Weight gain trend - when to start worrying?

82EC · May 2019

So on Sunday I walked over 10,000 steps and hardly ate anything, so on Monday my weight was down by 1.6kg, which is a lot for me. By Tuesday morning I had put on 0.4kg (up to 85.4) and that day I did a 45 min Pilates class, took about 5,000 steps and did about 30 mins strength exercises, most with a medium level resistance band instead of the easy one I started off with when I started doing strength exercises. Wednesday morning I am up to 86kg. I weighed myself just now (Wednesday evening) and it said 87.5. Usually the evening weight is about 1kg heavier than in the morning, but that still means I would have put on another 0.5kg. Admittedly I didn’t do my scheduled exercise today due to being too busy, so I only took 5000 steps as my only exercise.

My question: is this a trend I should be worried about?

Could it be:
The cold weather (I’m in Australia, we’re just coming into Winter next month)
Getting too adjusted to my exercise program
Having lost so much weight on Sunday and now my body is making up for it
The Phentermine having stopped working?
Some other cause?

Love to hear your thoughts!

funjen1972 · May 2019

I look at an average trend over 14 days. If that number is more than my acceptable maintenance range I make a change. A few random high readings is not a trend simply because weight varies so much. Just this week I've had a 7 pound difference in readings, but a single (or few) high value does not indicate weight gain.

I suggest looking at your average weight over a time, instead of single readings. I use a simple spreadsheet, but there are apps (Happy scale and Libra) also.

fitnessqueen91 · May 2019

Eh I get this too. I can exercise a lot and not eat much but I don't see a drop or there's even a small gain on the scale. I find doing a lot of exercise makes me feel heavy (probably from the muscles retaining water) and retain a bit of water. The other poster is right, it's more about seeing the trends over time not every day as weight can fluctuate from day to day. Maybe weigh once a week or once a fortnight. I should take this advise myself as I sometimes weigh everyday and get upset if my weight isn't going down. Also check to see how your clothes fit and of you're losing inches. I think the scales only show a consistent drop in weight if you're very overweight and have a lot of weight to lose but if you're not that big it slows down as your body doesn't have so much dangerous fat.

AnnPT77 · May 2019

Fat loss happens over weeks to months.

Weight changes over hours to a few days are water retention or digestive system contents still in transit. Since they're not fat, and fat is what we care about, ignore those day to day fluctuations.

Are you female? For a premenopausal woman starting on weight loss, it takes a minimum of a full menstrual cycle plus a little to establish a trend, because one needs to compare weights at the same point in one's cycle. For others, 4 weeks may be enough. But a major increase in exercise can trigger water retention that hides fat loss even longer.

Weight fluctuation is normal. Eat a half-kilo of broccoli, immediately gain a half kilo on the scale. It's not fat, it's still broccoli (but in your stomach). Much of that broccoli will be around (as fiber in your intestines) for up to as long as a couple of days! Water weight changes are part of how a normal, healthy body functions, too. Water retention can temporarily increase from challenging exercise, hormonal cycles, minor illness/infection or injury, eating more salt/carbs than usual (even if a perfectly healthy/sensible amount), and more.

Losing fat is a long game. Stopping worrying about weight changes from one day to the next. Unless you over-ate (or under-ate) by thousands of calories, day to day fluctuations are meaningless. Relax, and see what happens over multiple weeks, or you'll drive yourself crazy.

Worry causes stress; stress raises cortisol; cortisol can increase water retention.

Counterproductive.

Relax.

Trust the process.

NovusDies · May 2019

82EC wrote: »

So on Sunday I walked over 10,000 steps and hardly ate anything, so on Monday my weight was down by 1.6kg, which is a lot for me. By Tuesday morning I had put on 0.4kg (up to 85.4) and that day I did a 45 min Pilates class, took about 5,000 steps and did about 30 mins strength exercises, most with a medium level resistance band instead of the easy one I started off with when I started doing strength exercises. Wednesday morning I am up to 86kg. I weighed myself just now (Wednesday evening) and it said 87.5. Usually the evening weight is about 1kg heavier than in the morning, but that still means I would have put on another 0.5kg. Admittedly I didn’t do my scheduled exercise today due to being too busy, so I only took 5000 steps as my only exercise.

