Water retention - what to expect!
Options
Replies
-
Bump0
-
Another great post from you Mike!!! I told you on the other one it should be a sticky and I think this one really should be as well!!!
Thanks for this topic b/c as for me-I am hoping some of this reset gain is water as well...
0 -
Thanks for the reminder, Mike; I'm cringing every time I step on the scale right now or feel the slightly-tighter clothes-fitting. I tell myself it must be water, but the initial 5 pound gain just isn't moving, though 3 did after a few days of decent hydration.
Trying to be patient and optimistic.... :drinker:0 -
I came across this post in my search for an answer to this weight gain phenomenon ... did I really read right when you said that one would initially also be bulkier? I have started a new weights/sculpt program in conjunction with upping my cal intake slightly. I am a little alarmed that the scale has increased progressively every day for the last 3 (4?) days. My muscles ache but so far I'm not losing inches where it's aching. Just increasing in weight. So this weight and bulkier look is really due to water? And will come off in around a week? It's not because I'm somehow adding fat to my body? I was about to lower my net cals again before I saw this ... Mike, hope you're still checking MFP and able to answer!0
-
THANKYOUUUU for posting this!! This is what I keep telling myself over and over so that I don't give up. I know it'll be worth it in the end, but reading this is even more reassuring! Thank youu 0
-
I came across this post in my search for an answer to this weight gain phenomenon ... did I really read right when you said that one would initially also be bulkier? I have started a new weights/sculpt program in conjunction with upping my cal intake slightly. I am a little alarmed that the scale has increased progressively every day for the last 3 (4?) days. My muscles ache but so far I'm not losing inches where it's aching. Just increasing in weight. So this weight and bulkier look is really due to water? And will come off in around a week? It's not because I'm somehow adding fat to my body? I was about to lower my net cals again before I saw this ... Mike, hope you're still checking MFP and able to answer!
Someone correct me if I am wrong, but if you are at or below your TDEE you will not bulk. And for a woman bulking is hardly something to worry about. Are you resting between lift days or are you lifting everyday? The soreness is the micro tearing of the muscles. Water will be retained for the repairing processing. Personally, I only lift 3-4 times a week at most.
How long have you been at TDEE reset? It takes more than a week to reset. I would not be cutting until you knew you have reached TDEE and remain there for awhile. Most recommend 8-12 weeks before you cut again.0 -
@Gapwedge: To be honest, my "lifting" is really so far just going to these sculpt classes offered by my gym. They make us do lunges, squats, blurpies, frog jumps, all sorts of very tiring and strange things. I ache even without any weights and just ended the first week (went to three different classes in the week). It's very lame compared with what other people here do, but my body is screaming at me already. I just find it very strange that I'm definitely not losing inches and increasing in pounds despite the fact that I should be doing the right things to make this body a better built machine. If it was an increasing scale but the inches are going down, I would be delighted. But the inches definitely haven't gone down and the scale is being stubborn as well.0
-
@Gapwedge: To be honest, my "lifting" is really so far just going to these sculpt classes offered by my gym. They make us do lunges, squats, blurpies, frog jumps, all sorts of very tiring and strange things. I ache even without any weights and just ended the first week (went to three different classes in the week). It's very lame compared with what other people here do, but my body is screaming at me already. I just find it very strange that I'm definitely not losing inches and increasing in pounds despite the fact that I should be doing the right things to make this body a better built machine. If it was an increasing scale but the inches are going down, I would be delighted. But the inches definitely haven't gone down and the scale is being stubborn as well.
To me you are describing maybe cross fit type exercises? Rather than compound lifting? If so, your present method made be more cardio oriented which is not as effective for fat loss. What TDEE/BMR formula did you use? Could your numbers be off? Are you logging your food accurately? Are you over estimating your calorie burn? Lots of variables to think about. Just trying to see where you are in this journey.0 -
To me you are describing maybe cross fit type exercises? Rather than compound lifting? If so, your present method made be more cardio oriented which is not as effective for fat loss. What TDEE/BMR formula did you use? Could your numbers be off? Are you logging your food accurately? Are you over estimating your calorie burn? Lots of variables to think about. Just trying to see where you are in this journey.
