water retention. I gained 11lbs during my TOM after I had a fried food binge. 2 weeks later and some magnesium I was down 13lbs.

Get back to tracking, avoid the scale for a little while (if it's putting you down) and the water weight will come off.

malibu927

Of fat? No. Of water? Absolutely.

Silentpadna

allisonander11 wrote: »

i was recently away for a birthday party and i ate a lot of cake (like a lot of it.. i totally lost my self control) and i gained about 6 lbs when i checked my weight this morning. is it actual fat that i gained or is it just a fluctuation that will go away in a few days? i have just restarted dieting like i was before the party and i hope i can get my self control back !

Since weight has several components to it --- yes you can gain 6 pounds in 3 days. Chances are very high, however that not all of that is fat. Especially if you are talking about 1 birthday party. I don't know how many calories there are in your piece of cake, but you would probably have to eat about 42 slices of basic chocolate cake with chocolate frosting (just as an example) for that be all fat.

It's water weight.

rmgnow

Truth is, if you don't log, nobody knows.
Nobody knows how much you ate.
You don't know how much you ate

There are some cookies that are super calorie dense and I can eat those by the trick load.

Log your food

xvolution

Yes it's possible, depending on eating habits and any underlying medical conditions (I usually gain quite a bit over the weekend due to water weight). But like the others said, most of it will be water weight, assuming from any salt that was in that cake.

HeidiCooksSupper

Using the figures from Duncan Hines, a whole Devil's food cake is 2600 calories. Add a container of their fudge icing at 1690 calories and a whole cake is 4290 calories. Six pounds at 3500 calories a pound is 21,000 calories. 21000/4290=4.9

Since you are unlikely to have eaten almost five complete Devil's Food cakes with fudge icing, no, most of that is water weight. At most, you set yourself back a few days in your weight loss journey; it will take you a few days longer to reach your goal.