7lbs?

jsae06
jsae06 Posts: 11 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
This morning I stepped on the scale and I was up 7lbs. For the past 1.5 weeks I haven't been tracking but I definitely didn't eat enough calories to add up to a 7lb gain. I try to only weigh myself 1x per week so I'm not discouraged by any fluctuations. Any insight/advice besides starting to track again which I'm doing today?

Replies

  • darrenbeckworth
    darrenbeckworth Posts: 64 Member
    Well, you already know you didn't eat 24,500 calories above maintenance last week. Just keep tracking, working out when possible, and drink plenty of water. Your body will lose the excess water weight you put on over the next few days. Don't let a few bad days and some water weight send you spiraling.
  • Tacklewasher
    Tacklewasher Posts: 7,122 Member
    I weigh daily and this morning was up ~ 5lbs from Saturday morning. But I knew it was coming based on what I ate this weekend, and that it's mostly water and food in transit. So I don't worry about it, go back to plan and expect to have it all gone by the end of the week.

    Honestly, I get less discouraged by weighing daily than I would weekly.

    In your case, you probably bumped up the carbs>>more glycogen>>more water weight. I know for me there was a lot more sodium involved as well.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    jsae06 wrote: »
    This morning I stepped on the scale and I was up 7lbs. For the past 1.5 weeks I haven't been tracking but I definitely didn't eat enough calories to add up to a 7lb gain. I try to only weigh myself 1x per week so I'm not discouraged by any fluctuations. Any insight/advice besides starting to track again which I'm doing today?

    Water weight
  • jefamer2017
    jefamer2017 Posts: 416 Member
    I was up 3lbs this week because I ate a bunch of salty food and didn't hydrate well enough. I also ate more than my goal 3 days in a row, still in a deficit but a small one. I have hydrated and lowered my sodium and lost it already.
  • DX2JX2
    DX2JX2 Posts: 1,921 Member
    edited April 2018
    This is one reason I'm not really a fan of weighing only once per week. There are too many variables that can affect your weight on any given day such that real trends might be impossible to see until a month or two later.

    That said, if comparing vs. yesterday or a couple of days ago the 7lbs is either water and/or food not yet passed. On the other hand, if the 7lbs is the difference vs. when you stopped tracking a week and a half ago, then there could actually be a pound or two of real gain in there.

    Either way it's not a problem. You'll see the scale drop over the next couple of days and getting back into tracking (at least temporarily) will help to 'reset' your focus.
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,439 Member
    Water weight.

    Water can be retained in the muscles for repair, if you've done new-to-you exercise.

    In females, hormones cause lots of water weight issues, specifically during ovulation and/or TOM.

    Eating more carbs or sodium than your body is used to will cause water weight. (I can't remember the scientific reason behind it.)

    Travel/flying can cause water weight. I gain like 8 pounds in one flight.

    Excessive temperatures can cause water weight.

    Sunburns and other inflammatory-type injuries can cause water weight.
  • fitoverfortymom
    fitoverfortymom Posts: 3,452 Member
    quiksylver296 wrote: »

    Sunburns and other inflammatory-type injuries can cause water weight.

    Interesting. I got a little pink on my run this weekend. That could definitely explain some things. I HATE getting sunburned. It was a stupid mistake of thinking "it's chilly" vs "it's sunny" and not putting sunscreen anywhere but my face.
  • AmberSpamber
    AmberSpamber Posts: 391 Member
    water retention, pending bowel movements and hormonal changes will all cause a swing. Don't stress it.
  • SalinitySally
    SalinitySally Posts: 258 Member
    quiksylver296 wrote: »
    Water weight.

    Water can be retained in the muscles for repair, if you've done new-to-you exercise.

    In females, hormones cause lots of water weight issues, specifically during ovulation and/or TOM.

    Eating more carbs or sodium than your body is used to will cause water weight. (I can't remember the scientific reason behind it.)

    Travel/flying can cause water weight. I gain like 8 pounds in one flight.

    Excessive temperatures can cause water weight.

    Sunburns and other inflammatory-type injuries can cause water weight.

