My Bumps in the Road (TLDR: Water Weight)

JantjeG

Looking at my weight loss chart, I had 3 periods where I gained weight mysteriously even though my logged calories and exercise have roughly stayed the same. End result: I've lost 74 pounds so far with meticulous food logging and exercising progressively harder as I get in shape, about 3-5 times a week.

Here's what I learned:
1) Binge drinking (4+ drinks) ends up leaving me with 5-10 more pounds for about a week. The water eventually comes out and I'm right back on track. I need to look up the science behind this, but my guess is that my ADH (anti-diuretic hormone) overcompensates after a drinking episode. So yeah, drinking is not good for you for many reasons, temporary weight gain included.

2) Quitting Nicorette gum causes weight gain. You might be saying, "Yeah that's obvious, nicotine causes decreased appetite!" Well, the weird part here is that I kept my diet EXACTLY the same. I meticulously logged my food before and after and I still gained weight. What I realized is that stimulants cause you to drink less water, so you are chronically dehydrated. I gained about 5 pounds from my baseline, but now I'm back on track, just 5 pounds up. Also, since I am no longer dehydrated, I noticed my exercise endurance has gone up and I can run much faster and longer on the treadmill.


So the overall lesson here: water weight is insidious and you can't trust your scale. I just recently bought an EatSmart body-fat scale from Amazon and it has me not looking at pounds as seriously. I'm looking at body fat %, lean muscle mass, and most importantly, exercise endurance. I've went from not being able to jog more than 1 minute in April 2012 without being terribly out of breath to being able to sustain running 6.5mph for 30 minutes.