I gained 2 pounds in 3 days?!?

janeanray3
janeanray3 Posts: 16 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
last time I weighed myself was 3 days ago and I was 126lb and this morning i was 129. I did not go over my calories limit but last night I had bread and Nutella. I usually always eat healthy and "good" food but i used my calories on "bad" food last night a little 2 days ago. so is this 2 pound gain water weight? if I go back to my normal eating habits, will it go back down to 126 in a couple days? I'm just really worried and I just need reassurance that the effects of 3 days of bad decisions will go away soon.

Replies

  • rockmama72
    rockmama72 Posts: 815 Member
    No way to know exactly what caused it... You just have to keep up with your healthy habits and ride it out. It will go back down. Could be tomorrow, could be next week. It's the way it is. :)
  • allen_ac
    allen_ac Posts: 64 Member
    Lol don't worry, it's most likely water weight

    A rule of thumb (not 100%) is 3500 calories is 1 pound of fat
    One nutella sandwich doesn't exactly equal 3500 calories

    Don't stress! It may be higher carb intake, or higher sodium intake that caused it
    Either way, you would not ever gain a 'real' 2lbs like that unless you went crazy overboard

    Keep it up, it's good work :)
  • Dimpleschick55
    Dimpleschick55 Posts: 13 Member
    I haven't lost any weight since I started on January 1. It's frustrating and yes, I did eat some chocolate candy (from Europe, brought as a treat from one of the doctors we work with). So just get back in the game and follow your diet carefully. Don't waste time beating yourself up.
  • Love4fitnesslove4food2
    Love4fitnesslove4food2 Posts: 711 Member
    You didn't have 3 days of "bad decisions"...you stayed within your calories and you're having a perfectly normal fluctuation. Go back to your "normal" eating and I'm sure within a few days your weight will be back to normal.
  • wertgirlfor
    wertgirlfor Posts: 161 Member
    a few pound fluctuation usually isn't anything to worry about. I usually weigh myself once a week, and as long as there is some sort of downward slope, I'm good. Also, "bad" foods don't make you gain weight. Eating too many calories does. I eat mostly "bad" food and still lose weight.
  • lmd_1979
    lmd_1979 Posts: 130
    Weigh yourself once a week, in the morning just after you have got up.
  • Ulwaz
    Ulwaz Posts: 380 Member
    weight flutuates all the time, try and relax, only check your weight once a week, same day after youve been to the bathroom, dont stress :)
  • Dgydad
    Dgydad Posts: 104 Member
    This could also be a bout of (ahem) "irregularity". Kinda gross, I'll admit, but it does happen. If so, the "gain" will be lost once your system "resets"..............................
  • stumblinthrulife
    stumblinthrulife Posts: 2,558 Member
    Don't expect weight loss to be linear. Your weight can vary a great deal from day to day due to many factors including water retention and the content of your bowel. Personally I have seen single day spikes as high as 5 pounds.

    My suggestion is weigh everyday and use a service like trendweight.com, which uses statistical methods to smooth out the weight loss and show you your overall trend. So long as you are trending down, ignore spikes. If you trend up over a six week period, then you have a problem to address.

    Note that although trendweight requires a Fitbit account, you don't actually need a Fitbit. Just set up a fitbit account and link it to MFP. Log your weight with MFP and it will sync with Fitbit, which in turn will sync with trendweight. No further action needed on your part after it's set up.
  • jennyglass
    jennyglass Posts: 13
    I'm not one to ask. my weight fluctuates daily 1-2 lbs ..but 2 years ago I ate chocolate cake and ice cream for 4 days in a row
    ( as one meal a day) and ended up gaining 5 lbs in about a week!
    It was after a birthday and for some reason I just ate it 'til it was gone.
    The scale just kept creeping up after that and now, 2 years later, I am 20lbs more than I was before then.
    I'd say just watch the fattening stuff like Nutella and sweets. They can creep up on you slowly.
  • jamiebxo
    jamiebxo Posts: 116
    Don't freak out, it's completely normal :). It's more than likely water weight or your bowel contents as another poster said below. Unless you consumed 7'000 calories over your TDEE it's extremely unlikely you'll have gained 2 pounds of actual weight.
  • stumblinthrulife
    stumblinthrulife Posts: 2,558 Member
    I'm not one to ask. my weight fluctuates daily 1-2 lbs ..but 2 years ago I ate chocolate cake and ice cream for 4 days in a row
    ( as one meal a day) and ended up gaining 5 lbs in about a week!
    It was after a birthday and for some reason I just ate it 'til it was gone.
    The scale just kept creeping up after that and now, 2 years later, I am 20lbs more than I was before then.
    I'd say just watch the fattening stuff like Nutella and sweets. They can creep up on you slowly.