    Watching "Survivor" causes me to gain water weight. So does looking at a dessert menu. I just pretend there's a guerilla war going on in my body and as long as I don't give up, the water weight won't win.
  • stanmann571
    stanmann571 Posts: 5,727 Member
    fitoverfortymom wrote: »
    quiksylver296 wrote: »

    Sunburns and other inflammatory-type injuries can cause water weight.

    Interesting. I got a little pink on my run this weekend. That could definitely explain some things. I HATE getting sunburned. It was a stupid mistake of thinking "it's chilly" vs "it's sunny" and not putting sunscreen anywhere but my face.

    LOL, I learned this lesson for the first time Last summer. I picked up almost 15 lbs at a picnic between exposure and BBQ/Pot luck food/carbs/salt/corn
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    You haven't tracked so you don't know how much you actually have eaten over your calories.
    A lot of it will be water weight though, so get back to logging now and you'll soon know if any of those 7lbs is real gain.
  • MelanieCN77
    MelanieCN77 Posts: 4,047 Member
    jsae06 wrote: »
    This morning I stepped on the scale and I was up 7lbs. For the past 1.5 weeks I haven't been tracking but I definitely didn't eat enough calories to add up to a 7lb gain. I try to only weigh myself 1x per week so I'm not discouraged by any fluctuations. Any insight/advice besides starting to track again which I'm doing today?

    I feel like if you get a month of weighing daily under you belt you'll find the opposite happens.
  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    ps how do you know that one day a week you chose to weigh wasn't your 'high' day.
  • SalinitySally
    SalinitySally Posts: 258 Member
    MelanieCN77 wrote: »
    jsae06 wrote: »
    This morning I stepped on the scale and I was up 7lbs. For the past 1.5 weeks I haven't been tracking but I definitely didn't eat enough calories to add up to a 7lb gain. I try to only weigh myself 1x per week so I'm not discouraged by any fluctuations. Any insight/advice besides starting to track again which I'm doing today?

    I feel like if you get a month of weighing daily under you belt you'll find the opposite happens.

    I totally agree. I get on the scale with a long term attitude ("maybe I'm up a pound today but by my weekly weigh in I'll likely be at goal" or "I didn't hit my goal for the week but let's see what it looks like tomorrow"). So many of us have had No Loss, No Loss, No Loss, No Loss but then a pretty decent loss suddenly appears. Those appear for me between weekly weigh ins and I don't want to miss them. (Obviously I'm choosing to refuse to be discouraged when I know intellectually that I'm maintaining a calorie deficit and that the scale WILL show it eventually---or my body will look like I'm losing anyway.)
  • MelanieCN77
    MelanieCN77 Posts: 4,047 Member
    edited April 2018
    ^ Yep. You start to get a better understanding - what saltier food does, higher volume, lower fibre, time of the month, if you drank more water than usual, how long it takes you personally to bounce bank from a garbage day. You can get to predicting what the scale will say, which I find a lot healthier mentally than playing mood roulette once a week.

  • fitoverfortymom
    fitoverfortymom Posts: 3,452 Member
    edited April 2018
    Weighing daily is where it's at, IMO. I find it actually helps remove the stress of a weekly weigh in and wondering if "I did it right." Get up. Pee. Hop on scale. Log weight. Move on. That way I have data to support any anomalies if I don't think things are going the way they should. 99% of the time if I'm not trending down the way I'd like, it's because of my dietary choices, 1% of the time it's due to external circumstances (TOM, sunburn, food digesting). It's never been because I have a unique condition that works outside the scientific notion of calorie deficit to lose weight.
  • Sharon_C
    Sharon_C Posts: 2,132 Member
    This is why I recommend weighing daily, logging it and looking at the trends rather than focusing on one day a week.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    quiksylver296 wrote: »
    Water weight.

    Water can be retained in the muscles for repair, if you've done new-to-you exercise.

    In females, hormones cause lots of water weight issues, specifically during ovulation and/or TOM.

    Eating more carbs or sodium than your body is used to will cause water weight. (I can't remember the scientific reason behind it.)

    Travel/flying can cause water weight. I gain like 8 pounds in one flight.

    Excessive temperatures can cause water weight.

    Sunburns and other inflammatory-type injuries can cause water weight.

    Every gram of carbohydrate holds 4 grams of water.

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