Sudden Weight Gain - water retention?

[luceeloo]

I've gained 6lbs in three days!! I've been eating low carb, in fact, the last week or so I've reduced it to around 30g carbs a day.
I've purposely cut back a bit extra as I wanted to drop a bit more weight before christmas (and before I see the dreaded relatives!).
Also, I've been eating lower calorie as I've been filling up on salads and lean fish / meat. My Fitness Pal tells me that I'm eating around 1100 calories on average, and burning between 500 and 900 calories depending on what workout I'm doing.

I know that logically I can't have gained 6lbs in fat, so it must be water retention. It's not approaching *that* time of the month, so it's not hormonal.
It may be tmi, but I have noticed that I'm drinking more than I'm peeing out.
Does anyone know of any logical reason for this kind of water retention, or am I simply being too over ambitious on my body?

 

[Andy12345]

it sounds to me like your eating too few calories and your body thinks your starving so its holding onto whatever it can, also a strange fact ive learned is the less water you drink the more you retain, weird huh, are you drinking plenty? at least 2 litres a day

im no expert on any of this stuff

edit: now that i think about it i had a sudden weight gain once when i started i gained 4lb in a day, i even posted about it here i think, id say give it a few days, see what happens, i think mine fell back off +

2nd edit hehe: i found it but dont think itll be much help
viewtopic.php?f=18&t=39267

 

[luceeloo]

are you drinking plenty? at least 2 litres a day

I'm trying to remember to drink plenty - since getting my blood sugar down I find it so difficult to remember to drink. I'm going to make a concerted effort to ensure I get the 2 litres... even if I have to force it down lol.
Did wonder whether not eating enough could be a problem too. Gawd, why does it have to be so blimmin complicated!

Slightly off topic, but I noticed on your link that you mentioned that you drink Green Tea. I know it's off topic, but do you see the benefits of it?
I've tried it in the past and not really kept it up (mainly because it tastes so rank!). However, I do drink a lot of peppermint tea these days so I'm sure I could force some green tea down my neck if it was going to do me some good?

 

[Andy12345]

i know its hard, ive often thought it would be easier to figure out if we could just take a food pill lol, i buy from the supermarket the packs of water, 500ml bottles (the cheapest ones because water if water right) i take 4 bottles to work and that way i know how much im drinking, if needed i make myself drink them, ive done this since i had and have stones in the kidney and bladder and its extra important to keep my wee diluted (sorry too much info) but it works for me, before dx i was drinking soooooo much once i dropped my bgs i never felt thirsty at all and i do mean at all, i could have easy gone without any liquid from waking to sleeping probly where the stones came from so im careful now

the green started for me when i was playing the how the hell can i get to 30g carbs a day game and the milk in my tea seemed a waste of carbs, i couldnt stomach tea or coffee black so i started on the green tea, i dont like plain green, my favourites are green tea with either lemon or cranberry, i basically drink it all day, in fact its all i drink apart from water, benefits? not really well not that i have noticed, but on saying that i started drinking it through a period of such change it swould be hard to say one way or the other, but i havent noticed any ill effects

 

[VinnyJames]

Andy your signature statistics are amazing - well done!

How on earth do you do 30g carbs per day?

What does a typical day look like food wise?

Am currently on about 75g carbs a day which is a big reduction for me. And that was achieved with the app My Fitness Pal that you recommended.

Vinny

 

[Andy12345]

hiya tx

i dont count the carbs any more because ive kinda worked out what i can and cant eat carb wise, this is today for example but as i say i havent counted...

brekkie
fage natural greek yogurt (full fat)
10ish blackberries
5 strawberries chopped up
sprinkling of linwoods milled flax
(10g carb roughly)

10am
2 almost bounty balls that i made yesterday, recipe at www.diabeticgoodbaking.com
(4.4g carb)

lunch
subway salad (lettuce, cucumber,green pepper, olives, jalapenos, gherkins, toms, onion and grated cheese)
(no idea but its a salad lol)

dinner
homemade beef burgers x3 wrapped in lettuce leaves with thin sliced toms, fried mushrooms and cheddar cheese
(again no idea)

afters
sugar free jelly with double cream
(cant be lot lol)

hope this helps


Sent from the Diabetes Forum App

 

[Thommothebear]

If you have an imbalance between your salt and potassium intake that can cause water retention issues, I' also agree that your net calories intake is probably far too low. I occasionally get the same thing with water retention and i can normally put it down to hidden salt in food that I've eaten that I didn't prepare myself - in fact i put on 5lb in just 24 hours this last weekend because I was at a celebration. Calorie wise I didn't eat and drink that much, but i know some of the food on offer was pretty salt rich, so I'm fairly confident that weight will be back down again within a few days. Your weight can easily vary by 4lbs in a single day, thats completely normal.


