Gained 10 lbs in 4 days.

BellaKaren89
BellaKaren89 Posts: 21
in Health and Weight Loss
How possible is it that I gained nearly ten pounds in four days? :O
I went out of town and I pigged out every single day. I ate so much (compared to what I am used to eating) that my tummy would feel so bloated everyday. I was having fun and with family so I just kept eating. Today that I got back home I went from weighing 173 to 182. How possible is that? Do you think I'll lose it? Any tips on how to lose this weight fast? I am so sad!!!

Replies

  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
    You ate a lot of salt and retained water.

    The end.

    Tip to lose weight, eat less salt (ie your normal diet) and drink lots of water and it will fall off you quickly. It is just water it doesn't matter. You shouldn't be concerned with your scale weight you should be concerned with your body fat percentage and that didn't change over 4 days.
  • onedaybeforethenext
    onedaybeforethenext Posts: 46 Member
    Go right back to eating the way you normally do, drink lots of water and it will drop over the next few days. You may be up some but not 10 pounds worth unless you at 35,000 calories over what your body needs in four days which I doubt you did :) It will be ok....
  • BellaKaren89
    BellaKaren89 Posts: 21
    You ate a lot of salt and retained water.

    The end.

    Tip to lose weight, eat less salt (ie your normal diet) and drink lots of water and it will fall off you quickly. It is just water it doesn't matter. You shouldn't be concerned with your scale weight you should be concerned with your body fat percentage and that didn't change over 4 days.

    Yes I ate a ton of Mexican food which has a lot of sodium! Thanks.
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
    You ate a lot of salt and retained water.

    The end.

    Tip to lose weight, eat less salt (ie your normal diet) and drink lots of water and it will fall off you quickly. It is just water it doesn't matter. You shouldn't be concerned with your scale weight you should be concerned with your body fat percentage and that didn't change over 4 days.

    Yes I ate a ton of Mexican food which has a lot of sodium! Thanks.

    400mg of sodium is sufficient to retain an extra 2 pounds of water. It really doesn't take that much and is one of the main reasons your bodyweight will fluctuate so much over even the course of a single day.
  • susannamarie
    susannamarie Posts: 2,148 Member
    A lot of it's water. Probably a pound max of real gain. Drink lots of water, eat sensibly, and watch it go back down.
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    You ate a lot of salt and retained water.

    The end.

    Tip to lose weight, eat less salt (ie your normal diet) and drink lots of water and it will fall off you quickly. It is just water it doesn't matter. You shouldn't be concerned with your scale weight you should be concerned with your body fat percentage and that didn't change over 4 days.

    Yes I ate a ton of Mexican food which has a lot of sodium! Thanks.

    400mg of sodium is sufficient to retain an extra 2 pounds of water. It really doesn't take that much and is one of the main reasons your bodyweight will fluctuate so much over even the course of a single day.

    that much …so your average sodium consumption of 2000 a day will result in eight pound of water retention? Or are you saying if you go over your allowance that each 400 mg over your daily allowance will result in two pound water gain ..? Generally curious about this ...
  • C3001
    C3001 Posts: 28 Member
    Thanks for posting this! I'm actually going on a vacation in June for a week and should be around goal... I am already stressing out a bit. Salt-yuck... Good to hear even if I "know" it. :)
  • watchhillgirl
    watchhillgirl Posts: 597 Member
    It is just water weight, but I am sure it freaked you out. Now don't get depressed and binge! Just drink a lot if water and get back on track. Sometimes life gets in the way of our goals, but just move on and don't dwell on it. Get back on track, drink lots of water and get back to exercising! Now the important question....did you have fun with your family? :-)
  • BellaKaren89
    BellaKaren89 Posts: 21
    It is just water weight, but I am sure it freaked you out. Now don't get depressed and binge! Just drink a lot if water and get back on track. Sometimes life gets in the way of our goals, but just move on and don't dwell on it. Get back on track, drink lots of water and get back to exercising! Now the important question....did you have fun with your family? :-)

    Yes I had fun!! I know I was very sad. Sucks because I joined a weight loss challenge at work and the terms are that if we gain weight we have to pay $1 per lb!! I hope this weight goes down by tomorrow because we weigh ourselves every Tuesday! I don't want to pay all that money lol.
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
    You ate a lot of salt and retained water.

    The end.

    Tip to lose weight, eat less salt (ie your normal diet) and drink lots of water and it will fall off you quickly. It is just water it doesn't matter. You shouldn't be concerned with your scale weight you should be concerned with your body fat percentage and that didn't change over 4 days.

    Yes I ate a ton of Mexican food which has a lot of sodium! Thanks.

    400mg of sodium is sufficient to retain an extra 2 pounds of water. It really doesn't take that much and is one of the main reasons your bodyweight will fluctuate so much over even the course of a single day.

    that much …so your average sodium consumption of 2000 a day will result in eight pound of water retention? Or are you saying if you go over your allowance that each 400 mg over your daily allowance will result in two pound water gain ..? Generally curious about this ...

