I have been struggling to lose weight for some time. When I put my heart and sole into it, I can actually lose weight quite easily. Lately I have just been counting calories and keeping a weekly log of my weight. My weight seems to be very, slowly coming off. Some weeks I have been maintaining and staying the same, some weeks I have been losing very slowly.

So I decided to up the ante and started the week being stricter..I replaced my breakfast with a protein shake and avoided carbs at dinner time. I kept a record of my calories and shooted for about 1100/1200. I also dusted off my trainers and hit the gym and just did a bit of light jogging and went on elliptical machine.. no weights.

Anyway yesterday I had a bad day diet wise. Someone at work was leaving and I found myself eating a 'slither' of birthday cake whilst everyone else was tucking into huge slices, and also ate badly in terms of accepting sausage rolls and savoury pastries. To top it all off, for dinner about 8pm, I found myself in the drive thru in Mcdonalds with my eldest son, as we were in a mad rush to get somewhere and neither of us had eaten dinner. Before I could stop myself I found myself ordering and eating a Big Mac meal. Oh well, I thought. I am not going to beat myself up about it, I will just start afresh tomorrow. I got on the scales this morning as it was time for my weigh in and couldnt believe my eyes that I had put a whopping 7 pounds on in the space of a week!!!!!!!! I know I was naughty yesterday but how is this possible!! I am so down in the dumps and cant stop thinking about it!!!!!

That sodium from the McDonald's is probably what did you in!! So, more than likely its a lot of water weight! I wouldn't worry TOO much about it... All you can do is get back on track and keep going! I'm betting that a lot of water and some time will get you right back to your original weight. Adding exercise can make you retain water too. So keep your chin up ill bet my bottom dollar its mostly water!

I tend to ignore scale movements that don't make sense in light of the science. Did you eat an extra 25,000 calories? No. Then you didn't actually gain 7 pounds of fat.

Just ignore the scale's day to day movements and only watch it's weekly/monthly trends. If you want to know more, learn more about salt/hormones/water weight connection (but even learning more about that will not help you understand your scale fully, just help you to realize that it's got it's own things going on).

This happens to me all the time when I have a week like yours but my weight always adjust back down within a few days unless I continue the bad eating. Kelly is right, the science just doesn't support you gaining that much in a week.

Ditto that. Sometimes I have to take a step back, to be rational, myself. If you didn't eat a huge surplus of calories. You didn't gain 7 lbs of fat, overnight. That would take some talent! Our bodies contain fluids in fluxuating amounts, waste, food, etc... the scale doesn't know the difference between these things and fat. It just tells you how much your body weighs, the moment you step on it.

I'm betting on sodium, too. Fast food is notorious for sodium. Put it behind you and get back on track.

Thank you so much.. this reply particularly cheered me up! Its amazing how a change in the number on the scale can ruin your weekend!! But this put it into perspective for me.. thanks xx

Yep, this happened to me this weekend. I ate my "free meal" on Saturday and I was up four 4lbs the next day! I had wine too, which I believe made me bloated. Just get back on track and drink loads of water. It will come back down. You can't gain that many lbs overnight.

Same thing happened to me.