This will possibly sound confusing or complicated, but I'm going to give it a shot.

My weight has been holding pretty steady at around 133 pounds. Which is ok by me, I'm pretty much just trying to maintain right now. A few weeks ago I got on the scale and I was up to 136. No biggie, normal fluctuations will happen and I was probably holding onto some extra water. But it stayed there. Wouldn't budge. 136 for a couple of weeks. I normally only weigh myself about twice a month, but seeing my numbers jump up a little made me keep a closer eye on it, as it always does. When my weight starts creeping up, I know I need to back off a little bit. Which is pretty much the whole process of maintenance.

Ok, so then we had last week. It was horrible hot. I had no appetite. All week long I was under my calorie allowance because I simply didn't feel like eating. I was still 136.

However, over the weekend, I ate way OVER my calorie allowance. We're talking Taco Bell on Friday, Hometown Buffet on Saturday and then my big Sunday dinner. Which I can't really count because that was only yesterday. But Friday and Saturday I made a little piggie of myself.

I get on the scale this morning. I'm back to 133. I don't know if that's because of my week of barely eating (and since I wasn't eating much, I was also very low on the carbs) or my weekend of eating like a pig. You see what I mean? Because as of Friday, after my week of barely eating, I was still 136. After a weekend of pigging out, my weight has dropped.

So either I finally let go of some weight from my week of not eating much or my body was dying for all of the food I ate over the weekend. I got on the scale this morning and was almost afraid to look but was pleasantly surprised instead.

Any thoughts?

Hi there LLV.

I know for me and others around here as well that it takes 2, 3, sometimes 4 days for a weightloss or gain to show on the scale. In other words when I know I've eaten really, really well for a few days I won't see any results for up to 4 days. Same thing goes when I've eaten poorly - it takes up to 4 days to register on the scale.

Another thing perhaps is, between the 2 scenarios you just mentioned - the eating under your calories, and then eating over - it kinda balanced out and now you're back where you were.

Linda, I think it's a coincidence. The food you ate over the weekend has barely been digested and there's hardly been enough time for it to impact your metabolism or fat stores. If you genuinely had previously gained three pounds of fat (doubtful) and then lost three pounds of fat, then somehow you created a 10,500 calorie deficit over the weekend. And I think that's unlikely.

I'm guessing you were retaining water for whatever reason and it finally decided to whoosh away. It probably would have happened regardless of what you ate this weekend. As you know, sometimes there's no rhyme or reason for water weight fluctuations.

Edited to add: I'm like Robin - it takes days, sometimes a week for indiscretions to show up on the scales. I'm never out of the woods if I get on the scales the next morning and it's OK. Same with good behavior -- it can take days or weeks to finally show up. Crazy bodies, huh?

Whew! I feel better now, thanks for the responses! I wasn't sure how to take that. And now that I think about it, I was probably holding onto a few pounds of water and my week of eating WAY lower on my carbs than I usually do caused me to lose it all again. Because now that I think even further, I remember being in and out of the bathroom about every 20 minutes. And it wasn't just your average small "tinkle session" (for lack of a better description LOL) it was a LOT. And I know that eating low carb is mostly water loss. So yep, that's probably what did it.

Cool, now I know how to get rid of water retention

sorry but i dont have any advice (not changing the subject) but well done for loosing 87lbs so if little fluctuations happen dont be too upset coz like youve experienced they can go back to normal only get worried if you end up gaining abouts 5-8lbs

Makes sense. Every gram of carb you eat holds on to 3 - 4 grams of water, so when you cut carbs, you'll dump a lot of water. And your experience of running to the bathroom pretty much proves the point.

I've had that happen to me a few times. I will restrict and stick to my plan for like a week and see no weight loss ... then I have a binge and eat way over and the next day I'm down a pound or two. I attribute it to changes in fluid levels. I expect that somehow the body uses extra fluids to manage the additional food coming in and it results in the weight loss I'd accumulated over the week finally showing up on the scale. At least that's my best guess!

Thank you very much, I appreciate the compliment!

And thanks to you, Meg and Robin for the replies.

And yes, Meg, I was in that bathroom constantly all week long. And I couldn't figure out why. I mean, I drink water all day long, but I wasn't drinking any more than usual. Then I went back over my fitday logs and noticed that since I hadn't eaten a whole lot of food, I was really low on the carb end as well. Normally I eat, oh, around 125 grams of carbs a day. Every day last week was I lucky to break 60. So for me, that's low. I don't even know what is considered low carb. I've never really kept track of carbs. I simply balance everything. Everything in moderation. I don't overload myself on one particular food group, but at the same time I don't eliminate any particular food groups, either.

So what *IS* considered low carb? I know some people go as low as 20 grams a day or something like that. But would 60 be considered low also?

"Low-carb" is a lot like "vegetarian". Everyone seems to define it differently. I've seen low-carbers who eat anywhere from 20 to over 150 grams of carb per day. There just isn't any standard definition.

That being said, I think most people would consider 60 grams to be low-carb.

Thanks, Meg, wasn't sure about that one