Water Retention.

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ohheyyitsrenee
ohheyyitsrenee Posts: 111 Member
edited January 2015 in Health and Weight Loss
Okay,
So over my winter break I didn't do much because I'm injured so I didn't drink much because I wasn't thirsty and I forgot to drink water to be honest. I was drinking a bottle a day. I'm back at school and I noticed that I wasn't using the bathroom that much. So I increased my water intake to two bottles. I was still using the bathroom just as much as I was on one bottle and I started retaining the extra water. I drank three bottles yesterday, same thing happened. I'm now up two pounds from my normal weight, due to the increase in water. Today I decided to increase my water to 64oz. I used the bathroom a lot but I'm still holding on to a lot. Will this even out? I worked really hard to lose weight and this is driving me insane.

Replies

  • cactusphil
    cactusphil Posts: 6
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    how much is your sodium intake?
  • missiontofitness
    missiontofitness Posts: 4,074 Member
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    Don't worry about the number on the scale. It's arbitrary to be concerned about a few vanity pounds due to hydrating your body properly. Not trying to say that in a mean way, but daily fluctuations due to water retention, water consumption, food consumption, waste still inside you, ect all affect your weight.
  • Cortelli
    Cortelli Posts: 1,369 Member
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    Maybe try and reorient your thinking a bit? You seem to know that this is probably just water weight (not fat gains). If you can disassociate your scale weight (water fluctuations) from your progress against your plan, you might have an easier time of it from a mental / motivational standpoint.
  • ohheyyitsrenee
    ohheyyitsrenee Posts: 111 Member
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    cactusphil wrote: »
    how much is your sodium intake?

    it depends, i don't really each much to be honest because i'm so busy. I usually eat like a granola bar, salad and like pretzels so it's not that high. Well i guess between 500-1000. I also sweat a lot because I work out. I know for a fact that the two pounds I'm up is not from extra calories.
  • Laurend224
    Laurend224 Posts: 1,748 Member
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    It will even out.
  • AliceDark
    AliceDark Posts: 3,886 Member
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    ohheyyitsrenee wrote: »
    cactusphil wrote: »
    how much is your sodium intake?

    it depends, i don't really each much to be honest because i'm so busy. I usually eat like a granola bar, salad and like pretzels so it's not that high. Well i guess between 500-1000.
    Is that calories or mg of sodium?

  • ohheyyitsrenee
    ohheyyitsrenee Posts: 111 Member
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    AliceDark wrote: »
    ohheyyitsrenee wrote: »
    cactusphil wrote: »
    how much is your sodium intake?

    it depends, i don't really each much to be honest because i'm so busy. I usually eat like a granola bar, salad and like pretzels so it's not that high. Well i guess between 500-1000.
    Is that calories or mg of sodium?

    yes sodium
  • ohheyyitsrenee
    ohheyyitsrenee Posts: 111 Member
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    MrM27 wrote: »
    ohheyyitsrenee wrote: »
    cactusphil wrote: »
    how much is your sodium intake?

    it depends, i don't really each much to be honest because i'm so busy. I usually eat like a granola bar, salad and like pretzels so it's not that high. Well i guess between 500-1000. I also sweat a lot because I work out. I know for a fact that the two pounds I'm up is not from extra calories.

    You are eating between 500-1000 calories per day? Why? That's not smart.

    i meant sodium!!! my salads contain like half my calories for the day don't worry!
  • ohheyyitsrenee
    ohheyyitsrenee Posts: 111 Member
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    missiontofitness wrote: »
    Don't worry about the number on the scale. It's arbitrary to be concerned about a few vanity pounds due to hydrating your body properly. Not trying to say that in a mean way, but daily fluctuations due to water retention, water consumption, food consumption, waste still inside you, ect all affect your weight.

    I know, I have a bad habit of weighing myself everyday, I do it every morning. It just freaks me out when I go up from factors that I can't figure out.

