Strange Weight Loss

[iomchris]

So I finished my Whole 30 in mid-September and weighed myself: 210. About ten days later I left for a two week trip (half business, half holiday) and weighed myself before leaving: 209.

Overall I ate fairly well on my trip. Not strictly Whole30, but pretty much where I think I'd like it to be when traveling: a few indulgences, an adult beverage or two, but still mainly making good choices, no bread/pasta, very limited sugar etc. And I did decent for keeping up the exercise as well.

That is until the very last day, this Monday. We travelled all day and unfortunately I decided that given I was going to be home and eating healthy the next day, I may as well get in my kicks, as it were. So I ate terrible airport food, lots of sweets, all day and predictably felt terrible. Oh well, whatever.

So I weighed myself Tuesday morning and was 212. Being curious how much was sort of bloating or whatnot from my terrible day, or if I had really put on 3 pounds while away, I weighed myself each morning this week:

Tuesday 212

Wednesday 210

Thursday 208

Friday 205

Today 203

I weighed myself at the exact same time each day. I don't believe I'm dehydrated or anything like that. I have been eating Whole30 compliant all week, except one beer last night, but I certainly don't feel I've been under-eating . I've also exercised a lot, but just as part of my usual schedule, nothing extreme (a 10k and a 7k run, one session with a personal trainer, and a fairly intense rec-league basketball game).

I know we shouldn't sweat the scale, but I just find this really puzzling. Is it less unusual than I think? I feel totally fine, there's no chance it's some bug I don't know about or anything like that? I understand that scale weight is an unreliable metric, but still, 9 pounds in 4 days doesn't seem right...

[Keri W.]

Yes...it is amazing how bloating can effect a person. Eating foods with gluten...such as beer...can really mess with a body. Also, many products contain hidden gluten, so be careful. I've heard of people gaining as much as 12 pounds in a short period from eating gluten.

[Kirsteen]

OK just my tuppenceworth. You were 209 when you went on holiday. Over those 2 weeks you may have lost more weight. I recently read an article that said, surprisingly people often do lose weight on holiday providing they're not stuffing themselves. Now it sounds as though you had a bit of a carbfest on the Monday I swear when I do that my body seems to suck moisture from the very atmosphere to store the extra carbs. I bloat horribly and can easily gain 5 or 6 pounds in a day.

So look at the math. You were probably, at the most 209 before your one day carbfest, you may even have been at 206 or 207 or lower, we don't know. You have a carbfest, your body piles on the weight, you go back to eating healthily and your body gratefully gets rid of the excess it's carrying. so all we really know for sure is that, in 3 weeks, you lost 6lbs.

Some people say that, if you're eating a healthy diet and then go off the rails (briefly) it shocks your metabolism and you lose more after it. I'm not recommending that because I'm not convinced it works, I am convinced it's not a healthy thing to do. As you say the scales are pretty unreliable, You feel fine, you're eating well and excercising so rejoice

[Renee Lee]

You're sweating the scale too much and overthinking. As you didn't weigh yourself while you were ON vacation, we don't really know where you were trending.

People can lose weight/fat on vacation even with less than ideal choices because of the huge decrease in stress. That, coupled with flying causing some bloat, leads me to believe you lost real weight from your 209 while on vacation, "gained" a bunch back while on the flight/water retention from bad food choices, then when you went back to your standard fare, it normalized back to what you actually lost on vacation.

Stop overthinking. Get off the scale. Eat well. Live better.