Up 5 lbs in one night? Is this normal after a large meal?

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  • joburnolt
    joburnolt Posts: 16 Member
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    It's a combination of water weight, and glycogen being stored. Ever notice how if you don't eat carbs for several days, then have a large carb-packed meal, you're muscles seem to "inflate?" That's your glycogen stores refilling, and causes your weight to fluctuate significantly.
  • trigden1991
    trigden1991 Posts: 4,658 Member
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    joburnolt wrote: »
    you're muscles seem to "inflate?" .

    As the OP is an overweight woman, I don't think she will notice this.
  • LAWoman72
    LAWoman72 Posts: 2,846 Member
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    This is probably a little odd, but while I used to be up three pounds (like clockwork) any time I overate significantly and the pounds were gone again in about four days, now that I'm 50 lbs. smaller, I am generally up five pounds (again, routinely...no matter what I overate with, sodium or not, carby or more heavy on protein, etc.) if I have a big "overeat" and it takes about a week to come off.

    But yes, it comes off.
  • leejoyce31
    leejoyce31 Posts: 794 Member
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    jemhh wrote: »
    I can only say that it is normal for me to gain 4-5 lbs after a higher than normal day of carbs and sodium. It takes me 2-3 weeks to lose it.

    It also takes me a couple of weeks to lose after a big overindulgence. I notice that lots of people on this site say they lose after a few days. I'm not that fortunate.
  • CSARdiver
    CSARdiver Posts: 6,252 Member
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    My weight fluctuates ~5-6 lbs throughout the day just from water weight. Increase your water intake and you'll be back to normal in 3-5 days.
  • Aaron_K123
    Aaron_K123 Posts: 7,122 Member
    edited November 2016
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    Your body maintains a certain electrolyte balance. When you injest an electrolyte like sodium to keep that balance your body needs to retain additional water to keep the concentrations the same. Just a small amount of salt comes with a huge amount of retained water, on the order of something like 1 gram salt to 1 kilogram of water.

    Similarly carbohydrates require water to solubilize and store as well. So for every gram of carbohydrate you typically are going to retain something like 3g of water but that is such a small amount relative to salt that salt is generally what causes sudden water retention.

    If you ate higher salt meals yesterday than you usually do that can very easily lead to an additional 5 pounds of retained water. You will start to expell that along with the sodium and your weight will normalize over the next few days. If you want to expidite that just drink a lot of water.
  • amberlyda1
    amberlyda1 Posts: 154 Member
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    Salt. This happens to me all the time. My weakness is salt. It doesnt help that I retain water weight like a champ. All it takes is a high sodium soup/ a few pickles/ handful of chips/ refined carbs, and I will weigh a few more pounds more the next day.
  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    edited November 2016
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    leejoyce31 wrote: »
    jemhh wrote: »
    I can only say that it is normal for me to gain 4-5 lbs after a higher than normal day of carbs and sodium. It takes me 2-3 weeks to lose it.

    It also takes me a couple of weeks to lose after a big overindulgence. I notice that lots of people on this site say they lose after a few days. I'm not that fortunate.

    Yep. For me, it is a big deterrent to overindulging and even just plain indulging at times.
  • TR0berts
    TR0berts Posts: 7,739 Member
    edited November 2016
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    I went up about 4 lb yesterday - after eating a bunch of Chinese food Saturday night. A day later, I'm 0.4 lb lighter than when I weighed in last week.


    edited to clarify the time frame.
  • Evamutt
    Evamutt Posts: 2,347 Member
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    I'm glad to hear this too. I went to a BBQ saturday nite & the next day i gained 2 lbs. I only went over my calories by 300, but it was hot dogs & sausage, lots of salt
  • khhregister
    khhregister Posts: 229 Member
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    I've learned that *every single time* I have popcorn, I will be up 2 pounds the next day. It's like clockwork. It's not real weight gain. The most important thing about this realization is that I don't let the scary jump on the scale derail me anymore. I used to see it and feel completely defeated - that I would never, ever be able to have a treat ever again because having one would wipe away 2+ weeks of hard work. Not true. Weighing myself every day helped me make sense of these fluctuations. Using trendweight has helped me see the actual pattern of my weightloss.

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