Why is it always down to water weight?

Seems like water is the culprit of a lot of weight problems.

No one, outside of those with medical conditions, is overweight because he/she is carrying around 50 extra pounds of water. They're overweight because they're carrying around 50 extra pounds of fat. ;-)

I think water weight is the most common cause of scale fluctuation. New or intense exercise can cause your muscles to hold water in order to repair themselves. A high sodium or high carb day can also cause you to retain several pounds of water. However, some food plans, like low carb, deplete the body of glycogen. Glycogen holds something like two or three molecules of water for every one glycogen. That's why a lot of low-carbers lose so much so quickly in the beginning, and why they may gain several pounds after a higher-carb day. There are lots of reasons why a body will retain or get rid of water. And as contrary as it sounds, drinking water will act as a diuretic and flush out some of the retained water.

And this^^

The scale is only part of the picture. It's important to remember that this is not a fast process, but one that needs to monitored over a long period of time. We shouldn't put too much emphasis on weekly fluctuations. And caribear's ticker is perfect for this! LOL

Someone here explained it a little while ago (better than I ever could) but it's something like this. You hold around 5lbs of water & glycogen (ie energy) in your body so it's ready for action!

When this is used up and can't be replaced (because you're taking in less calories than you need) you will, pretty soon, weigh 5lbs lighter and your body starts on the fat stores, instead.

If you eat more than (or just as much as) you need - your body refills itself with the original 5lbs of water & glycogen - which returns to happily sitting in your muscles and waiting for you to run from a tiger or fight a bear.

Hope this helps.

you say a "lot" of weight. How much we talkin here? If it's a 5lb fluctuation i'd say absolutely as the others have pointed out.

Someone here explained it a little while ago (better than I ever could) but it's something like this. You hold around 5lbs of water & glycogen (ie energy) in your body so it's ready for action!

When this is used up and can't be replaced (because you're taking in less calories than you need) you will, pretty soon, weigh 5lbs lighter and your body starts on the fat stores, instead.

If you eat more than (or just as much as) you need - your body refills itself with the original 5lbs of water & glycogen - which returns to happily sitting in your muscles and waiting for you to run from a tiger or fight a bear.

Hope this helps.

No offense, but this is completely incorrect. Glycogen is the stored form of carbohydrates in your body. It is normally full after a meal consisting of a normal amount of carbs. Eating at a deficit, or eating at a surplus has nothing to do with glycogen stores. Glycogen stores have everything to do with how many grams carbohydrates you consume daily. Glycogen is stored in the muscles and the liver. Liver glycogen is broken down to maintain blood glucose levels high enough, and when they are too high, insulin is released to store glucose as glycogen, or as fat depending if the glycogen stores are full or not. Muscle glycogen is used when the muscles are used at high intensities that require fast twitch muscle fiber recruitment. You do not have to fully deplete glycogen for fat oxidation to occur, that's ridiculous. In fact full depletion of glycogen is extremely difficult, and only happens with high activity coupled with extremely low carbohydrate intakes, such as during a marathon, around the 20 mile mark, it's called hitting the wall. It is extremely painful, as your body then has to switch to solely ketones from fat oxidation for energy, but the next meal with carbohydrates will refill glycogen stores. It is true that each gram of glycogen in the body has 3 grams of water attached to it. This is the reason that low carb diets see high initial weight loss because glycogen is being used without being replaced and a large amount of water weight is being lost.