I ate 1,000 extra calories last night. The scale says I gained back 2 lbs, is that possible over night? It started off with some candy, and I couldn't get enough to eat. I wasn't hungry I was just being greedy. Has anyone gone through this?? Today is a new day and I'm back on track.

Remember that to gain one pound, it takes 3500 extra calories (over and above your maintenance calories not just the calories you're eating to lose weight). So if you're losing one pound per week on your calorie budget you would actually have to eat 7,500 calories over and above what you normally eat in order to gain one pound. If you're losing 2 lbs a week on your calorie level, you'd have to eat 8,000 calories over and above your dieting calorie budget to gain two pounds.

Now the math doesn't always work out perfectly, for a variety of reasons, but close enough to say that in order to gain two pounds, you'd have to eat about 7,000 calories more than you would need to maintain your weight.

Remember also that the weight of the food you eat is going to appear on the scale until it's digested. If you ate three pounds of cabbage today, you'ld gain three pounds on the scale until your body digested the food.

Also, food can take up to three days to digest and pass through your system, so the weight of all that food (even if it's very low in calorie - especially if it's very low in calorie, because that usually means the food is high in volume from fiber and and water) looks like a gain on the scale when it will be gone as soon as you poo (sorry to be graphic).

Also, there's water retention. Carbohydrates, especially sugar require more water to digest - they can also cause inflammation - both of which means your body keeps more of the water from your foods and beverages to digest those carbs. And a lot of sweets also contain salt, which contribute even more to water retention.

All the body processes that contribute to body weight do not all work on a daily, weekly, or even monthtly cycle - so you cannot tell today what you will weigh tomorrow based on your calorie level. If you overeat, you can't tell how much is "real" weight gain, and how much is just temporary water, undigested and digesting food, and body waste weight.

Drinking a little extra water, and cutting on carbohydrates can help water weight come off faster. I wouldn't cut carbs much lower than your normal diet though, because you can see a small gain when switching back to a higher carb level (again because the body needs more water to process carbs).

I often switch between low-carb and high-carb, but I'm used to seeing the resulting water weight fluctuations - up a bit when switching to high-carb and down a bit when switching to low-carb (I remind myself it's not "real" weight loss, because I'm interested in fat loss not water loss).

Weighing daily (or ten times a day) is fine, but you have to remember that you can't tie what happens on the scale today with what you did yesterday or even last week. It can take three to six weeks for your work to show up on the scale - and you'll never be able to tie it to one day or one week of calories.

Thank you so much for all the info kaplods, I sure appreciate it! So what I need to do is to stay hydrated. I see your success and that is inspiring.

On some level I can't really believe my success, because in 40 years of dieting, I've only found permanent success within the last seven.

Yeah, it's taken me seven years to lose 101 lbs. The first year I wasn't even trying (because I had sworn of "dieting" forever, because I'd only ever gained weight as a result). My doctors told me I might lose some weight without trying from sleep apnea treatment (I thought they were nuts).

So when I discovered at a check up that I had lost 20 lbs, I was amazed. I was afraid to diet, but I didn't want to regain those 20 lbs, so I decided to make healthy lifestyle changes I was willing to make forever, whether or not any weight loss resulted.

And for two years no weight loss resulted (or rather I maintained the 20 lb loss, but gained and lost the same few pounds over and over again). However, I was getting healthier and stronger.

Then the weight finally starting dripping off - about a pound a month at first. When I complained to my doctor that I should be able to lose at least 2 lbs per week "like a normal person," and my doctor reminded me that "normal" isn't losing 1 lb per month, normal is losing nothing - or gaining, or losing and gaining the same few pounds over and over again.

Losing weight is like running a marathon - just because you see a few thousand people ahead of you, doesn't mean you're in last place. There may be 25,000 people behind you - and then there's all the people who have or will drop out and those who aren't even running.

Just staying in the race, puts you in the lead.

That thought really sustains me, because when I'm tempted to give up, I remind myself I'm in the lead - and that's true even if I never lose another ounce.

When my doctor gave me this pep talk, I had only lost about 25 to 35 lbs (so only 10 to 15 lbs of intentionally trying), and he reminded me that even losing and maintaining a 5 lb loss, puts you in the extraordinary category.

