Samiam9663's Journal, 02 April 2016

Could be the food you are eating. When I eat foods high in salt, I can gain 3 pounds in one day. If I pay attention to the salt, it comes off within a few days. I can tell when I make a fist and my skin is tight and white around my thumb and pointer finger. When my salt content is low the thight skin and whiteness goes away........ until the next time 

SALT! I bet you're right! Lots of those additional calories were junky bar appetizer things, sticky with melted cheese and DRIPPING with salt. Frank, you're brilliant. Thank you!  

Yea, it's not just calories in/calories burned. Our bodies are made up of 60% water and many things can make out bodies retain water and release water. Things like sodium, sore muscles from exercise, sickness, medications and more can all make us retain water making the scale go up and masking our losses. If you up your protein, protein pushes water out of our cells so it can make you lose faster. But if you have a high carb day, it will take in water, lol! Plus genetics, age, sex, activity levels etc. all effect our rates of loss. You just have to stay the course, make adjustments and keep going.  

Not only that, if you consider the fact that a gallon of water weighs 8.4 pounds, that means a half gallon of water weighs 4.2 pounds. That makes a quart 1 pound You would be surprised how little a quart of water in the body. You will just breathe out about a pint of water sleeping overnight in moisture. Now add some activity that actually requires water use like exercise, and you begin to pee out pounds. Watch the salt content on the diet diary. Amazing how much salt is in everything. Hang in there.  

Thanks so much guys, I appreciate the feedback. I'll be paying closer attention to that column in the future - I had actually hidden that column so I could view net carbs instead. I'm putting it back, I can do the net carbs math myself :-)  

my weight can easily swing 1-3 lbs in a day or two --- water retention, salt intake, fibre, an extra bowel movements, gaining muscle etc... I prefer the tape measure to the scale - or how loose my pants fit. Muscle weighs more than fat - and it actually burns calories. don't give up ! 

The 2 pounds could have been intestinal junk like food and water. I can pee out 3-5 pounds of water in one sitting. Don't even ask me how much I poop out. That's why you always weigh yourself first thing in the morning on an empty stomach before you eat anything. That's the most accurate way to measure your weight. 

Thank you so much, guys, I hadn't thought of any of these - I was going strictly by the numbers (calories in, calories out). I'll definitely have to watch for the salt thing - I am a salt junkie. Today I'm going to make lunch for the week - I love chick peas, feta, lemon juice and olive oil with some fresh basil, so if I augment those things with a whack load of chopped veggies, I'll be happy to eat the same thing for lunch most days :-) Luckily no conferences scheduled until June, so I won't have to have a bunch of out-of-country colleagues whining to go out and eat bad things! (I love them to death, and I hardly ever see them, so I have trouble saying no...) Maybe by June, when I have a few pounds LOST from my belt, I'll have more will power :-) I really appreciate the support, everyone, this is a great site!  

I made a math error on the weight of water. 8.4 pounds to a gallon, 4.2 pounds to a half gallon, 2.1 pounds to a quart, That is a pound to a pint. Remember the milk containers we used to get in school? That is 1/2 pint - that is 1/2 pound. Water comes and goes through our body in vast quantities.  

Samiam, I did a full day's intake of food and water on the scale a couple of weeks ago, my intake weighed nearly 16 pounds.....like all the above comments, this too shall pass, eventually you will eliminate it. I weigh in once a week, the day after a 24 hour fasting day - after using the bathroom and before eating or drinking anything. Like others have said the scale is not a really fool-proof way to measure your progress. Measurements and how your clothes fit are more of a testament to how well you are doing. 

Hey Samiam, Calorie counting is at best an in-exact science...check out Sugar Waffle's post from March 30, for some great links and comments. For what it's worth I do a balanced diet and count calories, I track things to figure out "relatively" speaking how much my fuel intake is versus my calorie expenditures for each day as well as macros, sodium, etc. Like Bcoulal & Debra my wight can change dramatically in a day depending on whether I'm dehydrated from a long workout or carb/water bloated. Lots of information on the google machine too if you need more. Finally if it was so exact that 3600 calorie deficit equaled one pound weight loss I'd have lost 10 pounds last month with a 37,000 calorie "paper" deficit ...I also base my RDI on sedentary, only liog exercise (no tv watching, driving, desk work, as exercise) and try to log exactly as best I can my food inputs including beverage and condiments. Hope that helps a bit, have a great week!! 

The term 3,500 calories = 1 pound comes from trying to equate the number of fat calories to one pound of weight, in reality it is somewhere between 2,800 and 3,700 calories. But you are also missing lots of key points. Assuming you had a calorie deficit for the week that was equal to 1 lb of fat (whatever the number), do you think you would lose exactly 1 lb of fat?... you may lose water...muscle.. and fat. As as Steven Lloyd said...it's not an exact science. Additionally, not all calories are equal, and not everyone processes calories in the same way. 

@Samiam9663, This happens to me very frequently. Counting calories can be a hassle, too much fluctuation when weighing in. 

I wonder if your RDI is too high? Maybe time to reset it? 

Regarding the calorie measurement issue. A calorie is actually a measurement of heat energy, not a weight. It is confusing because calories are viewed as weight in many publication. If you consume something that takes one calories of the body's heat generation to burn up and then burn up one calorie of heat through muscle movement etc, you have a net gain/loss of ZERO. You burned up what you took in. If you consume something that takes 10 calories to burn up and you only generate 5 calories of heat, you are left with 5 calories unburned. That has been calculated to a certain amount of weight measurement. The 3500 calorie figure is actually what it takes to burn up a pound of weight (give or take) so... if you consume something that would take 3500 calories of heat to burn up and you do not, what is left is the "unburned" food and is what is converted to a weight measurement for comparison. Again, a calories is not a weight. Scientifically speaking it is the amount of heat it takes to raise one gram of water on degree Centigrade. That is the most common description but in Science there are definitions that go much deeper that take into account air pressure, actual temperature, and so on. Suffice it to say, calories are a measurement of heat, not weight. it is used as a rule of thumb to make it easier to understand. Hope that helps. 

To follow up on Mahjohn's post...the links on Sugar Waffles post go into a bit more detail re some of the points MJ brought up, take care & good luck Sam I Am!!