Sudden Jump in Weight - I just don't understand

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synapse0782
synapse0782 Posts: 25 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi All,

I've been weighing and tracking my food for about a month now. Everything was going well. I've lost a little over 5 lbs. A week ago I cut back on alcohol as well and didn't drink all week (which is unusual for me). Sunday was my free day and I had some vodka martini's but stayed within my calorie goal (I stick to 1500 regardless of excercise, I'm 31, started at 170, 5'6). Monday I saw a gain on the scale but chalked it up to water weight, maybe from the alcohol? Today I was expecting to see myself go back to normal and saw another pound gain, for two pounds over two days. That's almost half the amount I've lost so far! How is this possible? I'm religious about weighing food, tracking everything, and yesterday I even went on my normal 3.5 mile run (I run about 4/5 times a week). What am I doing wrong? Is it normal to gain two pounds in two days? I will make my diary public after this post so you all can look. Any tips are appreciated. What a bummer to what was beginning to look like a good streak!
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Replies

  • synapse0782
    synapse0782 Posts: 25 Member
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    Bump. Any advice is really appreciated!
  • 2013sk
    2013sk Posts: 1,318 Member
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    I wouldn't stress too much

    Could be anything

    Higher sodium foods

    If you haven't been a toilet

    Drinking less water than usual, or not enough?

    Maybe water weight from the alcohol if you haven't had it in a while..........Give it a week or so then weigh, Weigh everyday is not good as you can weight can change up to 5lbs any given day.

    Once a week is good to weigh : )
  • EvenThatNameIsTaken
    EvenThatNameIsTaken Posts: 164 Member
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    You are probably just retaining water, I wouldn't worry about it and stick to your diet, I'm willing to bet the extra weight will fall off and then some in a day or two :smile: (just happened to me!)
  • _Zardoz_
    _Zardoz_ Posts: 3,987 Member
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    It's a normal daily fluctuation
  • concordancia
    concordancia Posts: 5,320 Member
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    About a month, you say?

    Would it be time for your period?
  • Arranna1212
    Arranna1212 Posts: 143 Member
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    Here's the thing.. If you are going to weigh yourself every day.. You HAVE to tell yourself that a pound or 2 gain IS NOT something to flip out about. It is just fluctuations in your body and it is NORMAL.
  • youcrazything
    youcrazything Posts: 32 Member
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    It happens. Weight loss just isn't as linear as we'd like it to be. I was staying in my calorie budget the last 3 weeks, and for two of those weeks stayed the same weight, and even put on half a pound. It still makes me feel crappy after about a year and a half of doing this, but I've learned to push through it and trust the process. Sure enough, this last weigh in I had lost a little over 3 lbs, to equal out to the 1 lb I should have been losing per week. There have been many times in this journey where I have thought "WTF body, what are you doing???".
    I wouldn't worry about being stuck or gaining a pound or so unless it continues for more than a few weeks.
  • Billy323
    Billy323 Posts: 182 Member
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    Don't sweat it. I have had 8 pound swings in 1 day. Stick to measurements to truly track progress. If you are eating under maintenance that's all you need to do to succeed. Don't forget that a gallon of water weighs 8.34 pounds. A 20 ounce bottle of water is 1.3 pounds.
  • SLLRunner
    SLLRunner Posts: 12,943 Member
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    Here's the thing.. If you are going to weigh yourself every day.. You HAVE to tell yourself that a pound or 2 gain IS NOT something to flip out about. It is just fluctuations in your body and it is NORMAL.
    This!

    Weight naturally fluctuates. At least mine does. :smile:
  • meritage4
    meritage4 Posts: 1,441 Member
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    I weigh myself daily BUT look at my 30 day results. For example Friday I was 185- a new low but Sat 186.8 Sunday 186.6 and this morning 185.6 but over the 30 day graph the downward trend is unmistakeable!
  • synapse0782
    synapse0782 Posts: 25 Member
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    About a month, you say?

    Would it be time for your period?

    I didn't know this made a difference?
  • thesimsisters
    thesimsisters Posts: 73 Member
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    It happens. Weight loss just isn't as linear as we'd like it to be. I was staying in my calorie budget the last 3 weeks, and for two of those weeks stayed the same weight, and even put on half a pound. It still makes me feel crappy after about a year and a half of doing this, but I've learned to push through it and trust the process. Sure enough, this last weigh in I had lost a little over 3 lbs, to equal out to the 1 lb I should have been losing per week. There have been many times in this journey where I have thought "WTF body, what are you doing???".
    I wouldn't worry about being stuck or gaining a pound or so unless it continues for more than a few weeks.

    ^^^^^This^^^^

    I've been doing great with my food, logging, exercise etc and the past three Saturday weigh-ins have looked like this.
    Saturday: -1.1 lb
    The Next Saturday: -0.4 lb
    The Saturday After Next: + 0.6 lb

    So yeah since I'm a weekly weigher it sucks when it's like that as it'll be another week to see how it's going. It's very hard not to get pissed and discouraged. But I've been doing this a long time so I know I have to trust that it'll work out in the end. I've lost 9 lbs since Thanksgiving, so I'm on track loss-wise for me. But it is hard not to be like WTF?
  • concordancia
    concordancia Posts: 5,320 Member
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    About a month, you say?

