Walked 57 miles in 5 days and gained weight??

BeautifulArtist28

I went on a hiking trip, I sweated a lot as I hiked 57 miles over 5 days.... I was excited to get home and see how it effected my weight... only to find out I gained a pound and a half.
I feel like I’ve watched The Biggest Loser enough times to know that shouldn’t have happened. I ate pretty healthy all 5 days minus a margarita one evening with a chicken quesadilla... and another evening of cheese fries.... each of those days I still stayed under allotted calories because I walked 10+ miles....
I don’t understand what happened.
I have lost 36 lbs with consistent healthy eating and exercise, I thought this hiking trip would boost me to help me kick start the last 10 lbs I want to lose.... it didn’t
Any thoughts?

BattyKnitter

Most likely your muscles are retaining water from the walking. When you do new/different exercise your muscle needs to heal after and retains water during that time, this should go away in a few days.

smoofinator

You walked WAY more than your body is used to. You pushed yourself, and your muscles are probably retaining water while in they're in "repair mode."

Here's a great (and entertaining) article describing the potential reasons for scale fluctuations: http://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations/

dblaesser

Wait another day. Sometimes your body needs to catch up with your activity. Also cut out the cheese fries.

smoofinator

dblaesser wrote: »

Wait another day. Sometimes your body needs to catch up with your activity. Also cut out the cheese fries.

Why? OP stayed under her calorie limit for those days, so no reason to cut out foods she enjoys. Extra salty stuff might contribute to water retention, but the weight is more likely due to muscle repair considering her diet for the rest of the trip.

RunJosh86

dblaesser wrote: »

Wait another day. Sometimes your body needs to catch up with your activity. Also cut out the cheese fries.

I LOVE CHEESE FRIES!

MikePTY

If you do a lot more exercise than normal, your body usually holds onto a whole lot more water to compensate. I gained 5 pounds in 2 days after I did a 4 hour martial arts belt test, because my body held onto every bit of fluid I gave it. I actually think it would have been more surprising if you had lost weight after 5 days of hiking that strenuously. The water weight will go down after a handful of days. I lost all of it in 3 days afterwards and I was lower than where I started.

On another note, I'd recommend forgetting everything you ever learned about weight loss from The Biggest Loser. That show is not indicative of healthy real life weight loss and using it as a guide will lead you astray.

comeonnow142857

Nothing to do with fat. It's perfectly normal for weight to fluctuate by much more than 1.5lbs without gaining fat weight. I "gain" 5lbs at least once every week, sometimes unpredictably, whooshing down to new lows at unexpected times - yet every other week my weight hits a new low and I'm a 1lb or 2 lighter than ever.

You will "gain weight" in this manner every single week for the rest of your life, whether you're losing fat or not - everyone's weight fluctuates with water/food/etc. It's not what you need to focus on.

JRsLateInLifeMom

Lol I eat healthy gain a pound or stay the same. Get depressed eat a McDonald’s grilled chicken burger drop a pound lol.
My body is a confused individual too hun. Just keep watching your calories,excersice ,y don’t let it get you down in a few days it will drop. My chart looks like the stock market up up up down way down back up down up etc. lol if I was the stock market everyone would be having heart attacks watching the roller coaster ride of numbers.
I find eating salty foods or drinking more water from hot days tends to bring my number up too. I retain water like a camel.

nooboots

BeautifulArtist28 wrote: »

I went on a hiking trip, I sweated a lot as I hiked 57 miles over 5 days.... I was excited to get home and see how it effected my weight... only to find out I gained a pound and a half.
I feel like I’ve watched The Biggest Loser enough times to know that shouldn’t have happened. I ate pretty healthy all 5 days minus a margarita one evening with a chicken quesadilla... and another evening of cheese fries.... each of those days I still stayed under allotted calories because I walked 10+ miles....
I don’t understand what happened.
I have lost 36 lbs with consistent healthy eating and exercise, I thought this hiking trip would boost me to help me kick start the last 10 lbs I want to lose.... it didn’t
Any thoughts?

Ignore what you saw on the scales, imagine it didnt happen and weigh yourself in a weeks time. No sneaky peaking.

durhammfp

This past Wed. I got back from a long vacation where I did a lot of hiking. (Oh and I inhaled massive amounts of fried seafood and beer... but more than enough hiking to compensate.)

Also, like you, I have lost ~35 during the last six months through tracking calories in and out.

First thing I did when I got back was to sleep for 16 hours. When I got up I weighed myself and saw that I was up over a pound from where I thought I should be. But now, two days later, I am down two pounds. It was all water retention. I figure I had eaten too much salty food but, whatever, it came off pretty quickly.

Wait a few days and see what happens.

nooboots

I am rather envious of you people who can go on holiday, have all this water retention and only see about a pound or so increase/fluctuation. I can put on 10lbs easy in a weekend, often due to nothing I have identified at all. Im literally like a balloon.

Jimb376mfp

Losing weight is never a simple explanation. There are so many variables that affect the weight so many ways.

The only thing I know is that if a person quits because they gain they will gain more.

Keep on the basic plan for CICO it will pay off in the long term.

jlklem

I have ridden my bike 48 hours (actual time pedaling, stops not included) in a week...850+ miles and gained weight...I think my total calories burn for the week (just biking) was well over 30000...this was above maintenance.

Over eating is easy and water weight as well as Inflammation (which can be a good thing) is also part of process.

You did a really cool adventure, revel in that, not some random number which is so convoluted after your adventure it’s pretty meaningless.

The last 10 pounds are harder, those last 10 are not randomly lost, at that level more percison is needed. I get down to 5% body fat every year as race season starts but the last 5lbs take ~8 weeks.