Why does your weight go up and stay up for a while if you eat just

[no_hypocrisy]

one thing with extra calories/fat/carbs on one day and immediately return to your sensible food maintenance program and exercise? Your body doesn't regard the momentary indiscretion as a lapse in judgment.

[noamnety]

1. Water weight gain

Last year I was doing slow carbs 6 days a week, with one cheat day a week. It was completely normal to wake up the next morning after cheat day with 3-8 pounds of extra weight, even though I clearly didn't eat 24,000 calories on cheat day. It drops off again over the next few days.

[hlthe2b]

2. Yes... eating heavy simple carbs causes water (and sodium) retention.

One can readily pick up that amount of H20 weight from a day of heavy eating these foods.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

3. you shouldn't weigh yourself more than once a week

it'll only drive you crazy and keep your brain focused on a false goal. Ignore the scale, concentrate on what you are eating and what you can do to increase your activity level thru-out the day.

I use the jeans test instead of the scale. Pick a pair you can almost get into.. a few weeks later when those fit, pick another a size smaller as your next goal. The reward every time I wear that 'new' pair re-enforces my will to keep it up.

[noamnety]

4. I'm not convinced about that advice

I think this is a case where what works well for one person might not be the best thing for another person. I know people who obsess in an unhealthy way over daily weigh-ins. Myself, I do better tracking lots of data. I did best weighing myself morning and night, and plotting it in excel and noting details in my diet that would have affected the weight.

From that level of detail, I could really clearly see immediate results of eating carbs and it ended up being a motivating factor for me to stick with the diet. It all just depends on your mindset, I think.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

5. It was counteractive for me

all those daily fluctuations drove me crazy.

different strokes for different folks

[rox63]

7. The daily fluctuations drive me crazy too

But somehow I keep weighing myself every couple of days. I was fine until I went and replaced the dead battery in my scale. Perhaps I should take the battery out and 'misplace' it for a while.

[laundry_queen]

11. That's why I weighed myself daily

or sometimes even twice/day and averaged the number. This kind of desensitized me to the numbers. Then at the end of each week I'd average out my weight. After a few weeks, I started making a graph and could see the downward trend. This made more sense to me than only weighing once/week. That 'once' could be the day you are carrying 5 extra pounds in water weight. If you do an average instead, you don't freak out so much when you see 'ack 5 extra pounds!' You kind of get used to seeing those fluctuations all week long.
YMMV of course, you are right, it is different for everyone. Just wanted to share my experience with it because for so long I felt I was breaking some sort of commandment if I weighed myself, say, twice/week, and it just added to guilt/inadequacy feelings. Sounds silly, but wanted to share anyhow.

[Lisa0825]

6. Me too.

I have an Aria scale that automatically uploads to the FitBit website. I have 2 accounts, one representing my morning weigh-ins and one representing my evening weigh-ins. I do very well focusing on data and knowing when certain meals affected the weight - something extra salty or high carb, for example. And I am more interested in the trend than the number. If I only weighed once a week and that moment wass when I was holding water, that would freak me out more than weighing daily and understanding the fluctuations.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

8. water weight isn't fat

that's why I ignore the daily ups and downs.

[reeviint]

9. Wl

Diet is the main issue regarding weight and fat problems.I could really clearly see immediate results of eating carbs and it ended up being a motivating factor for me to stick with the diet. It all just depends on your mindset, I think.

[no_hypocrisy]

10. Welcome to DU

I agree. Your body likes consistency.