Maintainers -

How do you know the difference between actual extra weight gain and just bloat/weight from extra (clean) food you're not used to having. I eat between 1000-1200 calories and anytime I eat 1200-1500 of healthy foods I feel bigger and I always see an immediate gain for a day or sometimes up to a week. I don't understand how to live in maintience if I'm constantly seeing a gain when I eat a little more. It takes about 7-14 days to et back down if I eat 1000-1200 calories. Any insight would be great!


I'm fighting water retention and bloating right now and I'm trying to get to my lowest again of 128. Do you guys think fighting against bloat and retention weight keeps us from being able to lose actual fat or do you think we have to wait until the bloat/retention is gone before our bodies will start losing fat again.


I've lost 6lb of the 12lbs I gained over vacation and it's taken 9 days. Is it naive for me to think the rest will also come off over the next couple of weeks and am I foolish to think the last 6lbs are also fake/from bloating and rentention?

I eat super clean and work out a lot (3 miles a day, 9-12 total on the bike fri-sun plus lifting 3 times a week and a 30min cardio hitting video on sat and one 45 min interval cardio video on sun)

Staying away from grains and gluten helps and I also IF. I drink a lit of water as well but I feel like after a 3 week vacation I would be losing again but I'm fighting off bloat.

Hope everyone has a wonderful and successful October!

At any given time I am up or down 2 pounds. I just accept that and don't worry if it is beacuse of too much sodium or water weight or whatever. It is quite normal for weight to fluctuate.

For whatever it's worth, don't discount the possibility that something you're eating may be causing low- grade inflammation from a food sensitivity. It can be a real challenge to nail it down. I'm "4lbs sensitive" to two artificial colors - even the slightest nuance of either one can add 4 lbs of water in a matter of hours, and until I figured it out, that was an extra 4 lbs I carried constantly. Journaling can be a big help if you're looking for something that causes just 1-2 pounds. Is there something special that you don't usually have that makes up those extra calories? Is it when you eat out? Bigger portions on the scale of what you described shouldn't be puffing you up like that if it's the same foods you're always used to.

Sounds like way too little food for that much activity. I would slowly increase calories until you get up to something more reasonable. Your body is being majorly stressed by not having enough fuel to maintain that much exercise + daily living.

I travel quite a bit- 3 weeks to Alaskan (1 week on cruise ship & hiking in back country) this summer it took several weeks to get rid of the 10#. I went lower weight into the trip but even with the wiggle room it took quite sometime to get back to normal. The question for me, which if I understand you correctly, is the same as yours, "If & when will it come off?" The answer is, "hard to say". With my experience of my body in hindsight I have a better guess, but a guess it is. One of my rules, is that I immediately go back on my plan right after the weight gain. Mostly it is so that the small gain does not become a large one. I also know over time, age will take its toll on dropping the weight and it will get harder to lose it. Then I have the choice to continue to indulge with the commensurate gains or not.

I think you have some insights with the grains/glutens. Track those (carbs) in addition to your calories. Only you will know if these ranges and choices are best for you over time with your unique body burn.

Being aware enough to think about this is the most important part of staying slim & trim.