They say it'll be easy...Why am I not losing the water weight?

Lullaby2021

People say losing water weight is easy. It'll go away in a little time. It hasn't been that way for me at all. I've reduced my sodium from 3,000MG perday to 1,850Mg perday. My carbs I increase from 145g perday to 190g perday. Why am I not losing the water. I sure did cut a lot of sodium. I've been cutting for now the fourth week. I don't exercise anymore. I'm eating my sedentary maintenance calories (1,700) but I eat like 1,400 a few days of the week. Not trying to lose fat. I just eat less some days. The scale will not go down. Back to my normal weight. Which is pretty much unknown now. Since My water weight has continue to go up. I went from 129.2 to 141.4 extremly fast as in 3 months.Theres no way I've gained 12.2 lbs fat in a few months!What should I do?.
what is keeping this water on my body?
Do I need to exercise to get rid of it?
Do I need a calorie deficit to get rid of it?(Normally does it everytime)
Cut more carbs/Salt?
I need answers!

AnnPT77

After 3 months, with a recent gain in the picture, it isn't likely water retention . . . unless you have a serious medical problem. If there's any other symptom at all, see your doctor. If you do, ask for blood tests, especially thyroid, iron, vitamin D, maybe B12 (especially if you're vegan/vegetarian), anything else your doctor thinks is relevant.

I'm sorry, but the probable answer is either to eat less (calorie deficit) or add more activity (exercise or daily life movement), or a combination.

Why did your stop exercising? Were you maintaining/gaining on 1700 previously, or 1700 plus exercise calories? If you added exercise calories, how did you estimate them (for what activity/duration)?

Why do you believe 1700 is your maintenance calories? If you got that from MFP or another so-called calorie calculator, know that it's just an estimate. It's the calorie level that the average person of your characteristics would require. Some people require fewer than average, some people require more than average, in order to maintain weight. (MFP's estimate is 25%+ off, for me.)

Then, there's logging. Logging accurately can be a surprisingly subtle skill, with pitfalls. If some regularly-eaten food's database entry is off, that can easily wipe out a deficit, or a big chunk of one. So can forgetting to log bites, licks, tastes, condiments, beverages, cooking oils, etc. So can periodic so-called "cheat days". So can eyeballing or guesstimating serving sizes. If you don't weigh your food on a food scale normally, doing so as much as possible for a month will give you better insight. (I'm not one who believes everyone must weigh their food in order to lose weight . . . but when not losing as expected, doing so can provide some very useful information.)

Even if 1700 is accurate for you, and your logging is perfect, eating 1400 a few days a week and 1700 the other days would result in such slow fat loss that it might not show up clearly on the scale amongst normal daily water-retention and digestive-contents fluctuations. Let's say you're eating 1400 3 days a week, 1700 the other 4 days.

If everything is accurate, that would be a 900 calorie deficit for the week. With a 900 calorie weekly deficit, you'd lose approximately a quarter pound of fat per week. It would take close to a month to lose a pound of fat. Since most of us experience routine daily fluctuations of 2-5 pounds on the scale, that can hide a fat loss that slow for a very long time - couple of months or more. (I know this from experience, BTW, not just math - I lost 10 pounds or so with about a 700-1000 calorie weekly deficit, as calculated from my personal weight loss rate, not from some online calculator. It took around a year. There were periods of over a month where even my weight-trending app thought I was maintaining or even gaining, when I actually was still losing verrrrryyyy slooooowly.)

At a more detailed level: Increasing carbs will increase water retention. (They're called carbohydrates - water is retained as they're digested/metabolized). That doesn't make them evil, because it's just water weight, not fat weight . . . so as long as one's healthy, why care? But it can add confusion on the scale.

Also, if you're female and not in menopause yet, hormonal water retention can have a multi-pound effect on scale weight. A few women only see a new weight once a month, though that's not the most common pattern. Do you know what your personal patterns are, in that respect?

Sadly, it absolutely is possible to gain 12.2 pounds of fat in 3 months. Eat on average around 475 calories above maintenance daily, or move that much less, or a combination, and it will happen. Now, you may know that that 475 wasn't possible for you . . . so maybe see that doctor. I could do that easily with a weekly cheat day, some snacks here and there, and a little bit of laziness around the house, I'm thinking, though. (That's why I haven't entirely given up logging, here in year 7 of maintaining a healthy weight after loss from class 1 obese.)

I'm sure this is not what you'd hoped to hear, and I'm not trying to be mean by writing it - just trying to be straight and frank about how the situation looks to me.

I wish you good results going forward!

