Does inflammation from injury cause weight gain?

sokkache

I recently injured my knee while skiing and stepped on the scale the other day and was up nearly 6 pounds. Last I weighed myself was maybe 2 weeks ago and I was around 154 but I've weighed myself the past 3 days and it's been hovering around 160. My knee is a little inflamed so I would assume it would retain water but not that much. I haven't eaten a caloric surplus but also am not in that much of a deficit either.

cwolfman13

Inflammation is fluid retention for healing...fluids have weight and thus it shows on a scale. The same thing happens when you workout...exercising causes inflammation and fluid retention for healing.

taco_inspector

Yep, swelling and several of the other mechanisms related to repairing trauma will cause water retention. 6lbs may seem crazy (like the weight of 3-quarts of water), but it's not an unreasonable amount, IMHO; even for your smaller frame.

Keeping up on your hydration should help your body to process / eliminate a lot of that as your knee recovers... (not a typical thing to measure, but sometimes you can watch the circumferential measure of your foot and ankle on the effected side change as you progress through recovery.

YouGotThisBabe

So sorry to hear about your knee injury!

Regarding inflammation and weight gain, 6 lb of water would take up a volume of about 2.7 L. So, unless your knee is massively swollen it is really unlikely that the localized inflammation is directly the cause. However: certain medications, including NSAID class drugs often used for athletic injury DO promote water retention. If you are on a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory, this could be why you are seeing the numbers on the scale go up.

Alternate explanations for some much water retention, if that is what is going on:
-there tends to be a lot of water retention in the last week of the menstrual cycle ie. the week before you get your period.
-increased consumption of sodium will increase water retention-- maybe you have been eating saltier foods?

Regarding caloric deficit:
If you are dealing with pain and trying to take care of the knee it is possible that you're a bit less active without realizing it-- a lot of the time, people who are in recovery from an injury are trying to avoid discomfort and so without realizing it decrease their non-activity exercise thermogenesis (ie. "how many calories you burn from random little movements, walking to look out the window, picking something up off the ground, fidgeting, etc.). So, you might be burning fewer calories than you realize just trying to sit still and help your knee recover.

Hope this helps somehow.

In any event, six pounds in the long run is nothing. You can do this!

Good luck with that knee.