Ugh.

October 27, 2008 5:15 PM

Is it possible to gain 12 pounds of actual weight/fat in three days?

For the past 3 years of so I have been following a very strict low carb diet. I was obese ever since puberty, and not until a few years ago did a doctor not assume that I was eating Twinkies for dinner, do actual tests and diagnose me with PCOS. My doctor informed me that a low carb lifestyle worked well for people with PCOS and following such a diet has been no problem. Until this weekend I'd lost a total of 149 pounds.

I turned 30 a few days ago and my partner and I (who is also following a low carb diet) decided to suspend our diets for the three days that we would be out of town celebrating. And boy, did I celebrate:

Day 1:

3 egg omelet with feta, sun-dried tomatoes, olives w/homefries and toast

5-6 sushi rolls )avocado, tempura, various fish, etc) and a few pieces of sashimi

half bottle of champagne

a handful of almonds

6 pieces of chocolate from a box of chocolates

Day 2:

bagel with cream cheese/orange juice

indian buffet (a plate and a half of food and appetizers)

2 spoonfulls of macaroni and cheese, two baked chicken tenders (unbreaded), 2 pieces of ice cream cake

Day 3:

3 pancakes with syrup & a side of homefries

few slices of rotisserie chicken, bowl of salad (no dressing), mixed vegetables, small spoonful of rice and beans

handful of almonds

half a loaf of homemade challah bread (4-5 slices?) with butter

After this three day binge I got on the scale and weighed 12 pounds more than on the morning of the first day. Before this I'd restricted more than usual (knowing that I was planning to overindulge) and lost about that much in a little over a month.

Generally, I'd pass it off as water weight, etc, but since I was eating so little for the month beforehand, I'm wondering if I could have actually gained that much in fat. Add the facts that I have PCOS, started birth control a week or so before the trip, and ate a crapload of carbs in a such a short amount of time, I'm worried that it will take me a long time to lose the weight again (I'll be going back to my regular low carb diet, not the super restrictive diet of the month before the trip). Before these last three days, I was 15 pounds from my ideal weight, and I basically just feel crappy, though not exactly regretful.

So is it possible that I gained 12 real pounds? I'm not looking for diet or exercise advice, just the answer to that question. Thanks!

posted by anonymous to health & fitness (22 comments total)

Doesn't seem likely, 3500 calories in a pound of fat, so you would have had to take in 42,000 calories in those three days, plus what energy you burnt.

Looking at your diet, it doesn't actually look that bingeworthy at all. I feel sad for your normal diet :)

I vote no.
posted by Static Vagabond at 5:27 PM on October 27, 2008

I agree with Static Vagabond, you didn't eat close to 12 pounds of food, let alone enough to gain 12.
posted by lee at 5:32 PM on October 27, 2008

I can't really see that as being possible. Sure you ate more than you usually do, but that's an extreme amount of weight to put on in three days. I can't see from what you've said that you ate where all those thousands of extra calories could possibly come from.
posted by ob at 5:33 PM on October 27, 2008

Congratulations on your weight loss so far! That's pretty damn impressive.

Assuming your metabolism didn't decide to suddenly slow down from where it was, if it took x calories at your normal level of activity for you to maintain your weight before the trip, it would take x calories PLUS 3500 additional calories per day to gain one pound of fat per day on your trip, or x calories + 14000 calories per day to gain 12 pounds of fat in three days.

You don't seem to have overeaten anywhere near that amount, so I would assume that while a pound or so of real fat may have crept on, you are almost certainly carrying a lot of extra water. Remember your splurge fondly, get back to your normal eating and activity, and you should be back on track soon.
posted by maudlin at 5:35 PM on October 27, 2008

No.
posted by ch1x0r at 5:43 PM on October 27, 2008

You ate a crapload of carbs and salt and you're now retaining water. Check your ankles at the end of the day and your face first thing in the morning to look for edema which would confirm this.
posted by Inspector.Gadget at 5:45 PM on October 27, 2008 [2 favorites]

Add my vote for your body deciding to slow down & hold onto water.

That is a shitload of weight to lose though - congrats.
posted by MatJ at 5:53 PM on October 27, 2008

Don't freak out. Here's my understanding (I'm am no kind of expert whatsoever). This is the much-bandied-about "water weight". It's your body's normal carbohydrate energy store, which is bound up with a bunch of water. When you first went on low-carb, this was the easy first few pounds that you lost. Your binge replaced it. Go back on low-carb and it should come right back off. Regardless, it has nothing to do with fat. You did not put on twelve pounds of fat on your binge.
posted by madmethods at 5:56 PM on October 27, 2008

also addressed in: Glutton Filter
posted by roger ackroyd at 6:19 PM on October 27, 2008

I am a fellow PCOS'r who has also lost 150+ pounds. I didn't low-carb to lose the weight, in fact, I didn't discover the mind/body effect of a low-sugar diet until after about 4 years of maintenance, but it makes such an enormous difference in the metabolism of a PCOS'r (or anyone that is insulin resistant) that I am a tee-total convert.

