HELP! I gained 3lbs After Cheat Day

KissJordanGoodbye
KissJordanGoodbye Posts: 7 Member
edited November 22 in Health and Weight Loss
Hey all,

I'm new to calorie counting, and this was my first successful week of logging food. I felt amazing because I was 3.8 lbs down; I know that's a little much, but I am 5'7" and 200.2lbs (One year ago I weight over 250lbs). After I checked my BMI, the suggested caloric intake is 1360 to lose 2lbs a week. I've been very diligent about it and most days I have been eating closer to 1100-1200 calories. Yesterday's I thought I'd have a cheat day, so I made strawberry banana bread and ate a couple handfuls of skittles, but I logged everything. I did end up eating 200 calories more than suggested, but I don't understand how that equates to three pounds being gained. One pound = 3500 calories, right? I didn't eat an extra 10500 calories! I just don't understand what happened. I did notice that I was well over my suggested carbohydrate and sugar intake under the nutrition tab. Could that be the reason I gained 3lbs? Any advise would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Jordan
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Replies

  • KissJordanGoodbye
    KissJordanGoodbye Posts: 7 Member
    callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »
    water retention.

    keep doing what youre supposed to. keep cheat days (which i dont advocate at all but thats another issue) to a bare minimum. You can wipe out a whole weeks deficit with a cheat day, depending on your definition of cheat. make what you want fit within your daily calorie goals.

    Thank you for your insight. May I ask why you don't advocate cheat days?
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,626 Member
    KissJordanGoodbye wrote: »
    callsitlikeiseeit wrote: »
    water retention.

    keep doing what youre supposed to. keep cheat days (which i dont advocate at all but thats another issue) to a bare minimum. You can wipe out a whole weeks deficit with a cheat day, depending on your definition of cheat. make what you want fit within your daily calorie goals.

    Thank you for your insight. May I ask why you don't advocate cheat days?

    for many people, they will go nuts on a cheat day. This can wipe out any deficit from the week.

    I've lost 100 pounds almost. I eat what i want. I make it fit. or, i eat at maintenance. my calories are set at 1200. I usually eat between 13-1400. im still in a deficit. it just makes me more mindful when i get to that 1200 point that i need to watch it closer. I maintained for the past year almost and rarely weighed or logged my food. I still have weight to lose, so, I"m getting back in the habit and watching the deficit closer. The only time I give zero *kitten* about what and how much I eat are on Holidays and my Birthday. So .... 3 days, more or less, out of the year.

    i eat a bit of chocolate almost every day. When I was with my ex, which is when I lost the majority of my weight, we ate out ALL the time. That meal, would typically be my only meal of the day. and as big as restaurant servings are, was MORE than enough for the entire day LOL

  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    As others have said, water weight. Maybe from the food, maybe not. And being 200 calories over isn't really a "cheat"...you're still within your weekly calories.
  • KissJordanGoodbye
    KissJordanGoodbye Posts: 7 Member
    CMNVA wrote: »
    Water weight.

    I do find it hard to think that a few handfuls of skittles and strawberry banana bread only put your 200 calories over. Still, it's not weight you gained but water.

    Maybe I should have specified that it was 2 slices of strawberry banana bread, not the whole loaf. Lol. Thanks though!
  • KissJordanGoodbye
    KissJordanGoodbye Posts: 7 Member
    malibu927 wrote: »
    As others have said, water weight. Maybe from the food, maybe not. And being 200 calories over isn't really a "cheat"...you're still within your weekly calories.

    I guess my cheat days are more like cheat snacks; I eat how I normally would, but I replace some of the healthier foods with junk food, so I stay around my allotted calories. I eat pretty clean otherwise, broiled meat, brown rice, veggies, and fruit. Generally, the worst thing I eat is the dressing on my salad.
  • kimny72
    kimny72 Posts: 16,011 Member
    KissJordanGoodbye wrote: »
    CMNVA wrote: »
    Water weight.

    I do find it hard to think that a few handfuls of skittles and strawberry banana bread only put your 200 calories over. Still, it's not weight you gained but water.

    Maybe I should have specified that it was 2 slices of strawberry banana bread, not the whole loaf. Lol. Thanks though!

    Even just plain white bread can be 100 cals per slice. Most recipes for banana bread or going to be @ 200 cals per slice, unless it's specifically a low-cal recipe. Regardless, one day is not a big deal so just keep moving forward :drinker:
  • rheddmobile
    rheddmobile Posts: 6,840 Member
    If it's like the banana bread we make a slice is much smaller than a slice of bread.

    It's normal for water weight to fluctuate several pounds within the same day. Keep logging and have faith in the process!
  • KissJordanGoodbye
    KissJordanGoodbye Posts: 7 Member
    Anon2018 wrote: »
    CMNVA wrote: »
    Water weight.

    I do find it hard to think that a few handfuls of skittles and strawberry banana bread only put your 200 calories over. Still, it's not weight you gained but water.

    well, she didn't say it was a 200 calorie snack, she said it put her 200 calories over. So, assuming this was a 600 calorie treat that she had instead of other normal snacks, it put her a few hundred calories over her goal. Why is this hard?

    Regardless, it's water weight, and it might not even be related to your cheat day. It could be menstrual cycle related, exercise related, sodium related, etc. I suggest you download the "happy scale" app (for iphone) or the libra app (for android) to track trends better. The more data you feed it, the more accurate it gets.

