[ssmiley23]

Does anyone know how long it takes for the amount of food from one day to show up on the scale? Is there even a set amount of days? Like if I ate like a giant pig on thursday, could it possibly show up on the scale friday morning? Or is that not possible? Does it have to take a couple days to register? I know your not supposed to way yourself every day, but I don't eat the same amount of food everyday. I can eat 1000 calories one day and 1500 the next. How am I supposed to know if that 500 calorie increase REALLY effected me if I stayed the same weight the next morning? Like for example. I usually eat around 1100 calories, but yesterday I went out to ice cream with my boyfriend after lunch and then I went out with my girlfriends to dinner and I must have eaten at least 1800 calories. But when I stepped on the scale this morning it was still the same weight as yesterday. Any reason as to why? Will I see the weight gain in a couple days? How am I supposed to know that the weight gain was from yesterday and not from say today? Hopefully that isn't too confusing!

[Lifeguard]

I'm sure everybody is different but I noticed it's usually about 2 days for me.

[Kilketay]

You know, I've looked this question up on the Internet, and the best answer I found was at http://www.madsci.org/posts/archives...5910.Gb.r.html

In a nutshell, it takes 5-8 hrs for fat to form from the time the food is eaten.

[ssmiley23]

thanks the helps!

[goinforthegold]

Remember that it takes 3500 cals to gain a pound (or lose, whatever) of fat so if you go over your calorie limit by 500 you shouldn't see an increase at all anyway as it's not enough extra calories to make you gain. If you continued to go over by 500 each day then after a week you'd theoretically gain a pound...if you weren't exercising to keep it off. If you go over by a few hundred in one day but make up for it other days in the week you should be fine. Of course everyone is different but generally I think that's the case.

Though for me, I find if I go over a lot in one day I do notice the next day on the scale. Same if I have a particularly low cal day, the scale will be down the next day. Though, these fluctuations I attribute to water weight or just quite simply having the weight of the extra food in me since I've never actually eaten over 3500 calories more than I burn off in one day or burned off more than 3500 calories than I've eaten. KWIM? It makes it easier for me though b/c I know that if the scale is up one morning it's from one bad day, it's not actually FAT that I've gained and I can easily get it back down the next morning by making up for it.

[ssmiley23]

Yeah I guess that makes sense.. it just makes me so mad because for my weight I'm supposed to eat "around" 1400 calories and I never break 1200 on my normal days.. and maybe I'll have one day where I go up to around 1700 (like if I go out to dinner) but that one day shouldn't make a difference if I'm eating so low in cals every other single day. And its not like I'm even eating low cal crap, I eat so healthy! This whole maintaing thing frustrates me so much!

[settie]

Originally Posted by ssmiley23

...if I ate like a giant pig on thursday, could it possibly show up on the scale friday morning? Or is that not possible? Does it have to take a couple days to register?

I think you may see a weight gain the next say but it is the weight of the actual food and/or liquid that you ate. Two or three days down the line the weight gain is more likely metabolised food (ie: true weight gain).

[srmb60]

Remember too that you are looking for a downward trend over time.
You will have fluctuations during the day, day after day etc but what you need to see is that area of the fluctuating going down.
That's why most of us have a goal weight zone of say ... staying under 140 lbs. Some days you'll be 135 and some days you'll be 138 but you're still in the zone.

There are so many reasons why we go up a bit and down a bit that if you try to dictate today's menu by yesterday's scale reading ... your head will explode.
Just be good most of the time ... it'll work.

[ssmiley23]

Thanks that helps a lot.. but I'm not looking to loose really.. I mean I fluctuate between 122-125 and I guess I'm happy at that range. I don't see how I'd be able to maintain at something lower. But since I'm trying to maintain I'm just trying to observe my calorie increases with the scale increases since I'm trying to figure out how much I can increase my calories without gaining weight. That is why its frustrating me! I know I can eat more then 1000 calories but everytime I do I see a scale increase. At least now I know that its not all about food and its also water and bloating. I'm just considering chucking the scale out the window and basing my calorie intake on how happy I am with how my body looks.