So see, in this "race" there are thousands of people behind you - envying your progress.

As long as you hang in there, you stay in the lead.

For me, that meant celebrating every time I stepped on the scale and didn't see a gain.

When you really, truly can do that - weight loss is a lot easier, because the temptation to give up because you've blown it no longer applies. If I gain a pound, I still can celebrate having lost and maintained 100 lbs. Focusing on my success helps me avoid feeling like a failure who might as well give up.

When I started, I would never have dreamt I could lose over 100 lbs. The closest I had ever come was losing 70 lbs with the assistance of prescription amphetamine-like diet pills - as a teenager. Every diet after that required harder work to yield lesser results, until the calorie level it now takes to maintain my weight or lose a pound a month, once netted me losses of 5 to 8 lbs per week - on a regular basis (not just the first couple weeks - my record for a first week was 11 lbs - which I acheived twice - both before I was 25).

If I had learned to celebrate not-gaining and to try for "just one more pound" I may have succeeded with my first diet (and if I'd also discovered that a whole-food relatively low-carb diet works best for me, and that I need to be on the right birth control meds to control my hormonal hunger - I may never have become morbidly obese at all - or at least not gotten over 300 lbs).

I try to look at weight maintenance/loss like any other self-care (such as dental care). I wouldn't say "darn it, I forgot to brush and floss my teeth today and I've been eating gooey stuff that isn't good for my teeth. Well that proves I'm just a complete failure at dental hygeine. I might as well stop bruishing and flossing for the rest of the year, and I'll eat all the sticky, candy I want and I'll start fresh with the dental hygeine in January).

I wouldn't do it with my teeth, so I'm not going to do it with my body - and a failure here and there doesn't mean I'm "doomed" to anything. There is no starting over, just moving on.

Remember - you are winning at this. And all you have to do to keep winning, is to just keep on, keepin' on. Just staying in the race, puts you in the lead.

Example: I weighed in at 172 at 4 a.m. when I got up to take a pee. Why? Cuz sometimes I'm obsessively curious about the scale and it had been about a week...and it was there and easy to get naked. I was mildly upset being up 2 pounds. Three hours later at 7 a.m., I weighed 170. I have no clue what accounts for a 2 pound difference in 3 hours.

A person could go to a chinese restaurant and make the best choices possible, but because of the high sodium content show a "gain" on the scale which isn't a gain at all.

If you compensate over the next 6 days for that extra 1000 it all be a wash eventually. The main thing is to stick to it in the long run and not let a slip up turn into 2, 3, 4, 5, etc. Get back on track. Forgive yesterday. Do better today, tomorrow.

Good luck.

I know I'm immature, but that made me giggle.


Everything the other posters have said is 100% true. Its also why I'm no longer weighing every day. I know that there are legitimate reasons for fluctuation, and that I shouldn't get discouraged about it, but it still gets me down when my weight bounces up and down.

So I've decided not to use the scale as the main factor in my weight loss any more. I'm trying to just use it as one of many indicators in where I'm at weightwise, and that's given me a lot of peace of mind.

I'm glad you said this! I was just complaining to my boyfriend yesterday about not being "normal". But, if I am reasonable with myself, even if I lose 1lb a month, I will be less likely to gain it back later and I will eventually reach my goal.

Yeah, it is a process. It can actually be a creative learning process if you let it.

Also, according to my favorite website, The National Weight Control Registry , Research shows:

"Some have lost the weight rapidly, while others have lost weight very slowly--over as many as 14 years."


Fat2Skinny- Isn't it amazing how fast you can ingest 1000 extra calories?? The only reason you know you did this was because you were keeping track.

I can imagine I was having tons of 3000 calorie days before I started counting..... and I was seriously wondering why I was gaining - I thought my thyroid was out of whack!

Anyway, for me it is much better to have a weekly calorie goal - not daily.

Probably so because I was keeping track of my calories. Today and from now on I will keep track and not slip off my axis. TOM came to visit me a few days ago so maybe it could've been that. Oh yes, I know for certain I was eating over 3000 calories a day when I wasn't keeping track.