Feel and look fatter some days

This whole dieting thing is driving me crazy.

I've been trying to watch how much I eat for a long time now, and work out around twice a week. 

Some days, for around a week at a time, I feel and look great, but some other times, I just feel and look like crap. 

Why is this? I'm trying to pin it down onto a single reason, but I don't know why. How long does it take for what you eat to reflect in the way you look? Because sometimes, I look like crap 2 or 3 days after eating an unhealthy meal, and somtimes the change feels almost...instantaneous.

For me, I find it is water retention. If I eat really salty stuff, I feel and look like crap for a few days. Then when it comes off I find I have lost a pound or two (in addition to the water) and I feel and look much better.

Sodium eh?

Hmm, well just trying to think back. I looked great every day this week except for today. Yesterday, I had a huge dinner, which consisted of pizza, a pretty salty ham and turkey wrap, cake, and lasagna. And on last Saturday, I drank 10 beers. :-/ 

I think it's been too long for the beers to be able to take a hit at my weight, but yesterday's dinner probably played an important role.

Besides those two incidences, I've been mainly eating sandwiches which are aound 500 calories and 20g of fat each (twice a day), and drinking water, eating fruit, and sometimes Diet Snapple.

How much water are you drinking? I know you're male and need way more calories than a woman does but wow on the calories on the sandwiches. Im not sure what you but on them but I eat aunt millie light whole wheat 35 calories per slice. And hormel ham it doesnt contain soduim nitrate the serving is 4 slices 60 calories with mustard. And some day I put miracle whip light which i believe is only 25 calories per serving.

But anyways yeah the salt will make you feel blah it hides so really check your labels. I went to a birthday party a few weeks ago stayed within my calories but the salt in the food I ate made me feel like I was in a salt coma/hang over the next and I didnt even drink..lol

Yeah, I wonder about the sandwiches the university cafe serves too. 

The turkey slices taste like crap, and I can taste fat in the chicken. I have no idea how a baguette with chicken, mozeralla and dijon mustard can have more that 500 calories. By the way, that's the sandwich with the least amount of calories. There's "Harvest Garden Sandwiches" that have 800 calories, and 40g of fat. 

What would you guys recommend for eating options when you live in a dorm on campus? I'm not sure how accurate the nutrition information is on the food here, but if it is accurate, then there's something wrong with the sandwiches. A slice of sausage pizza has less calories than a sandwich.

i just got out of my dorm for the semester, and always tried to eat healthy. i go to a small college so the cafeteria is small, but i pretty much at all the veggie options, fruit salads, and apples and bananas. some days i ate soup, others i had a sandwich. i would assume some grilled chicken or something would be fine too and maybe rice (though ours tastes like cardboard), but yeah i had a hard time finding good stuff to eat, considering the only consistently good thing at my cafeteria was the fries. i just tried to get to the gym a few days a week when i actually had time.

Not even kidding, I came on wanting to start a thread about an interesting phenomenon I experienced yesterday and you had already started it.  I started this journey at 304lbs in January and have been around 276-278 this week.  I have noticed a significant difference, in my appearance and how I feel, but yesterday, all day, I felt fat, bloated, like crap, and was very discouraged.  I have had my loss on pure exercise as I find it increasingly difficult to manage my diet as my wife, who is also a plus size, but not quite ready to make the lifestyle adjustment.

I couldn't work out yesterday due to pending tornados but I plan to go home early today and get back on it, at least for a run..ok jog...brisk walk??  Whatever.  Hopefully it was only a momentary lapse.  It wasn't even really bad, b/c I weighed in this morning at 277.5.  I saw earlier in the week 276.5, but I started aound 279 this week.

I remember the days of Dorm Food!  It is not an easy lifestyle.  Do you have mini-fridges in your rooms?  Perhaps you could stock deli meats that you purchase at the store as well as a loaf of really good multi-grain bread or deli rolls.  That way, you know exactly what you are putting into your body.  Also, avocados are a really good way to get healthy fat, rather than putting mayo or other spreads on your sandwiches. 

I know exactly how you all feel about the days of poor body image.  I think we all can say we have gone through this on our journey here.  I wonder sometimes if our minds have a hard time catching up to what we are doing, and when we have a different meal, it has to catch up to that too.  Just a thought.

Good Luck!

i feel you...

im having one of those days today. i had to go to a wedding party yesterday and thought i could bypass most of the food and hit the salad and chicken.  so by the time they served dinner (WHICH WAS AT LIKE 10:30 PM!) i was ravenous and when i got to the buffet, i saw it was ALL deep fried chinese food...so i basically was starving and had to eat the food....

needless to say, today is a baggy clothes day. definetly feeling the sodium and saturated fats....

Oh yeah, I know this feeling.

It's something about dieting and working out, for me. I've become a lot more aware of my body, and my homeostasis weight. So, sometimes I just "feel" fat. It can be influenced by sodium, like some have said, or by the clothes you wear, or just by how you feel when you wake up. A lot of times, I'll "feel" fat just because my pants feel weird, or I'm wearing an old dress that doesn't fit quite right anymore.

As for eating and it's effects, I tend to feel fatter after I eat a LOT, or if I made a bad choice (IE, eating a donut or something.)