[teawithsunshine]

Hi

this is kind of an extension of a previous question I posted on 3fatchicks...

Right now, I keep my calories within the diet range of 1,200-1,300 calories and have lost quite a bit of weight here since May.

I evaluated my food servings from my daily food diary and found I currently eat more refined starchy bread products compared to the other food groups on a daily basis.

If I switched to a few less servings of bread products (i.e. 2-4 servings) in favor of increasing my veggie servings... and also change from refined bread products to whole grains... does that mean I will experience water weight, even if I keep my caloric intake and exercise the same as before?

How long would it take before I would get back to losing weight (as fat) instead of experiencing water weight?

[Heather]

I don't know the answer to your question-- that is, I don't know if it would cause any water weight gain to begin with. But let's say it did and you experience a little "blip." in the scale. If you feel you are eating healthier, is that a problem?

I guess my advice would be not to worry about it and just keep doing the healthiest things you can to change your life. Scales are anyway. Maybe find some other ways to measure your progress too, like how clothing fits and how "fit" you are!

[chick_in_the_hat]

I dunno the answer about water weight either. I normally don't ascribe water weight to excessive carbs...I know I see a spike on the scale after a lot of sodium.

I do have a few questions of my own, tho. What percentage of your calories is carbs? I aim for 40/30/30 carbs/fat/protein. But this is a personal choice based on what my body feels good at. 30% protein is because I do a lot of weight training. Unless you are doing low carb your carbs are probably going to be the majority of your calories no matter what you do. This is not a bad thing - especially if you are focusing on less processed/refined foods.

Are you pretty close (within 20 pounds) of your final goal? That's gonna slow your losses down.

What kind of exercise are you doing?

[baffled111]

Heather is right. Even if you have a little weight blip (which I doubt you will) it's still better to eat healthier foods than unhealthy ones. Veggies are better for you than starches. Besides, our bodies are constantly taking water in, retaining it and letting it out: you always have "water weight" and it varies with the time of day and the time of the month. At worst, your body would retain water for a day or two leading to something that looks like a stall, but I don't know why eating more veggies would have such an effect, and even if it did, I can't see why it would be a problem.

[lorilove]

I was quite confused by your question as well - I am not sure where you got the idea that switching food types would add water weight. There are several reasons why someone might add temproary water weight. The most likely culprit would be sodium intake. This much I can assure you - highly processed food has more sodium. So I would expect switching to cleaner food such as veggies and whole grains would be more likely to result in less water weight gain then more.

Lori

[kaplods]

When I have water weight gain from PMS or the sodium in oriental food, I try to eat a lot more veggies and drink more water because it actually seems to help get rid of extra water not add it. If you're an obsessive scale watcher, and weigh yourself right after a meal, you might think that veggies and water and other no calorie beverages cause weight gain, but (to be blunt) as soon as you go to the bathroom that weight is gone.

[teawithsunshine]

Thanks guys!

Lorilove-- sorry for the confusion! I was just skimming through some diet books I checked outta the library, and various food plans on 3fatchicks and felt kind of confused.

I was originally assessing my caloric intake (i.e. food servings) in my food diary since I started losing weight. Since I keep it low to 12-1300 calories a day, I realized I wasn't getting enough veggies and protein in.

My biggest problem is refined grains/sugars. I eat too much of it, even though I count my calories and watch my fat gram intake, etc.

I was inspired to reduce my carb servings (which on a given day is like 7-10 servings or more, even though I keep my calories in check) after reading "The Rosedale Diet" and switch over to eating whole grains/more fiber.

I would also be eating more veggies with protein snacks. (I'm a vegan so I can't follow his guidelines for excessive meat/dairy anyway.)

I was just musing after reading other people's comments on 3fatchicks on whacky diet schemes and water weight, if that would happen to me if I reduced my carb intake to say 3-5 servings a day of whole grains while I'm losing weight and increase my protein/veggie servings (plus cut out processed grains/junk food products).

Thanks for the comments!

[j3nn dot net]

Too many variables to predict what will make you retain water and what won't. The only thing I worry about making me retain water is too much sodium -- so I watch my intake and try to keep it as low as possible.

[ennay]

Some people will experience a change in weight when making a dietary switch. This DOES NOT affect the rate at which fat is being lost. So to answer your SECOND question, you will continue losing fat at approximately the same rate. When you see it on the scale is a different question.

Some people do indeed retain water when they eat highly processed foods and the act of reducing processed carbs may actually make you shed water (hence the highly touted rapid weight loss in many "phase 1" diets), some people find that any dietary change causes water retention.

On the other hand your digestive system may speed up or slow down as a response to the diet. So you may have a weight gain or loss in response to changes in ummm...."waste retention".

The increased fiber in the long run should help your weight loss efforts and certainly keep you healthier.