What could cause you to gain 7 pounds in a week?

Water retention, stool retention, weighing at different times, scale variance, scale on uneven surface, etc, etc, etc can all impact your weight.

Weight fluctuations due to hormone level with the monthly cycle are common for a large percentage of women of an age to have menstrual cycles.

Just remember it is more important to track changes over longer sets of time ( like month to month trends) rather than day to day fluctuations.

you might want to have your thyroid levels checked. It's a simple blood test that your Primary care doctor can have ordered for you. I had a sudden weight gain, without having any changes in my diet. Sure enough, it was off. Wouldn't hurt to look into.

Normal fluctuations. Water retention due to increased sodium levels usually.

Wait at least a week (of your normal deficit routine) before you panic. I've been tracking my weight every day (when at home) for something like 10 years now, even when not trying to lose, and marking it on graph paper (X=date, Y=weight. No, I'm not a disordered eater/weigher. I'm a data geek.)

I've gained as much as FIVE POUNDS in one day, even while not putting a deficit day next to a re-feed, and all while menopausal, so TOM was not involved. I guarantee I didn't eat 17,500 calories! Three pounds is not at all unusual.

I've done this long enough to have a pretty good intuitive understanding of what causes this (for my body):

• Extra salt
• Under-exercise compared to usual (not weight gain, but water not offloaded because glycogen not used)
  {*}Activity that causes a need for muscle repair (like a new intense workout activity)
• Weight of food still in my system (especially fiber-dense kinds of things)
• Water still in my system
• Extra carb-heavy foods
• Serious under-sleep (as an aggravator in combination with one or more of the others)

Fluctuations are normal, even multi-pound ones. If you're not using an app that gives you a weight trend (like Happy Scale, Libra, Trendweight, more), you might want to consider it. Personally, I'm an advocate of daily weighing/recording because it's a useful learning experience, but I understand that it's too stressful for some.

It is easy to "gain weight" by just eating back maintenance calories. When you are on a deficit, your body's glucagon levels are low. When you eat at or above maintenance, it replenishes glucagon levels - up to maybe a pound - and your body needs to retain four pounds of water for each pound of glucagon.

I bounce up and down all the time. You can gain from water or just the weight of the food you consume until it gets digested. I weigh myself daily and track things over time.. You should never get too worried over a few days.. track yourself weeks over weeks.

If you were restricting your carb consumption you would have depleted your glycogen stores. When your body has a chance to restore the glycogen it requires water to do so. Some say 2-4 times the glycogen equivalent will be retained in your liver and muscles. This could be as much as 7lbs.

Do not worry.Get back on your low carb routine and those 7lbs will be first to go. Keep your chin up!

More details here: https://8fit.com/blog/glycogen-gluconeogenesis-and-water-weight/