    You're absolutely correct! That is what I did. I just finished my menstral cycle yesterday and I was 25mg over my suggested sodium intake. I didn't notice that until everyone mentioned water retention. I'll check out happy scale, thank you for the suggestion!
  • KissJordanGoodbye
    KissJordanGoodbye Posts: 7 Member
    That actually leads me to another question: when it is homemade, how do you know what option is the best? MFP doesn't always have a homemade choice. In this case, I just chose generic, but is there a better way to go? I've came across this with other food and I just kind of go with my gut feeling, it's not necessarily right.

    I'd also like to thank you all for help and encouragement; I'm a total noob!
  • KissJordanGoodbye
    KissJordanGoodbye Posts: 7 Member
    Here are the top few choices:
  • callsitlikeiseeit
    callsitlikeiseeit Posts: 8,626 Member
    KissJordanGoodbye wrote: »
    That actually leads me to another question: when it is homemade, how do you know what option is the best? MFP doesn't always have a homemade choice. In this case, I just chose generic, but is there a better way to go? I've came across this with other food and I just kind of go with my gut feeling, it's not necessarily right.

    I'd also like to thank you all for help and encouragement; I'm a total noob!

    recipe builder. i cook all my own food (seriously, i dont eat what other people have cooked its an OCD issue). Everything in my diary is one of my recipes (or one i found online, but you get the jist)
  • Sunnybrooke99
    Sunnybrooke99 Posts: 369 Member
    It might have nothing to do with the cheat day, food wise. You probably didn’t actually drop almost four pounds in the week, and maybe only lost 1-2, and some water at some point, and then you retained water, which is more likely if you get dehydrated. Stay on track and keep going. It will average out.
  • SueSueDio
    SueSueDio Posts: 4,796 Member
    edited October 2017
    malibu927 wrote: »
    KissJordanGoodbye wrote: »
    That actually leads me to another question: when it is homemade, how do you know what option is the best? MFP doesn't always have a homemade choice. In this case, I just chose generic, but is there a better way to go? I've came across this with other food and I just kind of go with my gut feeling, it's not necessarily right.

    I'd also like to thank you all for help and encouragement; I'm a total noob!

    Recipe builder

    Yep, never use someone else's "home made" recipe for logging unless you know exactly what went into that recipe. Build your own using the app - it can be a bit fiddly at times (returns odd choices for some ingredients and you have to hunt down the correct one), but once it's done then you can use it for logging any time you eat that food.

    My quick and simple banana bread is 162 calories per slice, but if I used applesauce in place of some of the butter/oil and a bit less sugar (or a sugar substitute) I could cut that down.

    You didn't gain 3lbs, so relax about that - but do try to be as accurate as you can in your logging and be mindful of your "cheats" - make sure you weigh and log those as well. :)
  • LiftHeavyThings27105
    LiftHeavyThings27105 Posts: 2,086 Member
    Agree with @YepItsKriss - and I have commented on this before. There is nothing positive about the word "cheat" in the English-speaking world. I mean, cheating on your wife or cheating on a test or cheating on your taxes....not one of those things is a good thing. In fact, all of those things are - and I believe that most would agree - inherently bad. I can not take credit for the above analogy....someone else spoke it in a youtube video that I just watched, but it fits so perfectly here....I had to use it. It is so much better than what I have used in the past....

    A "cheat day" is actually supposed to create a mental break from a hard diet. It is supposed to be something to which those suffering through this caloric deficit have to look forward. Let's just look at the psychological component to this "cheat day" and not look at the physiological component.

    Too many people - in my experience, anyway - go a little overboard and then figure "What the heck, the day is ruined, nothing I can do now" and then proceed to eat everything that they can get their hands on and potentially ruin all of the gains that they made up to that point.

    For me - and I have said this 1,000 times - it is all about mindset. The term "cheat meal" or "cheat day" is absolutely the wrong mindset.

    And, to @KissJordanGoodbye - not attacking you in any way, shape or form. I take issue with the term "cheat day". I do not take issue with YOU for using it! Just want to make that clear.
  • watts6151
    watts6151 Posts: 905 Member
    I gained 10lb overnight after my last cheat meal,
    All disappeared over the following few days
  • bethany1954
    bethany1954 Posts: 15 Member
    i have been on low carb high fat diet for 9 wks and lost 19lbs. Was going for 20lbs this check in but the last week i put 2lbs on! This means i have to lose 4lb to make my target, struggled all week but have managed to lose 3lb of it, hoping that i will have lost the other 1lb by tomorrow ...
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  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    JRSINAZ wrote: »
    Sounds like Liquid. Try this when you go to bed no food or water until morning then weigh

    Don't most people have no food or water when they go to bed until morning?? I'm not sure what you're saying.
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  • jemhh
    jemhh Posts: 14,261 Member
    Christine_72 wrote: »
    JRSINAZ wrote: »
    Sounds like Liquid. Try this when you go to bed no food or water until morning then weigh

    Don't most people have no food or water when they go to bed until morning?? I'm not sure what you're saying.

    You mean you don't sleep with one of those beer helmet things on?
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    I can barely make it 10 feet up the hallway trying to find the toilet in the middle of the night, let a lone fixing myself something to eat and drink in the kitchen in my half dazed state :tongue:
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