Sent from a melting iceberg. help!!!

 

[VinnyJames]

Cheers Andy,

More food listed there than I thought there would be!

Lunch is 6g carbs for you and similar to what I might have. I still find dinner the hardest and sometimes allow that to be my high carb load.

I need to get creative I guess!

Vinny

 

[Andy12345]

my dinners are normally, meat and veg with cauliflower mash as a potato substitute, or omelette (variations of denver) or chicken stir fry or curry on salad (i prefer making the curries quite dry with loads of spices) spag bol with chunky veg (no spag) or eggs bacon sausage fry ups

edit: my wife makes me lasagna sometimes but substitute the pasta with leeks rolled flat, its nice

2nd edit: pizza made with cauliflower base is also nice... this could end up a long post lol


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[phoenix]

re: g carbs in Subway salad
between 5 and 7g as long as it wasn't a sweet onion and chicken one which is 19g
http://subway.co.uk/assets/pdf/Subway%2 ... ues_v3.pdf

 

[luceeloo]

Just a quick update. I have an appointment with DSN tomorrow so I'm going to mention it to her. I'm now 8lbs heavier today than I was on Friday.
I had a cup of peppermint on waking this morning and I took a litre flask of white tea to work with me today (found it on the shelf at home and thought "ah what the hell"). I drank that, then drank a 750ml bottle of water before lunch. I thought that I'd try and flush the water out... but seemingly have just added to it! Ordinarily I would be desperate for a wee by lunchtime, but didn't feel the need.
Had a turkey salad for lunch - kept it plain to avoid salts, just meat and salad, no dressings. Drank about another half a bottle of water during the afternoon and managed the worlds smallest wee - simply coz I felt I had to try! So something is going on in the way of water retention.

Have upped the calories today - had a nice big chunk of steamed salmon and a poached egg, with a little bit of hollandaise for breakfast, and just had roast beef, cabbage, and celeriac for tea. Going to lay off the exercise tonight too. I usually do an hour about 8pm, but I'm going for a walk around tesco instead, lol.

Here's to hoping I have some huge wees in the next few days!!!

 

[Andy12345]

Well you cant do much more, best of luck tommorow

 

[VinnyJames]

I think the Subway salad is gonna be a great thing for me to fall back on if I haven't time to make my own.
I'm really starting to think a low carb lifestyle isn't as daunting as I thought a few weeks ago.
Made my wife her tea tonight;
Gammon with a fried egg and sugar free jelly with just a few sliced bananas and double cream.
Lovely!

 

[Andy12345]

I think the Subway salad is gonna be a great thing for me to fall back on if I haven't time to make my own.
I'm really starting to think a low carb lifestyle isn't as daunting as I thought a few weeks ago.
Made my wife her tea tonight;
Gammon with a fried egg and sugar free jelly with just a few sliced bananas and double cream.
Lovely!

:thumbup: :thumbup:

 

[Lenny3]

Have you tried cutting out the caffine? I find tea makes me thirsty, I think its cos of the caffine, it might help.

 

[paul-1976]

On the subject of Gammon I've got mine half price per kg from Mr Tesco in the form of a finest smoked gammon joint for chrimbo-a big 'un' too and very low carb! :thumbup:

 

[luceeloo]

If you have an imbalance between your salt and potassium intake that can cause water retention issues, I' also agree that your net calories intake is probably far too low. I occasionally get the same thing with water retention and i can normally put it down to hidden salt in food that I've eaten that I didn't prepare myself - in fact i put on 5lb in just 24 hours this last weekend because I was at a celebration. Calorie wise I didn't eat and drink that much, but i know some of the food on offer was pretty salt rich, so I'm fairly confident that weight will be back down again within a few days. Your weight can easily vary by 4lbs in a single day, thats completely normal.


Sent from a melting iceberg. help!!!

I saw my DSN today, and she was very helpful, and also mentioned potassium. Lowering my calories so much and doing lots of exercise has most likely left me a little bit potassium deficient. So I have instructions to release the strings on my strict diet for a couple of days, eat some potassium rich foods, and see what the next few days bring.

Thanks for all your help and advice.

 

[Tigerkitty1950]

I suggest you look up vitamins and minerals, especially calcium, potassium and magnesium, help you body to eliminate toxins more efficiently, and keep the heart healthy

 

[luceeloo]

I suggest you look up vitamins and minerals, especially calcium, potassium and magnesium, help you body to eliminate toxins more efficiently, and keep the heart healthy

I will look it up, especially the potassium.
Thanks for the tip.

 

[Thommothebear]

I take quite a few supplements, mostly relating to the exercise regime so carnitine and glutamine, but I do also take potassium, chromium picolinate as well as zinc. All recommended by Dr Atkins for low carb diets.


Sent from a melting iceberg. help!!!