10 lb Christmas gain!

sarahredhaira wrote: »

My scales show a gain of several pounds this week, which I was completely expecting. I went over my calorie goal on 3 days, and was under a few days. I did loads of exercise, and I'm happy that I didn't over eat to a ridiculous amount, and I drank plenty of alcohol. Apart from New Year's Eve , when I will probably do the same again, I am back to eating and exercising as I was before Christmas Eve. But just out of curiosity, what do people mean about a lot of their weight gain being water gain? And that this will go quite quickly. Still fairly new to all this, so I'd like to understand what this means.

Your scale weight can fluctuate fairly dramatically for any number of reasons - some of those are actual fat gain/loss and some are basically water retention. There are also a lot of things that contribute to water retention - increased carbs, sodium, time of month, hormonal changes, etc. When initially starting a low carb diet - a lot of people experience a huge woosh of loss on the scale and attribute that to magical success from going low carb, when in actuality a big portion of that is water weight lost from reduction in carbohydrates, but it tends to normalize in a few days. Similarly, if you eat a high sodium meal (meat lovers pizza, mexican food, chinese food, etc) - you often to see a big spike on the scale the next day or so which leads people to believe they've totally blown their diet. If people are patient, and either keep weighing, or wait a few days after such events to weigh, they would see the normalization.

I almost always weigh 2 lbs more on Monday mornings than I do on Friday mornings. The weekends are when I go out to dinner, or indulge in extra treats at home. I know this is the case, and so it doesn't bother me at all when it happens.

I weighed 119 on Dec 18th, the lowest weight I've been since college. I weighed 124 on Dec 25th, and there's no way that I gained 5 lbs of actual fat in one week, I would have had to consume 17,500 cals above my maintenance level, which didn't happen. This morning, I weighed 122.5, even though I've continued to indulge, just not as heavily, so things are starting to normalize. By Friday the 1st, or more likely Friday the 8th, I expect to see what the true impact of the holidays are, and I don't expect it to be more than 1-2 lbs gained. Hardly a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Sounds like you've got a healthy outlook on it - so just keep plugging away!

Same thing here. Put on 4 lbs and there is NO way I ate that much. Things are settling now. Lots of hiking so should be fine in the next day or so. Christmas yummies with loved ones... worth every minute. Especially because I can know (with confidence) what will happen if I follow the min-calorie load prescribed by MFP. Lovin' MFP. Looking forward to the next few months and losing 50lbs before I turn 50!!

Many people in this thread don't understand how weight fluctuations work. Nobody legitimately gains ten pounds in a few days of "bad" eating unless they ate around 35,000 extra calories in those few days. Water weight due to sodium, TOM, and other factors can drastically change the scale. I started the week at 114.4 pounds and now I'm 116.8. I know I didn't gain 2.4 pounds and by next week I'll even out.

synacious wrote: »

Many people in this thread don't understand how weight fluctuations work. Nobody legitimately gains ten pounds in a few days of "bad" eating unless they ate around 35,000 extra calories in those few days. Water weight due to sodium, TOM, and other factors can drastically change the scale. I started the week at 114.4 pounds and now I'm 116.8. I know I didn't gain 2.4 pounds and by next week I'll even out.

I don't know about many people, I think most people responding are explaining that it is impossible to gain 10 lbs from a day or two (or even a week) of indulgence and that it is likely water weight which will normalize in a few days and thus nothing to beat yourself up over.

synacious wrote: »

Many people in this thread don't understand how weight fluctuations work. Nobody legitimately gains ten pounds in a few days of "bad" eating unless they ate around 35,000 extra calories in those few days. Water weight due to sodium, TOM, and other factors can drastically change the scale. I started the week at 114.4 pounds and now I'm 116.8. I know I didn't gain 2.4 pounds and by next week I'll even out.

Actually, most of the folks who posted seem to understand fluctuations quite well.

rabbitjb wrote: »

I wonder how much of these massive short term gains are due to carb loading when previously low carb or additional sodium

I would imagine a huge amount of all weight gain is just that ..water weight ...get back on the horse and keep drinking liquids

I am certain my 5 lb gain over two days is mostly water. I ingested an enormous quantity of salt in comparison to my usual low sodium intake. Chinese food on Christmas Eve and ham on the day. I am hoping some is due to carb loading too. I am losing rapidly as I flush out the excess.

I gained 5 pounds due to sodium overload rofl

But already back to my lowest weight ( this morning) and it seems there is even some losing coming up...( when i see how fast my weight snapped back).

Fluctuations are normal and i had some more salty food and Margarita's lol
Nothing extreme or huge amounts. Just a normal nice dinner and snacks and some booze

It was a nice Christmas and would do it all over again.

So off we go to the New Year ( some tequila waiting in the cabinet )

Same here but this is now post-Christmas so let's take hold and try and get back on track. At least we are not alone - it was worth it wasn't it?!?

I tried so hard to be good, but Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were epic fail. Holy peanut butter balls, am I glad it's Monday and I am back at work.