Just a little carb!

casparuk
casparuk Posts: 9
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi all - I've been trying to do a high protein/low carb routine for the last 3 weeks. I feel it's improving my shape is feeling better, with a loss of only 6lbs.

Last weekend we went away for 3 days, and did a lot of walking 9-10 hours tourist walking for 2 days.

I come home and I've put back on 3lbs.

Surely I would have lost a lbs or two simply by walking so much!

I kept to the high protein/low carb routine, but the food was not my own preparation so i don't really know how many carbs i consumed. I did have a chocolate desert one night, and a handful of m&ms .... could these have really meant i put 3lbs back on, despite the walking.

I'm somewhat demotivated know and am scared if I consume more than 20g of carbs I'll just glow back up, and lose the last 3 weeks' work.


Any insight why I would have put on weight when i was away I'd be interested to know. Muscle generation? cause i had 1 chocolate desert/m&m??


I'll keep on the <20g of carbs for now.

Replies

  • bellaiabello
    bellaiabello Posts: 24
    Did you really log everything? Drinks, snacks, stuff you stole from other people's plate? It also might just be water weight, I would eat healthy today and see what the scale show tomorrow.
  • livingleanlivingclean
    livingleanlivingclean Posts: 11,751 Member
    Desserts can be deceiving. I calculated the calories in a small chocolate dessert from a 5 star restaurant's recipe book. 2000 calories.

    It may not all be fat....you could be retaining water from increased sodium and increased carbs. I can pee and lose more than that!

    Is there a reason you're eating such low carb?
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
    With low carb diets, initially you deplete your glycogen stores in your muscles. Carbs are stored as glycogen. It also requires water to store so when your glycogen stores are depleted, you also drop some water. This usually accounts for the big initial drop of 10 or so pounds on a low carb diet. The problem is, as soon as you eat carbs again, you replenish the stores and the water weight, so people often experience a sudden jump in weight when they have carbs.

    TL;dr - it's water weight fluctuations due to the extra carbs you ate.
  • ab_1203
    ab_1203 Posts: 88 Member
    Doubt you put on 3lbs of fat, its water weight. Also weigh yourself in the morning, its better cause you havent ate for the whole night.

    One more thing, youre probably doing this already but you need to up your fats way high if you're going low carb into the keto areas which under 20g is.
  • danimalkeys
    danimalkeys Posts: 982 Member
    you probably gained 3lbs of muscle with all that walking.
  • MeredithDeVoe
    MeredithDeVoe Posts: 31 Member
    If the foods were restaurant-prepared, they tend to load dishes with sodium for flavor. I agree with both ab_1203 and danimalkeys, I bet it's a combination of water and muscle.
  • ldrosophila
    ldrosophila Posts: 7,512 Member
    for some reason every time i travel I get a bit dehydrated and constipated. I wouldnt worry get back on your normal track youll be fine.
  • LAWoman72
    LAWoman72 Posts: 2,846 Member
    Water. Carbs require water. So when you consume them, you retain a water ratio to them. When I eat very carb-y (not very often), I am up 2-3 pounds the next day. Now I KNOW I didn't eat 10,500 calories that day, LOL. It's water, plain and simple.
  • casparuk
    casparuk Posts: 9
    thanks all for the replies :smile:

    bellaiabello - i do log everything, on a normal day at home in my own routine anyway. I found it hard when we were away, not because i was tempted, but because i felt a complete lack of control of my [food] environment. And those food i did eat, i had no real way to measure their content, etc.
    We've been home a few days now, so have had those days to get back on track. It's christmas day tomorrow, but I'm more looking forward to a quick weigh-in in the morning than santa! :laugh:

    livingleanliv - I thought I'd do a high protein/low card routine, i.e. atkins, currently on phase 1. I've gone from approx 220g of carbs a day to <20g (ignoring the dietary fibre carb gramms). I did lose a nice lot of weight in the first 2 weeks, but to be honest I didn't really know what i was doing so was prob doing it all wrong! (such as I was eye-blinkered on high protein so would eat a few richmond thick sausages into my day, then i saw they were like 15g of carbs each! taking me well over 20g! i was consuming approx 70g each day. the net effect of this is in the first week i don't think i saw more than your amount of pee loss of weight! :wink: )

    3dogsrunning - thanks for that, it sounds like I'll pack on a few pounds as soon as i start increasing my carbs when I've had enough of the 20g limit! The funny thing is is that my real problem is snacking, esp really in the evening when i slow down. what the last 3-4 weeks is teaching me is that i don't need to snack and to divert my attention elsewhere (like long forum posts!)! if i can control a 9-10pm 500 calorie intake then maintaining my weight should be easier (I did say easier)

    ab_1203 - i always do weight myself in the morning, i always feel happier with the result :big smile: . When you i need to keep my fats high, like how high? Yesterday I consumed 128g of fat, 50g of those being sat fat, 18 unseat fat. Most of that comes from cheese i think - this was compared to 21g carbs, with 3 dietary fibre, so 18g of net carbs.

    ldrosophila - i was the complete opposite, i think i had way too much carbs which gave me diarrhoea - maybe too many sugary carbs and did some fermenting overnight! yuck!
  • MaryJane_8810002
    MaryJane_8810002 Posts: 2,082 Member
    You probably just lost water weight. When people cut carbs drastically you just lose water weight initially.
  • casparuk
    casparuk Posts: 9
    Hi maryjane_88 - is losing water weight bad? Does that mean i'm doomed to fail this way?

