Training & Nutrition - Gaining 5 pounds overnight?

Well it sounds crazy but it seems to be happening. I was over at someone's house for dinner last night and obviously had to go off my diet.

I had carrot soup, a small portion of BBQ chicken, 3 potato pancakes, some cooked sqaush dish, a small portion of fruit (black berries, strawberries, cranberries, and blue berries), a strawberry sorbet type dish, and a very small piece of cake.

It sounds like a lot but I limited my portions with the exception of the potato pancakes. I got on the scale this morning and I had gained almost 5 pounds even though I rode my exercise bike when I got home for 50 minutes. Is it possible to gain that weight from the food alone? Or is it simply fluid retention of some kind. I noticed this happeneing before when I eat big meals. Any advice?

How much did the food weigh? + the drink that you had?
Take a crap and pee - you'll be OK.

That's quite a bit, but not that uncommon. Day to day weight changes can be that large due to differences in when you measured yourself, scale accuracy, bowel movements, hydration levels, menstrual periods, etc. Probably about half of it was due to pigging out, with the rest due to "natural causes".

filter the lead shot out of the carrot soup next time :D

I once increased my weight by 10lbs - from before dinner deyhrated and without lunch that day to after a large dinner with a pitcher of beer and a pitcher of water. Maybe kind of a shock to the body, but not a typicaly eating pattern. Some say it is a bad habit to weigh onself to frequently, but if you do for a week or so you will learn that you body weight is not static. A more typical daily variation for me is 2-3lbs.
Al

Were any pillows missing in the morning?

How about the cat? :)

it sounds like a lot but it wasn't. Trust me. But thanks to those who took my question seriously.

another thing is that if you had ridden hard the day before, you might have had a depleted level of glycogen. your body will stock up gloycogen to the tune of 400 grams or so, and thats about a pound. plus, I've heard that for every gram of glycogen stored, you have another 3 grams of water that the glycogen holds or something. so thats another 3 pounds. total of 4 pounds, just from letting your muscles recover.

another thing is that if you had ridden hard the day before, you might have had a depleted level of glycogen. your body will stock up gloycogen to the tune of 400 grams or so, and thats about a pound. plus, I've heard that for every gram of glycogen stored, you have another 3 grams of water that the glycogen holds or something. so thats another 3 pounds. total of 4 pounds, just from letting your muscles recover.
wow, very interesting indeed. Is there any way to track the level of glycogen in the body?

Well it sounds crazy but it seems to be happening. I was over at someone's house for dinner last night and obviously had to go off my diet.

I had carrot soup, a small portion of BBQ chicken, 3 potato pancakes, some cooked sqaush dish, a small portion of fruit (black berries, strawberries, cranberries, and blue berries), a strawberry sorbet type dish, and a very small piece of cake.

It sounds like a lot but I limited my portions with the exception of the potato pancakes. I got on the scale this morning and I had gained almost 5 pounds even though I rode my exercise bike when I got home for 50 minutes. Is it possible to gain that weight from the food alone? Or is it simply fluid retention of some kind. I noticed this happeneing before when I eat big meals. Any advice?

BBQ = salt, potato pancakes = salt, cooked squash = salt; You probably put on a great deal of water weight with all of the salt intake from theat meal. I am a physician - elderly patients will come into the office after Thanksgiving with swollen legs from all of the salt intake/water retention. Not to mention the lead shot in the carrots... :)

oh wow I didn't even think of that. The 5 pounds is more or less gone now. Thanks everyone for the input!

Salt was going to be my guess but the Doc beat me to it. I suppose he isn't guessing.

How much did the food weigh? + the drink that you had?
Take a crap and pee - you'll be OK.

:roflmao: did He just get a scale for Christmas...

It is Friday and I needed a laugh......

Thanks,
Cheers,
Dusk

When you're on a diet, your liver's glycogen stores are depleted. Eat a big meal, and your liver takes up large amounts of sugar water. There's your 5 pounds. You can even notice it in the mirror, if you look before and after ;) It will only take a short time in a caloric deficit to return to your previous state.

When you're on a diet, your liver's glycogen stores are depleted. Eat a big meal, and your liver takes up large amounts of sugar water. There's your 5 pounds. You can even notice it in the mirror, if you look before and after ;) It will only take a short time in a caloric deficit to return to your previous state.

Even with depleted liver glycogen stores, he cannot gain 5 pounds overnight by eating a big meal. The typical male athlete will store around 90 grams of carbohydrate as liver glycogen. If he were completely depleted, he would have to take in approximately 2,200 grams of carbohydrate, which would come out to approximately 9,000 calories. Reduce that by 50% to account for him not being 'completely' depleted, and that's still 4,500 calories of carbohydrates in one meal. The typical American diet should include approximately 2,000 - 2,500 calories (of course athletes typically need more, but he's on a diet), so he would have to consume quite a large amount of carbohydrate to cause such a response.