My question: is this a trend I should be worried about?

Could it be:
The cold weather (I’m in Australia, we’re just coming into Winter next month)
Getting too adjusted to my exercise program
Having lost so much weight on Sunday and now my body is making up for it
The Phentermine having stopped working?
Some other cause?

Love to hear your thoughts!

The people that gain weight in colder weather are not gaining weight because of the actual weather. That is impossible.

You cannot get too adjusted to exercise. That is impossible.

Your body cannot make up for too much weight loss by itself. That is impossible.

The Phentermine cannot make you gain or lose weight by itself. That is impossible.

Whether you are losing fat or storing fat depends only on a very simple energy equation known as CICO (Calories In : Calories Out) Calories in are the ones you eat. Calories out are the ones you burn. Most of the burning is done by simply being alive the rest is in movement and exercise. Unless you eat a massive amount of food or you have an extreme deficit your fat weight is gained and lost in fractions that can take quite some time to show up properly on a bathroom scale.

To understand your bathroom scale and what it tells you I suggest reading this:

http://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations/

spiriteagle99 · May 2019

You didn't actually lose 1.6 kilos of fat in one day on Sunday. You lost some water weight. In the following days you gained back some water weight. It is nothing to worry about.

PAV8888 · May 2019

Use happy scale, Libra, or trendweight.com or weightgrapher.com or equivalents you discover or construct/deploy.

If your ***trend*** change (not daily weight change) exceeds a kg take heed.

Women with cyclical hormonal retention, as mentioned by Ann above, need to account for that by comparing to the same point in their previous cycle.

Weigh yourself once a day and plot on a graph.

Unless you start accounting for every drop of water and also measure your pee and sweat outputs, your nighttime readings are meaningless stress.

Also, if your weight has been visibly and reliably changing downwards day in and day out, this is an indication that you are applying a substantial caloric deficit such that it would probably only be suitable for a very obese person.

Because too much of a good thing isn't always good, if you are not comfortably in the obese range but are used to reliably seeing daily scale drops, you should probably re consider and re confirm the desired size of your deficit such that you end up losing no more than 0.5% to 1% of your bodyweight per week on average for most people.

texasredreb · May 2019

I hate when I see the scale go up instead of down--so I feel your concern! My logical brain knows that if I'm doing everything correct, then permanent weight gain in the form of fat is virtually impossible. My emotional brain has a little panic when I see the number go up--even though I know it's not fat. I'm learning to trust the process too--I do trust the process!

dmt4641 · May 2019

spiriteagle99 wrote: »

You didn't actually lose 1.6 kilos of fat in one day on Sunday. You lost some water weight. In the following days you gained back some water weight. It is nothing to worry about.

This.

VioletRojo · May 2019

82EC wrote: »

Thanks all for the support- I was getting stressed as I hadn’t seen such big fluctuations in my weight loss journey yet. But it must have just been the exercise because today I am back on track - down to 85.8 kg. Phew!

Think I will continue to weigh myself daily - some people say it’s not helpful but I find it motivating and it (usually) gives me data to counteract any worries about going up!

If you're going to weigh daily, use a weight trending app for your phone. It helps make sense of all the ups and downs in weight and puts them in perspective.

MichelleSilverleaf · May 2019

82EC wrote: »

Thanks all for the support- I was getting stressed as I hadn’t seen such big fluctuations in my weight loss journey yet. But it must have just been the exercise because today I am back on track - down to 85.8 kg. Phew!

Think I will continue to weigh myself daily - some people say it’s not helpful but I find it motivating and it (usually) gives me data to counteract any worries about going up!

I like weighing daily, it helps me to avoid getting thrown off by a random fluctuation. In the morning after a bathroom visit is usually best.

Phirrgus · May 2019

Echoing the folks recommending Libra or Happy scale or similar. I had a few weeks I was convinced I had gained a couple of lbs, and someone here recommended libra. After adding all the data points I had collected (and since) I see a downward trend of .5-2lbs per month. It's SLOW

but it showed me that I am actually dropping weight.

Weight gain trend - when to start worrying?

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