    So your body has to maintain a certain osmotic pressure. Too much, cells deflate, too little...cells swell and eventually rupture. This is regulated by the amount of dissolved ions in your blood and is largely driven by salts. If you don't have enough salt your body will shed water to bring itself back into equilibrium, if your body has to much salt it will retain water to bring back to equilibrium. My understanding is that the 400mg of sodium = 2lb of water just means that if you put about 400mg of salt into 1 liter of water (2.2 lb) that it would be about the "saltiness" of your blood and would not change the equlibirium. Therefore if your body takes on that 400mg of sodium it needs to take on 2 lb of water to maintain that equlibrium.

    Logically its any 400mg of sodium including your normal intake. Your body has a lot of water in it as you might imagine so although 2 lb sounds like a ton its not really relative to how much water is in your body in general.
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
    It is just water weight, but I am sure it freaked you out. Now don't get depressed and binge! Just drink a lot if water and get back on track. Sometimes life gets in the way of our goals, but just move on and don't dwell on it. Get back on track, drink lots of water and get back to exercising! Now the important question....did you have fun with your family? :-)

    Yes I had fun!! I know I was very sad. Sucks because I joined a weight loss challenge at work and the terms are that if we gain weight we have to pay $1 per lb!! I hope this weight goes down by tomorrow because we weigh ourselves every Tuesday! I don't want to pay all that money lol.

    Ah well in that case let me give you a tip. Note, do NOT do this long term or to win bets or to keep losing pounds as it would not be healthy, you need sodium so if you kept this up you could cause yourself harm. In the short term though its fine.

    If you want to shed that weight here is what you do. Look at your daily intake and drop pretty much anything with sodium in it or bring your sodium level very low. Now drink 2 gallons of water per day. That should do it.

    Oh wait, tuesday is tomorrow. Well...best you can do is drink a ton of water and piss like a racehorse for the time you have remaining. As counterintuitive as it might be to get rid of retained water you should drink a lot of water.
  • jenn_in_sj
    jenn_in_sj Posts: 25 Member
    Sodium can make me 4 lbs higher in ONE DAY! : o I have had big gains after eating processed and restaurant meals on vacation and I tend to lose it all within a couple days but I have to pound back the water.
  • susannamarie
    susannamarie Posts: 2,148 Member
    It is just water weight, but I am sure it freaked you out. Now don't get depressed and binge! Just drink a lot if water and get back on track. Sometimes life gets in the way of our goals, but just move on and don't dwell on it. Get back on track, drink lots of water and get back to exercising! Now the important question....did you have fun with your family? :-)

    Yes I had fun!! I know I was very sad. Sucks because I joined a weight loss challenge at work and the terms are that if we gain weight we have to pay $1 per lb!! I hope this weight goes down by tomorrow because we weigh ourselves every Tuesday! I don't want to pay all that money lol.

    Call in sick ;)

    No seriously, as Aaron recommended, drink loads of water tonight, pee pee pee, don't eat before you go for your weigh-in, and suck it up because you're still going to have to shell out a few bucks. :p
  • ndj1979
    ndj1979 Posts: 29,136 Member
    You ate a lot of salt and retained water.

    The end.

    Tip to lose weight, eat less salt (ie your normal diet) and drink lots of water and it will fall off you quickly. It is just water it doesn't matter. You shouldn't be concerned with your scale weight you should be concerned with your body fat percentage and that didn't change over 4 days.

    Yes I ate a ton of Mexican food which has a lot of sodium! Thanks.

    400mg of sodium is sufficient to retain an extra 2 pounds of water. It really doesn't take that much and is one of the main reasons your bodyweight will fluctuate so much over even the course of a single day.

    that much …so your average sodium consumption of 2000 a day will result in eight pound of water retention? Or are you saying if you go over your allowance that each 400 mg over your daily allowance will result in two pound water gain ..? Generally curious about this ...

    So your body has to maintain a certain osmotic pressure. Too much, cells deflate, too little...cells swell and eventually rupture. This is regulated by the amount of dissolved ions in your blood and is largely driven by salts. If you don't have enough salt your body will shed water to bring itself back into equilibrium, if your body has to much salt it will retain water to bring back to equilibrium. My understanding is that the 400mg of sodium = 2lb of water just means that if you put about 400mg of salt into 1 liter of water (2.2 lb) that it would be about the "saltiness" of your blood and would not change the equlibirium. Therefore if your body takes on that 400mg of sodium it needs to take on 2 lb of water to maintain that equlibrium.

    Logically its any 400mg of sodium including your normal intake. Your body has a lot of water in it as you might imagine so although 2 lb sounds like a ton its not really relative to how much water is in your body in general.

    make sense….

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