Help me feel sane (and antibiotics question)

ChickenKillerPuppy

So last time I was freaking out a bit the folks on the message boards made me feel MUCH better, and I need your help again. Just some background/context info. I am 48 years old, 5'4". I hit my goal in March 2020 (I had been maintaining for a few years until 2018 and then gained about 25 pounds which I kept on until I hit goal again in March 2020). I have been very successfully maintaining at between 119 - 121 almost without exception from March - July. My original goal range had been 125-130, but my body naturally moved me to the 120-125 range which I consider my current goal range. I am quite active (run 3-4 days a week and do a barre (strength training) class 3 days a week and log about 17K-20K steps a day) and need about 2100 calories a day to maintain my weight generally.

The week of July 12th my husband and I went on vacation and rented a cabin. I weighed 120.6 on the day I left for vacation. I was gone 7 days. By choice, I definitely indulged during vacation - a lot. I drank a lot (every day) and ate a lot (including a lot of high calorie foods and dessert every day). I probably over did it, but I was aware of what I was doing and made those choices and I am fine with that. I went on two hikes and I did two barre classes over the week, but was well below 10K each day (except for perhaps the hiking days).

I got back on a Sunday and didn't weigh myself Monday or Tuesday because I was worried it would upset me, but Monday morning I did immediately get back into a deficit with the same habits, routines, and foods I have been eating for about a year now - the same that got me to goal and helped me to maintain. I ate between 1400-1600 Monday - Friday last week (my first week back) and got back on the same exercise routine. I weighted myself Wednesday of that week and was at 123.8 which looked great to me because I was worried the number would be higher. On Thursday I was at 123.6, and by Friday I was at 122 (again, keeping at 1400-1600 all week). On Saturday I at 1800 calories and splurged on Sunday and ate 2600 calories. Saturday I weighted 122.4 (up a little) and then Sunday was up to 123.4 (up a pound despite the calorie deficit for several days) and then Monday I was at 124.2 and again today I was at 124.2! Yesterday I ate 1700 calories.

ONE OTHER FACTOR: On Thursday of the week I got back I had oral surgery (an implant in my molar) and so I was on a homeopathic medicine called Arnica for several days, and I'm still on antibiotics (amoxicillin) 3 days a week until Thursday. Time of month not an issue because I am on birth control pills which I have been on for 30 years (so only a fake period).

I was doing great and going back down and I'm eating a significant deficit, yet I'm up from where I was Wednesday! In fact I have been going up a lot since Friday when I was back down to 122, and for the life of me I don't know why. It's not all attributable to my 2600 day Sunday (which couldn't cause me to gain 2 pounds of fat or even 1 pound of fat), so I'm wondering if it could be the antibiotics? I have never been someone who has been up a couple pounds then down a couple pounds - my weight remains very steady. I know that I could have easily gained several pounds on my vacation, but for Wed - Friday when I got back I was down, so why I am I back up so much?

I know this is just life and I'm sticking to my good habits that got me here, and to be honest, my clothes all fit fine and my body looks the same to me, and although technically I am still in my range (just at the top), I am small enough that being up almost 5 pounds from when I left for vacation freaks me out a bit and I can't figure it out. It's not a matter of accurate weighing - I am religious about weighing every BLT on a digital scale and again, I'm literally eating the same foods that got me to goal, just making choices to eat less so I'm at a deficit.

I would be grateful for any advice/words of wisdom/thoughts/calming influences, or if anyone thinks the antibiotics are a factor I'd love to know. Thanks so much, everyone!

cmriverside

Well first of all 122 at 5'4" is a 20.9 BMI.

That is on the low side.


So, don't get in freak out mode. You're thin.


Then, travel, food indulgence AND the dental surgery (inflammation) is enough to change things. It's recommended that you ALWAYS eat at maintenance calories when healing from surgery or serious injury.

Relax.


20.9 BMI. You're fine.

kgirlhart

I don't really know about the antibiotics, but it sounds like water fluctuations to me. Since you are on BC your hormones are pretty stable so it sounds like you don't typically have a lot of fluctuations, but if you have inflammation from the oral surgery then you would probably have some water retention. It is most likely water and perhaps some extra undigested food still moving through your system. I would just stay the course and not make any radical changes and just try to be patient (I know, easier said than done.). I bet your weight will be back down where you want it soon.

MaltedTea

ChickenKillerPuppy wrote: »

*snip* I know that I could have easily gained several pounds on my vacation, but for Wed - Friday when I got back I was down, so why I am I back up so much?

I know this is just life and I'm sticking to my good habits that got me here, and to be honest, *more snip*

You're NOT up so much. As someone who also weighs daily, I can't commiserate with the ultra-focus you have regarding a small weight range in a small time period.

You did well to avoid the scale after coming back from vacay. Perhaps use a similar strategy for another few days: weight fluctuates...even during maintenance.

