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maximum weight gained in two weeks?

london3731
london3731 Posts: 5 Member
edited November 2024 in Health and Weight Loss
so I just decided to join fitnesspal since I haven't been on track for the past two weeks or so. I eat around 1200cal a day and don't really exercise much( I know, I know, I need to start!) I don't have scale, which is making this more difficult.

anyway for the past 16 days I haven't been tracking my calories but I haven't been binging like crazy either.now I look like I have gained about 30 lbs!!! I read that the maximum amount of actual fat you can gain in 1 week is 2 lbs. is that true?

so I could not have gained more than 4 lbs of actual fat, right?

Replies

  • Calliope610
    Calliope610 Posts: 3,783 Member
    What does your scale say?
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    edited October 2017
    What are your stats?

    You gain a pound of fat by eating 3500 calories over maintenance. But gains in water weight can vary.
  • VintageFeline
    VintageFeline Posts: 6,771 Member
    You'll likely be pretty bloated from all the extra food.

    I gained a solid 6-8lbs in three weeks earlier this year (2 week holiday that got out of hand just before and after, have lost that extra now!). At first the scale said a lot more due to water weight bloat but that whooshed off and I got the real number. Not much you can do about it now anyway. Weigh in and then get back to it.
  • london3731
    london3731 Posts: 5 Member
    Calliope610 wrote: »
    What does your scale say?

    I just said I don't have a scale...
  • london3731
    london3731 Posts: 5 Member
    I'm 5'5" and last time I checked my weight (abut 3 weeks ago) I was 122lbs
  • london3731
    london3731 Posts: 5 Member
    I know this is stupid but I don't plan on getting scale either because I tend to get really obsessive with daily fluctuations and it just ruins my progress. and sadly, I have no self control to do weekly check ins, Ive tried!
  • JustRobby1
    JustRobby1 Posts: 674 Member
    edited October 2017
    It takes approximately 3500 calories to gain one pound. So that means you would need to go 3500 or more over your TDEE per day for each pound gained.

    As an example, I was in Jamaica on vacation with 3 of my buds from college for 10 days this summer. For those ten days I had a complete and total reckless abandon attitude. I ate whatever my heart desired whenever I had the notion to do so, and also important, drank until I was falling down in the gutter plastered pretty much every night. In ten days I managed to gain a little less than 6 pounds.

    I did not sweat this as I know full well how to lose it again, and I did.
  • london3731
    london3731 Posts: 5 Member
    JustRobby1 wrote: »
    It takes approximately 3500 calories to gain one pound. So that means you would need to go 3500 or more over your TDEE per day for each pound gained.

    As an example, I was in Jamaica on vacation with 3 of my buds from college for 10 days this summer. For those ten days I had a complete and total reckless abandon attitude. I ate whatever my heart desired whenever I had the notion to do so, and also important, drank until I was falling down in the gutter plastered pretty much every night. In ten days I managed to gain a little less than 6 pounds.

    I did not sweat this as I know full well how to lose it again, and I did.


    sounds like you had a blast! and great attitude to have afterwards!

    my issue with the 3500 rule is the speed at which you actually gain the fat. if a person eats an extra 10500cal over TDEE in three days, its pretty much physically impossible to gain 3 pounds of fat! they would probably gain much more than 3 lbs but most of it will be water weight.
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,463 Member
    If you're not weighing and logging your food and you don't weigh yourself, it's quite possible you gain weight.
  • livingleanlivingclean
    livingleanlivingclean Posts: 11,751 Member
    lorrpb wrote: »
    If you're not weighing and logging your food and you don't weigh yourself, it's quite possible you gain weight.

    It's also possible you're not... And unless you're going to have some measure of yourself and your intake, there's no point worrying about it
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    No way to know. You could be gaining, losing, or maintaining. Without an objective way to measure progress it's hard to know what your weight is doing unless you find yourself several sizes up or down in clothing which usually takes a long time. Feeling bloated can mimic weight gain, and feeling good about yourself can mimic weight loss.
  • DanishFeta
    DanishFeta Posts: 61 Member
    edited October 2017
    You can gain more than 2lbs per week of you eat enough. I've easily gained more from a binge. If you didn't count or weight the foods you could have very well gone over, even if you think you've been eating only 1200 calories. I doubt however that you gained 30lbs in fat in 16days. It's probably a mixture of swelling, water weight, extra food in your digestive track and some fat. I've also been known to hold onto 11-15lbs of water weight during my TOM but now i take magnesium and I rarely reach those numbers.

    If you don't have scales, how do you know if you've gained? If you're going to follow a scale, you should use the same scale in the same room and you shouldn't be bothered by small gains if you record and weigh all your foods. I know my GPs scale say's i'm 7lbs lighter than the one I use at home and my old scale says I'm 4lbs heavier. So its good to try to use the same scale so you don't panic. That being said, maybe get a scale and try to stick to that one, when you're ready.

    I'd suggest not worrying about the scale too much though because you don't want to be discouraged and maybe you should start counting calories and weighing your foods. Give it a few weeks of strict calorie counting then weigh yourself.

    At the end of the day, you don't really need to use a scale to weigh yourself, if you don't want to. Just measure and weigh your foods and make that your main focus. In time your clothing sizes will come down.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    Surely the big issue is determining why you binge and how you are going to address that?

    But to answer your question I don't believe there is a set limit on the rate at which you can gain fat if you eat at enough of a surplus - your food would have to start passing through undigested after a certain point for that to be true. But majority of a sudden gain isn't fat, it's mostly water plus weight of extra food in your system.

    Here's a spike following a 10 day holiday gain. My guess is I gained 7 or 8lbs of water and 2 or 3lbs of fat judging by the deficit I needed to get back to my normal maintenance weight.

    ihj2d47l91z9.png
  • JustRobby1
    JustRobby1 Posts: 674 Member
    london3731 wrote: »
    JustRobby1 wrote: »
    It takes approximately 3500 calories to gain one pound. So that means you would need to go 3500 or more over your TDEE per day for each pound gained.

    As an example, I was in Jamaica on vacation with 3 of my buds from college for 10 days this summer. For those ten days I had a complete and total reckless abandon attitude. I ate whatever my heart desired whenever I had the notion to do so, and also important, drank until I was falling down in the gutter plastered pretty much every night. In ten days I managed to gain a little less than 6 pounds.

    I did not sweat this as I know full well how to lose it again, and I did.


    sounds like you had a blast! and great attitude to have afterwards!

    my issue with the 3500 rule is the speed at which you actually gain the fat. if a person eats an extra 10500cal over TDEE in three days, its pretty much physically impossible to gain 3 pounds of fat! they would probably gain much more than 3 lbs but most of it will be water weight.

    I would agree. Most of my extra weight was likely water/beer weight. I distinctly remember at the time that the extra weight came off way faster than normal, which also fits the dynamic of water weight gain perfectly. Even if it had not of came off easy, I don't regret the good time with my friends. I personally think it's important that people take a break and enjoy themselves every so often. It makes the reality of working a program much more tolerable.
This discussion has been closed.

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