Gaining weight after 1 cheat meal?! Anyone else

mariaageexox · April 2018

I had a cheat meal last night for dinner. This is the first time in about a month that I really went crazy. My boyfriend and I ordered meatballs, fried Alfredo balls, sliders, french fries...etc. After I got home I felt so nauseous because I haven't eaten like that in over a month. I weighed myself today and I am 2 1/2 pounds heavier. How can this be?!

urloved33 · April 2018

it happens to me too. I have to be very careful w my diet. I gain weight easily but I also build muscle easily too.

sardelsa · April 2018

Water weight due to sodium content, more food in your body. Unless you ate 3500 calories over maintenance, you probably didn't gain actual fat.

kami3006 · April 2018

mariaageexox wrote: »

I had a cheat meal last night for dinner. This is the first time in about a month that I really went crazy. My boyfriend and I ordered meatballs, fried Alfredo balls, sliders, french fries...etc. After I got home I felt so nauseous because I haven't eaten like that in over a month. I weighed myself today and I am 2 1/2 pounds heavier. How can this be?!

Weight fluctuates for a variety or reasons. Water retention from high sodium foods, more food in your bowels, lack of sleep, starting a new workout program. It's not at all uncommon for someone to spike on the scale after a large meal. Sometimes you see it go down a bit. Unless you ate around 8750 calories over maintenance, you didn't put 2.5 pounds of fat. The water weight will level out in a day or two. The days after I lift, my scale will go up 3-5 pounds.

cwolfman13 · April 2018

you know that food and the ensuing waste in your system has mass and thus weight right? Also, higher sodium and more carbs than normal will result in water retention which also shows up on the scale.

Beyond that, your weight fluctuates all on it's own...your body is made up of 50-65% water and that's always going to be in flux.

This is what weight loss actually looks like...

The red line (trend line) is what you should be paying attention to.

NovusDies · April 2018

It is totally impossible. With your maintenance calories you would have to consume somewhere in the neighborhood of 11,000 calories to gain 2.5 lbs of body fat.

Believe it or not it is more likely you didn't gain any actual fat at all and like @sardelsa said it is all water weight.

diannethegeek · April 2018

I think we all instinctually understand that if we step on the scale with something like a plate of food in our hands or heavy keys in our pockets or big boots on, then that will make the weight on the scale rise even though we didn't gain any actual weight.

We tend to forget, though, that the same thing happens once we put food into our body. It's like stuffing that food into your pockets except that the pockets are inside of you. Now you have the weight of that meal while it's still being processed (it takes a bit for food to work its way through our system) as well as some extra water retention while your body processes a big meal. It's just like stepping on the scale with a water bottle in one hand and a pocketful of fried Alfredo balls. The scale is going to go up for a bit until everything works its way through your system. It's not fat gain. It's the equivalent of wearing a heavy pair of boots and wondering why the scale went up.

Does that make sense?

kimny72 · April 2018

Restaurant food is usually heavily salted. You are carrying around extra water weight, plus probably haven't digested and passed all of what was an unusually large amount of food for your body to process.

1BlueAurora · April 2018

Salt and water retention. In two days or so, you'll see that weight disappear. Not to worry!

corinnecogley · April 2018

I needed to read this today. I stepped on the scale this morning and i was up 2 pounds. I'm down 15 lbs still but seeing the weight go up this week makes me feel bummed and frustrated. Here's to working a bit harder this week!

HippyChick84 · April 2018

Yes, I ate a hot dog last night with Terra chips. I'm craving Summer food. Gained 8 oz. that took me up a pound. I was like....Nooooooo...it was just a hot dog! Then I realized it wasn't a whole lb. Lol, just 8 oz. I'm working so hard. I will wait until I drop 9lbs before I try another cheat meal and weigh myself once a week. The up-down is only discouraging.

NovusDies · April 2018

@corinnecogley and @hippychick84

How could you both read this thread and both miss that you did not actually gain any fat weight but you are experiencing a water fluctuation?

sedj241 · April 2018

Simple, you're gain more water weight because you have more carbs in your system, carbs hold water, get back on your regular diet and the water weight will be gone in a couple of days, no need to worry.

mulecanter · April 2018

SALT

mariaageexox · April 2018

diannethegeek wrote: »

I think we all instinctually understand that if we step on the scale with something like a plate of food in our hands or heavy keys in our pockets or big boots on, then that will make the weight on the scale rise even though we didn't gain any actual weight.

We tend to forget, though, that the same thing happens once we put food into our body. It's like stuffing that food into your pockets except that the pockets are inside of you. Now you have the weight of that meal while it's still being processed (it takes a bit for food to work its way through our system) as well as some extra water retention while your body processes a big meal. It's just like stepping on the scale with a water bottle in one hand and a pocketful of fried Alfredo balls. The scale is going to go up for a bit until everything works its way through your system. It's not fat gain. It's the equivalent of wearing a heavy pair of boots and wondering why the scale went up.

Does that make sense?

Yes it ended up going back down, i got so worried!

AnvilHead · April 2018

HippyChick84 wrote: »

Yes, I ate a hot dog last night with Terra chips. I'm craving Summer food. Gained 8 oz. that took me up a pound. I was like....Nooooooo...it was just a hot dog! Then I realized it wasn't a whole lb. Lol, just 8 oz. I'm working so hard. I will wait until I drop 9lbs before I try another cheat meal and weigh myself once a week. The up-down is only discouraging.

Get used to it because it's going to happen no matter what. It doesn't mean you're failing, it's just how the body works.

Below is my actual one-year progress chart from April '16 to April '17. The gray line is daily weigh-ins (I weigh every morning), the red line is overall weight trend. Notice that neither one of them is anywhere near a straight line, and the gray line (daily weigh-ins) is all over the place, sometimes with very significant fluctuations from day to day:

robinhager3998 · April 2018

Sodium and fluid from all of that processed food!

JuliBiGoolee · April 2018

AnvilHead wrote: »

HippyChick84 wrote: »

Yes, I ate a hot dog last night with Terra chips. I'm craving Summer food. Gained 8 oz. that took me up a pound. I was like....Nooooooo...it was just a hot dog! Then I realized it wasn't a whole lb. Lol, just 8 oz. I'm working so hard. I will wait until I drop 9lbs before I try another cheat meal and weigh myself once a week. The up-down is only discouraging.

Get used to it because it's going to happen no matter what. It doesn't mean you're failing, it's just how the body works.

Below is my actual one-year progress chart from April '16 to April '17. The gray line is daily weigh-ins (I weigh every morning), the red line is overall weight trend. Notice that neither one of them is anywhere near a straight line, and the gray line (daily weigh-ins) is all over the place, sometimes with very significant fluctuations from day to day:

I may need to tattoo your graph on my forehead. This time around I've been repeating to myself "weight loss is not linear". In that past, the number on the scale, from day to day, made or break my motivation.

Gaining weight after 1 cheat meal?! Anyone else

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