Inexplicable weight gain

nxd10

After six plus years of successful maintenance, I'm having trouble. I log and all the numbers looks good. But for the past year, every time I travel, I gain 5 pounds. These are short trips and I log the whole time - I know I'm not over-eating. I figure it's water from salt and flying (my ankles blow up like balloons).

It used to take me a week, then two, and now a month to get back down.

I'm still meticulous about logging. My calories can't get lower - I net 1230. I have started to exercise more. Since June I've added 45 minutes of elliptical 5 days a week to my normal 10K steps.

I took 3 trips this summer, bounced up 7 pounds (I swear it's not calories), and have only succeeded in losing 3. I am at a loss.

My current plan is to go on a strict Whole 30 plan for a month. That has been recommended by my doctor in the past and has worked well for me. Any other suggestions? I guess I could also go back to weighing my food.

LyndaBSS

Try weighing your food again. How long since you've used a food scale?

If you travel a lot, you must eat out a lot. Are you that sure of your calorie intake?

psychod787

nxd10 wrote: »

After six plus years of successful maintenance, I'm having trouble. I log and all the numbers looks good. But for the past year, every time I travel, I gain 5 pounds. These are short trips and I log the whole time - I know I'm not over-eating. I figure it's water from salt and flying (my ankles blow up like balloons).

It used to take me a week, then two, and now a month to get back down.

I'm still meticulous about logging. My calories can't get lower - I net 1230. I have started to exercise more. Since June I've added 45 minutes of elliptical 5 days a week to my normal 10K steps.

I took 3 trips this summer, bounced up 7 pounds (I swear it's not calories), and have only succeeded in losing 3. I am at a loss.

My current plan is to go on a strict Whole 30 plan for a month. That has been recommended by my doctor in the past and has worked well for me. Any other suggestions? I guess I could also go back to weighing my food.

Why not just stay whole 30? I mean from what I have read, it is safe long term. Can always find compliant foods out and about. When you DO CHOOSE to deviate, just hop right back on?

cupcakesandproteinshakes

I suspect it’s a combination of not weighing food and not being able to account for your intake accurately when away and eating out. I feel your pain. I always gain 5 pounds after a holiday and they are a pain to lose

LivingtheLeanDream

@nxd10 I could have written this post! I am finding this summer after having a two week vacation and then a month later a long weekend away that I am just not bouncing back down to where I usually sit - I'm actually 2lbs over my goal weight range of +/-5lbs - (i.e weighing 7lbs more!). I also have been maintaining for 6 years - and up til now pretty effortlessly. I haven't even needed to log my food in recent years until this spike started to be a new trend.

I have been weighing my food meticulously, having a consistent weekly deficit of 2000 calories minimum and exercising more - so far both to no avail and that's with 5 weeks of logging/data. Not sure what age you are but I suspect I'm peri-menopausal and I think hormones are playing a big part in this

All I know is I'll stick with eating at calorie deficit knowing it will work eventually, it has to! cos its science...right!

But I hear ya and it is really frustrating!

I have no intention of feeling fluffy at 50.

Ruth

nxd10

Why not just stay whole 30? I mean from what I have read, it is safe long term. Can always find compliant foods out and about. When you DO CHOOSE to deviate, just hop right back on?

I did Whole30 for a nine months last year. I just needed a break. We have other specialized diets in our home (celiac and low tyramine) and after a while it was too much.

nxd10

I never gain at home. It goes in bumps when I travel. And I eat sparcely when I travel and it will be three days and I gain ten pounds.

That's not fat.

The issue is how long it takes to lose it.

LivingtheLeanDream

Its probably mostly down to the flight, from what I've read it can take up to a week for weight gain to go from flying and if you're flying a lot, there's going to be water retention a lot too. Plus eating out usually means high sodium. At least you know its not fat gain.

nxd10

The sodium has become a major issue. It could be a kidney issue.

But doubling down on portion size is a food suggestion. All else, truth be told, there's new fat on my formerly petite backside.

psychod787

LivingtheLeanDream wrote: »

@nxd10 I could have written this post! I am finding this summer after having a two week vacation and then a month later a long weekend away that I am just not bouncing back down to where I usually sit - I'm actually 2lbs over my goal weight range of +/-5lbs - (i.e weighing 7lbs more!). I also have been maintaining for 6 years - and up til now pretty effortlessly. I haven't even needed to log my food in recent years until this spike started to be a new trend.

I have been weighing my food meticulously, having a consistent weekly deficit of 2000 calories minimum and exercising more - so far both to no avail and that's with 5 weeks of logging/data. Not sure what age you are but I suspect I'm peri-menopausal and I think hormones are playing a big part in this

All I know is I'll stick with eating at calorie deficit knowing it will work eventually, it has to! cos its science...right!

But I hear ya and it is really frustrating!

I have no intention of feeling fluffy at 50.

Ruth

But, I like your curves @LivingtheLeanDream ! I am a fan of what ole Freddy said...

healthylily2019

To add a different view here...would you happen to be traveling to a higher altitude? High altitude makes your body swell, retain water, produce extra blood cells. Also when I travel, which is soley camping at altitude, I gain weight despite eating less. I think it is the added salt and water retention. It goes away by itself.

sgt1372

I had the same experience starting about about 8 mos ago. Gained 10# in 3 mos for (to me) no apparent reason.

Scared the *kitten* out of me because it seemed inexplicable, given that I was still logging everything I ate,and was weighing myself daily.

I was able to lose the 10# in another 3 mos but the reason for the initial wt gain is still a mystery to me.

LivingtheLeanDream

sgt1372 wrote: »

I had the same experience starting about about 8 mos ago. Gained 10# in 3 mos for (to me) no apparent reason.