I'm pretty clueless at what these exercises are called! I just know that it really hurts the next day. I used the TDEE from this site: http://www.iifym.com/tdee-calculator. I rather add back my exercise calories ( just enjoy adding the numbers in each time), and a 20% cut leaves me at 1370. It's possible I'm over estimating the calories burnt, but the HRM should be pretty accurate ... I reconfigure it as soon as there is a 2 pound difference. When I was doing straight up cardio and at an average of 1260 or so netted, the numbers made sense ... it started becoming stranger when I upped the net calories and added in those don't-know-what-it's-called exercises.0 -
hi i am the same size as you and my cut cals are way more than 1200 to 1300 ( of course i weigh more. most of us on em2lw use the scooby calculator http://scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/ i input your stats and got this:
using katch at 20% body fat and 3-5 hours exercise ( it sounds like you are pretty active)
bmr 1329
tdee 2060
15% 1751
20% 1648
using katch at 20% body fat and 1-3 hours exercise (case you are not quite that active)
bmr 1329
tdee 1827
15% 1553
20% 1461
perhaps you need to up you cals? if you are only netting 1260 then you are below your bmr. also tdee takes you exercise cals into account so you don't need to add them back unless you go over your 489 to 731 cals burned.0 -
What does "BUMP" mean? I've seen a bunch of people mention it here on EM2WL and I'm confused. Sorry, but I just started my Metabolism Reset today for the first time.0
-
What does "BUMP" mean? I've seen a bunch of people mention it here on EM2WL and I'm confused. Sorry, but I just started my Metabolism Reset today for the first time.
Welcome! BUMP just means sending this original post back to the top of page 1. Either the person wants to read it later or is wanting the original poster (OP) to stay one page 1 so it gets more views. You may see BTT meaning back to top also.0 -
To me you are describing maybe cross fit type exercises? Rather than compound lifting? If so, your present method made be more cardio oriented which is not as effective for fat loss. What TDEE/BMR formula did you use? Could your numbers be off? Are you logging your food accurately? Are you over estimating your calorie burn? Lots of variables to think about. Just trying to see where you are in this journey.
I'm pretty clueless at what these exercises are called! I just know that it really hurts the next day. I used the TDEE from this site: http://www.iifym.com/tdee-calculator. I rather add back my exercise calories ( just enjoy adding the numbers in each time), and a 20% cut leaves me at 1370. It's possible I'm over estimating the calories burnt, but the HRM should be pretty accurate ... I reconfigure it as soon as there is a 2 pound difference. When I was doing straight up cardio and at an average of 1260 or so netted, the numbers made sense ... it started becoming stranger when I upped the net calories and added in those don't-know-what-it's-called exercises.
HRM's are designed for steady state activities such as walking, running, or cycling. For other activities they tend to overestimate. So you say your HRM should be pretty accurate. How do you know? I am just being devil's advocate and helping you find your answer.0 -
The most important thing to realize is that water weight always fluctuates. When we eat enough to truly maintain, we typically indulge in a certain amount of carbs, which translates to x glycogen and water storage. When we assume a deficit, particularly from eating less carbs, we are holding less than our typical amount of water weight. This is why the first few lbs are lost so rapidly. Thus, when we reintroduce more carbs, we return to holding a regular amount of water. If someone exercises during this refeed, they will gain additional weight from water and glycogen. However, it should only be seen as a false gain since it isn't a gain in fat mass.0
-
The most important thing to realize is that water weight always fluctuates. When we eat enough to truly maintain, we typically indulge in a certain amount of carbs, which translates to x glycogen and water storage. When we assume a deficit, particularly from eating less carbs, we are holding less than our typical amount of water weight. This is why the first few lbs are lost so rapidly. Thus, when we reintroduce more carbs, we return to holding a regular amount of water. If someone exercises during this refeed, they will gain additional weight from water and glycogen. However, it should only be seen as a false gain since it isn't a gain in fat mass.
Does that mean that one should not exercise during refeed days? And why would the body hold onto water and glycogen during exercising ... shouldn't the body use it all up instead?0 -
@squashyhelen -
You're not gonna gain eating below TDEE, no way, no how (unless you've seriously messed up your metabolism) -- and it sounds like you're doing circuit training (I did TRX today and logged it as that, anyway. It burns tons of calories that's why it's so dang tiring!). If you're not used to that activity you're going to swell in reaction to it for a while (micro-tears again/water retention to repair muscles again). Settle into it, and don't take score so soon! It also sounds like you need to eat more than you are, especially as you are closing in on your goal weight. Lastly, you ARE losing weight now, right? You are just frustrated it isn't going faster?
