I have to start off by saying im a guy. I always seem to have to add this. Anyway this post is about weight fluctations. Im in a situation right now where i have very little control over what i can eat and cook. So im basically just trying to maintain my weight and not go into stsrvation mode by keeping calories up and steady. I have been at this a long time but when i see stuff like this im still wtf over it. So disclaimer its a GIVEN i can make better choices by far but my query is about WHY these foods had this effect. I weigh myself every morning and find my scale to be accurate.
Ok so one week have been eating much more than normal. In one day (i know this is bad choices point is dont have many) one days food A binge day consisted of the following:
Bowl full of peanuts w two cups of sugar (i know)
6 fried fish filets in olive oil.
3 scrambled eggs mixted with hash browns no added milk again with olive oil.
In all my guesstimate was around 3000 kcal. I was prepared for disaster on the scale the next morning i was prepared for a five lb surge. But to my surprise I LOST 3 LBS!!! and this is without a bowel movement.
So the next day was rather different as i normally dont have access to tbe stove. 3 cans of pinto beans. I figurtd these were harmless as they are supposedly a "low carb food" technically a veggie a "smart" choice. So about 1200 kcal for the day. Basically a third of what id been eating the day before. So i get on the scale...disaster...I GAINED 3 LBS!!!
And they left me bloaty and constipated. So my qiestion is why did i lose gobs eating basically all the wrong foods but when a buckled down and cut my calories by 2/3 did I GAIN weight and by a healthy amount. I know both are fluctations just teying to figure oit the dynamics of food and metabolism here. Been at this a long time now. Times like these are just frustrating.
My guess is that it's water retention catching up with you on the second day. All that fiber takes extra water to digest, so you held onto a few pounds extra of it. Probably won't stick around.
fish fillets? healthy.
nuts? healthy
sugar? ...questionable, but i'm known to eat a whole cake and lose 2 lbs. my theory is sometimes your body needs it.
again, personal "experience" theories, but i feel it's like, you eat really REALLY clean most of the time, and your body kind of gets into this "rut", it almost gets cranky at you for keeping it so clean (read: not allowing treats), then it's like you have something "off plan" and it's like OMG THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU, and rewards you by letting go of some of the weight it was holding onto for dear life, because you gave it a treat, so it cooperates.
mind you, there is a very thin line between a treat occasionally, and too many treats (to me, treats are anything you wouldn't normally eat, no matter the nutritional content).
the bean sitch? canned beans, i think contain a tonne of sodium so, retention. also canned beans dude? that's lame. couldn't spice it up with like, some hot sauce and a chicken weiner or something? just saying, keep the body interested!
side note: while the points are valid, it's 7 am, and i haven't had nearly enough coffee. this was written in a humorous tone.
I have to start off by saying im a guy. I always seem to have to add this. Anyway this post is about weight fluctations. Im in a situation right now where i have very little control over what i can eat and cook. So im basically just trying to maintain my weight and not go into stsrvation mode by keeping calories up and steady. I have been at this a long time but when i see stuff like this im still wtf over it. So disclaimer its a GIVEN i can make better choices by far but my query is about WHY these foods had this effect. I weigh myself every morning and find my scale to be accurate.
Ok so one week have been eating much more than normal. In one day (i know this is bad choices point is dont have many) one days food A binge day consisted of the following:
Bowl full of peanuts w two cups of sugar (i know)
6 fried fish filets in olive oil.
3 scrambled eggs mixted with hash browns no added milk again with olive oil.
In all my guesstimate was around 3000 kcal. I was prepared for disaster on the scale the next morning i was prepared for a five lb surge. But to my surprise I LOST 3 LBS!!! and this is without a bowel movement.
So the next day was rather different as i normally dont have access to tbe stove. 3 cans of pinto beans. I figurtd these were harmless as they are supposedly a "low carb food" technically a veggie a "smart" choice. So about 1200 kcal for the day. Basically a third of what id been eating the day before. So i get on the scale...disaster...I GAINED 3 LBS!!!
