Weight increase... Maintenance

choosing_fitness
choosing_fitness Posts: 102
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi- I really don't know what to say, other than ask why is there fluctuations in weight. I have eaten enough calories to maintain my weight in the last 3 days but the scale has increased. Do bowel movements affect this? Please don't be mean, I just don't know. :)

Replies

  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
    If it's increasing, you're eating more than maintenance. How much are you talking?? Substantial or just a pound or two? Would it be water retention or actual weight gain? Your diary is locked
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
    if its been only 3 days, its not enough time to decide it is a true increase. Could be sodium, stress, TOM, etc. Or just an off day on bowel movements.

    Perhaps weigh weekly and look for overall trends month to month?
  • psuLemon
    psuLemon Posts: 38,427 MFP Moderator
    Your body naturally fluctuations. And when you ate at maintenance, how many extra calories are you eating now? And did you increase carb level? Large increases in calories, especially carbs will cause a spike in water retention and should normalize. But how much weight we talking?
  • ksy1969
    ksy1969 Posts: 700 Member
    Hi- I really don't know what to say, other than ask why is there fluctuations in weight. I have eaten enough calories to maintain my weight in the last 3 days but the scale has increased. Do bowel movements affect this? Please don't be mean, I just don't know. :)

    Do a good search on "Why the scale lies". It will give you a lot of reasons why you see such fluctuation. You can see a 5lb fluctuation from the beginning of the day to the evening.
  • choosing_fitness
    choosing_fitness Posts: 102
    My weight has increased by 2 pounds. I am eating close to 2500 calories per day and I burn a good bit through exercise, as I exercise often and sometimes twice a day. I use a fitbit and so far I have found it to be very accurate. Thoughts?
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    could be water retention, could be undigested, could be weight gain if you are eating more than you think you are, or could be a combo of all of these things.
  • choosing_fitness
    choosing_fitness Posts: 102
    Thank you for the help, I am going to eat 250 calories less to see how it goes.
  • StaciMarie1974
    StaciMarie1974 Posts: 4,138 Member
    Suggestions: Give it more time.

    As females we're bound to a monthly cycle and that has an effect on our body weight. As does other things like sodium, sleep, stress, new workout routines, etc. Where in your cycle you retain water may not be the same as where in my cycle I retain water. So track your weight weekly and then compare to the prior month.

    So today do you weigh more than you did 1 month ago? If so, is it less than 2-3 pounds? No concern really but if it makes you feel better then trim from 2500 to 2300. Assess in another month. If its more than 2-3 pounds then trim from 2500 to 2100. Assess in another month.
  • SingRunTing
    SingRunTing Posts: 2,604 Member
    When you transition from a deficit to maintenance, your muscles restore the glycogen/water balance. So you put on a few pounds of water weight the same way you lost a few pounds of water weight at the beginning. For this reason, a lot of people recommend actually going ~2lbs under your desired maintenance weight before you go to maintenance.

    To read more about all this and some more specific advice, I recommend putting something like "glycogen maintenance" into the search function. A bunch of threads will pop up.

    However, its only been three days. In order to know if you are truly eating at your maintenance calories vs going over, you need more time.

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