    This is misleading. Particular foods are not 'fattening'. Eating more calories than you are burning - requiring your body to store them as fat - is fattening. While extremely difficult to do due to the low Calorie density, you could get fat eating nothing but locally produced, organically farmed lettuce. I know it's a farcical example, but it's just making a point.
  • nogoldilocs
    nogoldilocs Posts: 87 Member
    Take a breath, back away from the scale and keep on eating Nutella if you want to. As long as you are within your calorie goals, you will be fine. Weight fluctuates a lot during the course of even one day, so you may want to weigh yourself just once per week and look at the trend over time.

    It's the beginning of the year so a whole 'lot of food mythology may start creeping up here on mfp: Nutella, cake, bread etc is not evil. "Bad foods" don't make you fat, excess calories do.
  • davert123
    davert123 Posts: 1,568 Member
    I weigh myself every day and it is normal for my weight to go up and down 2 or 3 lb a day sometimes. Sometimes if freezes and doesn't move for a week and sometimes it drops. This is just normal bodily behavior, if you eat salt you may hold an extra bit of water, if you don't eat fruit or whatever you may hold a bit extra food, if you do a lot of cardio you can loose quite a bit of water, if you weight train you may pick up a bit of water the day after. Its just the way our bodies work. What is important is the long term over a month or more. Just keep living healthy, keeping in a calorie deficit and balance your macros and you will be fine :-)
  • davert123
    davert123 Posts: 1,568 Member
    I'm not one to ask. my weight fluctuates daily 1-2 lbs ..but 2 years ago I ate chocolate cake and ice cream for 4 days in a row
    ( as one meal a day) and ended up gaining 5 lbs in about a week!
    It was after a birthday and for some reason I just ate it 'til it was gone.
    The scale just kept creeping up after that and now, 2 years later, I am 20lbs more than I was before then.
    I'd say just watch the fattening stuff like Nutella and sweets. They can creep up on you slowly.

    This is misleading. Particular foods are not 'fattening'. Eating more calories than you are burning - requiring your body to store them as fat - is fattening. While extremely difficult to do due to the low Calorie density, you could get fat eating nothing but locally produced, organically farmed lettuce. I know it's a farcical example, but it's just making a point.

    ^^^ This

    1lb of fat is 3500 calories so 5 lb is 17500 calories. You must have eaten a hell of a lot of chocolate cake and ice cream each of the 4 days to do this.
  • sway1080
    sway1080 Posts: 45 Member
    last time I weighed myself was 3 days ago and I was 126lb and this morning i was 129. I did not go over my calories limit but last night I had bread and Nutella. I usually always eat healthy and "good" food but i used my calories on "bad" food last night a little 2 days ago. so is this 2 pound gain water weight? if I go back to my normal eating habits, will it go back down to 126 in a couple days? I'm just really worried and I just need reassurance that the effects of 3 days of bad decisions will go away soon.

    You didn't gain 3lbs. It's water weight for sure. I weighed myself last night then again this morning after going to the bathroom and I dropped 3.5lbs. It was because last night I must have been retaining water/all of the food I had eaten that day.
    This is exactly why I only weigh myself once a week as soon as I wake up after going to the bathroom...and if it's the "time of the month" I wont weight myself for 2.5 weeks...so far with all of my weight loss this works the best for me because my weight goes up and down ALL the time during the day.
  • 1princesswarrior
    1princesswarrior Posts: 1,242 Member
    I just had pizza for dinner, I fully expect to be about 4lbs heavier in the morning. It'll be gone by Tuesday.
  • IanBee93
    IanBee93 Posts: 237 Member
    weight jumps up and down a lot during the week. I gained 2 pounds in day, and then another pound the following day. I didn't weigh myself until the end of the week, and then I lost 4 pounds.
  • Indiri13
    Indiri13 Posts: 104 Member
    These are the usual culprits for water retention:

    more carbs
    higher sodium intake (salt)
    dehydration
    hormones
    new exercise routine (muscles retain)