    At the moment, this high protein/ low carb routine is teaching me not to snack. I used to joke to myself that I don't remember a single night for years that I haven't had a late night snack, which could get up to 500 cals!

    Since starting my new routine, 3-4 weeks ago, I have not snacked at all (except last weekend's trip away! :( ). I feel I'm now more able to cope without a late night snack!...other than a litre of water!
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
    When did you get back, and did you fly?
  • casparuk
    casparuk Posts: 9
    Hi Sabine_Stroeh - we were away from Thursday to Sunday afternoon. We drove, taking approx 4 hours only... for England you can get quite far in 4 hours!
  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
    Hi Sabine_Stroeh - we were away from Thursday to Sunday afternoon. We drove, taking approx 4 hours only... for England you can get quite far in 4 hours!
    Ah.. I was hoping you'd say you flew. I ALWAYS see the scale go up a few ticks when I fly. Sometimes 5LBS! I agree with the others that it's probably at least partly water weight.
    Hope you enjoyed your trip!
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
    Hi maryjane_88 - is losing water weight bad? Does that mean i'm doomed to fail this way?

    At the moment, this high protein/ low carb routine is teaching me not to snack. I used to joke to myself that I don't remember a single night for years that I haven't had a late night snack, which could get up to 500 cals!

    Since starting my new routine, 3-4 weeks ago, I have not snacked at all (except last weekend's trip away! :( ). I feel I'm now more able to cope without a late night snack!...other than a litre of water!

    It is not necessarily a bad thing. you are not doomed to fail. You just need to understand what is going on. It is not fat you are adding. It is not going to fill you out really (although bodybuilders do do an extreme version of this to fill out muscles before a show). You won't gain all your weight back once you go because 10 or 20lb loss. You just need to understand that when you introduce a higher number of carbs suddenly, you will see a jump in the scale, usually up to about 10 lbs although that can depend on how low your carbs have been, how active you are and how much your spiked your carbs. Don't let it freak you out. If you go back to low carb it will drop again. If you keep your carbs consistent your weight will level off.

    Don't get too caught up in scale weight. It is not the best measurement of progress. Check out this link
    http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/350212--why-scales-lie
  • ab_1203
    ab_1203 Posts: 88 Member
    ab_1203 - i always do weight myself in the morning, i always feel happier with the result :big smile: . When you i need to keep my fats high, like how high? Yesterday I consumed 128g of fat, 50g of those being sat fat, 18 unseat fat. Most of that comes from cheese i think - this was compared to 21g carbs, with 3 dietary fibre, so 18g of net carbs.

    Thats a good amount, I know I was hitting around 110g when I was on Keto, most from cheese too. Youre also only getting 3g of fibre per day?! Thats way too low, recommended is around 20g at least.
  • twixlepennie
    twixlepennie Posts: 1,074 Member
    Hi all - I've been trying to do a high protein/low carb routine for the last 3 weeks. I feel it's improving my shape is feeling better, with a loss of only 6lbs.

    Last weekend we went away for 3 days, and did a lot of walking 9-10 hours tourist walking for 2 days.

    I come home and I've put back on 3lbs.

    Surely I would have lost a lbs or two simply by walking so much!

    I kept to the high protein/low carb routine, but the food was not my own preparation so i don't really know how many carbs i consumed. I did have a chocolate desert one night, and a handful of m&ms .... could these have really meant i put 3lbs back on, despite the walking.

    I'm somewhat demotivated know and am scared if I consume more than 20g of carbs I'll just glow back up, and lose the last 3 weeks' work.


    Any insight why I would have put on weight when i was away I'd be interested to know. Muscle generation? cause i had 1 chocolate desert/m&m??


    I'll keep on the <20g of carbs for now.

    The part of this post that stands out to me, is that you're scared that eating over 20 carbs (which is nothing), will cause you to gain weight. Is restricting carbs really the plan you think you'll be happy doing and able to follow for the rest of your life? Really? Why are you making weight loss harder than it needs to be? You're setting yourself up for failure by following pointless restrictions and rules.

    Count calories and measure out portion sizes. Weight loss really is as simple as that, and doing this is way less restrictive as what you're currently doing. I lost over 50lbs eating over 200 carbs a day. I'm maintaining beautifully now eating over 200 carbs a day. Calories, calories, calories.
  • Vicxie86
    Vicxie86 Posts: 181 Member
    What you eat for a day or 2 will NOT lead to a 3lbs weight gain. It's definitely just water weight. Wait a few days and watch the scale go back to normal.

    I've definitely had over 3000kcal in the last 24hours, im not the least bit worried because i'm sure i shall be having another 3000kcal in the next 24hours.

    Merry Christmas to all

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