Scared the *kitten* out of me because it seemed inexplicable, given that I was still logging everything I ate,and was weighing myself daily.

I was able to lose the 10# in another 3 mos but the reason for the initial wt gain is still a mystery to me.

I was hoping you eventually could have shed light on why the gain our bodies are hard to work out sometimes! especially given you were logging/weighing etc.

sgt1372

LivingtheLeanDream wrote: »

sgt1372 wrote: »

I had the same experience starting about about 8 mos ago. Gained 10# in 3 mos for (to me) no apparent reason.

Scared the *kitten* out of me because it seemed inexplicable, given that I was still logging everything I ate,and was weighing myself daily.

I was able to lose the 10# in another 3 mos but the reason for the initial wt gain is still a mystery to me.

I was hoping you eventually could have shed light on why the gain our bodies are hard to work out sometimes! especially given you were logging/weighing etc.

My only guess is that I wasn't logging my cal intake accurately and eating much more than I thought I was at the time, despite no apparent chg in the way I was logging my food.

whmscll

nxd10 wrote: »

After six plus years of successful maintenance, I'm having trouble. I log and all the numbers looks good. But for the past year, every time I travel, I gain 5 pounds. These are short trips and I log the whole time - I know I'm not over-eating. I figure it's water from salt and flying (my ankles blow up like balloons).

It used to take me a week, then two, and now a month to get back down.

I'm still meticulous about logging. My calories can't get lower - I net 1230. I have started to exercise more. Since June I've added 45 minutes of elliptical 5 days a week to my normal 10K steps.

I took 3 trips this summer, bounced up 7 pounds (I swear it's not calories), and have only succeeded in losing 3. I am at a loss.

My current plan is to go on a strict Whole 30 plan for a month. That has been recommended by my doctor in the past and has worked well for me. Any other suggestions? I guess I could also go back to weighing my food.

I don’t know how to make words in the post above bolded, but what jumped out at me was the last line: “I guess I could also go back to weighing my food.” Just gonna take a guess here, but perhaps even after six years of maintenance you’ve begun underestimating calories/overestimating portions?

ahoy_m8

You mention swollen ankles and new fat on your formerly petite backside. Does the combination of those two things account for the difference you are seeing on the scale?

I had an experience this summer similar in some ways, different in others. It's life, so it's messy and not clear cut, but it started with travel. I logged but it was restaurant food and I didn't weigh it. I also overate. And I gained a couple pounds and that wasn't a surprise. But like you, it stuck around. Worse, I continued gaining another 3 pounds two months after after I buckled down, stopped eating out, weighed everything and ate at a deficit. Mysterious. I didn't really see it on my body, though. Life goes on and I spend several weeks doing a massive home project where I don't have a body weight scale, so I don't really know what happened on the scale for these couple weeks. 2 things happened, though. I was more active than normal (massive home project) and I had a period after 101 days without (perimenopause). After the period, I was suddenly 6 pounds down, less than I was in the first place. So the math all made sense in the end, but it took a while.

I don't know why it's taking longer than it used to to lose the travel water weight. But there are likely lots of factors at play like the sodium you mention, maybe hormones shifting for other reasons, the uncertainty of restaurant food & not weighing it. I know the kinds of food I eat when traveling are different - much lower fiber, higher carb & fat. I think I remember you normally have a really high fiber diet? Maybe we carry weight differently in the absence of "nature's broom"? Hard to know precisely because there are so many factors.

I've been maintaining a long time, too, and the simplest way I have ever tried to get on track is weighing food and counting accurately. It removes much of the mystery, even when it takes a couple months.

nxd10

I know I don't overeat traveling - I actually eat very sparsely and carry a lot of food with me. But it's salty. High salt and flying put on a lot of water. I expect that.

I actually am pretty positive I know what's wrong. This thread has been helping me think through it. It's carbs.

You may not be sensitive to carbs, but I am. I come from a family where everyone has diabetes except me. Spent four days upping my protein and dropping my carbs (Whole30) and dropped 5 pounds. Had a slice of birthday cake last night and gained 3.

I just have to drop the sugar and grains. As I've gotten older (I'm 60) I think my body has gotten more and more sensitive to it. And I spent the summer drinking tea with sugar. It's not a lot of calories, but it's a lot of carbs.

pjwrt

Take a train. There's no reason to leave a perfectly good airport.

PAV8888

@nxd10 I admit to being surprised by your comment indicating that a 5lb loss and 3lb regain associated with starting and stopping a time period of eating low(er) carb was not expected.

If one practices low carb eating as a method of controlling calories I would expect one to be aware that weight fluctuations when starting and interrupting low carb eating are mostly due to glycogen loss and regain.

Glycogen loss and regain have nothing to do with fat reserve changes and would be classified as lean mass changes, if anything.

And in the context of someone eating lower carb long-term I would just consider them water weight fluctuations..

nxd10

I do think it's water. That's my point. I never thought that I could gain 10 pounds in fat in four days eating normal meals. It is water. I just don't know why I can't shed it after I return from traveling and a higher carb/higher salt diet. I always could. It has taken longer and longer. Now I simply can't.

The answer is, I have to stay on a paleo-like diet at this point in my life.

LivingtheLeanDream

nxd10 wrote: »

I do think it's water. That's my point. I never thought that I could gain 10 pounds in fat in four days eating normal meals. It is water. I just don't know why I can't shed it after I return from traveling and a higher carb/higher salt diet. I always could. It has taken longer and longer. Now I simply can't.

The answer is, I have to stay on a paleo-like diet at this point in my life.

but if you know its only water and not fat gain, then there's not really an issue - maybe throw the scales out? I know I am tempted to do away with mine.