And they left me bloaty and constipated. So my qiestion is why did i lose gobs eating basically all the wrong foods but when a buckled down and cut my calories by 2/3 did I GAIN weight and by a healthy amount. I know both are fluctations just teying to figure oit the dynamics of food and metabolism here. Been at this a long time now. Times like these are just frustrating.
I always chalk up weird and crazy weight fluctuations to water. You were either very dehydrated when you first weighed before the change, or you were particularly hydrated when you weighed after, or both. No way the body can lose more than a pound a day, unless you exercise like a madman the whole day or eat nothing at all (even then it would only be about a pound lost). It works the same way in reverse. I started a pretty strict diet, and I began hot-n-heavy exercising Monday where I sweat a lot. I lost four pounds by Tuesday and three more by today for a total of seven pounds lost in two days! Is that possible? Well, the scale doesn't lie (right?) It's nice to see those low numbers on my love-em-hate-em scales, but the pounds are mostly all coming back, dang it.
As far as the so-called "starvation mode," it's a myth mainly propogated, I think, by overweight people who want to justify eating more rather than less. Your body burns, in order, glucose (from any carbs, like what you've just eaten), glycogen (stored glucose in the liver and muscles), stored fat, and then protein (like your muscles and organs). One's body depletes its stores in that order, so when it runs out of glucose to burn, it goes after glycogen, and when that's gone, fat is the next to go, etc. It's only when all the body's fat reserves are gone will muscle be the body's fuel source (though all diets have some accompanying muscle loss).
Also, if your body's daily maintenance level is, say, 2500 calories, your body will get them - either from what you eat or from your body itself. If I ate nothing at all, my body would get those 2500 calories from its reserves because there's nowhere else to get it. The metabolism would slow as one gets smaller, but that's because it takes less energy to run a Metro Geo than a Hummer. If you want to lose weight, there has to be a calorie deficit at the end of the day; it's as simple as that.
The OP has lost 195 pounds, I think he knows how to lose weight. His question is about weight fluctuation. It is normal for that to happen and can be from more than one cause, sodium is a big culprit and will cause water retention, that could be one reason. Maybe the peanuts had a lot of sodium, maybe the beans had a lot of sodium. Read labels to check for sodium. I hope your situation improves to where you can improve your eating habits , you have done such a fabulous job at weight loss , so far.
I have heard the statement "weight loss is not linear" many times on this board, and I've found that it's very true! For example, I was a diet angel last week and didn't lose a dang thing. This morning, after a rocky Saturday and a pretty poor-nutrition Valentine's day, I'm down a few pounds. I don't think I'm down from the crud I ate yesterday- I think the scale is finally rewarding me for my hard work last week (and at the time of my weigh in right after the week, well, it was probably still mad at me for a bad day 5-6 days before...)
Thanks everyone. Its been a long journey with longer still to go. Just want to say those werent my normal calories. That was the first time Id had eggs in 3 years. And three years ago it was only one. As for the sugar i know it was a poor choice but there isnt a lot of food most days its complicated dont really want to go into too manhy personal details but theres precious few choices available to me so usually when i hit bottom food supply wise i go for the most cwlorie dense thing usually some variant of sugar and peanuts or peanut butter but yeah that one day ate a lot when i could. Anyway thata all for now.
I don't have any answers but I do know our bodies do some crazy stuff. For instance, I've noticed if I just sit and relax for about an hour without eating or drinking anything right after my "first thing in the morning weigh-in" I can lose a half a pound, well not "lose' it, but the scale will read a half a pound less an hour later, LOL All I do know is if we keep on plan, eventually our "range" will get lower over time
btw, I think it's awesome that you've lost 195 lbs!!! wow, wow, wow!!
wacky weight fluctations - help me understand lol
point is dont have many) one days food A binge day consisted of the following:
I'm sure he definitely knows how to lose.
