Overeating... what it really does and what it doesn't do
Hey guys, the picture added to this thread is my weight chart throughout the last month and I post it because this subject came up in a recent discussion here on the forum.
For the Americans, the spectrum of 75 kilos to 80.5 kilos equals 165 lbs to 177.5 lbs.
As you can see, I was constantly within a range of two kilos with the average slightly increasing at the middle of the month... that's when I ended my cut and increased my daily calories to slightly above maintainance again. And then, at the end of the month, the curve suddenly skyrockets! :o
So what calamity made me gain 3 kilos all of a sudden? That was one really bingy weekend. A friend celebrated his 41st birthday, I slept at his place and I decided to ignore healthy nutrition for these days and just enjoy whatever my friend would serve us. So on these two days I ate and drank easily above 5000 calories per day, which is more than twice my maintainance calories. And even on the following Monday I overate by quite alot, since it kinda feels convenient after such a weekend. x)
Well, and then I steped on the scale and the results really tried their hardest to shock me: Highest weight since 12 months! Scream bloody murder, all my progress gone! All training for nothing!
Luckily not. :) I just ate a megaton of Carbohydrates on these days, thus filling up my Glycogen stores to the maximum and bloating up by a fair bit. But by far the biggest part of it was nothing but water. As you can see, by today I am almost back to my pre-binge-weight, and that's although I did not go on a deficit at all. I kept eating on my planned slight caloric surplus. But I reduced my carbs back to their ordinary level, drank a good amount of water and pushed myself during my workouts (although I felt pretty miserable for a couple of days x) ), so slowly the water retention went back down. All that's left from three days of massive binging is a couple hundred gramm of weight gain. If I wanted, I could easily diet it back down within half a week, but I just don't mind at the moment. Gonna focus on building muscle right now, anyways. ;)
The important point is that I knew what was going to happen. I knew I would gain alot of weight after this weekend, but I also knew that the vast majority of it would be gone by the end of the week without me having to put any additional effort into it. So there was no reason at all for me to panic or question my general approach towards fitness, just because of three or four singular weighing results. The scale is a tool, which gives you some indication of what's going on inside your body. But you always have to interpret this data. By itself and without context, it means nothing. In order to understand the context, a bit of general knowledge is very helpful in my eyes. Like this simple rule: For each gramm of carbs you eat, you store 3 gramm of water in your muscles. That means, if I eat a pound of carbs that I usually don't eat, this will include 3 lbs of water, so all in all I will be 4 lbs heavier, without having gained any fat at all. And for me personally it's usually between three and five days untill I am "back to normal" afterwards. I observed this closely over the holidays. :)
So my recommendation for you guys: If you know that the scale triggers you, just don't use it for a week after a feast! Just weigh yourself with a week's delay and you will see what such a feast really does to your weight: Close to nothing. Just as weight loss takes alot of time and patience, real weight gain takes alot of time, too, and it definitely doesn't happen due to a handful of singular events.
Overeating... what it really does and what it doesn't do
Hey guys, the picture added to this thread is my weight chart throughout the last month and I post it because this subject came up in a recent discussion here on the forum.
For the Americans, the spectrum of 75 kilos to 80.5 kilos equals 165 lbs to 177.5 lbs.
As you can see, I was constantly within a range of two kilos with the average slightly increasing at the middle of the month... that's when I ended my cut and increased my daily calories to slightly above maintainance again. And then, at the end of the month, the curve suddenly skyrockets! :o
So what calamity made me gain 3 kilos all of a sudden? That was one really bingy weekend. A friend celebrated his 41st birthday, I slept at his place and I decided to ignore healthy nutrition for these days and just enjoy whatever my friend would serve us. So on these two days I ate and drank easily above 5000 calories per day, which is more than twice my maintainance calories. And even on the following Monday I overate by quite alot, since it kinda feels convenient after such a weekend. x)
Well, and then I steped on the scale and the results really tried their hardest to shock me: Highest weight since 12 months! Scream bloody murder, all my progress gone! All training for nothing!
Luckily not. :) I just ate a megaton of Carbohydrates on these days, thus filling up my Glycogen stores to the maximum and bloating up by a fair bit. But by far the biggest part of it was nothing but water. As you can see, by today I am almost back to my pre-binge-weight, and that's although I did not go on a deficit at all. I kept eating on my planned slight caloric surplus. But I reduced my carbs back to their ordinary level, drank a good amount of water and pushed myself during my workouts (although I felt pretty miserable for a couple of days x) ), so slowly the water retention went back down. All that's left from three days of massive binging is a couple hundred gramm of weight gain. If I wanted, I could easily diet it back down within half a week, but I just don't mind at the moment. Gonna focus on building muscle right now, anyways. ;)
The important point is that I knew what was going to happen. I knew I would gain alot of weight after this weekend, but I also knew that the vast majority of it would be gone by the end of the week without me having to put any additional effort into it. So there was no reason at all for me to panic or question my general approach towards fitness, just because of three or four singular weighing results. The scale is a tool, which gives you some indication of what's going on inside your body. But you always have to interpret this data. By itself and without context, it means nothing. In order to understand the context, a bit of general knowledge is very helpful in my eyes. Like this simple rule: For each gramm of carbs you eat, you store 3 gramm of water in your muscles. That means, if I eat a pound of carbs that I usually don't eat, this will include 3 lbs of water, so all in all I will be 4 lbs heavier, without having gained any fat at all. And for me personally it's usually between three and five days untill I am "back to normal" afterwards. I observed this closely over the holidays. :)
So my recommendation for you guys: If you know that the scale triggers you, just don't use it for a week after a feast! Just weigh yourself with a week's delay and you will see what such a feast really does to your weight: Close to nothing. Just as weight loss takes alot of time and patience, real weight gain takes alot of time, too, and it definitely doesn't happen due to a handful of singular events.