How did I gain weight??

I completed a 23 hour fast, walked almost 20,000 steps and only logged in 615 calories for the day and I gained .9 pounds???

I was 358lbs and I am trying to get to 250. I am now 325.1.

Answers

  • chicbuc
    chicbuc Posts: 616 Member
    Try not to focus on daily fluctuations. Unless you overate by a lot, it's impossible to gain fat. It's just water weight. Stay hydrated and the water weight will come off. I fluctuate up to 5 pounds from morning until night.
  • sollyn23l2
    sollyn23l2 Posts: 1,755 Member
    I completed a 23 hour fast, walked almost 20,000 steps and only logged in 615 calories for the day and I gained .9 pounds???

    I was 358lbs and I am trying to get to 250. I am now 325.1.

    You stressed your body out and put on water weight.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,982 Member
    Weight loss isn't linear. You can do the same exact thing one week and the same the next and get different scale results because there are other variables to take into account. Stress, hormones, and environment (heat/cold) can affect outcome regardless of how diligent you are.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 40 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,416 Member
    Yeah, and your food from three or four days ago is still working through your system. Salt, hydration, stress, heat, hormones, new exercise, so many factors have to be just right.

    Don't stop. No one's weight turns on a dime. The body just doesn't work that way. At your weight you could have very large weight fluctuations from day to day.
  • xbowhunter
    xbowhunter Posts: 1,237 Member
    Water! :)
  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 2,221 Member
    It doesn’t work like that you need to stick with the program for 4 to 6 weeks to see if it’s going to be successful for you or not. One day means absolutely nothing. You still have water moving around and it will continue for awhile
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,198 Member
    I completed a 23 hour fast, walked almost 20,000 steps and only logged in 615 calories for the day and I gained .9 pounds???

    I was 358lbs and I am trying to get to 250. I am now 325.1.

    23 hour fast? A physical stressor.
    20k steps? Possibly a physical stressor, unless you routinely walk that much.
    Only logged 615 calories? Under-fueling, under-nutrition, possibly a physical stressor.

    Stress is one of the many different things that can increase water retention, and our bodies can be up to 60%+ water so it's a multi-pound fluctuation.

    Also, Riverside is right, as usual: Our bodyweight on any given day isn't the outcome of the day before, it's the outcome of multiple preceding days, in subtle ways. Those outcomes reflect changes in fat, waste in the digestive tract, water retention, several pounds of gut microbes that aren't even genetically "us", etc.

    Let's say you lose weight reasonably fast, like the fastest loss rate MFP will let a person request, 2 pounds a week. If the person sticks with that calorie goal faithfully, they'd expect to lose about 4.6 ounces of fat per day, on average.

    It's common for people who are not overweight to have water/waste fluctuations from one day to the next of 2-4 pounds or more, even if they weigh themselves under consistent conditions. (I do, at around 134 pounds nowadays in maintenance.)

    Someone who weighs more is likely to see bigger fluctuations that are not changes in body fat. If that person is one who has menstrual cycles, the fluctuations are likely to be bigger still. If that person stresses their body - even positive stresses like exercise - the fluctuations are likely to be bigger.

    Others are right. If you want to lose a meaningful total amount of weight, that's going to take many months, maybe even more than a year or beyond. That puts a premium on calm, persistent patience, and habits a person can live with reasonably happily for that long a time period.

    When you adopt a new routine, plan to follow it for 4-6 weeks (whole menstrual cycles), then evaluate average results over that period, to know how your progress is going.

    One day is meaningless, a drop in the ocean. Life is the ocean. It's our routine day in, day out, repetitive habits that are the major factor in our body weight. One day of fasting, one day with 5 hours of workouts, one rare day when we eat 3 slices of cake? Not nearly as important as those everyday habits. Getting stressed out because the scale doesn't reflect the hard work put in the day before? I'm sorry: Not realistic, not helpful.

    Focus on routine daily life habits. Make them practical, tolerable, even enjoyable. And be patient. Others have lost as much and more as you're aiming to lose. It can work. Take the long view.

    Best wishes, sincerely!
  • rxs5xykygw
    rxs5xykygw Posts: 3 Member
    Wow. That’s a tough day. You gotta eat enough or you’ll get sick. I’ve been there. I know the feeling of wanting to do it all in a week, but it doesn’t work that way. Eat, drink lots of water, do the work, and trust that you’ll get there in the end, because you will, my friend. Make a plan, keep a diary, and you’ll breeze through it and have fun along the way. I’m rooting for you.
  • Corina1143
    Corina1143 Posts: 3,624 Member
    Your body's mad!

    You made it work hard with little to no fuel.

    Check the oil, fill the radiator, fill with the best gas you can afford if you want your car to last forever.
    Treat your body better. You can always trade cars.
  • Seffell
    Seffell Posts: 2,244 Member
    edited October 5
    The scales show your weight not your fat. Your weight is made of fat, muscle, bone, water, food, poop, pee etc. etc.