This amount of food (carrot soup, a small portion of BBQ chicken, 3 potato pancakes, some cooked sqaush dish, a small portion of fruit (black berries, strawberries, cranberries, and blue berries), a strawberry sorbet type dish, and a very small piece of cake) will not, in any way, cause that much weight gain or provide that many calories.

Depending on when he weighed himself, his level of hydration, and dieting habits (among other variables), the weight gain could have been caused by anything, but certainly not by eating the food. And if his liver glycogen stores were depleted, exercising wouldn't be that much fun. There's no reason for any endurance athlete to train in a depleted state. There is no benefit to be gained from that.

he probably ate some very salty food, and water follows salt, so it was mostly water weight. go on a low salt diet for a few days, do some hard exercise, you'll flush the excess sodium and water out

I don't know what kind of diet he was on to say that he gained 5 lbs overnight. That is highly highly unlikely.
For him to put on nearly 5 lbs of water weight by eating salty foods, he would have to consume A TON of salt and would definitely be seeing the effects of that. Take a look at what he ate. It's not much - at least compared to the typical American diet and portions for one meal. There is not enough salt in that dinner that he consumed to cause such weight gain - the only way there would have been is if he salted everything on his plate like it was going out of style.

There is no reason for his diet to cause this, and there is no reason for him to alter his diet any more or to change the way he exercises. Trying to "flush" things out is not a good idea because it can lead to more weight loss. This yo-yo dieting effect is actually more detremental than being above your ideal body weight, but healthy because you exercise on a regular basis.

If the original poster is reading this now, continue with whatever you were doing before you ate this meal, disregard anything that the scale told you. There is no possible way you could have gained 5lbs overnight. Even if it were water weight, it will go away in time. Don't do anything drastic to try to get rid of it.

It is most likely fluid retention.

The squash and the fruit that you had would have provided fibre that needs a generous amount of water in order to go through your system properly. In order to have gained 5 pounds in one night, you would have had to have eaten over 15 thousand extra calories than you needed (that's about 15 large meals from McDonald's).

Yes, water seems like the culprit. Or it could be something else which wasn't put into the toilet.

After the Italian dinner on fri. I think im gonna gain at least 10 points

mmmmm fish cakes, mmmmmm pasta, mmmmmmm calamari

(*THUMP* Aaron has just fallen on the ground)

OMG i said points what was i thinking, *POUNDS, that was pretty stupid of me :o

Even with depleted liver glycogen stores, he cannot gain 5 pounds overnight by eating a big meal. The typical male athlete will store around 90 grams of carbohydrate as liver glycogen. If he were completely depleted, he would have to take in approximately 2,200 grams of carbohydrate, which would come out to approximately 9,000 calories. Reduce that by 50% to account for him not being 'completely' depleted, and that's still 4,500 calories of carbohydrates in one meal. The typical American diet should include approximately 2,000 - 2,500 calories (of course athletes typically need more, but he's on a diet), so he would have to consume quite a large amount of carbohydrate to cause such a response.

This amount of food (carrot soup, a small portion of BBQ chicken, 3 potato pancakes, some cooked sqaush dish, a small portion of fruit (black berries, strawberries, cranberries, and blue berries), a strawberry sorbet type dish, and a very small piece of cake) will not, in any way, cause that much weight gain or provide that many calories.

Depending on when he weighed himself, his level of hydration, and dieting habits (among other variables), the weight gain could have been caused by anything, but certainly not by eating the food. And if his liver glycogen stores were depleted, exercising wouldn't be that much fun. There's no reason for any endurance athlete to train in a depleted state. There is no benefit to be gained from that.

90 grams of carbs, but how many more of water?

thanks everyone. I'm not too worried about it as it came off more or less.

I do seem ot have another problem though. I count calories so I know how much I've had in one day. It seems like no matter what I do, if I go over a certain number of calories in one day and even exercise vigorously, I gain weight. I think I'm making myself crazy by counting calories too much and weighing myself too much. I had a target weight when I started dieting and I think it got to me b/c now I want to reach it without gaining extra weight whenever I eat 1200+ calories a day. What should I do? I'm gonna try and stop weighing myself so often but it's hard to ignore my scale and my progress or lack thereof. But can this be possible? Say I eat 1100 calories in one day. Let's also say I exercise for an hour (walking and jogging only) that day. Keep in mind that 1100 calories is was low in fat and somewhat low in sugar. Is it possible that I could gain weight if I kept this up? I mean I've heard it's dangerous to take in any less than 1200 calories a day but I seem to gain weight when I do. Also, you would think exercising even lightly by walking and jogging every day would keep my weight stable with such a low caloric intake. The problem is I'm doing this by myself. I haven't consulted a dietician or physical trainer. Ugh, this has subconsciously become a real mental issue with me and I don't know what to do.

cheebahmunkey - don't stress over it so much.