The importance is how you're trending over the long-term.

nanastaci2020

More food in the body one day could mean higher weight due to added mass for the next 8-12 hours. I'd say get back into your normal routine - eating & exercise - and wait 7-10 days to 'track' the weight. Give it a chance to normalize.

Remember: food has weight. It does not stay with you fully, but the morning after eating a larger than normal quantity of food: you have more food in you to be processed out.

glassyo

nanamerriman2020 wrote: »

More food in the body one day could mean higher weight due to added mass for the next 8-12 hours. I'd say get back into your normal routine - eating & exercise - and wait 7-10 days to 'track' the weight. Give it a chance to normalize.

Remember: food has weight. It does not stay with you fully, but the morning after eating a larger than normal quantity of food: you have more food in you to be processed out.

So THAT'S what they mean by processed food!

OP, I don't think it's the antibiotics, per se. I've had A LOT of oral surgery in the past couple years and was on antibiotics and arnica and tylenol with codeine and the one time I took a norco for most of them and I was maintaining just fine which tells me I should have gained if they had that kind of effect.

AnnPT77

One of my (year 4+ of maintenance) rules of thumb is that any multi-pound gain that happens suddently is water or digestive contents.

Only one PP has mentioned it, so I'll highlight the dental surgery itself. Healing involves water retention. IMU (amateur), that's a systemic response, not necessarily just a local one.

I'd add this sadly lengthy nerd-ification, as a potential psychological factor, which may or may not apply for you: When we're actively losing weight at a good rate, we become used to how fat loss shows up within the context of total bodyweight/body contents . . . that is, by how much and for how long the normal range of water/digestive contents weight fluctuation is likely to obscure fat loss on the scale. That kind of scenario becomes our subconscious expectation of how weight loss looks.

In maintenance, any changes are suddenly happening against a backdrop of stable weight. They look different. At first, that's worrisome. Then, we get used to that, though (IMO) it may not have the same emotional force as what we learned during loss.

With a period of time of indulgent eating (not to mention vacation activity changes, surgery, drugs ), we essentially vary the experimental conditions, but our intuitive expectations aren't really tuned to that situation. It's easy to feel stressed, because expectations are out of tune with current observations on the scale.

Personal anecdote in illustration: Like I said, I've been in maintenance for 4+ years, after losing from obese to a healthy weight (around 50 pounds). I'd let my weight drift up (still in a healthy range), and around last October decided I needed to drift it down again, but didn't want to go pedal to the metal to do it. I've been averaging about a pound a month loss since. Around end of last month, I restarted strength training. I know from experience I add a little water weight (pound or two) with changes like this, and won't release it until I stop doing the training regularly. But I'm not that used to seeing that against a slow-drop trend. My *weight trend* in Libra climbed for *3 weeks*. Even I was starting to wonder if I'd stopped the background sloooooowww fat loss. But no. My scale weight has just started dropping again, after nearly a month.

So, maybe think about your assumptions, intuitions, and whether they've been formed in a context like your current one.

Odds are really, really good that as long as nothing major in your routine daily life, daily exercise, or daily eating has changed sigificantly, that the number of calories that was giving you maintenance or slow loss a few weeks back is still doing the same thing, but that the scale view of that is obscuring those simple facts.

Hang in there!

nanamerriman2020 wrote: »

More food in the body one day could mean higher weight due to added mass for the next 8-12 hours. I'd say get back into your normal routine - eating & exercise - and wait 7-10 days to 'track' the weight. Give it a chance to normalize.

Remember: food has weight. It does not stay with you fully, but the morning after eating a larger than normal quantity of food: you have more food in you to be processed out.

Research suggests full digestive transit can take as much as 50 hours.

http://www.vivo.colostate.edu/hbooks/pathphys/digestion/basics/transit.html

Keep in mind that the hours in the table are additive, i.e., represent separate steps in a sequence.

PAV8888

The wise people have spoken above, but I have to chime in due to the fact that you have one of the more eye catching screen names! Hence I'm always interested on keeping an eye on how this particular puppy is doing!!!!

With weather and stress and potentially an infection/healing and quick weight changes chances are very good it's all water weight!

ChickenKillerPuppy

Thank you, everyone! This is what I needed.

kshama2001

MaltedTea wrote: »

ChickenKillerPuppy wrote: »

*snip* I know that I could have easily gained several pounds on my vacation, but for Wed - Friday when I got back I was down, so why I am I back up so much?

I know this is just life and I'm sticking to my good habits that got me here, and to be honest, *more snip*

You're NOT up so much. As someone who also weighs daily, I can't commiserate with the ultra-focus you have regarding a small weight range in a small time period.

You did well to avoid the scale after coming back from vacay. Perhaps use a similar strategy for another few days: weight fluctuates...even during maintenance.

The importance is how you're trending over the long-term.

Yes, OP, do you use something like Happy Scale that shows a trend line?

I don't focus so much on today's number but rather the trend.