The 'feeling fat' syndrome

January 25, 2007 3:13 PM

What causes the temporary "feeling fat" syndrome? Not "feeling full".

I'm a male in my late 30s. Yesterday, I ate light and sensibly, and felt great. But in the evening I had some definite junk food (Long John Silvers: 2 chickens, 2 hush puppies, and some fries, with water) and later indulged in four beers.

Today I didn't wake up hung over, but all day I've felt fat, for lack of a better word. I don't feel full, because I've eaten very little today. The feeling is hard to describe; sort of like a very vague, very slight, persistent, stretched feeling all over my torso, sort of a "fat" heavy feeling that suggests my clothes won't fit.

I've felt this from time to time after eating bad food, but now I am convinced that the syndrome is completely ridiculous and not tied to my weight. I am 11 pounds lighter than I've been at any time during 2006. My clothes DO fit, and I fit in them great.

What's going on here? Is there some sort of physiological cause to this? I've suspected a relationship to sodium intake; could this be true? Is this some sort of water bloat? (This wouldn't make sense as the beers should have dehydrated me and I haven't had much water today) And most of all, is there a good "antidote" to curb this feeling or do I just have to wait it out?

Yeah, and this post is eponysterical as all get out, so I'm tagging it as such.

posted by rolypolyman to health & fitness (18 comments total)

I get this way all the time (female, btw) and I always chalk it up to psychological. I know I ate junk food and I just feel 'bad' - not sick but just fat (even though I am not) and unhealthy.

Way to avoid it? Eat healthy all the time (but that big brownie over there is sometimes worth the fat feeling).
posted by Sassyfras at 3:18 PM on January 25, 2007

I'd posit gas, and retaining water from all the salt.
posted by loiseau at 3:21 PM on January 25, 2007

Beer contain carbon dioxide, and as it warms up inside your digestive tract, the gas elutes from four beers and works its way through your system. So you're probably just feeling gassy.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 3:26 PM on January 25, 2007

I'm voting for water weight gain/retaining water after all the carb-heavy food. It'll make you feel like you don't fit in your skin.
posted by Gucky at 3:28 PM on January 25, 2007

i'm a female, fit and not at all fat. when i eat something sweet or especially when i have bread--not a lot of it-- my clothes start to feel tight. i wear fitted clothes so it's very noticable to me within a few minutes--10 or 15--of eating that sort of food. otherwise it doesn't happen.

so i just try to avoid the empty carbs. i have no physiological explanation, neither does my husband who is a doctor. he has mentioned gas though, but within such a short time after eating, i wonder if that's possible. Also, the fat feeling doesn't last more than a few uncomfortable hours.
posted by subatomiczoo at 3:35 PM on January 25, 2007

Carbs make you retain water.
posted by konolia at 4:12 PM on January 25, 2007

Have you been gaining weight? No? Are you sure? Really sure? Really, really sure?

Because if you are, no matter how incrementally, now matter how slowly, no matter how gradually, you are bound to feel like you're getting fatter, because you are getting fatter.

People go from not-obese to obese all the time. Surely you're bound to feel it at some point.
posted by sourwookie at 4:49 PM on January 25, 2007

Alcohol causes bloating and the sugar it converts can wreak a little havoc on your blood sugar the following day.
posted by Manjusri at 6:18 PM on January 25, 2007

I think it's psychological. A good way to tell is if you feel really good about yourself after a good work out. If you do, you probably just have a really sensitive self-image that is easily swayed.
posted by mwang1028 at 6:32 PM on January 25, 2007

It's not psychological. It's called bloating. Women get it all the time, especially associated with PMS. It's caused when your body tries to hold on to extra water. Salt (A.K.A. junk food) makes it worse. Being dehydrated makes it worse. Carbs make it worse.
posted by Brittanie at 7:03 PM on January 25, 2007

Oops! I glossed over the third paragraph.
posted by sourwookie at 8:03 PM on January 25, 2007

(Wait, why should dehydration make you retain water? Doesn't dehydration consist of failing to retain water? If you retain your way back to a happy medium, shouldn't you feel normal and not bloated?)
posted by nebulawindphone at 8:47 PM on January 25, 2007

i'm a woman in decent shape, and i feel the fat like you describe every couple weeks.
it happens to me when i eat wheat (makes me bloaty), or when i have my period (again with the bloaty).
also it happens sometimes just for fun because estrogen is awesome.
it's not just psychological in my case- it's definitely a visible thing- people never comment that i look fat, of course, but a day after i have a fat day, people will tell me i look skinny. (wearing the exact same work uniform at the same time of day, lighting, etc). also, my best friend has fat days and i can see the difference on her.

the antidote for me is anything off this list:
a green apple, a cup of very hot nondairy tea, a 10-minute jog, 50 sit-ups, sucking my stomach in really far and standing up obnoxiously straight for a while, a shower/exfoliate/shave routine, or some sexing.
posted by twistofrhyme at 9:25 PM on January 25, 2007 [2 favorites]

My roommate refers to this feeling as the "stoner hangover". I think it's mostly psychological with perhaps a tiny bit of physical. (I know I feel fatter when I eat a lot of sodium and booze.)

I've always heard that waiting it out is the only thing to make it better.
posted by sperose at 10:05 PM on January 25, 2007

Doesn't dehydration consist of failing to retain water?

In a word, no. Dehydration has more to do with systemic fluid imbalances. I can have oedematous lower limbs and be dehydrated. Well and healthily hydrated, the body's fluids are balanced across three compartments: circulation, intracellular space and intercellular space. Shifts of fluids across these compartments is continuous, a complex science, and a delicate balancing thing. Dramatic fluid shifts across compartments are not without ramifications, one extreme example being shock leading to cardiac failure from haemorrhage.

Why the feeling fat syndrome?

One ramification of eating junk food with compromised hydration is the induced bowel bound fluid shift. The bowel alone traffics in 3 litres of body fluid a day simply for normal function - and faecal material in the small intestine is necessarily watery. Eat junk and the bowel naturally slows to accommodate that task. Eat junk with compromised hydration and the sluggish bowel becomes a fluid sump. It WILL get the fluid it needs from the body. Now your feeling good and engorged slowly procession junk.

Well hydrated people rarely experience either bloat (to any significant degree) or constipation. Hydration makes lighter work of digestion.

Fluid shifts around menses is (abdominally) a different story.
posted by de at 11:37 PM on January 25, 2007

When a person is dehydrated, the body tries as best it can to hold on to every last bit of fluid it can retain (similar to starvation mode). If you keep regularly hydrated, your body will understand that, for example, the next glass of water is a few minutes away and not days away, and won't feel the need to preserve additional fluids.

There was a question about this several months ago, but I can't find it.
posted by Brittanie at 12:44 AM on January 26, 2007

Another vote for "not psychological", as it happens to me, too. I usually deal with it by eating some celery, drinking a lot of water, and exercising. Coffee seems to help, too.
posted by Greg Nog at 10:26 AM on January 26, 2007

de: "Well hydrated people rarely experience either bloat (to any significant degree) or constipation."

Have you been in my colon lately? I drink 2-3 litres of water per day (and eat a tonne of fruit) and I'm still passing rocks over here.
posted by loiseau at 5:07 PM on January 26, 2007