8lb gain in a week, Gutted :(

pinkfairybutton
pinkfairybutton Posts: 16 Member
in Goal: Maintaining Weight
So i was doing really well and a month ago I hit my weight goal i was really happy and managed to keep it up at least until the 17th of this month which is when i went away for a few days and stopped weighing myself for that time.
7 days ago i weighed my self and to my shock I had put on 7lb i was gutted but everyone said dont worry it will be water.
7 days on and the scales are still showing this gain and im feeling rather deflated. Someone please help me find why this is. I am now 9stone 1lb.
For some info to try and help find where I am going wrong, i eat clean and healthy generally no processed food and i only eat wholegrain.
During the day i generally have porridge and fruit for breakfast.
Protein shake with psyllium husk, banana and peanut butter for snack
Pitta bread with spinach prawns and light soft cheese for dinner
Protein shake with psyllium husk and natural yoghurt mid afternoon
Tomato pasta or fish and veg or turkey chilli etc for tea. I try to have little or no carb with my evening meal and have them through the day instead.
This is how i was eating before i lost the weight so was working well the only difference being i never used to have the shakes in their place was toast or something else carby so I wasnt getting enough protein which is why i added the shakes. The shakes started being used from the beggining of this month aswell as taking supergreens.
I do cardio, swimming running or insanity dvds 5 or 6 times a week.
From the 16th of this month i started taking cla, thermopro and green tea extract to help with my goals and training.
I went away on the 17th with work for 4 days which meant my evening meal changed to something heavier one day spag bol, one sunday roast and one pizza and we did have chocolate treats for easter over this time but that was the only difference and I made up for it by being more careful the rest of the day.
After returning i weighed my self to find the horrible gain that just is not going away. Where am i going wrong?
No one else has put weight on whilst away and they all drank tons of alcohol I even avoided all of that so feeling even more stressed.

People have recommended carb cycling is the really what i need to do, I don't think its something I want to have to do
Please help really gutted, off to walk the dog

Replies

  • Snapshotgirl
    Snapshotgirl Posts: 57 Member
    I experienced the same thing last week and was crushed. this may sound obvious, but start by changing the batteries in your scale. The scale may be acting up. Then go for a gentle walk and review your goals. I decided to slow down a bit on my goals and emotionally "catch my breath." It does seem to help. Good luck and don't give up.
  • Koldnomore
    Koldnomore Posts: 1,613 Member
    It would be very odd that you could gain that much weight in a week if you indeed are eating at a deficit as you say. It's possible that is is still water retention - have you been drinking a lot of water? Are you still eating high sodium foods?

    How did you measure your foods? do you weigh? did you bring your sale with you? did you log everything? have you just started a new exercise program since you got back?

    Too many variables....open your diary.
  • trogalicious
    trogalicious Posts: 4,584 Member
    water retention or poop.
  • calibriintx
    calibriintx Posts: 1,741 Member
    Relax. I was up 9 lbs last week. I was a lot more active than usual, eating more, not tracking, PMSing and needed to poop. After a few days of rest, getting plenty of water to drink and exercising some demons, I'm back to normal. Did the same thing around the holidays. Give it a couple weeks of getting back to your usual routine.
  • norcalskater
    norcalskater Posts: 194 Member
    I still think it's water. It takes about 24,000 EXCESS calories to gain that many pounds. I've lost 6 lbs of water weight in 10 hours before. It could very well just be that your body is holding onto more water right now.
  • Kymaaa3
    Kymaaa3 Posts: 19 Member
    Excess water maybe the culprit also a good BM works everytime. I agree with all the statements above. Go back and review what your eating.
  • nxd10
    nxd10 Posts: 4,570 Member
    I had been down 3 pounds (weird for me, I'm always stable) for the last few days, ate at a big net deficit yesterday and was up 4.8 pounds (huge for me) this morning.

    It's water and poop (unless my scale battery is off). It can't be fat - it is physically impossible given what I've been eating.

    Change your scale battery. Weight again in a few days. Keep doing what you're doing (assuming you're logging accurately.)
  • bwogilvie
    bwogilvie Posts: 2,130 Member
    If you went from eating at a serious deficit to eating around maintenance, you probably built up some additional glycogen stores too. Glycogen is stored with 3-4 times its weight in water. If you return to eating at a deficit, you'll eventually deplete some of it, especially if you do prolonged or intense cardio.

