How much "water weight" can be gained?

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forevermaryb
forevermaryb Posts: 108 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I am very close to maintenance, so these last few pounds have been extremely stubborn. My goal weight is 142 (really 145, but I'm allowing for fluctuation). Saturday morning, my weight was 145.7 (yay!). I went to the gym that day and worked pretty hard. I had pizza for dinner as well as a few samples of dessert at the store, but I was still under my net calories. Sunday morning, my weight was 146.8. I know I didn't "gain" a pound, but still, the scale is up even if it is just water retention. No big deal. I've been dealing with this fluctuation for quite a while. So Sunday, we ended up going out to dinner. I didn't make the best choices, but was still under my net calories. Monday morning, the scale weighs me in at 147.4. Yesterday, I made pretty good food choices, but hit the gym pretty hard and also went to a Zumba class, so I had a big deficit yesterday. I wasn't too concerned about the deficit knowing Thanksgiving is coming and I plan to EAT. This morning, the scale is 148.8. So I've "gained" 3.1 pounds since Saturday. I am aware that it is water retention and my muscles are probably depleted from the extra work-out yesterday and there is normal body fluctuations and all that and I know it is just a number on the scale. I do weigh myself at the same time of day and I do drink, at minimum, 64 ounces of water daily (usually more). There is not enough time between now and Thanksgiving for this extra weight to go away. For months, my weight loss pattern has been that I will lose a few ounces and get to a new "low". For at least 2 weeks (usually more), my weight will fluctuate up and down for 3 pounds or so, until I get back to that new "low" and then will lose a few more ounces. My concern is that I will eat Thanksgiving dinner and "gain" more weight. I know I need to eat 3500 calories to truly gain a pound. If I'm already retaining 3 pounds of water weight, how much more could I gain after a big meal? Adding to my concern, I am having surgery next Wednesday on a hernia, which will limit my activity for a few days.

I'm not sure if I have a question in there or I just needed to whine. For me, it's been such a long journey and I am so close to the goal I set for myself almost a year ago. I started out over 208 pounds. I stopped weighing myself after I saw that number and didn't weigh myself again after dieting for 2 weeks. I know some will tell me to step away from the scale, but doing that helped get me into trouble in the first place. I can't let my weight get out of hand again. I do feel as if I've adapted a lifestyle change vs. a diet. I just hope Thanksgiving and then surgery and then the Christmas holidays don't start undoing all the good I've done for close to a year.

Replies

  • BenjaminMFP88
    BenjaminMFP88 Posts: 660 Member
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    Not entirely sure what your question is. So here's a guess. Thanksgiving meals typically contain abhorent amounts of sodium. Not that sodium is bad necessarily, but excess will cause increase water retention. The amount of water retention will depend solely upon how much sodium you ingest, how much fiber and how much water you drink. Believe it or not, drinking more water will allow you to pass excess sodium/water faster then if you just drank your normal intake.

    After my thanksgiving round 1, I had eaten 5500 calories which equates to about 1lb of fat converted from excess calories. However, the following day, I had put on about 7lbs. Granted, I lost all of it within a day or two but as you can see, you can put on quite a bit of water weight in a very short amount of time.
  • janicelo1971
    janicelo1971 Posts: 823 Member
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    Great question and im in the same boat as you are, so I can really relate...I was 136 last Saturday and now a week and3 days later at 140...been eating ok and within my calorie range and still at 140..fustrating....

    I would say it has to be the water retention...but I agree seems like a lot....??? hopefully someone will have a better answer

    Congrats on being so close to your goal!!!!
  • ScottH_200
    ScottH_200 Posts: 377 Member
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    Ever watched those weekly weigh-ins on the "Biggest Loser"?

    Those contestants burn thousands of calories during the week and are under the strictest dietary requirements imaginable. Yet, there are some weeks when a person loses 0 lbs or at best 2 to 4 lbs and they are still in the extremely obese category.

