I binged last night, like we all do occasionally, I guess. I had done so well all day long, too (all week long, actually - I exercise 3x/week at the gym with weights, I walk and bike daily, and I eat between 1200-1500 calories a day, depending on what day I workout). Last night I probably ate an additional 1500-1800 calories on top of my allotted 1400 for the day. I wolfed down M&Ms, protein bars, and Fruit Loops cereal like a convict on execution day. I felt like cr*p when I went to bed, and again when I got up. Maintenance calories for me are about 1800, so that shouldn't have even been a net gain of a pound of fat.

I weighed again this morning (my usual time), hoping that perhaps with all my dedicated exercising and hard dieting since Saturday that I hadn't gained anything, or better yet had lost a pound or two in spite of the inexplicable binge. I was thoroughly shocked to see that I was at 186.5 lbs. - a gain of 3.5 lbs?! In four days? I could have eaten decadent Big Macs and fries at McDonald's every day and not gained that much. I checked my waist, too, as long as I was going to crash and burn, and I had gained 1/16 of an inch. Pretty meager, I admit, but even with my late night binge I think I shouldn't have seen a gain after four days of nose-to-the-grindstone dieting and exercising.

So I'm wondering if a huge gluttonous carb infusion turns one's body, especially someone who's been eating precious few carbs anyway, into a thirsty sponge, causing it to suck up every bit of available moisture that it can? It might explain my sudden weight gain in such a short period of time.

It does. Carbohydrates cause you to hold on to water, something like 2grams for every 1 gram of carbs.

I do low carb and when I cheat, even if it's just a hamburger with a bun, my weight jumps 4 lbs the next day.

Drink lots of water, exercise and watch your sodium. It will go away.

Yup. I suspected as much. I just found an article which I think describes the situation.

http://www.justinowings.com/understa...d-glycogen-de/

Quoting from the article:

* I’ve witnessed this fluctuation on numerous occasions over the past year, but I didn’t quite fully understand it until today. You see, I was fully glycogen depleted going into New Year’s Eve. I proceeded to go on a pre-planned “refeed” (that just happpened to coincide with NYE, of course!). The refeed involved eating plenty of pretzels, chips, breads, fruits, cookies, cereal, donuts, etc. Some incredibly unhealthy, albeit tasty, foods. I also drank a good bit of Pinot Noir NYE, which is the opposite of what you should do if you are re-feeding in that your body will be needing water and alcohol will dehydrate you past certain levels of intake. Anyway, after a 24 hour refeed, my bodyweight went from 172 to 184. Hard to believe unless you understand what is going on. And this kind of fluctuation would be entirely disheartening to the ignorant dieter who might feel they just blew their diet in one day! As it is, I expect I’ll be back in the low 170s within five days after I do a fast and get two or three workouts in.

This has always been my experience when I keep my carbs low and then I go up to a more moderate carb level... An immediate bump up on the scale of a few pounds... It's water weight... Not fat gain... So I try not to make myself too crazy over a few lbs. on the scale over something like that...

My body will store fat with a carb binge, but not an amount somehow exceeding the energy excess. I might gain 1/2 pound of actual fat from a big binge or a few in series, but most of the bounce is glycogen based, along with the weight of the actual food in my digestive tract, absorbing loads of water and being slowly broken down.

Not worth it at all. I'm so glad to be free of the binge monster these days

"huge gluttonous carb infusion" that's exactly what it was and that's exactly what it does to your body, hold excess water. I doubt you gained 3-odd pounds of pure fat in 4 days, once you get back on plan if you see a big drop quickly that should reassure you that it was just water

I think my problem was too few calories. The slightest whiff of a cookie or sweet caused me to cave. Although it was nice to lose weight at the rate I was doing, I couldn't maintain it, unfortunately. I'm going to have to bump it up about two hundred calories a day. It'll mean a slower weight loss, but at least I'll be less likely to be derailed and have to start all over.

Last Thursday, I was traveling for business and ended up with a 3 hour layover in an airport. I was tired and I'd let myself get waaaaay too hungry. I ended up in a bar and grill, face first in a huge plate of nachos which I topped off with three large beers.

The next morning, I showed a 7 pound gain.

The morning after that, I showed a 4 pound loss.

Ain't that water retention somethin'?

Last week DH and I ate at Ponderosa - the delicious buffet from ****

The next day I was up 4 pounds and DH was up 13!!!! One day later I was still up 2 and he had LOST 1/2 POUND!

Men suck LOL