So frustrating

ChangeIsGood29
ChangeIsGood29 Posts: 103 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I went on a mini vacation, three days and I’m up 7 pounds. I know most of it is probably water weight but still hard to see when it took me so long to lose those 7 pounds. I wish people who don’t struggle with weight could understand how discouraging that part is.

Replies

  • Retroguy2000
    Retroguy2000 Posts: 1,867 Member
    You know it's mostly water weight, so what's the problem?
  • musicfan68
    musicfan68 Posts: 1,143 Member
    Everyone has this happen. It's how you deal with it in your head that matters. Everyone struggles at some point, or several points during their time losing weight. You need to just accept it as water weight, and it will be gone in a few days.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,984 Member
    It's three days. Please try to convince your brain that you did not overeat by 8200 calories every single day over your maintenance calories (unless you actually did). It's waterweight and maybe a bit of constipation. Seriously, I travel a lot and travel waterweight is my dearest buddy. It's the worst because it sticks around for so long. I came back from summer vacation 9 days ago and it started to drop 2 days ago. That's normal for me. Airtravel is the worst, but a longer car or train ride also kicks in quite well. Added to that a tiny bit of constipation from eating differently. My weight graph looks totally funny and apart from obvious gaps from not taking a scale along I can identify every trip by a massive uptick on the scale thereafter. :D

    I hope sharing my experience with you helps a bit. Hey, try to understand this, and the thousands of other reasons for water weight fluctuations as your personal ebb and flood. Our bodies consist of about 55-60% water. It's not static, it fluctuates constantly. I guess that's one of the things that makes us living things and not machines.
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,881 Member
    7lbs of fat gain would require eating 24500 above maintenance. That would be impressive in 3 days 😄

    Water weight from extra carbs, extra salt and possibly air travel. Extra food waste in your digestive tract. Those are way more likely culprits!

    Hold your nerve, it'll go away again!
    I like using a weight trending app to smoothe out the sharp roller-coaster of weight fluctuations (Libra or Happyscale). You'll still see ups and downs but it's not as harsh 🙂
  • Retroguy2000
    Retroguy2000 Posts: 1,867 Member
    Gaining 7 pounds of fat in 3 days would require more than 24,500 extra calories. The consumption of an additional 8,000+ in a day would result in more thermic effect to process it all, more waste than usual, more body heat, and more NEAT. All of which would make the net fat gain far less than 7 pounds, even if they were eating a total of 10,000 for 3 days in a row.
  • Lildarlinz
    Lildarlinz Posts: 276 Member
    I have a cruise next year…I’m dreading it
    Because I know I’m gunna be eating or tasting a little bit of everything 🤣🤣🤣

    Don’t worry too much about the water weight :) it will weigh itself out

    Keep going! Don’t give up :D at least u enjoyed your holiday or your little treat :) that’s the main thing xx
  • dontlikepeople
    dontlikepeople Posts: 142 Member
    " I wish people who don’t struggle with weight could understand how discouraging that part is"

    They never will. Which is why we have to do it for ourselves. Support is nice when it's available, but we have to be our own pillar of strength. I've come to the conclusion that no one in my life will ever understand the amount of effort I've put into my fitness, and I've made my peace with it.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,598 Member

    May I suggest that you read this thread, especially the article linked in the first post?

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10683010/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-fluctuations/p1

    Others are IMO correct, and the majority of that scale gain is likely water weight and waste in transit, not fat regain.

    If you can stay calm, get back to your pre-existing healthy routine, high odds it will drop off within a few days to a week, although if you're a woman who has monthly cycles, it could take a little longer if it times itself just wrong with hormone-related water weight fluctuations. (In that case, you might not see the whole net result until the same relative point in your next monthly cycle, but it will show up.)

    I think I do understand that that kind of thing can be discouraging (as a long term obese/overweight woman who lost weight myself) . . . but understanding the underlying mechanisms can help. Mistaking water weight fluctuations for fat regain is a common source of discouragement, but since it's not fat regain, IMO there's no point in stressing about it.
  • MacLowCarbing
    MacLowCarbing Posts: 350 Member
    I agree, it's hard to understand the struggle of weight issues without having been there. I feel ya, even if you know it's probably mostly water weight & really not as bad as it seems, seeing it on the scale sucks. Getting back on track, though, it'll probably fall off quicker too.
  • LagoonAddict
    LagoonAddict Posts: 2 Member
    Happens to me every time. It typically takes 5-6 days to get back to the weight before I left. I’m going on vacation in 1 month. I know it’ll happen again, I’m ok with it. If you don’t learn to be ok with it, then you’ll dread going out of town & won’t be able to enjoy yourself.
  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 8,657 Member
    edited September 2023
    I easily gain 6-8 pounds of water weight following a flight, not to mention short term “gain” from changing my eating habits. I tend to be very high carb when traveling, because it’s convenient, and hard to make my usual protein macro.

    It will pass pretty quickly.

    What jumps out at me more is your mentioning that people who don’t struggle with weight don’t understand the struggle to lose.

    One thing I’ve found during this whole process is that no one is the same, and comparing ourself to others is an utter waste of energy and brain cells. I’ve found that having lost a substantial amount of weight myself, people now strike that attitude with me.

    I’ve even shown people “before” photos and they refuse to beleive me. Like I’m carrying photoshopped obese photos on my phone for the kicks or something.

    Nowadays I just smile politely at the “it’s so easy for you” comments and change the subject.

    Don’t invest yourself so heavily in what other people think it say of you, or what you perceive in your own head that you think they think of you.


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