Water Weight with Exercise

I appreciate and understand that water is held in the body (especially the muslces) to repair damage and grow muscle mass.

My weight has indeed increased in only a week to around 1.5-2.0 lbs in my opinion and judegement.

What I am interested to know however is :

Although everyone is different is 2lbs of water average, low or high?

How long does you body retain this water? i.e. Would all 2 lbs be lost if I stopped exercising.

Just want to understand the mechanics of the body without in depth research. :)

Regards

I don't think there is any hard fast rule on this.... Its more 'rule of thumb', the body is quite complicated, as is the metabolic pathway.

Generally try to make sure your getting enough water, and your body will expell it when it needs to. Unless your sodium intake is to high, or its the TOTM (which i'm assuming you don't suffer from ;-) being male and all).

As far as stopping the exercise, maybe yes, maybe no... and no point, your better off with the 2lbs of water, then losing half a lb of muscle or gaining some fat due to the lack of excersise.. Of course that doesent mean you can't take a day off here and there.

My sodium intake is fine. I can’t stand the taste, so only processed food salt content enters my body. I will, on an average day drink 3 litres of water, so happy enough there also.

I have no intention of stopping exercise. Purely an interest in how the body would react to such a change, and the water content.

Regards

Are you getting enough sodium?

When I first started an intense weight routine my weight went up like 3 lbs. I descovered that the best day to weigh is MOnday, after 2 full days of rest.

How long have you been doing this routine?

Maybe your body is just adapting.

TRHawley. I have never considered about getting enough sodium, so will certainly check. Might chuck up a surprise or two. Thanks.

Kristinedaqueen. Only begun a week, but the same has happen on 2 previous attempts. I suffer with SAD come August, and even medication can't lift my spirit enough to continue. Come March I am usually back to starting again.

The key is consistency. If you keep at it your body will adjust to the workouts and not hold onto water like that.

I started once before but quit because I didnt like seeing my weight go up instead of down. This time I decided to tuff it out.

Hang in there and things WILL look up.

The bare minimum for sodium is like 400-600mg a day.

i exercise every day, but recently took a couple days off to visit a friend.  though i wasn't drinking any more or less than usual, i peed the whole time and lost several pounds.  i didn't have a scale, but all my clothes were much looser.  i'd estimate around 3 pounds, perhaps even a bit more.

Original Post by caloriecountingme:

i exercise every day, but recently took a couple days off to visit a friend. though i wasn't drinking any more or less than usual, i peed the whole time and lost several pounds. i didn't have a scale, but all my clothes were much looser. i'd estimate around 3 pounds, perhaps even a bit more.

to add to this: i recently started high intensity working out in the last three weeks, going on my 4th week, and have seen that i have gained back a perceived loss of a few lbs.  one day off, i pee like a race horse, and lose a lb....back on the exercise without a break and i don't lose one ounce.  sometimes pop up another .5 or gain back the entire 1lb.

there has to be a direct correlation...and i'm not even a "weight lifter" like alot of the people in here are.

I've had the same experience since switching from only cardio to the addition of weight training.  On the four days that I do weights, I still consume 8 to 10 glasses of water but do not urinate as much as I do on my cardio days alone or on my off day.  The scale also shows the increase water retention, usually about 1 to 2 lbs.  I relate this to the inflammatory processes that occur within the muscles to assist in healing and muscle growth.