Massive gain after one day blowout

graysmom2005

Heybales! You have explained something like this before, and I don't remember the science behind it. My birthday this Wednesday was a blowout. Not just a big meal, or a piece of cake...but a calorie tragedy that was capped off with an Ambien binge fest of massive proportions. Not good...pretty upset about it...but what can I do?

So in that one day, the scale went up...well...I didn't weigh in the next day to be kind to myself, but I taught three classes, drank tons of water, and ate totally unprocessed low sodium food...next day I was still up SIX pounds. A day later doing all the water and clean eating I'm still FOUR pounds up. From one day. This weekend I have festivals with my husband that are all food based so I'm feeling pretty anxious and annoyed about this.

Why would my body gain and hold on to so much? I have added carbs back into my diet the past few months...but are my glycogen levels still THAT low? I guess I figured it would drop off by now, but it looks like I'll be fighting the gain of one day for the next 3 weeks. My standard. It's really bumming me out.

I got blood work done yesterday. I dunno.....ugh. I just don't get it. What IS that weight?

tigerblue

In for the answer.

BluthLover

Me too.

heybales

Is increased blood volume during the summer "holding on to so much"?
Or is the body's natural response to what is happening to it?

You teach tons of cardio - what is the body's natural response? Store more carbs.

You don't while in a diet, so when you finally do - bam, finally add some to the stores, with attached water.
That's probably 2-3 lbs worth.

Also increased normal sodium eating levels potentially, takes 3-5 days to drop that weight, unless a couple of really good sweat sessions. But again, body sweating a lot knows to hold on to extra sodium it gets if normally lower than it would like.

And with suppressed metabolism, you likely went over TDEE for that day big time - so you gained fat too.

Nothing to be done about what the body is naturally trying to do. Unless you think blood letting for increased blood volume sounds useful.

Being in a diet those carbs stores will slowly but surely be depleted little by little.
If you want to lose artificial water weight only so the scale looks good and your muscles look deflated - do low carb for several days.
Careful with intense cardio though - very much increased chance to burn off muscle somewhere.

The fat gained will just have to be burned off as normal.

The sodium water retained probably lost with the classes easier.

Besides, invalid weigh-in day the day after a bunch of exercise. Not even a data point bothering with.
Unless you can separate a useless data point that will only be useful after 2 months to indicate a trend line combined with a bunch of others - don't even weigh on invalid days - not worth it.

If you gain another 2 lbs water weight this weekend - then you aren't eating enough carbs in general. But you'll never be able to in a diet. Well, without seriously shorting the protein that is needed in a diet too.

I just lost 5 lbs on my 3 hr bike ride today, and drank that much fluids during the ride and after. So it was mainly glucose I lost with water, and just drinking more isn't going to replace that water. Sodium had been excessive too because I had stains all over my face and shirt, so that was some of the water loss.
But except for some 6 ounces of fat burned, I'll get most of that weight back by tomorrow. Actually, I burned 6 ounces of fat, but probably taking in more carbs than originally there, so probably gaining weight short term. Water weight.

19rosehill

I agree with above.was also going to state about the water attached to binging.ive also had to learn the same lesson. Binge monster grabs my brain too.totally understand and hate it too!! It can take up to 3 months for the body to stop holding onto the water after a binge and release it over time. Got told that by a girl who blogs a bulimia info site