There I am trying to sleep and Pookie the Gym Hamster comes and
!
Deep breath, Jiff. WLS or not, screwed up metabolism or not, I think it’s physically impossible to gain 6 pound of
FAT in a matter of days. 3500 calories in a pounds. Times 6 = 21000 excess calories. No way have you eaten 21000 excess calories since Monday.
If it’s not fat, what’s going on? Ideas:
Water retention — due to hormones, salt/sodium (sushi makes me gain an instant 2 pounds), meds, phase of the moon, whatever. Have you ever weighed a cup of water? Compulsive person that I am, I have — it’s 7 oz. Obviously carrying a little extra water shows up big on the scales (which is why people love low-carb diets — lose a ton of water, makes the scale go down) Do you feel bloated? My fingers look like cocktail weenies and my rings are tight, so I know I’ve got water issues right now.
Muscle — your trainer is absolutely right — the critical number here is your body composition, not your scale weight. How much of your body is fat and how much is lean body mass (LBM)? The number on the scale is irrelevant so long as you are at a healthy body fat % — it’s not like you walk around with your weight tattooed on your forehead.
The scale can stay the same or go up at the same time that your BF% is going down, and that’s a
good thing. It happened to me as I lost the weight — I’d plateau and my trainer would check and I’d been building muscle. And I’m sure you know why we want muscle — it’s metabolically active tissue that burns calories all day and all night. Our own little fat burners, as it were (and muscle shapes up our formerly large bods quite nicely too
).
Food intolerance — you alluded to a wheat/gluten intolerance — perfectly possible. In those cases, your body has an allergic reaction to something you’ve eaten and can show a weight gain. I don't know much about this but I think it's kind of like an inflammatory response?
Normal weight fluctuation -- our weight fluctuates from day to day (and during the day) and small changes just aren't significant. No one's going to weigh the same every day -- it will vary depending on how much water you're retaining (I think something like 70% of our bodies is water?) and what you've eaten (actual poundage of the food in your system). Let's say you weigh 200 pounds and your weight goes up 6 pounds. That's only a 3% variation and from a scientific perspective, not very significant.
Jiff, it’s all a head game! Speaking as one who’s put on close to five pounds in the last two weeks without changing anything I’m doing (I’m pretty sure it’s a new med I’m taking for tendonitis in my toes), I completely understand how this panics you. It freaks me out too because of course all I can think is that I'm doing everything right and gaining the weight back. That’s our nightmare scenario, right?
But it’s not going to happen. Don’t weigh yourself for a few days. Maybe make a list of the things that you know work for you — I’m guessing water, protein, limit carbs, small meals, no pretzels (!) and stick to it. Now more than ever we don’t want to sabotage ourselves. And yes, tomorrow WILL be better.
As for the
E word — exercise: yesterday I ran three miles, walked a little more, did 20 minutes on the cross-trainer, and a back workout: lat pull downs, seated cable rows, bent over BB rows, cable pullovers, and assisted pull-ups. Cardio only today — rest day from working out.
Pookie -- I'm so proud of you! And the LWL adore you -- you and anyone else here are welcome any time (we're really not all that scary now, are we?
).
EXERCISE february 26-29
Thanks for everything -- Pookie
but I've never paid any attention to the wheat intolerance thing. All of those things seem to be my problem, maybe I should check it out.