  • segacs
    segacs Posts: 4,599 Member
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    Water weight is a misnomer; it's not caused by how much pure water you drink, but by how much fluid (from all foods and liquids) your body retains. Water retention is a function of sodium intake, hormones, muscle strain and recovery, genetics, and other health factors.

    So no, what you're saying doesn't really make any sense, scientifically.

    Drink if you're thirsty. Don't if you're not. Water weight will fluctuate naturally, on its own. Look at the overall trend to see how much fat you're losing.
  • AliceDark
    AliceDark Posts: 3,886 Member
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    Tons of factors influence water retention -- sodium is maybe the most obvious, but also things like stress, sleep (you just started back at school, right?) and exercise (even going back to walking around campus after winter break) all cause water retention. Give it two weeks and I'll bet you'll even out.
  • ohheyyitsrenee
    ohheyyitsrenee Posts: 111 Member
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    AliceDark wrote: »
    Tons of factors influence water retention -- sodium is maybe the most obvious, but also things like stress, sleep (you just started back at school, right?) and exercise (even going back to walking around campus after winter break) all cause water retention. Give it two weeks and I'll bet you'll even out.

    You're absolutely right. I went from literally not leaving my bed. To being back at school, walking across campus, working out and I don't sleep. I've only been here for a week, I need to stop freaking out.
  • ohheyyitsrenee
    ohheyyitsrenee Posts: 111 Member
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    segacs wrote: »
    Water weight is a misnomer; it's not caused by how much pure water you drink, but by how much fluid (from all foods and liquids) your body retains. Water retention is a function of sodium intake, hormones, muscle strain and recovery, genetics, and other health factors.

    So no, what you're saying doesn't really make any sense, scientifically.

    Drink if you're thirsty. Don't if you're not. Water weight will fluctuate naturally, on its own. Look at the overall trend to see how much fat you're losing.

    I was dehydrated though, I was never thirsty because I chew gum but I could tell by how often I went to the bathroom. But you're right theres many factors for water retention.
  • ohheyyitsrenee
    ohheyyitsrenee Posts: 111 Member
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    Cortelli wrote: »
    Maybe try and reorient your thinking a bit? You seem to know that this is probably just water weight (not fat gains). If you can disassociate your scale weight (water fluctuations) from your progress against your plan, you might have an easier time of it from a mental / motivational standpoint.

    Yeah, I weigh myself everyday out of habit, maybe limiting it to once a week will not allow me to have mini freak outs over things like this!
  • Cortelli
    Cortelli Posts: 1,369 Member
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    ohheyyitsrenee wrote: »
    Cortelli wrote: »
    Maybe try and reorient your thinking a bit? You seem to know that this is probably just water weight (not fat gains). If you can disassociate your scale weight (water fluctuations) from your progress against your plan, you might have an easier time of it from a mental / motivational standpoint.

    Yeah, I weigh myself everyday out of habit, maybe limiting it to once a week will not allow me to have mini freak outs over things like this!

    I weigh everyday! But it provides reassurance rather than causing me to freak out. When you maintain a more or less consistent weight, or a more or less consistent rate of loss or gain (looked at over time!) it makes those daily fluctuations (how did I gain 5 lbs overnight?!??!? how did I lose 5 lbs overnight?!??!) pretty meaningless and no real cause for concern. And I'd worry that a once-a-week weigh-in might occur on one of those wild fluctuation days, giving false hope or false despair.

    YMMV but I find having more data points (daily weigh-ins) makes it easier to accept a single weigh-in anomaly (or rather, ridiculously up and down weigh-ins as a norm).

  • AliceDark
    AliceDark Posts: 3,886 Member
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    Also keep in mind that you don't have a static weight -- you have a range. Everyone fluctuates across a few pounds constantly, because you're a human and not a robot. Nobody knows what their normal fluctuation range is until you've been tracking your weight for awhile, but for most people it's somewhere around 1-5 pounds. If you're expecting to see the exact same number on the scale every time, you'll make yourself insane because it will never happen. You have to give yourself a little wiggle room to account for things like the weight of food in your system or how hydrated you are on any given day.

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