Admittedly, I had cheated a bit in the last week in the calories department, but except for those moments I wasn't doing too bad in sticking to my 1600 calorie/day diet. So when I went from 185 to 188 to 189, to 190, then finally to 191 over the course of 12 days, I thought I was going to bust a blood vessel. This wasn't an overnight water weight gain - it was steadily gaining over the course of a week. It was like I was pigging out every day at McDonalds!

I *do* exercise and workout regular - all the more frustrating for me. I was reflecting on it all and realizing that my recent "cheats" were all high-carb items (aren't they all?) I've noticed that when I eat lots of carbs, whether I stick to 1600 calories or not, I tend to hold water afterward. So I ruthlessly cut out all unnecessary carbs and since then, with no other diet changes, I went from 191, to 190, to 189, to 187.....in successive days no less. Talk about a *whooosh!*

I don't know if it holds true for anyone else or not, but I've shown that when I suddenly eat carby stuff, my body wants to suck up water like a sponge. I also decided to go up to 1700 calories a day, since I was cheating due to being so hungry. I think this has helped me in controlling my appetite since then.

Way to go!

Something similar happened to me recently. I had two no-good, very-bad weeks and gained a substantial amount of weight. Thinking it would come off in a week or two, I tried not to stress out about it too much, but only a pound or two came off in the week that followed. Then suddenly it was 6.

It's funny how intellectually we can know that it's bound to come off, but it doesn't feel like that when the scale is telling us we're bingeing out on pizza and chips every day when we're not.

Congrats on solving your dilemma! And replacing carbs with protein should help with the hunger, because protein stays in your stomach longer. (Over a day, vs. 3 hours.)