Hopefully! temporary weight gain after night out

Options
herbgardinia
herbgardinia Posts: 5 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
This is more curiosity than anything else as I was expecting it, but still don't really understand mechanism.

So I've been saving calories this week for a work night out on Saturday night. I had about 1500 saved (plus the calories for that day anyway - I'm on 2400/day. I go out, I don't track the meal and I have goats cheese/olives starter, ribeye steak with chips for main, and lemon tart for dessert. I didn't drink alcohol because I was driving but I had a few (full-fat) cokes. Cough-also had a packet of crisps when I got home-End cough. My bad, that was unplanned.

So I weigh myself this morning, and I'm up 3lb from yesterday morning. Is it all really just water weight? I'm not worried, I know it will go away and consistency the other six days of the week will mean I continue to lose weight overall.

I'm just curious - it was a bigger meal obviously than I have been eating, and I haven't had sugary fizzy drinks for about two months now. But does every night out / untracked meal mean a gain of (hopefully false) lbs the next day??

Replies

  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    Options
    Yep, water weight
  • AidenT94
    AidenT94 Posts: 39 Member
    Options
    I very loosely tracked my calories for my vacation, and I'm up 2lbs. We ate out a lot, so I'm not surprised to see the gain. I'd advise to wait a couple of days, eat and workout normally, and hopefully some of the weight will be gone. Yay for fluctuations!
  • RuNaRoUnDaFiEld
    RuNaRoUnDaFiEld Posts: 5,864 Member
    Options
    Pretty much, it is down to the excess salt in the meal plus extra food to process.

    I don't sweat it, it shows that my body is doing what it is designed to do.
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    Options
    All water weight! You most likely have more food in gut/not fully digested, more sodium/carbs than normal dieting through the week. You banked the calories so you stayed within your weekly calorie allotment, so I would say you did this perfectly.

    Few days and you will balance back out.
  • MegaMooseEsq
    MegaMooseEsq Posts: 3,118 Member
    Options
    I eat out maybe once or twice a week, and it’s pretty common for there to be some water weight gain. My sense is that the main factors are higher than usual salt consumption (restaurant food is often crazy salty, even if it does seem like it would be) and eating later than usual, which thrown off my digestive cycle (plus alcohol, but that wouldn’t apply here). It’s always gone after a couple of days, though other people might need longer. No stress. You’ve got to enjoy your life! Remember that you’ll only gain fat if you’re eating over maintenance. Depending on what that is for you, it’s certainly possible you put on a little bit of fat, but almost certainly only a fraction of a pound - you’d need to be 3500 over maintenance to gain a pound of fat, remember.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,871 Member
    edited October 2017
    Options
    herbgardinia wrote: »
    This is more curiosity than anything else as I was expecting it, but still don't really understand mechanism.

    So I've been saving calories this week for a work night out on Saturday night. I had about 1500 saved (plus the calories for that day anyway - I'm on 2400/day. I go out, I don't track the meal and I have goats cheese/olives starter, ribeye steak with chips for main, and lemon tart for dessert. I didn't drink alcohol because I was driving but I had a few (full-fat) cokes. Cough-also had a packet of crisps when I got home-End cough. My bad, that was unplanned.

    So I weigh myself this morning, and I'm up 3lb from yesterday morning. Is it all really just water weight? I'm not worried, I know it will go away and consistency the other six days of the week will mean I continue to lose weight overall.

    I'm just curious - it was a bigger meal obviously than I have been eating, and I haven't had sugary fizzy drinks for about two months now. But does every night out / untracked meal mean a gain of (hopefully false) lbs the next day??

    Do the math...you can't really gain 3 Lbs of fat overnight...that would be 10,500 calories over your maintenance calories...and even then, your body doesn't actually work like that...you have to consistently over eat or under eat to override your body's ability to maintain homeostasis.

    So if it's impossible that it's fat, what else can it be? Water and more inherent waste in your system from eating more. It also sounds like a splurge that was relatively high in sodium...that's always going to cause you to retain water.

    ETA: Also, weight fluctuations are just normal. On Wednesday this past week I was up 3 Lbs from Tuesday...Thursday I was down 5...Friday I was up 2 and back to my average maintenance weight.
  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    Options
    filbo132 wrote: »
    You're in luck, it's water weight. I see water weight as a warning that I have to watch what I eat for the next few days or else it will become fat. So when i do food binge for a day, the following days, I try to eat lighter so that I can bring my weight down back to what it was before the food binge. Usually it's about 1 or 2 days at most of eating lighter than usual (and it's not an extreme drop in calories either unless I really went hardcore).

    You don't understand what water weight is then?
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    edited October 2017
    Options
    filbo132 wrote: »
    You're in luck, it's water weight. I see water weight as a warning that I have to watch what I eat for the next few days or else it will become fat. So when i do food binge for a day, the following days, I try to eat lighter so that I can bring my weight down back to what it was before the food binge. Usually it's about 1 or 2 days at most of eating lighter than usual (and it's not an extreme drop in calories either unless I really went hardcore).

    She banked calories to have enjoy a day of eating, none of this will become fat. No need to eat next lighter the next day as in cutting calories, just resume normal diet and it will balance back out in a few days.

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,583 Member
    Options
    Definitely water weight, and digestive contents, if your week averaged out to be within your calorie goal.

    A few weeks back, I went from 128.8lbs to 135.2 in two days, and was back to 128.0 by the end of a week, without doing anything crazy to drop weight. I'm nearly through my 2nd year of maintenance after losing 50+ pounds, and have roller-coastered like this multiple times along the way. No biggie.

    (Full story here, if you care: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10603949/big-overfeed-ruins-everything-nope).

    Prediction: You'll be fine in a few days. Don't worry; just go back to your normal healthy routine.

Categories