Lullaby2021

AnnPT77
Thank you!
I stop exercise almost four months ago. My reason being was burn out.
I was maintaining on more previously. Instead of 1,700(From mfp calculations sedentary). I consume 1,900 When I exercised. I got the calorie calculation from my step tracker for walking. I walked 2-3 times per week for 2hours. For regular exercise I put 3 or 4 calories per minute. Which were cardio or full body routine. With a mix of lifting dumbells and more. No calorie tracker for that. True it's not what I hope to hear. Rather know the truth too. I don't have a health conditon. I don't know my personal pattern.

AnnPT77

Lullaby2021 wrote: »

AnnPT77
Thank you!
I stop exercise almost four months ago. My reason being was burn out.
I was maintaining on more previously. Instead of 1,700(From mfp calculations sedentary). I consume 1,900 When I exercised. I got the calorie calculation from my step tracker for walking. I walked 2-3 times per week for 2hours. For regular exercise I put 3 or 4 calories per minute. Which were cardio or full body routine. With a mix of lifting dumbells and more. No calorie tracker for that. True it's not what I hope to hear. Rather know the truth too. I don't have a health conditon. I don't know my personal pattern.

Given all that, I'd suggest you increase your calorie deficit a little bit if you want to see loss faster - maybe 1400 almost all or all days of the week, or add back some activity?

Exercise is good for health. I can understand burnout from too much, but if you can gradually add a little bit, and still keep good overall life balance, that would be life enhancing in the long run. By "good overall life balance", I mean enough time and energy for other things important to you - job, home chores, social life, other hobbies. By "life enhancing in the long run", I mean being stronger and healthier, maybe better mood/resilience, appearance.

Exercise doesn't need to be miserably intense or extreme in order to be helpful: Just a small, manageable bit of a challenge to current capabilities. As you get fitter, gradually increase (duration, frequency, integrity, or type of exercise) to keep that manageable challenge - that creates progress.

If your weight's been steady looking for the past month, it would also be an option to stick with your current "1400 some days, 1700 other days" for a longer time period to see whether you do have an actual small calorie deficit going. It could take 2-3 months to be clear, though . . . even if you use a weight-trending app like Libra for Android or Happy Scale for Apple/iOS.

Another possibility is to work on increasing daily life activity. There's a thread about that here, where many MFP-ers shared their ideas:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10610953/neat-improvement-strategies-to-improve-weight-loss/p1

Best wishes!

BartBVanBockstaele

I have not really anything to add to @AnnPT's excellent comment, except for my personal experience. If I did what MFP recommends, I would be gaining weight really quickly.
I would also say that 12 pounds of weight gain in 3 months does not strike me as extremely fast. If I eat until I am "full and satisfied", I gain that in ten days or less, and given how fat metabolism works, I would only know for sure after gaining 30 pounds or so.
Reality is that you are likely taking in too much energy. Yes, edema is a possibility, and that could be an indication of a heart condition, so you should consult a doctor (genuine MD, not a chiropractor or naturopath) to rule that out. Also give her/him a good account of your intake. Contrary to popular mythology, doctors know quite a bit about nutrition.

cmriverside

I agree with Ann above.

One other thing, though...your FOOD logging page isn't viewable, so I can't look and see where/how you may have logged food. Logging food is a science unto itself, and this site has a few things of which to be aware when logging food. Here's a good thread on the How To:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/1234699/logging-accurately-step-by-step-guide/p1

Like Ann said above, it's pretty easy to over-eat by several hundred calories per day, and it's even easier if you're not logging diligently AND accurately. Since you say you are currently struggling, then getting back to the basics is really important until you find your weight-loss calorie number. That is whatever number you need to lose at a reasonable rate while maintaining some level of moderate exercise on a regular basis. Jumping around calorie wise and not sticking to a relatively easy-to-manage exercise routine is just going to obscure those numbers.

SafariGalNYC

Hey @lullaby2021- there are already some great answers here..

I’ll add that my Aunt closest to me- has Lymphedema… she has to watch swelling and water weight at all times. So she has to follow a low glycemic, low starch, low sodium diet to keep water weight under control.

To cut water weight - maybe try the above?

She also uses natural diuretics such as lemon water, cucumber , etc and does lymph massage (little loofah type thing) to encourage water flow and drainage.

I know this is for someone who has lymphedema- but it works for any water retention issues...

Lullaby2021

My diary is open for anyone to see now.

cmriverside

Lullaby2021 wrote: »

My diary is open for anyone to see now.

I looked at your last week's logging...is there a reason why you are so low on fruits and vegetables? Potassium is listed in your nutrients columns, so you've obviously considered it - Potassium is pretty important to the electrolyte balance in your body and you're reallllllllllly low on every day.

