Water retention, plateau or both?

rjdunn87
rjdunn87 Posts: 385 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I could use some advice or opinions on the last few weeks of my journey, if anyone is willing to take a look at my diary perhaps and see what they think. :)

Basically, I finished T25 about two weeks ago at 166lbs. My previous two weigh-ins before that were both stagnant at 167.5, and then I dropped another pound and a half that last week. I moved on to start T25 Gamma phase and ChaLean Extreme, and my weight jumped back up to 170. I assumed that was water retention from doing a lot more weight lifting than I had previously been, but it's now two weeks later and I haven't seen any drop in that weight whatsoever. I have been eating at 1500 calories plus about half of my exercise cals (based on my Polar fT4).

I've posted about this recently but didn't get many responses other than folks telling me I'm working out too much, and while I appreciate other's opinions I don't feel that barely an hour a day, 5 days a week is excessive. I've decided to switch things up and use TDEE-% rather than MFP's calorie recommendations, so after calculating my TDEE using a few different sites, I've set my calories to 1800. I was getting different estimates from different websites anywhere from 1700-1900 so I thought 1800 would be a safe medium.

I've only been doing this for a few days so I'm not expecting any radical changes yet, but I'm wondering what people think about this stall in loss and in fact a four pound gain. Is it normal for water retention to persist for two weeks? I do measure and weigh all of my food so I feel pretty confident that I'm not eating too much… I suppose there's always room for improvement, but I do work very hard to be as accurate as I can.

Replies

  • mschicagocubs
    mschicagocubs Posts: 774 Member
    I think you are on the right track. Maybe just stop weighing yourself. Start measuring inches instead. You could be retaining water from switching up your workout routine, that commonly happens. Also, are you close to your TOM? That's another possibility.

    If you are accurately logging and exercising ... I don't see why the inches/lbs won't start falling off.
  • rjdunn87
    rjdunn87 Posts: 385 Member
    I think you are on the right track. Maybe just stop weighing yourself. Start measuring inches instead. You could be retaining water from switching up your workout routine, that commonly happens. Also, are you close to your TOM? That's another possibility.

    If you are accurately logging and exercising ... I don't see why the inches/lbs won't start falling off.

    It was my TOM the first week I started Gamma/ChaLean, I forgot to include that, so yeah, I chalked some of that gain up to that as well. Thanks for your encouragement. :) I've been trying to put the scale away.
  • mschicagocubs
    mschicagocubs Posts: 774 Member
    Yeah I would chalk it up to TOM, water retention.

    If weighing yourself is discouraging, definitely try measuring. I only weigh myself 2 times a month.
  • xxnellie146xx
    xxnellie146xx Posts: 996 Member
    I took a look at your diary and there are a lot of times that you are over on your sodium. High sodium mixed with TOM and a new workout regimen means your are very likely retaining water. I drink a lot of water and when I change up my routine or have a high salt day or two, I will be up a few lbs for over a week. Drinks lot of water and keep doing what you're doing, and your body will catch up.
  • rjdunn87
    rjdunn87 Posts: 385 Member
    I took a look at your diary and there are a lot of times that you are over on your sodium. High sodium mixed with TOM and a new workout regimen means your are very likely retaining water. I drink a lot of water and when I change up my routine or have a high salt day or two, I will be up a few lbs for over a week. Drinks lot of water and keep doing what you're doing, and your body will catch up.

    Thank you. Yeah, I actually was noticing just last night that I've been over on sodium more often than I thought. I've started aiming to drink about a gallon of water a day so hopefully it will balance out and I'll start working on getting that sodium level down.
  • rjdunn87
    rjdunn87 Posts: 385 Member
    Yeah I would chalk it up to TOM, water retention.

    If weighing yourself is discouraging, definitely try measuring. I only weigh myself 2 times a month.

    I measure as well, but all of my measurements today were the same this week as they were last. So that was a bit discouraging, but oh well. I'm going to try not to weigh again until I finish with Gamma, so about two weeks.
  • Greenrun99
    Greenrun99 Posts: 2,065 Member
    Stay at 1800 and see where your at in 2 weeks, looked at your diary and you could definitely eat more protein at the expense of your carb intake to retain more muscle.. if no changes drop by 100 calories.. all this while not having any cheat meals (til your numbers are in check)
  • rjdunn87
    rjdunn87 Posts: 385 Member
    Stay at 1800 and see where your at in 2 weeks, looked at your diary and you could definitely eat more protein at the expense of your carb intake to retain more muscle.. if no changes drop by 100 calories.. all this while not having any cheat meals (til your numbers are in check)

    Thank you for taking the time to look. Yeah, I've been working on the protein thing. I am vegan, so it can sometimes be difficult, but I've been trying to hit 70-80grams minimum and then I'll work up from there. As for the cheat meal thing--I know that I will be having a few next week as I'm going on a mini-two day vacation. Don't plan on going crazy, but I'll be eating out and won't be able to log. Would you suggest giving it an extra week at 1800 to make up for that, or should I drop to 1700 after next week regardless?

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