Unexplained weight gain -- frustrating!

yuko0407

kshama2001 wrote: »

Rannoch3908 wrote: »

This chart says a lot and helps prepare me for what is ahead.

Maybe I should just weigh in every 1st of the month or 30th of the month or something.

I just like seeing the results - it helps me stay on track and makes me want to keep going.

Weighing once per month may work for some, but it was a disaster for me, lol.

Are you using a trending app like Happy Scale? These smooth out the fluctuations. The important thing is not any individual weight, but the trend, or, if you use Happy Scale, that you are in the green.

+1 for a trend app or website. It's really an eye-opener, and allows to relativize the annoying spikes.

Deviette

yuko0407 wrote: »

kshama2001 wrote: »

Rannoch3908 wrote: »

This chart says a lot and helps prepare me for what is ahead.

Maybe I should just weigh in every 1st of the month or 30th of the month or something.

I just like seeing the results - it helps me stay on track and makes me want to keep going.

Weighing once per month may work for some, but it was a disaster for me, lol.

Are you using a trending app like Happy Scale? These smooth out the fluctuations. The important thing is not any individual weight, but the trend, or, if you use Happy Scale, that you are in the green.

+1 for a trend app or website. It's really an eye-opener, and allows to relativize the annoying spikes.

Another +1 for trend apps/websites. I use trendweight and seriously, whenever I feel moody about my actual numbers I log onto there and see that my trend coming down and it makes me feel better. And yes, I do wish that my trend weight would catch up a bit with my actual weight, but when I have those days where it spikes up, I am so glad for that lagging value.

(btw I'm another daily weigher)

charmmeth

I also agree on the tracking your trends. I am a daily weigher (I like ot know where I am) but it is my graph and monthly averages that tell me what is going on below the daily ups and downs.

Rannoch3908

I will check out happy scale.

WHAT THINGS MAKE YOU GAIN WEIGHT (not fat)?
WHAT THINGS MAKE YOU SAY RETAIN WATER (OR LOSE WATER)?

Deviette

I would also 100% recommend reading the link that AnnPT77 posted:

AnnPT77 wrote: »

[snipped]
If you haven't read it, this article would be informative, and maybe calming:

https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations

[snipped]

Dogmom1978

Rannoch3908 wrote: »

I will check out happy scale.

WHAT THINGS MAKE YOU GAIN WEIGHT (not fat)?
WHAT THINGS MAKE YOU SAY RETAIN WATER (OR LOSE WATER)?

Water retention can be caused by hormones and also by eating foods higher in sodium. It can also be caused by high blood pressure. If you lift weights, you will retain water for muscle recovery. Hypothyroidism is another condition that causes water retention.

And while this might sound weird: to help with water retention, drink more water. Dehydration makes your body hold onto that water weight, so being well hydrated will help to flush it out.

Water retention makes it appear that you have gained weight when you haven’t. Certain medications can increase weight gain, lack of sleep, hormones, certain medical conditions etc.

heybales

Rannoch3908 wrote: »

I will check out happy scale.

WHAT THINGS MAKE YOU GAIN WEIGHT (not fat)?
WHAT THINGS MAKE YOU SAY RETAIN WATER (OR LOSE WATER)?

To add to gain weight not fat - a day or big meal of above normal for you fibrous foods that are absorbed with water in the gut before making their way out.

To that point about sodium, if always on higher end of sodium eating may not see much fluctuation on this, but when doing low sodium gives more room for increase. And that can increase overnight, but take days to drop back down.

Also increasing cardio where more blood volume is desired for cooling and extra sweating.
Increasing cardio where the body stores more carbs in muscle with attached water, even if during a diet these aren't totally topped off.

The wedding cake syndrome.
Bridal party has starved themselves all week to make sure they fit in their dresses.
At reception they have a piece of cake and a little alchy perhaps but want to keep their new low weight.
They gain 5 lbs by Sun morning.
The cake they ate didn't even weigh 1 lb.
The calories they ate didn't even go above 3500.

AnnPT77

Rannoch3908 wrote: »

I will check out happy scale.

WHAT THINGS MAKE YOU GAIN WEIGHT (not fat)?
WHAT THINGS MAKE YOU SAY RETAIN WATER (OR LOSE WATER)?

Read the article I posted upthread, that someone else already reposted. It addresses exactly those questions.

https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations

AnnPT77

Even trend apps/websites can be misleading. I think it's important to realize this. It's important to understand how bodies behave.

If you're in a stage of high-rate loss, and very consistent intake/exercise, misleading trend lines are less likely. If you're in maintenance, or losing very slowly, it can happen. But if I'm losing half a pound a week, and get a head cold for a couple of weeks (inflammation + congestion = water weight) then up my exercise, I'll have most of a month of "gain" that isn't actual fat gain.

How do I know? In the time of Corona self-limited eating out, I'm whittling away at vanity pounds in maintenance, at a ridiculously slow rate, quarter to half a pound a week, on average. It's a very clear long term losing trend. I've been logging/tracking for 5+ years now. I'm very confident that my loggoing accuracy is reasonable. Nonetheless, I've had very clear periods when the trending app (on default settings, so 7-day trend) thinks I'm gaining, for a week or even more, even though the longer trend is very clearly down, down, down. (In most cases, I know why I had the temporary scale gain that misled the app. At this point, the trend increasing doesn't bother me. I trust the logging process.)

It's a great tool. It helps me. It's not a magically correct insight.

Here's the graph, below. The vertical lines connect the daily weigh-ins to the trend line, which is the connected slightly downhill-ish one. Look at July: Slow gain for two weeks, it thinks. No. I resumed regular strength training, added the couple of water pounds I always see when that happens. Eventually, the slow fat loss in the background overtook that water weight, and loss started showing up on the scale again. Normal.