To not know how the hell I managed to put on half a stone in 3 days?!

[WanderingNotLost]

Over the last few years I've put on a bit of weight and it's really got to me. My whole adult life I'd always hovered around 9 stone (I'm 5 ft 6) which I was perfectly happy with. Then I moved to a place only a few minutes walk from the train station so did less walking each day, and swapped from the contraceptive pill to the implant (HUGE mistake) and within 18 months or so my weight steadily crept up til I got to 11 stone a few months back. Over the last few weeks I managed to lose 10lbs, getting down to 10 st 4- a combination of more exercise and a low-calorie diet Monday-Friday. But over the bank holiday I somehow shot back up to 10 st 10 between Saturday and yesterday morning! A few pounds here or there I can get my head around- but that is crazy! I didn't binge eat- one big-ish meal on Saturday, a salad for dinner on Sunday, two meals Monday.
Can anyone make sense of this?

Op it can take a while. I drink about 3 litres a day. Give it a few days. It's only Thursday, you got weighed yesterday or Tuesday. 1lbs not bad in that time frame.

If it's also hormonal, it take up 10 days.

You were all right folks- checked again this morning, 10:5!

Hurrah!

This happens to me once in a blue moon. I'll just retain water like mad and my love of salty food doesn't help! Yep, drink loads of water. Green tea helps if you are feeling like you've got a lot of undigested food inside (this happens when I pig out on roast beef - my body doesn't handle red meat very well.) Take baths with epsom salts as well. I find I don't have much appetite when this happens so a few days of eating light salads or soups helps too.

Have you eaten a lot of carbs? When carbs are stored in muscle for quick use energy they require water, at a ratio of 1part carb to 3 parts water so you gain more weight. Salt also causes your cells to take on more water to dilute the concentration of salt.

If you drink lots of water your body doesn't hold on to it as much and by products of metabolism are flushed away quicker, therefore your cells have less in them!

If you've been dieting/"good" and then suddenly not so good, it's glycogen stores. Ready energy stored in your liver and your muscles, suspended in 4 times its weight in water. Google it - trust me, it's not fat.

Before, being good, your glycogen stores were probably low, thus why you were dipping into fat stores for energy and thus losing weight, but now you are probably maintaining or maybe gained a few ounces or a pound, and the rest is glycogen and water unless you've been very bad indeed.

Which is why we get a great weight loss in our first week on a "diet" - yes you've lost some fat, but more importantly your glycogen stores and the water that goes with it. Then things level out.