I saw the other side ... and it scared the **** out of me

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DapperKay
DapperKay Posts: 140 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So last month I decided to take an extended 3.5 week holiday back home to go chill with friends and family. Long story short, I was quite liberal in my food choices, but not too crazy. That is I ate what I wanted and I certainly ate lots of things I would normally be very careful about, but I wasn't on a mega calorie man hunt of any sort. Just having a good time with friends and family. Two weeks later now that I'm back and I'm still suffering, the scale keeps going up. In total, I gained about 4 kg in the space of 3 weeks.

Bit of background - over the past year and a half I've dropped about 40kg (88lbs) and I've only reached my goal weight (ironically) two weeks before my trip. So now back to deficit for a bit, but I tell you what, that was some SCARY ****.

I WAS tracking my food but NOT abiding by my goal cals - on average I was eating around 2500-2800 calories a day, which is just above normal TDEE for my age and stats (26 years, 1.8m, active guy).

It is true it seems, all the studies that I read about the body fighting to go back to its old weight, what the body considers to be the 'Homeostasis' and it does so at an incredibly fast rate. This wasn't the first time I experienced something like that, this happens whenever I go on a holiday and let go a little, but this time it was phenomenally fast...

Wow - I tell you what - some things are eye openers...

Replies

  • heel_striker
    heel_striker Posts: 32 Member
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    My dietician said that it takes about 2 years for your body to adjust to your new weight and that it will try to go back to your old weight until that time. So I guess it requires a lot of vigilance until our bodies find their "new normal".
  • bwogilvie
    bwogilvie Posts: 2,130 Member
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    If you went from a serious deficit to eating at or slightly over maintenance, some of that gain will be glycogen and the associated water weight: http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/56/1/292S.long

    That paper addresses very low calorie diets (VLCDs); I haven't been able to find out how much glycogen stores shrink when someone is in a moderate deficit, but it has to be some, given that by definition a calorie deficit means that muscles aren't getting all the energy from diet that they are demanding, and won't be able to store as much surplus.
  • ge105
    ge105 Posts: 268 Member
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    I used to put on weight really fast too when I lost the first 30ish lbs; I wouldn't be so sure it was fat now though. I'd also go home and put on 5-10lbs in like a week, even if I was being mindful of my eating. It would freak out and I'd be really upset when I got back. Then I found I'd lose it almost as fast. I think its more that my mom uses more salt in her cooking than I do and I usually eat more meat and veggies than stuff like beans and corn tortillas and at her place its reversed. You'll probably find it wont stick around because its not likely to be all fat if you weren't eating much above TDEE; a lot is probably water.
  • AKfierce
    AKfierce Posts: 5 Member
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    This just happened to me too!! I went out of town to visit a friend and gained 3 pounds in a week! But it was worth it. I never get to see her and who wants to be on a diet at a barbeque?
  • vcdfw
    vcdfw Posts: 49
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    Wow I totally had not heard that before, about you body taking 2 years to get used to the new size. Thanks for sharing that, I must keep that in mind so I don't ease up too soon after reaching my goal. Do you ever really get to ease up?
  • PhiloPray
    PhiloPray Posts: 36 Member
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    Thats interesting about the body taking 2 years to get used to a new size. But what if your weight was originally low to begin with and went up a substantial amount, and your trying to go back down to your original weight? Does your body still need to adjust to your original size? I put on 80 pounds in 2 years and it took 2 years more to lose it, only to have the weight go back on (from medication though). Now trying to lose it again!
  • DapperKay
    DapperKay Posts: 140 Member
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    Actually it takes more than 2 years for the body to "adjust". It all has to do with fat cells. And if you gain a fat cell, you don't lose it for a long time (upwards of 10 years). Unlike other cells in the body, fat cells do not get destroyed. What happens when you lose weight is that the cells that held the fat just shrinks, like a balloon that holds air, but its still a balloon and can expand again with extra air.

    This explains why its so difficult for the body to accept a new state. This is why for a long time you have to keep tracking and making sure you are on track.

    I do agree with other posters, a lot of this can be water retention. But the other justification is a scientific one explained in this paper - its a theory called 'Adaptive Thermogenesis' and it has been discussed on MFP like a billion and a half times:

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21677272

    It is about this experiment done on rodents who were fat and made to lose weight. The rodent that kept on exercising maintained weight loss, but the other that did not very quickly gained all the weight back and then some. This is because of the way the body changes its state and what it thinks is normal. So once you go fat there is no way back for a very long time and the body will always try to bring you back to what it thinks is your ideal weight. Its an evolution thing with humans, about survival, since the body thinks you are trying to starve it.

    Plenty dispute this and I've heard both arguments - but the science is solid.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
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    Just wanted to say that I sympathize! I just came back from a vacation too, where I ate pretty poorly (but still restricting myself somewhat), and I gained 2 pounds over the extra 4 pounds of water weight I had gained the week before, and would normally have lost during that time... and I was 2.5 pounds from my goal before that. So, back to increasing my deficit and trying my best to stick to it for a few months.

    Seriously, when people say 'you didn't get fat in a week, you won't get thin in a week', I laugh. It's way easier to gain 6 pounds than it is to lose 1, if you ask me.

    Now I'm just glad I won't have another vacation for a year, clearly I suck at moderation when I eat out all the time.
  • mactaffy84
    mactaffy84 Posts: 398 Member
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    Seriously, when people say 'you didn't get fat in a week, you won't get thin in a week', I laugh. It's way easier to gain 6 pounds than it is to lose 1, if you ask me.

    THIS! Oh, sooo this! :noway:
  • mayfrayy
    mayfrayy Posts: 198 Member
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    Seriously, when people say 'you didn't get fat in a week, you won't get thin in a week', I laugh. It's way easier to gain 6 pounds than it is to lose 1, if you ask me.

    THIS! Oh, sooo this! :noway:

    its the same, people just like eating more than not eating so gaining is easier...
  • MelodyandBarbells
    MelodyandBarbells Posts: 7,725 Member
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    OP I guess I doubt you really gained 4kg of fat eating at a slight surplus. Whenever I go on vacation I usually gain in the ten lb range, but then after about a week things normalize and a true gain of maybe 1 lb becomes evident
  • Meerataila
    Meerataila Posts: 1,885 Member
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    Seriously, when people say 'you didn't get fat in a week, you won't get thin in a week', I laugh. It's way easier to gain 6 pounds than it is to lose 1, if you ask me.

    THIS! Oh, sooo this! :noway:

    its the same, people just like eating more than not eating so gaining is easier...

    It's not the same in one sense: Even if you love living with a sensible calorie deficit as much as you love to overeat, if you're overeating in a big way, you can gain much faster than when you go back to that sensible deficit.
  • ShaunnaMichelle
    ShaunnaMichelle Posts: 9 Member
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    That actually makes a lot of sense. It's good to know too.

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