I could and have definitely seen a weight bump in the 12 pound range after a long weekend of disregard for my sugar intake. The good news is, all you have to do is eat well and drink plenty of water for the next few days and you'll be fine and back down to normal.

One of the biggest lessons I've learned with PCOS and with weightloss (and money, and love, etc.) is that there is a natural and dependable ebb and flow to everything and if you trust in that, you won't panic in moments of either.
posted by 10ch at 6:24 PM on October 27, 2008 [2 favorites]

Nthing retaining water. This always happens to me if I go off a low-carb diet and eat junk food for a weekend or something. The good news is that the water weight will go away just as quickly after you start back on the diet.
posted by peacheater at 6:27 PM on October 27, 2008

Oh and congratulations on your weight loss! That's great going.
posted by peacheater at 6:28 PM on October 27, 2008

I would just like to congratulate you on your weight loss, that's a remarkable achievement and something to be proud of, I know how hard it can be.

Like everyone else says, it's not fat. I've had gluttonous night with friends and stepped onto the scales the next morning to see 3kg (6.6lb) added to my weight. it's often gone by the next day. I don't believe that it would be physically possible to store that much fat that quickly.
posted by tomble at 6:40 PM on October 27, 2008

i doubt it. it happens when you overindulge--you retain water, i guess, or something--but it goes away after about a week if you go back to your normal, controlled diet. (i noticed this once when i was on a pretty strict eating plan and let it go for a few days around thanksgiving, and then returned to the eating plan).

you might have gained a couple of real pounds, tops. i wouldn't panic. it's great that you lost all the weight, but occasional sprees are good for the soul. i'm glad you enjoyed yourself!
posted by thinkingwoman at 6:40 PM on October 27, 2008

Nah, you're just full of food. (And retaining fluid.)
posted by iguanapolitico at 7:05 PM on October 27, 2008

Not to give a dumb answer, but did you make sure the scale is working/zeroed properly?
Also, congrats on your weight loss!
posted by fructose at 7:36 PM on October 27, 2008

There doesn't seem to be a lot fibre in that menu. So my guess is it's not just water.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 7:46 PM on October 27, 2008

well i guess you could use creatine. More or less it does not do to much for long term results (ignore what they say). But what it does do is make your muscle bulk up a lot by letting the cells absorb more water. In other words you look a lot bigger but its actually just water. Anyway, this is one way to increase your weight a little bit. But seriously you do need to work out and it works best as a stacker (in use with a protein powder, i like whey but there are other options).
posted by Black_Umbrella at 8:14 PM on October 27, 2008

You'd be surprised at how much weight you can gain in water alone. I'll see 2-3 pounds difference on the scale depending on how hydrated I am when I weigh myself. One thing that helps is to weigh yourself at the same time of day each time. I do it first thing in the morning, after urination and before breakfast, so that those factors are ruled out.
posted by wastelands at 8:15 PM on October 27, 2008

The mechanisms by which ingesting a large amount of carbohydrates and the weight gain associated with it are well understood. It is composed of much water and contains less energy than a pound of fat at 1800 kcal/pound

I suspect you're forgetting how much you ate over the three days. (12 pounds * 1800 kcal/pound) / 3 = 7200 excess calories a day. Even if you were dehydrated a large amount say 4 pounds, that's still 4800 calories a day on top of the 1000 or so it takes to keep you alive. The food you listed doesn't even start to come close to what you listed. Take for example the first day; half a bottle of champaign has at most 500 calories, say the omlet, homefries and toast were 1000 calories, the sushi and almonds 1000 calories and the chocolate 1000 calories as it's 100 calories/ounce. That puts you at 3500 calories for the day, overestimating everything by a large margin. In other words, it's at best 60% of what you would have to eat on average.
posted by zentrification at 8:24 PM on October 27, 2008

I don't think you can even eat 12 lbs of food in 3 days. This is water weight, and I'll bet the inaccuracy of the scale is figuring into it too.

Birth control pills are notorious for making some women retain water.
posted by ikkyu2 at 11:40 PM on October 27, 2008

You ate quite a few salty things- feta, olives, sushi (assuming soy sayce), indian buffet, homefries, butter (assuming salted)... which might be helping you retain more water. It does sound like you didn't eat enough food for an actual 12-pound weight gain, so my guess would be a couple pounds of water weight, a full colon, a couple pounds of lady-time bloat, and maybe a pound or three of actual weight. You've lost a ton of weight- congrats on that, and I suspect this weight gain is just temporary.
posted by pseudostrabismus at 10:29 AM on October 28, 2008