    The weight should naturally fall back off in a few days if you drink your water and watch your sodium levels.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    last time I weighed myself was 3 days ago and I was 126lb and this morning i was 129. I did not go over my calories limit but last night I had bread and Nutella. I usually always eat healthy and "good" food but i used my calories on "bad" food last night a little 2 days ago. so is this 2 pound gain water weight? if I go back to my normal eating habits, will it go back down to 126 in a couple days? I'm just really worried and I just need reassurance that the effects of 3 days of bad decisions will go away soon.
    I wouldn't worry about that. Weight naturally fluctuates.

    Also,it doesn't matter WHAT you eat, but it matters HOW MUCH you eat. I doubt a piece of bread and Nutella is going to cause any weight gain, or even water.

    It could just be natural fluctuation.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,942 Member
    I'm not one to ask. my weight fluctuates daily 1-2 lbs ..but 2 years ago I ate chocolate cake and ice cream for 4 days in a row
    ( as one meal a day) and ended up gaining 5 lbs in about a week!
    It was after a birthday and for some reason I just ate it 'til it was gone.
    The scale just kept creeping up after that and now, 2 years later, I am 20lbs more than I was before then.
    I'd say just watch the fattening stuff like Nutella and sweets. They can creep up on you slowly.
    There are no fattening foods. You can have chocolate cake and ice cream every day and lose weight as long as you stay within your calorie goals. In other words, it wasn't the cake and ice cream per say that made you gain weight, but eating over your TDEE. :smile:
  • fushigi1988
    fushigi1988 Posts: 519 Member
    There are no good and bad foods, there are just foods you can eat everyday, and foods that you can still eat and love, but might not be the best for your goals.
    It's probably water weight, just look at the big picture and the trend of your weight, like in a graph. Ignore the small fluctuations.
  • Foodiethinking
    Foodiethinking Posts: 240 Member
    The ability to allow yourself a treat after however many days of not, shows a healthy view to food and not denying yourself what you want to eat, as long as it factors into your allowed calories with some exercise.
    I wouldn't worry too much about a couple of pounds- it won't undo all your hard work and gives you motivation to keep going. Sounds a little like a 4 steps forward 2 steps back routine but you're still not losing any of your hard work per-se.
  • jennyglass
    jennyglass Posts: 13
    I'm not one to ask. my weight fluctuates daily 1-2 lbs ..but 2 years ago I ate chocolate cake and ice cream for 4 days in a row
    ( as one meal a day) and ended up gaining 5 lbs in about a week!
    It was after a birthday and for some reason I just ate it 'til it was gone.
    The scale just kept creeping up after that and now, 2 years later, I am 20lbs more than I was before then.
    I'd say just watch the fattening stuff like Nutella and sweets. They can creep up on you slowly.

    This is misleading. Particular foods are not 'fattening'. Eating more calories than you are burning - requiring your body to store them as fat - is fattening. While extremely difficult to do due to the low Calorie density, you could get fat eating nothing but locally produced, organically farmed lettuce. I know it's a farcical example, but it's just making a point.

    ^^^ This

    1lb of fat is 3500 calories so 5 lb is 17500 calories. You must have eaten a hell of a lot of chocolate cake and ice cream each of the 4 days to do this.

    Wow..didn't know my personal experience with cake would be so interesting.
    I ate one piece of cake and a bowl of ice cream, and yes, after about 6 years of not gaining weight I gained 5 lbs in a week that was not water weight.
    Weighed myself almost everyday for years. It happened. Don't know why but it did. Could be hormonal or otherwise..but it is possible.

    Everyone is different and it is not an exact thing you can measure unless you take every single life moment (stress, etc) and a person's entire physical makeup into account.
  • bumblebreezy91
    bumblebreezy91 Posts: 520 Member
    a few pound fluctuation usually isn't anything to worry about. I usually weigh myself once a week, and as long as there is some sort of downward slope, I'm good. Also, "bad" foods don't make you gain weight. Eating too many calories does. I eat mostly "bad" food and still lose weight.

    this.

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