Did I really just gain 5 pounds in two days?

I'm a waitress and the last two days at work have been crazzzy. It's big holiday parties; working from 10 am to 2 am and people have been bringing in tons of food. I ate way over my calorie limit (which is about 2000). I had around 6000 calories in the past two days. I weighed myself today and I'd gained 5 pounds! But here's the thing - my job is physically demanding so I've been on the go all the time. I usually eat very healthy and a lot less sodium and sugar. Is it possible most of this is bloat and I should wait it out a couple days and weigh myself again? What should I do? I'm really dissappointed in myself!

I think it might be a water weight gain .. So drink some water and return to your diet and you will be back on track

Yep, I've been trying to drink a lot of tea and water. It's so scary to think three weeks have just been sidetracked in two days!

I also vote that its water weight. Stick with the tea and water! And you are not being sidetracked haha your body is just playing a mean trick on you for the time being ;)

It would definately be water weight don't let it get you down!

Remember, 3,500 calories equals one pound. So in order to gain 5 pounds you would have to have eaten 17,500 calories OVER maintenance, which is near impossible.

If you stay off the scales until this time next week and go back to your regular diet with plenty of fluids you'll probably find things even out.  Daily weighing never tells you anything useful... best not to do it.

Original Post by gi-jane:

If you stay off the scales until this time next week and go back to your regular diet with plenty of fluids you'll probably find things even out.  Daily weighing never tells you anything useful... best not to do it.

 I disagree with daily weighing never telling you anything useful. Im sure it works lovely for some to only weigh once a week, but I know that other people want to be about to keep tabs on their weight and use what the scale says to make small modifications to their diets. I know that it would be really crushing to me if I were to think I was working hard and doing well and then hope on the scale to see that I had gained. I no longer use the scale these days and just go by what I look like for the most part. But again- that just goes to show that what is best for one, may not be best for another.

Original Post by wholegraingoddess:

Original Post by gi-jane:

If you stay off the scales until this time next week and go back to your regular diet with plenty of fluids you'll probably find things even out.  Daily weighing never tells you anything useful... best not to do it.

 I disagree with daily weighing never telling you anything useful. Im sure it works lovely for some to only weigh once a week, but I know that other people want to be about to keep tabs on their weight and use what the scale says to make small modifications to their diets. I know that it would be really crushing to me if I were to think I was working hard and doing well and then hope on the scale to see that I had gained. I no longer use the scale these days and just go by what I look like for the most part. But again- that just goes to show that what is best for one, may not be best for another.

 Daily weighing really doesn't tell us much though.  Weight fluctuates so much because of sodium, water weight, food weight, etc, that weighing every day just tends to get people down for no reason.  One should not worry about modifying their whole day of eating just because the scale puts them at a pound over what they were the previous day.  Weighing once a week is perfectly fine for tracking weight loss/weight gain.  In fact, depending on the individual's personality, religiously weighing every day might lead to an unhealthy obsession with the numbers.  I'm not saying it will, but I'm saying for some people, it might.

pittgirl, give the water weight a few days to go down before you stress yourself out.  I'm sure everything is fine.  :)

Thank you everyone for your help and support! I must admit, I do weigh myself every day or every other day (mostly to make sure I'm not losing too fast because I do exercise A LOT), but I think I'll stay off the scale for a couple more days while my body gets back to normal