Understanding weight fluctuation so as not to become paranoid

Yesterday I found myself eating some attractive holiday snacks. By day's end these snacks had accounted for at least 1000 calories of sugar and fat, but I minimized elsewhere and exercised, and overall came out even against my daily calories.  My weight bounced up about 4 lbs over the course of the day and came down about 2 lbs overnight.  Net/net, this AM my weight is up a couple of lbs over what it was a week ago, even though I had a week of high exercise and overall moderate eating, to maintain a daily deficit of 200 calories.

So what gives? How could a day of snacking cause this much disruption? I dug through some excellent archived cc posts and WIKI references on glycogen and starvation mode for help.  I conclude the following:

-The sweets would have given me a shot of at most 2000 calories of glycogen - around a pound of weight.  But this burned up overnight - my AM blood glucose is under 100.

-Some of this stuff is still inside of me, either as water or partially digested.

Does anyone else notice that snack food has an immediate effect on weight way out of proportion to its calories?

YES!...it is the most annoying thing when I will have like five baked small doritos and like 2 oreos before bed (only around 350 calories) and be two pounds heavier the next day if I weigh in...even though I know it isn't real weight and will come down it is still annoying and just completely inaccurate... Now that I am maintaining I am just coutining my calories and ignoring the scale...it just isn't accurate....

So I don't know a ton about this, but I do believe it may just be water weight.  I asked my doctor a similar question and he said it had to do with salt intake and how your body holds on to the water...just a thought.

sodium, water retention

Here's Wisdom from the CC+ Library, Q&A section

How did I gain 4 pounds in one day?

Temporary weight gain is most likely a result of water retention, which can be caused by eating too much sodium. Water is heavy: a gallon weighs 8.34 pounds. In the body, sodium is found in the tissues outside of the blood vessels. If sodium becomes too concentrated, water rushes in to lower the concentration. The result is puffiness, often seen in the fingers and ankles as gravity pushes water to the ground. To eliminate excess sodium and water, reduce dietary salt intake and drink plain water to flush out the system. In women, the hormones of the menstrual cycle can also cause sodium retention. Certain medications can cause water retention as well.

I have definitely experienced the same thing with sodium and water retention.  I was eating well but always had a microwave dinner after work and felt bloated and overweight all the time.  The puffiness went away as soon as I switched over to fresh food!

I'm feeling the same, I've kept my calories within reason, kept my food pretty "clean" and been steady with my workouts over the holidays, but I've been sitting around more than normal as I write my thesis, and an extra pound or two has shown up over the past 3 days.   I think it must be water, but I just miss feeling more active!

Yeah, I notice when I eat at Red Lobster.  Though I ask for no butter and seasongs (plain everything) the next morning I can pretty much count on 2 pounds.  The same happened over the holidays; had one bite of this and that sweet dessert and *bam* 1 pound in the morning!  Bah!  It flushed itself out within a day, but gee.  It does go away, quickly (within a day) so I don't ever think OMG I gained a pound!  It's more like, give it a day, my clothes are good.  Chillax. 

Good thread on putting things into perpective.

I fluctuate between 245 and 249, it just depends on the time of day, if you've gone to the bathroom before weighing, if you're retaining water from eating too much sodium the previous day, hormone levels etc. etc.

Don't worry about fluctuations like that. As long as it keeps within the same range, you're good. If it starts inching up though, then you should consider lowering your intake a tad. Also, dont weigh yourself daily. I refuse to weigh myself if I was 'bad' the day before, it'll only make you feel horrible. Do it ever two weeks, or once a week if you must.

grrr...so i've maintained consistently for the last 5 months and I just stepped on the stupid scale and I'm up 4 pounds since last weekend!  I've been staying within my calorie limit and exercising (like I said before), but water weight or not, this stinks!  I haven't had a jump like this the entire time I've been maintaining...so frustrating:(  sorry, just needed to vent

I had something really similar happen.  After maintaining for 5-6 months, I would have one tiny treat or go a few hundred cals over my limit and *bam* 5 pounds.  I can't explain it, I can just tell you you are not alone.  I went back to my goal weight within a couple of days though, so you will be ok.  But it is discouraging to see that number.

Hang in there - and don't let it make you say "forget this" and have a binge or something.

Good luck

Snack food?

Snack food (generally) = Salt

Sodium = Water Retention

It's a pain in the bottom, yeah but, I believe that's what a main part of that is. Also, our weight just fluctuates naturally on a daily basis... personally, I just try to push that to the back of my mind 99% of the time. :)

Also, keep in mind that some days we may unintentionally, unconciously take in more calories than we intend to... and on others, we take in less without realizing. Most likely, it's not much but, perhaps it could be enough to tip the scale, quite literally.

Once we start to maintain though, unless something really drastic happens, we pretty much hover within one or two lbs around the same number. It's frustrating, yes, but hang in there. Perhaps even put the scale away for a day or two? I've found that helped me... especially since all of this stuff spiraled into a very ugly ED.

Thanks for all the comments, especially on water retention and puffiness, which I've noticed on and off in my fingers.  Unfortunately I ended up gaining 5 lbs over the holidays - not water retention but real weight gain from persistent overeating (one week I was +600 cal/day, and no doubt I was undercounting).  The 2 lb water-retention blip at the beginning was just a harbinger of what was to come over the next 3 weeks.

It's time to go back to maintaining decent calorie deficits for a while and take it back off the old fashioned way.  With most of the tempting treats now eaten up (only part of a pan of fudge to go), this should take about 3 weeks.

Lesson learned: when you pound your weight down to a plateau, it's easy to send it back up those first few pounds, which are the hardest ones to get off.  I try to compensate for overeating with extra exercise, but what I really should be doing is maintaining the eating habits of the lower weight.