Do carbs cause water retention?

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marricurt
marricurt Posts: 47 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hello lovely people,
I feel silly asking this but I have been steadily losing weight for the last few weeks ( 6 kilos and counting now) and am generally below or at my calorie goal. I recently did two things differently
1) started the C25k (am now about to start week three..loving it by the way)
2) switched from having eggs for breakfast to cereals...

I put on 1.5 kg in a matter of two days when I started running..I was really sore and stiff and getting on the scale, I knew there would be an increase (although it did seem rather high) due to DOMS and reading posts by other people in the same situation. I knew that there was no possible way that I could have gained almost two kilos of fat as I was staying within my goal and had been consistently losing on this amount.
I guess I am irritated that I have not lost any weight (scale weight) since my increase.. It's been two weeks and I have only lost .5 of a kilo (so on scale I am now 1 kilo heavier than two weeks ago). I had thought that the water weight would have been decreasing by now.. Then earlier today I saw someone else posting about how carbs can cause you to hold water weight and realised that I had changed my breakfast at the same time.. Can anyone explain or clarify this for me? I am ignoring the scale atm and focusing on my running and maintaining my calorie goal but was hoping someone could explain it more in details for me. Thanks!

Replies

  • Booda101
    Booda101 Posts: 161 Member
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    Your muscles will retain water to help repair themselves so when you started a new exercise that likely happened. Also, you may have increased your sodium intake by switching to cereal (just because sodium is in so many products).

    As far as the carbs causing water retention, that's a little above my pay grade.im sure some of the more experienced peeps out there maybe able to answer that.
  • Shropshire1959
    Shropshire1959 Posts: 982 Member
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    It's not 'carbs' per se..... it's the Glygogen in your muscles .. which binds to about 3 times its weight in water.

    This 'Water Weight' variation is one of the reasons that jumping on the scales too often can be counter productive.
  • 3dogsrunning
    3dogsrunning Posts: 27,167 Member
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    Carbs are stored as glycogen in our muscles. In order to be stored they also require water - which can be referred to as water retention. Throughout the day our glycogen stores are constantly flucuating. The amount of exercise we do can play a role as we, which is why people typically see a spike in scale weight when starting exercise or increasing intensity.
    The level of carbs in our diet affect it as well. This is the reason low carb dieters lose a big chunk of weight right away, they deplete their glycogen stores and drop the water weight. This is also the reason why a low carb dieter will experience a sudden gain in weight when eating more carbs than normal.

    It depends on your overall carb level to begin with. A change in our breakfast shouldn't have that much of an effect but between that and the new exercise, it could be a combo of both.

    Overall our weight fluctuates. Day to day comparasions are not accurate at giving us a real picture. You need to track over time, like weeks, not days. There are lots of things that can affect scale weight.
  • marricurt
    marricurt Posts: 47 Member
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    Thanks for the answers.. I had thought the same thing but just struggled mentally with the jump. I think we are conditioned to take the scale as an absolute (well I know I am!) and even though the rational part of my brain knows what's going on, the emotional side of me just wants it go DOWN! Have a lovely weekend. :)
  • Mr_Knight
    Mr_Knight Posts: 9,532 Member
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    ...carbs can cause you to hold water weight ...

    Carbs refill your glycogen stores, which are what power your runs. To store that energy requires a fair bit of water retention.

    You can drop the water by dropping carbs and lowering your energy stores, but then you are going to limit your performance potential.

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