Water weight after uphill walking

dizzysarah
dizzysarah Posts: 34 Member
edited November 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
My friend started the same day as me weighing 260 pounds

First week purely through Diet she lost 5lb.

Second week after sticking to the same strict diet of 1600 cals a day but also adding 3 hard going fast pace uphill walks she's 2lb heavier. We keep reading water weight which I would understand if she was much lighter but surely it should be dropping off her not puffing her up? Her last walk was Tuesday evening and today she weighed in and saw the gain. This is just from walking, no strength training!

Is this even possible?

Replies

  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    There are so many causes of water retention -
    - increased activity
    - new activity
    - increased carbs
    - increased sodium
    - ovulation
    - lead up to menstruation
    - cortisol increased
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    There are millions of things that cause water weight fluctuations...think about it...your body consists of anywhere from 50-65% water...it fluctuates for many reasons...it could be anything...you need to look at your weight loss as a trend over time...weeks and months, not a handful of days.
  • dizzysarah
    dizzysarah Posts: 34 Member
    So do you think it would make more sense to not weigh weekly and maybe every 3/4 weeks?

    By the way she's eaten more carbs and is ovulating and this uphill walking is not just increased activity but it's new activity

    Helpful! Thank you so much :)
  • eday79
    eday79 Posts: 86 Member
    As said above, there are many reasons for water weight fluctuations.
    I find that after my leg training days I weigh in 2/3lbs heavier but I know that it's due to my muscles being inflamed because they need to heal.
    If your friend is walking more than normal, the she is using her leg muscles differently, then this could possibly be the same thing happening.
    If it is, the weight reading should reduced in a few days.
  • NorthCascades
    NorthCascades Posts: 10,968 Member
    dizzysarah wrote: »
    So do you think it would make more sense to not weigh weekly and maybe every 3/4 weeks?

    I weigh myself every day. I don't really care what the number is, I care what shape the graph makes.
  • CafeRacer808
    CafeRacer808 Posts: 2,396 Member
    dizzysarah wrote: »
    So do you think it would make more sense to not weigh weekly and maybe every 3/4 weeks?

    By the way she's eaten more carbs and is ovulating and this uphill walking is not just increased activity but it's new activity

    Helpful! Thank you so much :)

    That depends on what you're comfortable with. But with that said, checking your weight more often helps you course correct if, say, your logging turns out to be not as accurate as you think it is. Some, like me, weigh every day and use a weight trending app like Happy Scale, Libra, or trendweight.com, which helps us do exactly what cwolfman13 is suggesting: looking at your weight loss trend over time.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    dizzysarah wrote: »
    So do you think it would make more sense to not weigh weekly and maybe every 3/4 weeks?

    By the way she's eaten more carbs and is ovulating and this uphill walking is not just increased activity but it's new activity

    Helpful! Thank you so much :)

    Just really depends on you...I weigh in probably 3-4 times per week and I enter those numbers into another app I have and it tracks a trend line...I don't so much look at the actual number as I do the trend line. I was up 4.8 Lbs yesterday from last Wednesday...I'm down 2.5 Lbs today from yesterday...all in all, per my trend line, it would appear that I'm about 3 Lbs down from the start of the New Year.
  • dizzysarah
    dizzysarah Posts: 34 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    dizzysarah wrote: »
    So do you think it would make more sense to not weigh weekly and maybe every 3/4 weeks?

    By the way she's eaten more carbs and is ovulating and this uphill walking is not just increased activity but it's new activity

    Helpful! Thank you so much :)

    Just really depends on you...I weigh in probably 3-4 times per week and I enter those numbers into another app I have and it tracks a trend line...I don't so much look at the actual number as I do the trend line. I was up 4.8 Lbs yesterday from last Wednesday...I'm down 2.5 Lbs today from yesterday...all in all, per my trend line, it would appear that I'm about 3 Lbs down from the start of the New Year.


    Thanks guys.. so is that 3lb what you've been aiming for overall? is that what you've wanted to lose since the new year, have you been on plan?
  • spiriteagle99
    spiriteagle99 Posts: 3,750 Member
    The 5 pounds your friend lost the first week was probably mostly water. If she is eating more carbs this week, her weight will go up as she retains more water from either the carbs, sodium, or the extra exercise. Several years ago, I lost 14 pounds in the first two weeks on Atkins. I knew that was mostly water, since my calories were not negative. I had a fairly long stall, where I lost nothing as my actual fat loss caught up to the water loss. You have to take the scale results with a huge grain of salt because they can be impacted by so many things besides actual weight loss.
  • TimothyFish
    TimothyFish Posts: 4,925 Member
    My experience has been that almost any increase in activity will result in water retention. It usually evens out in two to three weeks.
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