    I'm up 2 lb. over only 3 days of travel, despite eating at a small deficit, due to retaining some solids and liquids.
  • Linnaea27
    Linnaea27 Posts: 639 Member
    I am also suddenly weighing more-- 2 lb or so since last week. I am of the opinion that it's water weight. You could have gained maybe a pound or less of fat, but almost certainly it's water from going from a deficit to maintenance.

    For this reason I'm considering losing an extra pound or so before I start maintaining. . .

    Drink lots of water, really watch the sodium, and next time you weigh yourself (if you don't do this already) do so the morning after a rest day. I bet you'll be a lot lighter!
  • RageEight
    RageEight Posts: 14 Member
    water retention or poop.

    Yep, could be holding water, or just have a big dump on deck.

    If you think about the number of calories in a pound of body fat, and multiply that by the supposed weight gain, that would be a HECK of a week of eating in order to pack all that on.
  • sheltrk
    sheltrk Posts: 111 Member
    Agreed on the glycogen and water. Assuming OP had been eating at a deficit for quite a while prior to the observed "8lb gain", it sounds like they very likely had depleted glycogen stores. As an example, an average person with 132 lb (59.8 kg) LBM will have a glycogen storage capacity of 1.98 lbs (898 g). This represents 3590 calories of stored glycogen. That's only part of the story, though: glycogen requires a *lot* of water to support it--3.5:1 water to glycogen is typical. This means 1.98 lbs of stored glycogen will also require the retention of nearly 6.9 lbs of water. So, in this example, if someone were highly glycogen depleted state, a caloric excess of only 3590 calories in a week could drive a weight increase of 8.9 lbs--all water and glycogen.

    Nothing to worry about!

    Personal experience: I'm basically in maintenance right now, and I weigh myself daily. I see weight swings of ~6 lbs in a typical week. I eat at a bit of a deficit during the week, and then "catch up" on the weekends (more eating out, salty foods, etc).
  • rowlandsw
    rowlandsw Posts: 1,166 Member
    Always check your scale batteries as they seem to make you weigh more as they go bad, that said you could be like a lot of us and have water issues. I take water pills and i've lost 5lbs in a day before just from that (i swell up bad) so unless you've gone on a super calorie binge something else is at work. Also watch your salt intake as that adds to the water weight issues.
  • PinkNinjaKitty
    PinkNinjaKitty Posts: 32 Member
    When I was doing insanity I gained weight but lost inches. You need to measure your inches. Insanity builds muscle which takes up less room than fat. You are probably losing inches! I suggest you keep doing what you are doing. The most important thing is inches. Building muscle will help you burn more fat while you are resting.

    I did insanity gained 5 lbs and lost 14 inches! After a few months of working out I started losing actual weight. I think that was because my body was more fat than muscle. Now I am more muscle than fat but weigh about the same.
  • trogalicious
    trogalicious Posts: 4,584 Member
    When I was doing insanity I gained weight but lost inches. You need to measure your inches. Insanity builds muscle which takes up less room than fat. You are probably losing inches! I suggest you keep doing what you are doing. The most important thing is inches. Building muscle will help you burn more fat while you are resting.

    I did insanity gained 5 lbs and lost 14 inches! After a few months of working out I started losing actual weight. I think that was because my body was more fat than muscle. Now I am more muscle than fat but weigh about the same.

    you're wrong. you're not gaining muscle doing insanity.
  • spoiledpuppies
    spoiledpuppies Posts: 675 Member
    I'm guessing that it's mostly from the fact that you're somewhat new to maintenance and your glycogen just replenished. Unless you really want to be smaller, there's no sense in cutting calories again--you'll just deplete your glycogen again (and it will replenish again when you return to maintenance again). If you do want to be smaller/lighter, probably lose to about 5 (maybe 7 in your case) pounds less than you want to weigh; so when the glycogen replenishes, you'll be happy with where you ultimately settle.
  • chloematilds
    chloematilds Posts: 111 Member
    water weight

    the lowest # I have seen for ne is 101, now its at 105 and I have my period

    that given, it is better to check your progress with tape measure than the scale
  • Siamone77
    Siamone77 Posts: 3 Member
    First, breath...the same thing happen to me last week. I went on vacation and came back 8lb heavier. I had to get my head around what just happened and after REFOCUSING I've drop 1.5lbs and looking at the big picture. It's not where I left off but its the right direction. I'm sure you'll get back to to where you want to be.

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