Gained - UGH

MorganMRE

I'm doing trying the Whole30/Paleo diet - and I had a lot of success with it at first. I lost about 20 pounds in 6 weeks and was doing really well. Last weekend was my birthday - and I didn't make the best choices. I didn't really watch what I ate, but I did exercise over the weekend. I stepped on the scale on Sunday and I gained 10 pounds. In my head I thought "Oh well, it's water weight" but it hasn't come off. I've been drinking water, restricting calories, and eating what Paleo plan. I mean, could it be 10 pounds of true weight? I think my metabolism is screwed because I tried so hard last summer to lose weight through calorie counting and lots of exercise and it just wouldn't come off. This is really discouraging.

vorgas

Did you eat 35 THOUSAND calories?
Yes, that's thousand, not hundred.
Because that's what it would take to gain 10 pounds.
If you did, then yes it's 10 pounds of true weight.
If you didn't it's something else.
Given that it's Tuesday and you're talking about something that happened on Sunday, I would say not enough time has passed to normalize.

malou1985

That's why i avoid the scale. I hate when i feel like i am doing everything right and then i step up and see an increase from the time before this happens to me every time i weigh day to day. so now i try to avoid eye contact with the scale too tempting to check, but sometimes very discouraging to know

holly55555

This is why Diets are a problem. If you restrict a lot, you lose weight very quickly... however, if you don't stick with it, it all comes back even more quickly, AND you've shot your metabolism. This is why you need to eat in a way you can maintain for the rest of your life. If you can't stick with paleo, then figure out something else.

maroth42

Vorgas makes a good point. Putting on 10 pounds of fat in a weekend is pretty much impossible. 35000 calories is a ton of calories. Even if you went all out and ate 10 full chocolate cakes on your birthday (thats some next level cake eating) you still wouldn't be at the caloric content necessary to gain 10 pounds of fat (using delicious Costco chocolate cake as a baseline). It's probably fluctuations in your bodies water weight. That being said, it's also possible (and kinda probable) that some of the 20 pound you lost before was a bit of water weight too. If you weigh yourself right after working out/sweating a lot you will weigh a decent amount less than you would weigh after eating a meal and drinking a few glasses of water.

That being said, wait a few days then weigh yourself again, and try to weigh yourself at a similar time in a similar state each time you do it (like always in the morning before breakfast, or always before bed, whatever). But more than anything don't worry about it. Weight loss isn't a quick thing. One weekend will not make or break your diet. It's about consistent long term, but gradual changes to your lifestyle. Cheat weekends happen, and although they can slow things a bit, they won't be that big of a boomerang in your progress either.