Is he scale messing with my mind?

ItsDiana
ItsDiana Posts: 60
edited December 17 in Health and Weight Loss
Before the weekend I weighed myself and was 59kg and now, after a weekend in London, and I really watched my kcal intake and just went over it slightly... 61kg! I don't know if it's me or the scale, but my weight always changes between 59 and 61, even if there's just one day difference. I'm very confused here.

Replies

  • JesterMFP
    JesterMFP Posts: 3,596 Member
    If you kept to your calorie goal (even going over slightly), it won't be 2 kg of fat, so try not to worry about it. Remember a lb of fat is 3500 calories, so you'd have to have consumed something like 15,000+ cals over your maintenance number (not deficit) to have gained 2 kgs in fat.

    In London, did you eat out more than usual? Do you think you might have consumed more sodium than usual, because that could easily be making you retain water. If you normally make a lot of your meals yourself and this weekend you have more pre-packaged or restaurant meals, then that's the likely cause. Otherwise, there are still a lot of other reasons your weight will naturally fluctuate that much, (hydration, hormone changes, more exercise making you retain water etc) try not to worry too much about it.
  • Lolli1986
    Lolli1986 Posts: 500 Member
    The scale is messing! I put on 2kg in the space of 2 days while staying under my cals. I exercised hard 3 days in a row, I then ate lots of salt, then i ate lots of post-workout carbs, then I drank lots of water.

    This combination is probably what my body needed, and it is certainly what it wanted, but it looks like hell on the scales the next morning.

    From what I understand, post-workout carbs get stored as glycogen in the liver and muscles, and the body needs to store water in order to store glycogen. Salty cells retain water through simple osmosis (water moving through a barrier toward the saltier side). After a couple of rest days I will almost certainly drop all the weight again (yeah... this happened last weekend as well, haha).
  • ItsDiana
    ItsDiana Posts: 60
    I ate slightly more, but it was all restaurant food or pre-packed, so that might be it! Thanks :)
  • mark2605
    mark2605 Posts: 23 Member
    To actually put on a "true" 2kg, you would need to have eaten 15,400 calories (2kg x 2.2 x 3500 calories) over your maintenance level. Highly doubt you did that.

    Water, and more importantly its retention, contributes a lot to fluctuating weight, even more so in women. All kinds of things contribute to water retention, including too much salt, intense exercise, dehydration etc etc.

    I think weighing yourself more than once every 2 weeks is guaranteed to mess with your head. Rather weigh yourself at a set interval (once a week IF YOU MUST) always at the same time and under the same circumstances e.g. if you have just had a glass of water one week, you must the next time etc.
  • JesterMFP
    JesterMFP Posts: 3,596 Member
    I think weighing yourself more than once every 2 weeks is guaranteed to mess with your head. Rather weigh yourself at a set interval (once a week IF YOU MUST) always at the same time and under the same circumstances e.g. if you have just had a glass of water one week, you must the next time etc.

    It depends... I weigh myself every day and log it on a spreadsheet. NOT recommending that for everyone, but yeah I'm a geek like that. :glasses: It actually makes me freak out much less though, because I know how much my weight goes up and down now. My weight went up yesterday and the day before, but I wasn't bothered. It's gone down again today, as I knew it would. Weighing every day isn't for everyone, but it's actually made me a lot more relaxed about the whole process.
  • graelwyn
    graelwyn Posts: 1,340 Member
    The same happens to me when I go to stay with my mum in London for 2-3 days. I come back 2-3 Ibs heavier, usually from eating out and not being able to exercise, I presume, plus yes, it usually involves a chinese meal, lots of salt, and I tend to have desserts when there. It is usually back down within days of returning home and to my usual routine. But I still always dread weighing in when I get home again, lol.
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