Comparing any two scale weights is not very meaningful - your body weight changes hour by hour, and not always because of what you've eaten. I weigh myself daily (and record it in my program), and over the past year I've seen daily weight "gains" of up to 4 lbs, and daily weight "losses" of 3.8 lbs. Daily body weight fluctuations can be caused by hydration levels, bowel movements, salt intake, food intake, menstrual periods (if applicable :)), etc. It's the longer term trends that are important, not the day to day numbers.

If you're really only consuming 1100-1200 calories per day, and exercising, you're almost certain to be losing weight. You may, in fact, be losing weight too fast and/or not getting enough vitamins and minerals at that level.

If you'll post your current height, weight, age and gender, I'll run your numbers through some of the analytical tools in my WeightWare program and give you some empirical feedback on where you're at, and your estimated metabolic rate.

Keep in mind that 1100 calories is was low in fat and somewhat low in sugar.

It doesn't much matter whether the calories were from fat, sugar, or steak. With respect to weight loss, calories are calories (or, if you're in Europe, joules are joules).

I'm 18 (I turn 19 in January), I'm 169.5 cm tall, male, 75.2 kilograms. My doctor today said he wants to up me to 1400 calories for 3 days, then 1600 for the next three, then finally sustain 1800 a day with my current workout regiment (an hour and 15 minutes a day on my exercise bike). He said he wants to see a weight gain and that my other weight gains are likely my body making up for the net caloric loss of 2400 calories per day when I was only eating 1100-1200 calories a day. He said that my body is sort of panicking and converting more glucose into fat instead of my body using the recommended 1800 calories as energy. I'll see what happens over the next few weeks. He wants me to get back up to around 77 kilos and then 6 months from now he said I will have lost (if my workouts stay similar) those 7 kilos and be down to an ideal weight of 70 kilos. I just need to stop weighing myself every day. I'm going to go to once a week to keep track and I'll let you guys know how it goes. Thanks again.

OK - your current Body Mass Index is 26.1, which places you slightly into the "Overweight" category (note: Body Mass Index is simply a ratio of weight to height, and NOT the same thing as body fat percentage).

You are currently in the 72nd weight percentile when compared to US averages (in other words, 72 percent of 169.5 cm tall, 19 year old US males weigh less than 75.2 kg).

The "Harris-Bendict" formula for estimating metabolic requirements says that if you are:

1) Sedentary (little or no exercise), you need 2177 calories per day.
2) Lightly Active (light exercise/sports 1-3 days per week), you need 2495 calories per day.
3) Moderately Active (exercise/sports 3-5 days per week), you need 2813 calories per day.

Of course, these are just estimates, but this formula has been in use for quite some time now because it's proven reasonably accurate for most people.

Based on this, it sounds like you're trying to lose weight far too quickly. If you exercise regularly, and eat around 2000 calories per day, you should see a steady rate of weight loss. But please note that weight loss is rarely linear - there will always be plateaus where you're stuck, and times (like around the holidays) when your weight goes up for a few weeks.

The fact that you are "panicking" about it may indicate an eating or anxiety disorder...please ask your doctor about this.

70 kilos would be a good target weight for you. But, at your age, and if you are interested in cycling performance, you could aim lower and still be in the "healthy" weight range. 66 kilos would give you a BMI of 23.0, and you would feel much stronger when climbing on the bike.

Best of luck!

sorry I was unclear about the panicking. I'm not saying I'm panicking about losing weight. I was trying to say that my body is being told I'm not taking in enough calories so "it's" panicking and storing what food I do eat as fat b/c it thinks I'm starving.

I can not resist sharing this TRUE experience.
I normally eat a diet very low in salt.
Last Christmas Eve morning I woke up weighing #130. At very little during the day but on Christmas Eve we had soup and crackers, but then on Christmas Day I had ham, olives, pickles, and pretzels. On Decemver 26 I weighted #142!!!!!!!!!! You should have seen my legs walking into the gym .....they were so.......bloated. I swear you could actually see all the fluid under the skin. It took about 4 days and all the weight was gone!

I weighed 172# two days ago. I had mexican food with lots of Salsa (sodium) the other night. Spent an 1.5 hours on the trainer the next day. The following morning, I weighed 177#. Defnitely water.
Today I spent another hour on the trainer, and drank a good quart of Gatorade.

Now, back down to 173#. Go figure.

Just to add a little more confusion to the discussion:

Our young man is 18, almost 19. I believe that it is developmentally normal to gain weight at this age. It's really the last "symptom" of puberty, and it's well enough known to have a common name--"freshman fifteen"--so called because college students often gain about 15 pounds in their freshman year. This is naturally a more difficult time of life to lose weight because you are bucking your hormones, but it can be done. Just stick with the diet prescribed by your doctor. It sounds like he put some real thought into it, and he seems to know you pretty well. Also, I know from my own experience that you are right that many of us should not weigh in more than once a week.