Water weight question

PlasticLoveCola
PlasticLoveCola Posts: 5 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello all,
I haven't had much success receiving responses to my posts, so I'm really hoping someone can give me a hand here.

I've been in keto for over a month with great success and hit a stall, so I decided to do a fat fast. Today is day 3 and I've had great success. I have been criticized by people who just say I've lost water weight and I'll balloon up after, but doing some research on fat fasts, found this usually isn't the case.

My question is: is it still "just losing water weight" if you drink over the recommended 2.2L per day? I'm confused by this, and I would think it would be water weight if my intake and electrolytes lessened, but I've made sure to keep both above normal amounts.

Any insight would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Replies

  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
    This is a bit of an oversimplification but the more water you drink, the less water you will retain. If you go from drinking water now and again to drinking 2.2L a day you will likely drop a lot of water weight in the initial few days.

    The opposite of this is sodium intake. If you increase your sodium intake or decrease the amount of water you drink you will retain water and your weight will go up.

    You can easily fluctuate 5 pounds from water weight alone based on how much water you drink and how much sodium you take in let alone as a woman considering your monthly cycle which can also drastically effect how much water you are carrying.

    So yeah you might drop 3 pounds in water and just "pile" it back on later but who cares, its water.
  • PlasticLoveCola
    PlasticLoveCola Posts: 5 Member
    Nothing has changed in my water/electrolyte intake. It stays the same every day, the only difference is that I'm now fat fasting. I realize some of what I've lost is likely water, but surely it can't solely be water? Thanks for the reply!
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
    My general take is that when someone is talking +/- 5 pounds its really hard to say if that is related to fat lost or random water retention fluctuation. When I was dieting my weight would yo-yo up and down all over the place over the course of several weeks to a month but month to month the trend was down and stayed that way.

    I guess I think that unless you are dealing with numbers like 10 pounds or timescales like 2 months its hard to say conclusively what is going on. I think its best to stick with something long term and make adjustments only after you have waited long enough to see some conclusive result. I wouldn't change what you think is best for you based on some random comment about how you "are just going to put it back on". Don't let that get you down.

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