So what is it with simple carbs tht make me hold water?
 

It has gotten to be that I know if I've had a high sugar day, I'll have a significant weight gain the next day - without fail.

I'm not on a low carb diet, though it is a lower carb diet (100 or lower net carbs a day). I eat fruit and veggies, but I don't typically eat bread, rice, pasta and sweets.

However, I'm also a baker and these holidays have been wreaking havoc on my eating plan as I sample a fair share of cookie batter while baking. The baked cookies and cakes I can resist, not the batter! Anyway... Every single time I partake in sugary sweets, next day I am up almost 2 pounds. If I do it two days in a row, another 2 pounds. For the first time in this journey I did that three times in a row and I gained 7 pounds in three days. Not high sodium days, but high sugar days, I could feel the swelling in my feet and fingers.

I didn't have sugar for two days and the weight started to come off - 4 of the 7. Then last night I made some cookies to take to my son's school and bam... 1.6 gain on the scale. On my "high sugar days" I'm consuming about 2100 calories and about 220 carbs.... 650 more calories than I usually eat and double the carbs I usually eat. But gaining a little of the holidays doesn't bother me. I know I'll get back tonitbwhen the holidays are over, but this water weight bugs me!

What is it about sugar that makes it bind with water? More than sodium. I see it over and over stated on here how people gain a lot of weight afte one a big feast day and we all know its mostly water, but when I go to google it, I can't tease out weight gain and carbs from stuff about carbs don't make you fat.... I'm wanting to know about temporary water weight gain from carbs.

Anyone understand why? And do others experience it the way I do?

I believe whether it is sugar, salt, carbs that your body isn't used to having, the majority of the gain is from glycogen storing. In other words your body is replenishing your lost glycogen stores. Here, this article outta sum it up & explains it way better than I can! :)
http://www.justinowings.com/understa...d-glycogen-de/

Thank you! Glycogen - of course! Duh! Isn't our body interesting? And yes, I haven't been working out as much, and eating mor carbs... Makes sense that they are getting replenished.

I actually am proud of myself as I am OK with k owing I may gain a few pounds over the holidays (our holidays go through January 7). I've given myself permission to enjoy the season and for our family, foods arer a big part of it. So while baking I sample the goodies, but for the most part stay away from the baked goods. (however ther was a chocolate chip cookie incident earlier this week). There is no such thing for me as cheating or as falling off the wagon. I know what I need to do to get the few extra pounds off and what my eating will be like again.... And even now I'm eating normally 90% of the time.

The water weight was just a big huge mystery to me though that I wanted explained so I wouldn't freak out about a 10 pound gain. Even though I know I've gained no more than 2 lbs of fat, it's disheartening to see huge increases on the scale and not understanding WHY.

So thank you for the link.... Might blog about it today.

Even complex carbs will increase water weight (I've always heard it explained that carbs require more water to digest - this may be the glycogen issue). The way I look at it, my weight on low-carb is just naturally a bit lower than my weight on high-carb. At my goal weight (and now too) I just have to make allowances for the difference in water weight dependent upon my carb intake.

Because the body needs more water to digest carbs, I have to just accept those extra needed pounds. They're not "real" in the sense that I can get rid of the water just by eating very low-carb. I could "maximize" weight loss by always eating super low-carb - but that's not really necessary.

If I want to eat more (or fewer) carbs than my normal carb intake - I have to understand that I'm going to see a corresponsing weight gain or loss, respectively. Neither are "real" in that when I return to my preferred carb level, that weight gain or loss will disappear.


People will say that you can't "mix" low-carb and high-carb eating, but you can - you just have to mentally adjust for the "conversion rate."

I normally eat fairly low-carb, amd if eat more carbs (but not more calories) I'll see a temporary gain from the water, and if I eat fewer carbs than my norm, I'll see a temporary loss (and that isn't any more "real" than the gain).

If I didn't want to see those fluctuations, I could stick to a constant carb-level, but I'm not worried about water weight fluctuations - I'm only worried about fat loss and muscle gain.

My scale isn't sophisticated enough to tell me my water/fat/muscle ratios, so I just have to trust that my diet and exercise plan is moving me in the right direction - and look for other signs that this is true (how I look in the mirror, how I feel during and after exercise...)

Kaplods exactly... I'm ok with weighing a few more on the scale as long as I understand why it is happening. What is interesting though is that I didnt have a big whoosh at the beginning of my weight loss journey.... First month or so was fairly slow, so I didn't really noticed the effect of deleting my glycogen stores with that rapid weight loss. But on most days I eat 80-100 net carbs AND exercise an hour a day 6 days a week- no chance to build up glycogen stores.

Might even be good for body to replenish every once in awhile... Though I am itching to get back to the gym,,,, been soooooo busy these past few weeks that there hasn't been time. But I'll be back at it come next week.

You are welcome! :)

Happy holidaze to you & yours BBB! :)

Not only that, but sugar is an inflammatory food (as are many refined grains like white flour) so they cause swelling (water retention) in the body. I have severe arthritis, and if I eat a cookie my hands hurt so bad I can hardly open a jar. It is awful. Getting off the sugar makes the swelling/inflammation go away and then I have no pain.

Arthritis
 

Wow i didn't know this. I just got a cortisone in my knee today because I was in so much pain.

That's my experience with both sugar and wheat, the more processed the harder it hits.

To be honest I have 2 baked potatoes every day and I think that they help keep me on track. They only have 135 calories total and keep me full for a long time. Are they the same type of carb or are they different?

I did have the 'whoosh' when I started doing Atkins years ago. 12 pounds in two weeks, if I remember correctly. I stayed on Atkins (maintenance level after about 6 months) for about a year and a half, but I noticed every single time I went off the plan (on holidays etc) that I immediately gained back 5 pounds in the first couple of days of eating carbs again (not high calorie, just higher carb levels, fruit, bread etc). That 5 pounds stuck around as long as I was having carbs, then fell off within a couple of days of being back to low carb.

Sucks to see those big increases though, doesn't it? ;) Don't worry, they won't stick around when you get back on plan after the holidays.