How does your body drop 4 lbs overnight?

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  • LibertyChamp
    LibertyChamp Posts: 71 Member
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    Last night I dropped 5.4 Lbs. I still can't believe it. I guess I am a big fat woosher. I am on the 5:2 and yesterday, Thursday, was my second (low-cal day) fast day. I weighed at night...went to bed late. I let the digital scale reset and I moved it and weighed again to confirm. I was 189.4 Lbs. I did the same procedure this morning twice and now I am 184.0 Lbs. A full 5.4 Lbs. In the past I had ejected 4 pounds under the same conditions. I think it is kind of neat, but my only concern is: are there any negative effects that can come as a result of this type of weight loss?
    I believe that sleep and sleep deprivation has a lot to do with it. Earlier in the week I was not getting much sleep but last night I took a good nights rest. Here is an article that sites a Columbia University study that found that if you only get by on 4 hrs sleep a night you are 73 percent more likely to be obese and by contrast if you average 10 hours of shut eye you are 11 percent less likely to be obese.
    http://www.thatsfit.com/2010/11/18/will-sleep-help-me-lose-weight/
  • jnam7619
    jnam7619 Posts: 6 Member
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    I am so glad I read this. This is how I lose weight too. I thought it was so odd. I was the same weight for three weeks and then bam, I was five pounds lighter. lol I will lose a few pounds over the course of a few days and then nothing and then repeat.
  • minniesb69
    minniesb69 Posts: 83 Member
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    Kim4Kim wrote: »
    I found this explanation helpful:

    "Fat cells are resilient, stubborn little creatures that do not want to give up their actual cell volume. Over a period of weeks, maybe months of "proper dieting", each of your fat cells may have actually lost a good percentage of the actual fat contained in those cells. But the fat cells themselves, stubborn little guys, replace that lost fat with water to retain their size. That is, instead of shrinking to match the reduced amount of fat in the cell, they stay the same size! Result - you weigh the same, look the same, maybe even gained some scale weight, even though you have actually lost some serious fat."

    This is what we have been telling folks. You lose inches but not pounds because your body plumps the fat cells. I tell them it is a complicated biochemical process that your body replaces the fat molecules with water and fluids until you exceed your bodies predetermined fluid level. Then your body will release a chemical that releases all this stored water and you get a sudden overnight loss of several pounds. Then the cycle starts over again with inches gone and the scales lag behind."

    Source: http://www.atkinsdietbulletinboard....read.php?t=6737 (http://www.atkinsdietbulletinboard.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6737)

    This helps me a LOT. Makes absolute sense and also explains the whoosh effect another poster told me about. Thanks
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,234 Member
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    90poundsoflard wrote: »
    OK, first let me say I am absolutely thrilled! But, VERY confused about how this all works. In the last two months I've lost 9 lbs, but the way I've lost them leaves me scratching my head and wishing I understood how this ol' body works! Here's what's been happening - I used to lose 1-2 lbs a week, and I was happy. That's the best way to lose, right? Well, a couple months ago I stopped losing - no matter what I did to shake it up, the pounds were just being stubborn. I was losing inches, but the scales would not budge. Then one morning I stepped on the scale - down 4 lbs! This can't be right!?! Next morning, down another pound! And then, the scale got stuck again! For the last month it has stayed in the same place, but my clothes are staring to look really baggy, I've lost several more inches, and yesterday when I stepped on the scale - down 3 lbs! Today I'm down another pound! It's like it's a battle of the wills, and finally I win! LOL The first time it happened I thought it wouldn't stay off, because there is no way to lose 4 lbs a day, it's just not possible (I mean REAL weight - not just water weight from starting a new diet) So now that it's happened twice, I'm wondering if anyone else has had this happen to them? Do you know why I've started losing weight this way?

    You didn't lose 4 pounds of fat in a day, you lost it over the time where your weight was not going down, but water weight was masking it. Then the water weight was released, and you went down 4 pounds. It is called a whoosh. http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/of-whooshes-and-squishy-fat.html/
  • size102b
    size102b Posts: 1,370 Member
    edited March 2016
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    I lost 2.5lbs tues then 1.5lbs weds Thursday I gained 1.5lb so in my case I think it's water as I'm strict on 1300 cals
  • trjjoy
    trjjoy Posts: 666 Member
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    Um. 5 pounds is like 10kg give or take. I find it very hard to believe someone will lose 10kg "overnight", even due to water weight. 1kg? Sure. But not 10kg.
  • GoJohnGo71
    GoJohnGo71 Posts: 439 Member
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    I am in a diet contest at work. Final weigh in is tomorrow. I hope I lose 5 pounds tonight. Lol
  • ALG775
    ALG775 Posts: 246 Member
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    Wrong way around. 5 pounds is around 2.2 kg.
  • trjjoy
    trjjoy Posts: 666 Member
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    ALG775 wrote: »
    Wrong way around. 5 pounds is around 2.2 kg.

    Eeeeeek! You are soooo right! It's high time y'all all start using the metric system. Seriously. The imperial system is antiquated.
  • Merkavar
    Merkavar Posts: 3,082 Member
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    ulkgpjwjg3jg.jpg


    Or maybe just salt/water weight fluctuations.
  • elcarquis
    elcarquis Posts: 1 Member
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    I was 150 for two weeks and this morning I weighed in at 146. I didn't do anything different yesterday.
    March of 2020, I was 219 and decided to eat healthier to lose a few lbs.
  • heybales
    heybales Posts: 18,842 Member
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    water weight of course - but not sodium.

    And you said didn't change diet so obviously not going low carb in your case.

    Rarely does sodium retained water drop quickly - gain quickly yes, but most do not see it drop fast unless they went the other extreme and did like a no-sodium day. Even then, usually multi-day recovery from a high-sodium day.

    Water weight from stress though.
    Elevated cortisol can slowly increase retained water upwards of 20 lbs.
    How many weeks of scale weight could that hide?

    A body being under that level of stress though is telling - perhaps the body considers that level of deficit too great, and you finally eat a tad more on some days and it whooshes soon after.

    Lyle has an article on that fact too.

    1-2 lbs a week may be getting extreme for the body now. Be concerned that the body may start adapting - because if you don't purposely make the deficit smaller, it will attempt to by you moving and burning less.
  • russellholtslander1
    russellholtslander1 Posts: 285 Member
    edited September 2021
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    deleted. Didn't realize this post was so old. :)

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