How did I gain 4 kg in less than a week while in a caloric deficit?!!

anahita2107

I have been on a keto diet since mid February and at the beginning of june I had successfully lost 18 kg. I was getting really tired of keto so I had a cheat day, where I was still in a calorie deficit but ate carbs. Now about 4 days later I have gained 4 kg. It was 3 kg yesterday but apparently I gained another kg over the course of the day, eating only about 1500 cal while my measured rmr is 2350 cal!!!
How is that even possible?! I was losing about one kg a week before my cheat day and now I am gaining doing the exact same thing!!
I wanna believe it is water weight but how will I ever lose so much water weight and get back to where I was?!
I still have another 50 kg to lose so this setback is quite devastating to me...😭

wunderkindking

Carbohydrates

They increase glycogen stores as well as generally cause you to retain water. It isn't fat, it won't stick around forever, but this is the source of both rapid initial weightloss on keto and people who say going off it makes them gain like crazy.

It's just water. It'll go.

ninerbuff

It's water. When on keto, you have no glycogen storage from carbs (not a bad thing). You need 4 grams of water for every gram of carb to have it stored in a cell. And IMO this is the downfall of keto because unless you're willing to deal with the water weight gain and understand what it is, so many on keto will be disillusioned that they lost a lot of "weight" once they introduce carbs back into their system.

BTW carbs aren't a bad thing regardless of what keto advocates may tell you.

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sijomial

Water doesn't have calories which is why you can have dramatic swings in weight unrelated to calorie balance.

You have a decision to make going forward - either you have to rationalise that carb refeeds when doing keto result in dramatic water weight gain that you know you have to ignore or you have to rethink your diet strategy.

Water weight fluctuations are normal and will continue for the rest of your life, they need to be processed with your mind and not your emotions. You KNOW that you haven't gained 4kg of fat without a massive and prolonged calorie surplus. "Devastating" is a super strong reaction to what is a normal bodily response to storing glycogen with water and that strength of feeling has the power to derail you. This won't be the last time in your weight loss that you will have to trust the process (whether keto or not) and ignore short term blips and setbacks.

penguinmama87

sijomial wrote: »

Water doesn't have calories which is why you can have dramatic swings in weight unrelated to calorie balance.

You have a decision to make going forward - either you have to rationalise that carb refeeds when doing keto result in dramatic water weight gain that you know you have to ignore or you have to rethink your diet strategy.

Water weight fluctuations are normal and will continue for the rest of your life, they need to be processed with your mind and not your emotions. You KNOW that you haven't gained 4kg of fat without a massive and prolonged calorie surplus. "Devastating" is a super strong reaction to what is a normal bodily response to storing glycogen with water and that strength of feeling has the power to derail you. This won't be the last time in your weight loss that you will have to trust the process (whether keto or not) and ignore short term blips and setbacks.

This sums up why I really appreciate calorie counting, even though others (not so much here but elsewhere) say it's too finicky. It is hard to see the scale go up, even when I know, because I've counted and weighed everything, that it can't be fat. Before I counted, I would second guess everything, eat even less, and basically freak out. But now that I have the data, it's easier to keep it in perspective.

I was actually expecting a fairly sizable whoosh this week that didn't happen. I'm mildly irritated rather than devastated. And I know my math checks out. Just have to be patient enough to stick with it - and knowing that my math is right, and how water weight works, goes a long way toward helping me be patient.