Causes of sudden weight gain spike?

A

ahammad

New member
I've been on an exercise plan for the last 8 months or so. During that time, I feel like I am stronger than before (weight training and all) but I haven't lost any weight, despite the 30min of cardio 5 times a week. I guess that was expected due to the weight training.

Anyway, 3 weeks ago I decided to switch it up and focus more on dieting and losing extra pounds instead of building muscle. I consume 1900-2200 calories a day, burn anywhere between 4000 and 4500 calories on the elliptical every week, in addition to weight training 4 times a week (45 min or so). I'm a 24 year old male, 5'10". When I started 3 weeks ago, I was 231 lbs. Two days ago I was 224 lbs. Yesterday I had a sudden spike to 229 lbs. Today I'm still at that 229lbs mark.

I realize that this may be a temporary thing and all, but what can be the cause of such a high spike overnight? Am I consuming too much? The thing is with all these BMR calculators is that the numbers aren't very consistent, so it's hard to say whether or not 2200 calories a day is too much. I'm pretty sure I know what I'm eating and not underestimating. I used to be 284 lbs and dropped down to ~220 2 years ago, but then my last year of engineering school (which is incredibly stressful) got in the way of my exercising and I lost focus on the dieting. Any ideas would be nice. The scale is my worst enemy it seems...

Note- I have a desk job, i.e. not physically taxing. I sit on a computer pretty much all day, unless I'm at the gym.
 
Water....... if you eat salty food, it can really make you retain water....
I have gained up to 6 pounds at once.... yeah, it's not fun.
Drinking water usually helps me overcome this quickly.
 
DOMS, what is that????? Lucy, you got some 'splaining to do!
Splainin%27ToDo.jpg
 
Just google it!

Delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), also called muscle fever

about muscels getting sore and swollen after exercise.
 
If it happened overnight, it could definitely be water retention. Take a look at what you've eaten and drank recently to see if you had salty foods, more alcohol or caffeine than usual, or just anything out of the ordinary.

Another note is that those daily calorie calculators are just estimates. If you follow a 2200 calorie per day intake for a month or two and your weight stays the same, drop it slightly for a while (by maybe 200 to 250 cals per day) and see if you start to drop some weight. You need to adjust according to what your results are telling you, just be careful about going too low, which can have a detrimental effect on weight loss.
 
Andddd, back on topic.

OP, it's probably just water, like others have said. You'll be back to normal (or lower) in no time if you're sticking to your diet and exercise :)
 
More than likely your retaining water. Watch your sodium intake and make sure your getting enough water.
 
Or it could be that you leaned forward/back or something simple on the scale. On my (cheapo) scale it can make a 2-3lb difference easily if I'm not standing straight.
 
Thanks for the replies all. I checked this morning and I am back to normal. so it must have been water retention.

I'm also curious about the DOMS thing. I do get muscles soreness from my weight training, but how does that affect weight?
 
Well, someone on this forum told me that muscels would retain more water than normal during DOMS as they get swollen. :seeya:
 
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