How Much Water Can The Body Retain?

Is it possible that someone is losing more water than bodyfat, if so when does this stop, technically isnt this why its impossible to calculate how much someone has to lose in order to lost bodyfat? eg, you cannot say, if i lose 100 pounds i will be a certain bodyfat, considering that everytime weight is lost, some will always be water.

Your body is like 2/3 water. So...a lot.

I wouldn't know of any formula to figure that out but the really obsese people on tv shows are known to carry a lot.

Professional fighters (mma, boxers, wrestlers) can lose up to 20lbs of water, so that'll tell you something.

Don't worry about water retention so much until you're in the low teens of bf percentage or are trying to look good for a certain event/beach. The water loss will come naturally.

It's different for everyone. The more you weigh, (or usually the fatter you are) the more water weight you can hold. Usually it comes off the first week or 2 of a diet, that's why some people can lose like 30lbs or some other ridiculously sounding amount of weight in just a couple weeks. Then it slows down to a couple pounds a week and they get disapointed and whine that the diet doesn't work anymore. lol.

[quote]eg, you cannot say, if i lose 100 pounds i will be a certain bodyfat, considering that everytime weight is lost, some will always be water.[/quote]

Yeah, there's no way that could make any sense. You have to figure muscle into it too. If you're lifting you could be gaining muscle, if you're too obsessed with numbers and losing weight, good chance you're losing muscle and keeping your body fat. etc.

[QUOTE=SupaCoolz;46050141]technically isnt this why its impossible to calculate how much someone has to lose in order to lost bodyfat? eg, you cannot say, if i lose 100 pounds i will be a certain bodyfat, considering that everytime weight is lost, some will always be water.[/QUOTE]


There is a big difference between "Body Weight" and "Lean Body Mass".

Dont rely entirely on scales, because they dont take into consideration your bone mass, muscle mass, tissue or anything. Just use the scale to help calculate your lean body mass with formula's and fat testing.

If i went by weight and height measurements, i would have to be around 220 lbs with like 12% bodyfat (or whatever the level of average bodyfat is).

Well that aint going to happen when i have a lean body mass of over 250 lbs. This is why bodyfat measuring is important as well as figuring out your lean body mass.

In the end, just do the "Pinch an Inch Test". If you can pinch an inch anywher eon your body, then your still fat (or i should say not cutup yet).

When you do a carb-up, you'll put on several pounds of water, and you'll lose it again once you are back to ketosis. That's the water weight that's relevant for you at your stage. You can lose and gain that water easily, but anything over that is likely to be fat.

[QUOTE=Eileen;46114931]When you do a carb-up, you'll put on several pounds of water, and you'll lose it again once you are back to ketosis. That's the water weight that's relevant for you at your stage. You can lose and gain that water easily, but anything over that is likely to be fat.[/QUOTE]

So, I did a very dirty carbup on Saturday... complete with lots of booze and Girl Scout Cookies. According to my scale, I put on 5 pounds. I assumed that 1 pound of that was fat (probably ate an drank a good 5000 calories over the course of the day) and 4 was water. Sunday I ate perfect keto (back to 2500 calories), and busted my @$$ at the gym. Monday morning I was back in ketosis, ate keto and busted it at the gym again. Today, Tuesday morning, I was back to the weight I was at pre-carbup which I assume to be the water-weight gone and the pound of fat burned off. Does this seem right?

I think the ratio is like 1g of carb = .3 L of water...i know there's a 3 in there.

[QUOTE=jaim91;46828071]I think the ratio is like 1g of carb = .3 L of water...i know there's a 3 in there.[/QUOTE]

Glycogen = 1 gram of carbs to 3 grams of water

If you gained 5lbs I'd expect it all to be water.

To gain 1lb of fat with 5000 cals would require you to only burn 1500 cals for the day (3500 cals per lb of fat) and to have stored no glycogen.