    Would it be time for your period?

    I didn't know this made a difference?

    Do you feel bloated? That is inflammation and extra water, which carries extra weight. Also,, scientifically speaking, your uterus is full of everything you are about to get rid of.
  • drojen
    drojen Posts: 203 Member
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    TOM makes a difference for me - I can jump up 3-4 lbs for a couple of days and then suddenly drop again. I've been tracking daily (give or take a day here and there) just to make sense of the increase and to see if it happens every month. It does - and it happens about 2 weeks before TOM starts, not during or just before, 2 weeks before. Every single month.

    I wouldn't sweat it. I was up 3 lbs yesterday, dropped 4 lbs today. Our body weight just fluctuates - that's why when I choose my goal weight - it's not going to be a single # but a weight range. I have a great deal left to lose, so I haven't decided on a final weight yet. We'll see what happens the closer I get to onederland. I'll re-asess once I get there.
  • synapse0782
    synapse0782 Posts: 25 Member
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    Ok guys thanks. It's so hard not to get fixated on the number, especially when it was going so well! I'll just drink lots of water and keep on carrying on...
  • Mercambus
    Mercambus Posts: 11
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    I weigh myself fairly often but I only log my weight and tape measure on the first of the month to see the real trend. I was 6 pounds heavier Monday than I was on Sunday. Today I was 2 pounds lighter than yesterday. It just varies.

    Also some of the weight you've lost could be from depleted glycogen levels through calorie restriction and exercise. Carbing up (be it through food choices or alcohol) can account for some weight gain. Higher glycogen levels in your system can be accompanied with more water retention.

    Not a doctor but just info I've gleamed from other people.
  • EvenThatNameIsTaken
    EvenThatNameIsTaken Posts: 164 Member
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    Here's the thing.. If you are going to weigh yourself every day.. You HAVE to tell yourself that a pound or 2 gain IS NOT something to flip out about. It is just fluctuations in your body and it is NORMAL.

    yes, this.
  • bwogilvie
    bwogilvie Posts: 2,130 Member
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    Here's the thing.. If you are going to weigh yourself every day.. You HAVE to tell yourself that a pound or 2 gain IS NOT something to flip out about. It is just fluctuations in your body and it is NORMAL.

    QFT. I weigh myself daily, though I record my weight on MFP only once a week to avoid annoying those on my friends list with constant updates. Here are my numbers for the last week; I was eating at a deficit every day:

    2/04: 164.6
    2/05: 164.4 (down 0.2)
    2/06: 165.2 (up 0.8)
    2/07: 165.3 (up 0.1)
    2/08: 165.3 (no change)
    2/09: 166.1 (up 0.8)
    2/10: 166.0 (down 0.1)
    2/11: 163.3 (down 2.7)

    Since I was at a deficit every day, the 1.4 lb. that I gained from Feb. 4 to Feb. 10 was retained water and solids. And most of what I lost from yesterday to today was water and solids.

    I use an exponentially smoothed weighted average to identify the trend beneath those fluctuations, as as John Walker explains in "The Hacker's Diet" (http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/e4/). The chapter on "The Rubber Bag" explains, briefly, the source of these fluctuations. The chapter on "Signal and Noise" explains the benefits of an exponentially smoothed weighted average and how to calculate it, but you can also set up a free account on his server to do it for you, or use a service like Beeminder or TrendWeight.com.
  • WxMstr
    WxMstr Posts: 25 Member
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    As many said do not worry about the few pounds in a week span. The same thing was going on with me. I would read 186lbs in the day time, but in the morning after my morning constitution (lol) I would weigh in at 179lbs! That is almost ten pound fluctuations between evening and morning! What I do now and it seems to work the best is weigh myself every Monday morning right when I get up every 2 weeks. That usually shows a 3-4lb loss each time(goal is 2lbs a week).
  • thesimsisters
    thesimsisters Posts: 73 Member
    Options
    It happens. Weight loss just isn't as linear as we'd like it to be. I was staying in my calorie budget the last 3 weeks, and for two of those weeks stayed the same weight, and even put on half a pound. It still makes me feel crappy after about a year and a half of doing this, but I've learned to push through it and trust the process. Sure enough, this last weigh in I had lost a little over 3 lbs, to equal out to the 1 lb I should have been losing per week. There have been many times in this journey where I have thought "WTF body, what are you doing???".
    I wouldn't worry about being stuck or gaining a pound or so unless it continues for more than a few weeks.

    ^^^^^This^^^^

    I've been doing great with my food, logging, exercise etc and the past three Saturday weigh-ins have looked like this.
    Saturday: -1.1 lb
    The Next Saturday: -0.4 lb
    The Saturday After Next: + 0.6 lb

    So yeah since I'm a weekly weigher it sucks when it's like that as it'll be another week to see how it's going. It's very hard not to get pissed and discouraged. But I've been doing this a long time so I know I have to trust that it'll work out in the end. I've lost 9 lbs since Thanksgiving, so I'm on track loss-wise for me. But it is hard not to be like WTF?

    FYI, I lost 1.9lbs this week when I weighed on Saturday, so you can see from above that it all worked out. Trust the process and just keep trudging onwards :)

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