Can someone please explain this weight gain to me?

ajcmoran2005
ajcmoran2005 Posts: 173 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi everyone,

I am fully aware of how many calories make a pound so I was totally shocked at my weight gain this morning. I try and not weigh myself everyday but yesterday was our youngest daughter's birthday party and I knew that I was going to eat some cake and go over my normal amount of calories so I wanted to see how much I would have gained from it. Yesterday I was 122.3 (only 2.3 pounds from my goal so the weight gain was a bummer) and this morning I was 124.1!!! I burned about 500 calories with my workout yesterday and went to her party only having consumed about 800 calories. I had a ham and cheese sandwich for dinner with only lettuce. No condiments at all so I estimated about 400-500 calories. Before I ate the cake I had about 1200-1300 calories. I had a piece of cake there (not a huge one though) and half a cupcake at home but that was it. I actually exhibited pretty good self control because I have a horrible sweet tooth! Anyways, since I know buttercream frosting is high in calories I estimated that I ate about 800 calories of cake, which would put me at 2000-2100 calories for the day. I've been losing about a pound a week eating 1800 calories so I truly thought that I would only see a very small gain. I was absolutely shocked and a little angry honestly to see an almost two pound weight gain! Even if I was off by a couple hundred calories due to the sandwich and cake there is absolutely no way I took in an extra 7000 calories! So what is the deal here? Common sense says no way but why does the scale say yes way? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Replies

  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
    Water weight is not tightly regulated in the body, so you probably just retained more water on account of eating more sodium or more carbs (that retain sodium)
  • samammay
    samammay Posts: 468
    Water weight, high sodium intake, gotta poo... take your pick.

    Weight loss is not linear and a single weight is meaningless.
  • MB_Positif
    MB_Positif Posts: 8,897 Member
    Not weight gain. Moving on.
  • mikej1978
    mikej1978 Posts: 362 Member
    Some foods take longer to process than others. I get this alot too. Just stick to it and weigh yourself again tomorrow. I will bet ya you will be back down to 122 ish.
  • elyelyse
    elyelyse Posts: 1,454 Member
    Hi everyone,

    I am fully aware of how many calories make a pound so I was totally shocked at my weight gain this morning. I try and not weigh myself everyday but yesterday was our youngest daughter's birthday party and I knew that I was going to eat some cake and go over my normal amount of calories so I wanted to see how much I would have gained from it. Yesterday I was 122.3 (only 2.3 pounds from my goal so the weight gain was a bummer) and this morning I was 124.1!!! I burned about 500 calories with my workout yesterday and went to her party only having consumed about 800 calories. I had a ham and cheese sandwich for dinner with only lettuce. No condiments at all so I estimated about 400-500 calories. Before I ate the cake I had about 1200-1300 calories. I had a piece of cake there (not a huge one though) and half a cupcake at home but that was it. I actually exhibited pretty good self control because I have a horrible sweet tooth! Anyways, since I know buttercream frosting is high in calories I estimated that I ate about 800 calories of cake, which would put me at 2000-2100 calories for the day. I've been losing about a pound a week eating 1800 calories so I truly thought that I would only see a very small gain. I was absolutely shocked and a little angry honestly to see an almost two pound weight gain! Even if I was off by a couple hundred calories due to the sandwich and cake there is absolutely no way I took in an extra 7000 calories! So what is the deal here? Common sense says no way but why does the scale say yes way? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

    If you weigh yourself just hours after eating food...well...that food weighs something. You haven't even finished digesting it yet. You don't gain weight in a day. If you drink a tall glass of water...now you're up a pound. It's not fat, you didn't gain "weight". Relax.
  • imhungry2012
    imhungry2012 Posts: 240 Member
    You havent had any up and down fluxuations since you started? They are normal, especially when you eat things you dont "normally" eat as others mentioned retaining water likely is contributing to the temporary gain on the scale...I highly doubt that you gained 2 lbs of fat overnight :) Weigh again in a week and you'll likely be back to normal! I hope you enjoyed your cake, sounds delicious!
  • Pidgeywendy
    Pidgeywendy Posts: 32 Member
    The problem isn't the scales - it's you obsessing! That reads as being totally crazy....people do not put weight on overnight like that.

    The scales fluctuate when we are dehydrated, have eaten salty food, have eaten a large meal, time of the month etc etc. That's why sports professionals tell us to weigh ourselves no more than once a week (if we must), as well as taking body measurements as a way of keeping track.

    Try and stop upsetting yourself like this - weigh yourself once a week, first thing in the morning, on the same scales, wearing no clothes.

    Now - take a step back and breathe! :-)
  • Mongognom
    Mongognom Posts: 123
    Short term doesn't matter. Make a graph and make sure the trend is down, small fluctuation doesn't matter. IMy weight flux 1kg depending on what time of the day I weigh in.
  • potluck965
    potluck965 Posts: 529 Member
    Ham and cheese, both delicious but high in sodium.

    Chillax!!!
  • QuilterInVA
    QuilterInVA Posts: 672 Member
    Its a combination of sodium and carbs. For every gram of carbs your body stores 4 grams of water and then the sodium adds water, too.
  • ajcmoran2005
    ajcmoran2005 Posts: 173 Member
    Thank you everyone for your advice! Normally I don't obsess that much and I try and do just weekly weigh in's (sometimes I weigh myself a couple more times but I try not to) but since I'm getting so close to my goal I guess I am obsessing a little too much about it. I didn't even think about getting dehydrated but that might have played a part in it. I usually drink at least 100 ounces of water with about 1/2 a can of Coke Zero in the morning just to wake myself up but yesterday I drank a ton more of soda and just a little water. While I didn't like seeing the number on the scale I will put it out of my mind and go back to my healthy eating today. I will say though that the cake was delicious. Oh how I love buttercream frosting!!!
  • Bluetoast
    Bluetoast Posts: 13
    What everyone else said. And the diet coke. I lost weight very quickly at the beginning, I believe because I went cold turkey on diet sodas after reading about all of the bad effects.

    Just go back to what you were doing -you'll be fine - but you may want to read more about artificial sweeteners. It was a huge wake up call for me.

    Stick to the natural sugars or sweeteners when you can - I am a sucker for butter cream icing myself and I also indulged this weekend at a party. One of my weaknesses.

    Good luck.
  • doctorsookie
    doctorsookie Posts: 1,084 Member
    Ham and cheese, both delicious but high in sodium.

    Chillax!!!

    This. Water retention. You're fine.

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