    How do you explain that? I just don't think the human body is a machine that produces the same results all of the time for every person in every situation.
  • rosemary98
    rosemary98 Posts: 632
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    I deal with this all the time. I was shocked after a very strick weekend of food to see the scale jump up 2.5 pounds. no explanation. there wasn't an excess of sodium, not my TOM, no muscle workout. Today it did fall 1.2 pounds from yesterday. I expect it to fall more, but with fluctuations as you explain there really is no affirmative answer. now, if a month from now, you are up to 155 and holding, I would say reassess your intake.
  • Greenrun99
    Greenrun99 Posts: 2,065 Member
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    If you have been cutting for a while your muscles can restore water from 5-15 lbs... from most reports I see
  • GingerLolita
    GingerLolita Posts: 738 Member
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    It sounds like water retention from a high sodium intake (pizza, prepared treats, restaurant food) if nothing else has changed. Consider other possible causes, like a lower activity level and inaccurate logging for the past few days.
  • spmcavoy1
    spmcavoy1 Posts: 60 Member
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    I'd chock it up to maybe some water weight and heavy foods. If you get back on track, you'll get back to where you want to be in no time.
  • tempehforever
    tempehforever Posts: 183 Member
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    Ever watched those weekly weigh-ins on the "Biggest Loser"?

    Those contestants burn thousands of calories during the week and are under the strictest dietary requirements imaginable. Yet, there are some weeks when a person loses 0 lbs or at best 2 to 4 lbs and they are still in the extremely obese category.

    How do you explain that? I just don't think the human body is a machine that produces the same results all of the time for every person in every situation.

    Biggest Loser contestants also severely dehydrate themselves before weigh-ins. :) So a lot of that is DEFINITELY "water weight."
  • bmqbonnie
    bmqbonnie Posts: 836 Member
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    I have gained upwards of 5 lbs before overnight if there is a combination of a big salty meal, a tough workout, not enough water, and PMS. Keep at it. If you're logging you know the math makes it impossible for it to be "real" weight. Frustrating as hell I know. But congrats on being so close and keep at it and you will be there in no time.
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,224 Member
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    As stated up to 15 pounds, perhaps more. When I got really sick with extremely high blood pressure I was put on a diuretic and lost 20 pounds in about 4-5 days. While I was in a calorie deficit, that loss was certainly mainly water. It is amazing how much water a body can hold on to. As to you weight variations, not that surprising especially if you ate significantly more sodium than usual, or, for that matter, if your exercise was significantly more intense than usual.
  • Poofy_Goodness
    Poofy_Goodness Posts: 229 Member
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    I've personally experience water weight fluctuations of up to 10lbs.
  • ScottH_200
    ScottH_200 Posts: 377 Member
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    Ever watched those weekly weigh-ins on the "Biggest Loser"?

    Those contestants burn thousands of calories during the week and are under the strictest dietary requirements imaginable. Yet, there are some weeks when a person loses 0 lbs or at best 2 to 4 lbs and they are still in the extremely obese category.

    How do you explain that? I just don't think the human body is a machine that produces the same results all of the time for every person in every situation.

    Biggest Loser contestants also severely dehydrate themselves before weigh-ins. :) So a lot of that is DEFINITELY "water weight."

    Well, that's my point ;-) Even though a lot of those contestants "dehydrate" themselves(?) before they weigh-in and even though they are under strict eating guidelines administered by professional nutritionists, burn off thousands of calories in a given week, some of them still weigh the same or lose very little weight on the scale at times. Of course, over the long haul if they keep up the same regimen they eventually reach their goal over the long-haul.
  • forevermaryb
    forevermaryb Posts: 108 Member
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    Thanks for all the responses from my rather rambly question. I guess I'm just going to have to keep monitoring and deal with it as it happens. If it's 3 pounds or 15 pounds (gasp) of water retention, then that's what it's going to have to be. I'm not going to stay within my calories on Thanksgiving, so it's a choice I'm going to have to make.
  • Ninkyou
    Ninkyou Posts: 6,666 Member
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    I've just come off of a 23 day streak of water retention, so I understand the mental war that goes on in your brain during that kind of thing. In my case it was an increase of exercise coinciding with ovulation. There are sooo many different factors that will give you water retention, but it does go eventually. You just have to be super patient and not get upset when the scale keeps going up... lol.
  • SueInAz
    SueInAz Posts: 6,592 Member
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    As long as you know that this is all temporary, you'll be fine. But I know it can be discouraging.

    As to the question of how much water weight a person can retain... I had an emergency appendectomy in February of this year. When I was admitted into the hospital on Wednesday, I weighed about 127. I ate nothing at all between Tuesday evening when I started to feel sick and Thursday morning after my surgery and then it was all liquid diet and soft foods until my discharge on Friday (and the food was typical hospital food so I didn't eat much at all). When I weighed myself at home on Friday afternoon, I weighed.145! An 18 pound weight gain on a measly few thousand calories over 3 days.

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