Splurged for 3 weeks without gaining any weight?

[TheEther24]

Just was wondering about this since I found it kind of bizarre and was curious what some of the knowledgeable posters here in nutrition forum would guess happened.

I was on a low-carb diet of sorts... not entirely, but basically low carb, with maybe 200 calories a day or so worth of a sauce I'd use for my 2 meals a day. I was on this diet for about a month and a half and losing weight nicely, while still lifting. I then take a week off because of some life events and just allow myself to splurge and then go back to dieting after that week. I was eating out at restaurants everyday... usually 4 appetizers, main course, and desserts, pizzas, chicken wings, ice cream, etc. Typical splurge food.

After that week I hadn't gained any weight. I was still lifting my normal routine weekly. I figured since I hadn't seen any consequences in the mirror or on the scale I'd continue. I ended up going 3 weeks and gained exactly 1 pound. I was kind of confused/puzzled but figured it can't continue forever so I may as well go back to my diet as before. After 1 day back on the diet I step on the scale and am at a lower weight than I was before I started the splurging. I was not very physically active at all during these 3 weeks and spent a lot of time laying around and relaxing.

My guesses were that perhaps I wasn't eating too many carbs even though I was splurging? But even then I was eating plenty of fries, pizza, and ice creams. I did notice when I went to subway one day the scale shot up quicker. My other guess was perhaps my metabolism changed somehow during the course of the low carbs I was eating and I was burning more calories somehow. I think I was eating 5000+ cals a day though so surely wasn't burning that much. At one point I got concerned that I was losing muscle weight while gaining fat weight, causing the scale to remain the same, but I was still lifting and taking protein shakes to ensure enough protein and the mirror didn't seem that way. Sort of defied a lot of what I've learned about dieting on these forums so I was curious. I usually have no problem gaining in the past, that's for sure.

[musikguy72]

I think I was eating 5000+ cals a day though so surely wasn't burning that much. Not mad about it, but it just defied a lot of what I've learned about dieting on these forums so I was curious. I usually have no problem gaining in the past, that's for sure.

Just because you 'think' you were eating 5000 calories doesn't mean you were. If you gave us some numbers we could look them over for you.

[Dujin77]

First off, did you track your macros and calorie while dieting? based on your post I'm guessing you weren't. You probably also did not track your intake on your break. So you were likely around maintenance intake for the majority of your time away. The increased intake of carbs helped to rebalance your leptin levels and put your metabolism back on track. It is a fairly common practice known as a diet break.

[layarph]

1) You weren't consuming as many calories as you thought.

2) You gained weight in short periods, because of a quick, high intake of carbs which comes down to "base level" again.

Summary

- Caloric maintenance causes weight maintenance in all cases.
- I think you have a built-in perception that foods with names like pizza, ice cream, burgers, etc will automatically add weight.. when you, very likely, were consuming the same cals and macros as you were before; this is a perfect example that it isn't the names of the foods that dictate your body composition, it is the macros and calories.
- Individual macros (including carbs) do not affect weight gain / loss outside of your overall caloric intake.

[Bradeful]

Okay I literally have the exact opposite problem than the OP. I was 224.8 friday morning, went home drank beer and ate like a fatty, and plan to go back to diet today (monday), stepped on the scale this morning and gave me a kill myself number of 234.8, why in the hell did my weight jump that much? When dieting i track everything, 1840 calories daily, usually pretty low fat 40gs or so. I figure that I probably ate or drank atleast anywhere from 3k-4k calories for the 3 days I splerged..

[L The Pirate]

Okay I literally have the exact opposite problem than the OP. I was 224.8 friday morning, went home drank beer and ate like a fatty, and plan to go back to diet today (monday), stepped on the scale this morning and gave me a kill myself number of 234.8, why in the hell did my weight jump that much? When dieting i track everything, 1840 calories daily, usually pretty low fat 40gs or so. I figure that I probably ate or drank atleast anywhere from 3k-4k calories for the 3 days I splerged..

water retention.

[Bradeful]

water retention.