Lullaby2021

I’m low on fruit and veggies. Because I lost the urge to eat them. Yes I consider potassium, planned to work on it but just never went through.

cmriverside

Lullaby2021 wrote: »

I’m low on fruit and veggies. Because I lost the urge to eat them. Yes I consider potassium, planned to work on it but just never went through.

That could be affecting your water balance. The problem with trying to track Potassium on myfitnesspal is that the millions of entries mostly do not reflect the actual Potassium in the food, since most labels and most people don't enter it so it isn't in the database unless you find the Admin-entered-direct-from-USDA database entries.

To keep it simple, I aim for 800g of produce per day. I don't always hit that but I'm close 90% of the time. If you can start incorporating plants in every meal, it will help you.

The other thing I noticed is that you use "cups" measurements...that's often an inaccurate way to measure. Just as a 'for instance' - yesterday I made home made granola. I measured out four cups raw oats. 40g or a half cup is the listed serving size on the box. The four cups ended up weighing 760g. That's 120g more than the actual eight servings (@ 40g, 150 calories) should be. That's 450 calories too many in just the oats. Of course I weighed it before I used it so I caught my error - but I hadn't over-filled those cups at all. The errors can quickly add up if using cups and spoons for calorie dense foods like nuts, nut butters, butter, oil, cheese, sour cream, salad dressings and dips, etc.

Here:
https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10634517/you-dont-use-a-food-scale/p1

https://youtu.be/XpHykP6e_Uk

cmriverside

Wait. What?

The four cups ended up weighing 760g

nononononono. Uh. no. It was 120g over the amount it should have been. I just know it came out to extra servings/extra calories.

I'm gonna stop posting things that happened to me in the past. I try to give examples and I can't even remember what they are.

AnnPT77

Good advice from Riverside. I'll add that if you don't already own one, you can find a decent food scale at a big box store or on Amazon or the like for around $20-ish USD. Weighing your food will give you much more accurate logging data. That will be a help as you continue a sensibly small calorie deficit - the smaller the deficit, the easier it is to accidentally wipe out.

I also agree with her about the veggies/fruits: Micronutrients and fiber are important. As a bonus, many people find them filling. That's not universal, but it's worth a try.

Frozen veggies are more convenient, and are at least as nutritious as fresh (often more so, because frozen at peak time soon out of the field). If fresh fruits are a problem, consider ones that are canned without sugar or syrup. Applesauce, for example, is often available without added sugar. There are others, too.

If you haven't enjoyed veggies, try roasting them if you haven't already - many people like them better that way. Or you can blend them into other foods. For example, I put Winter squash or mashed cauliflower into mac'n'cheese to lighten it up calorically and add some micros.

For potassium specifically, beans (pinto beans, kidney beans, lentils, other) are pretty good sources. Sometimes people don't think of that type of bean when they think "veggies", but they're full of nutrition and fiber.

Lullaby2021

cmriverside wrote: »

Wait. What?

The four cups ended up weighing 760g

nononononono. Uh. no. It was 120g over the amount it should have been. I just know it came out to extra servings/extra calories.

I'm gonna stop posting things that happened to me in the past. I try to give examples and I can't even remember what they are.

It's okay : )

BartBVanBockstaele

AnnPT77 wrote: »

I also agree with her about the veggies/fruits: Micronutrients and fiber are important. As a bonus, many people find them filling. That's not universal, but it's worth a try.

Indeed. Sadly, I am one of those people for whom fibre is not nearly as satisfying as it is almost universally claimed to be. Also, veggies and fruit don't really contain all that much fibre. Beans and lentils have more, and if you have access to lupini, that is even better. It is a bean that seems largely unknown by dietitians. Yet, it should be easy to get in most of North America, since it is very popular among people from Italian, Spanish and Portuguese extraction. It is seen as a colder climate equivalent of soybeans, only with less digestible carbs and fat and more protein and fibre. In the European Union, it is studied as a potential meat replacement element for what it calls the "protein transition".

Frozen veggies are more convenient, and are at least as nutritious as fresh (often more so, because frozen at peak time soon out of the field).

I second that. As someone who lives alone and has only a tiny bachelor-suite galley kitchen, I am totally in love with frozen vegetables. They are the ultimate fast food: just plop them in the microwave for ten minutes or so and you are done. You can even eat them out of the container you cook them in. Sure, that's not fancy, but a styrofoam or cardboard container from McDonald's isn't particularly fancy either and it is even less appetising and worse for the environment. On top of that, it is both faster and cheaper than going to a fast-food place: by the time one person gets to a fast-food place, I have already finished eating, have spent less money, had tastier food and a substantially lower calorie intake. What's not to love?