@ geekyjock - thank you! That's never really mentioned here - that eating way below your maintenance will take off fast weight, sure, but then if you go back and eat at maintenance it goes back on fast. That's why you need a goal weight range, not a carved in stone number. Weight is not a static thing! Also another good reason to make a very small cut when losing weight - so that when you resume maintenance eating it's not such a big change for your body and therefore not a huge jump in pounds to maintain equilibrium.0 -
The most important thing to realize is that water weight always fluctuates. When we eat enough to truly maintain, we typically indulge in a certain amount of carbs, which translates to x glycogen and water storage. When we assume a deficit, particularly from eating less carbs, we are holding less than our typical amount of water weight. This is why the first few lbs are lost so rapidly. Thus, when we reintroduce more carbs, we return to holding a regular amount of water. If someone exercises during this refeed, they will gain additional weight from water and glycogen. However, it should only be seen as a false gain since it isn't a gain in fat mass.
Does that mean that one should not exercise during refeed days? And why would the body hold onto water and glycogen during exercising ... shouldn't the body use it all up instead?
The big problem here is you are mainly freaking yourself out because of a very normal effect, but unless you exercised before would never have noticed.
Your muscles can store 1000-1500 calories of carbs, liver another 400 about.
You hardly use them all up in a workout, unless you are doing marathons.
But 500 cal worth stores with water for total weight of 1 lb. Can't get around that fact. Blood volume too has water in it. As do sore muscles retaining water to aid repair.
Yes you should exercise during refeed days.
The problem here is you are expecting too much from the exercise, without realizing that exercise is asking your body to make improvements, that mainly have nothing to do with weight loss.
Diet is for weight loss, hopefully just fat loss if done correctly.
Exercise is for heart health and body improvement, and hopefully helps just fat loss. But if done wrong can help muscle loss, while being done right can create non-fat gains. And no, you didn't gain muscle with the little you are doing.
It hurts, expect it, means you had a good workout - congrats. Keep it up.
Now eat enough to truly benefit the workouts since by doing them you must want some body improvements. But don't expect weight loss from just that.
Certainly not in a week's worth of time.0 -
@ heybales, amanda, geekyjock, gapwedge - thank you guys so very much for the tips and advice. You are absolutely right and I was expecting it to go faster, especially as it has been slow but steady progress until now. Part of the other reason was that I was relying too much (I think) on the body fat %, muscle % and water % numbers on my scale to be accurate. It really looked as if I was not only going up in weight (returning to my beginning of January weight), but also increasing both body fat and muscle while the water weight stayed constant. That the entire body needs to swell in reaction to exercise is a bit new for me (and that it cannot be detected by my fancy new scale).
I hold most of my weight in my lower half, and the thought of it getting bigger scares me (childhood scars from people's nasty "helpful" comments). That I was gaining weight and definitely not losing any inches was starting to get to me. The reason I wanted to calculate the 20% cut based on a sedentary lifestyle is because at any moment, my job could get very very busy (staying in the office until 2am) and I'd almost rather add in the exercise on a daily basis as opposed to assuming there is time for my regular exercise throughout the rest of the week. In any case, I'm taking your advice to heart and now trying to focus on other metrics for progress for the next week. Since starting to exercise (mid November), I have managed to shave off a full minute 20 seconds from a 55 flight stair climb and did this with a much lower maximum heart rate and a much faster return to a normal heart rate after. Maybe the next step is to try actually lifting in conjunction with circuit training (omg circuit training is so hard).0 -
The reason I wanted to calculate the 20% cut based on a sedentary lifestyle is because at any moment, my job could get very very busy (staying in the office until 2am) and I'd almost rather add in the exercise on a daily basis as opposed to assuming there is time for my regular exercise throughout the rest of the week. In any case, I'm taking your advice to heart and now trying to focus on other metrics for progress for the next week. Since starting to exercise (mid November), I have managed to shave off a full minute 20 seconds from a 55 flight stair climb and did this with a much lower maximum heart rate and a much faster return to a normal heart rate after. Maybe the next step is to try actually lifting in conjunction with circuit training (omg circuit training is so hard).
Very valid reason and method of doing it, and better than MFP's method using block of calories, rather than %.
Use this spreadsheet, after you fill in Simple Setup tab (and only include in activity calc what will indeed be done, or work related more than desk job activity) go to the MFP tweak tab and use that for your eat back.
http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/813720-spreadsheet-bmr-tdee-deficit-macro-calcs-hrm-zones0 -
Thank you fom me too for this Mike. I'm only on day 2 but I'm feeling huge, like tight at the seams huge and am really tempted to go back to lower cals. And I haven't even got anywhere near my TDEE yet! I'm supposed to be on 2,350 but moving off 2 years of 1,200 means its so hard.
But just wanted to say thanks again - I really needed to read this today!0