I understand that but not like i was completely dehydrated when i weighed myself friday morning, I had a normal amount of fluids in me, same with this morning, just seems like alot of water to me pretty much 10pounds of water retention from eating bad for 2days?

[L The Pirate]

I understand that but not like i was completely dehydrated when i weighed myself friday morning, I had a normal amount of fluids in me, same with this morning, just seems like alot of water to me pretty much 10pounds of water retention from eating bad for 2days?

for me,personally, if i have a day that is higher in sodium intake for whatever reason then my weight is higher than normal for a day or two and comes right back down to where i expect it to be.
you obviously had foods higher in sodium than your normal intake thus causing the bloat. give it a few days. BTW im not saying sodium is bad, because it definately isnt, my intake is around 4K. Im simply saying that COULD be the reason for your number

[EjnarKolinkar]

I understand that but not like i was completely dehydrated when i weighed myself friday morning, I had a normal amount of fluids in me, same with this morning, just seems like alot of water to me pretty much 10pounds of water retention from eating bad for 2days?

Scales aren't always that accurate. Mine will regularly show 5-8 lb fluctuations. At 225 it's not that hard to hold hose levels of water.

OP did not measure anything beyond kind of, sort of. Activity was laying around, but worked out normal? Confusing data gathering leads to bad guesswork confusion. Other than you ate somewhat close to maintenance.

Subway instantly made you fat was hilarious. Glad you relaxed a little and maybe you should measure your foods a bit more carefully, and enjoy yourself a bit more all the time.

[musikguy72]

I understand that but not like i was completely dehydrated when i weighed myself friday morning, I had a normal amount of fluids in me, same with this morning, just seems like alot of water to me pretty much 10pounds of water retention from eating bad for 2days?

The scale is unreliable on a day to day basis. That's why most of us only weigh once a week or so and after a month take an average. You really just want to use the scale to make sure it's moving in the right direction and get an average of the pounds per week gain or loss.

[michail71]

The same thing happens to me when I come of a cut. I feel like I'm pigging out and stuffing myself to the limits. The weight goes up a little at first while the glycogen stores go up. Then the weight starts to taper back down or hold.

After a while though it does seem to start coming back up if the surplus is held. I just assumed it was some sort of hormonal thing going on. Through most of my life I've often dropped weight after periods of excess splurging.

[TheEther24]

First off, did you track your macros and calorie while dieting? based on your post I'm guessing you weren't.

Yeah, I tracked my macros/calories during this time period. ~1900 calories a day, 200g protein, 78g fat.

You probably also did not track your intake on your break. So you were likely around maintenance intake for the majority of your time away.

Yeah I didn't track, but I'm pretty confident I wasn't eating at maintenance... I was eating full pizzas, wings, milkshakes, candy bars, etc, everyday. Eating >3500 cals a day can be done without trying of course, and my maintenance isn't that high since I've gained in the past (when tracking) on 2700-2800 cals a day.

The increased intake of carbs helped to rebalance your leptin levels and put your metabolism back on track. It is a fairly common practice known as a diet break.

Yeah, I thought this was a possibility, but just kinda shocked that the amount of food I was eating and the period of time I ate it for that it didn't result in gains. I know about diet breaks but I used to have a problem in the past with my metabolism I thought (http://forum.bodybuilding.com/showth...hp?t=138749973) and I had tried a few diet breaks. But 3 weeks of binging seems like a stretch.

- I think you have a built-in perception that foods with names like pizza, ice cream, burgers, etc will automatically add weight.. when you, very likely, were consuming the same cals and macros as you were before; this is a perfect example that it isn't the names of the foods that dictate your body composition, it is the macros and calories.

Well, I'm definitely not one of those people that thinks they're eating so much food and actually isn't. I'm a binge eater at heart and have tracked the calories in the past for what I eat when binging and using calorieking.com it was usually 8000+cals a day on average, that's why I said this time it was def at least 5000cals, even though I didn't track it. I definitely wasn't just going to Mcdonalds and ordering a single double cheeseburger combo with medium fries and coke and thinking I'm eating so bad. It was more like 1 meal being a full large pizza with wings and cheese sticks, with 2 milkshakes and a candy bar for dessert.