Weight loss and water retention: You're dieting and training but the scales isn't moving.
There’s a number of reasons that people don’t lose weight, or see any changes when they start to diet. Most commonly are:
They underestimate the amount of calories that they consume or accidentally eat more calories than they should.
They hugely overestimate the amount of energy/calories they burn everyday.
They set themselves back with ‘‘cheat days’’ or high calorie weekends (binge eating all weekend) when they haven’t allowed for them during the week. TIP: if you’re planning a high calorie Saturday, make your weekdays slightly more restrictive to compensate.
These mistakes are easily fixed, it’s just a matter of identifying where you’re going wrong.
But what happens when you’ve identified and corrected these issues and there’s still little to no change on the weighing scales? If you’re like most people, you’ll cut your calories even more, eating much less and attempt to move and exercise even more. This leads to poor adherence and almost always episodes of binging sooner or later. This is one of the main reasons people will YoYo diet.
The culprit here is most likely water retention and fluctuations.
FAT LOSS DOESN’T ALWAYS MEAN WEIGHT LOSS
Most people are under the illusion that weight loss is linear - They expect that any adherence to their diet and training means that automatically they should be down on the weighing scales every week. That just isn’t the case. Our body weight is made up of a variety of different things, mainly:
Fat
Lean body mass (muscle, bone, organs)
Water
Not to mention other things that affect our body weight such as recently eaten food and waste.But for now let’s just focus on the main 3 above.
Simply put, When you maintain a caloric deficit (eating less energy than you burn), your body converts fat to usable energy for your muscles, heart and other tissues through a series of complex metabolic processes. When this happens, fat cells releases glycerol or fatty acid molecules into your bloodstream to be broken down and used for energy.
But if that’s the case then why no change in the scale weight?
The answer is pretty simple.
The fat you lose through proper dieting can be obscured by additional water that your body is holding on to. I’m sure you’ve heard of this before but most people underestimate it. In fact, it’s not too uncommon for someone to lose up to 3-4 lbs of fat mass in a few weeks without even knowing it due to increased water retention. I’ve seen it time and time again working with clients where they are doing everything right and not seeing any change on the weighing scales, and then all of a sudden after a few weeks, BANG - they seem to drop 5 or 6 lbs almost overnight. The fat was being lost all along but the sudden drop in bodyweight was due to water fluctuation.
For someone only focusing on scale weight, often the fat loss only becomes apparent when the excess fluid is flushed out of the body, creating the illusion of extreme fat loss over very short periods. When in actual fact, it’s been the result of many weeks of consistency. Unfortunately, many don’t have the patience or understanding when dieting and will jump from diet to diet expecting different results.
What causes water retention?
Your bodyweight can fluctuate up to 4 - 5 lbs daily. But it’s important to remember that this isn’t fat. Have you ever stepped on the scales and been a lb or 2 heavier or lighter than the day before? You’re body won’t gain or lose that much fat that fast, again this is caused by water fluctuation.
The main factors that affect your daily fluctuations in weight are:
Carbohydrates get broken down to glycogen which we use for energy. However, every 1 gram of glycogen is bound to roughly 3 grams of water in order to store the fuel source. So someone that eats a lot of carbohydrates may experience more water retention for this reason. Not necessarily a bad thing once you understand it. But imagine that you consume 150g of carbs in a day (which you easily could). That 150g will be bound to 450g of water for storage (1:3), so that’s 600g in total before waste product or the equivalent of 1.3 lbs that may show on the scales that is not body fat.
N.B. Your body can store between 350g-450g glycogen between the muscles and the liver at any time (depending on the individual). So if that is 400g glycogen, and each 1g glycogen is bound to 3g water. That is 1.2kgs total of ‘‘weight’’ coming from glycogen/water. This is not fat mass and it fluctuates a lot depending on your food choices, but it’s important to know this before freaking out when you step on the scales.
Sodium - Sodium is an electrolyte that helps drive water into the cell.And this extra water all adds up. Many of us don’t think that we consume a lot of sodium, but we are thinking purely about the salt shaker. The truth is that a lot of foods you eat day to day have quite a high sodium content. E.g Processed foods, deli meats, tinned soup, seasonings and sauces are all common culprits.
Food weight - An obvious one but food intake will cause your weight to increase slightly as it is processed by the body. The food you consume can weigh a few ounces per meal to a few pounds per day. The water in food can cause your weight to increase as well, and many times after you've been eating a lot this water weight is what causes the number on the scale to rise.
Your poop - As much as you think your shit don’t stink, you will see some fluctuations on the scales due to bowel movements. In a research study (which I would hate to have been a part of), researchers found that you might produce 125 to almost 170 grams of stool per day.
Medication - Some medications can cause increased appetite, water storage, others may affect how your body absorbs and stores glucose, which can lead to fat deposits in the midsection of your body (according to Obesity Action Coalition https://www.obesityaction.org/community/article-library/prescription-medications-weight-gain). If you notice a sudden increase on the scale after you start a new prescription, don’t stop taking the medication. Instead, talk to your doctor or pharmacist.
Menstrual Cycle - It is very common for a lot of women to experience a degree of bloating from fluid retention immediately before and during their menstrual period. Studies have shown that fluid retention peaks on the first day of menstrual flow. It is lowest during the mid-follicular period (the middle phase of your cycle) and then gradually increases over the eleven days surrounding ovulation.
These are just some of the main reasons that your body water might fluctuate daily. In isolation they might not seem like much but when you add them up you can see why on any given day your body weight can be up or down depending on a variety of these factors. Genetics and lifestyle also plays a huge part here.
So to finish, don’t use or focus on the weighing scales as your main measurement of progress. Track it sure, but be aware that it’s just your relationship with gravity at the end of the day. Some better ways to track progress are to take regular pictures of yourself (they won’t lie), tape measurements, how you feel in your clothes and more importantly how you feel in yourself.
Control the controllables, focus on creating good, sustainable habits and trust the process. The changes will happen!
References:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/obr.12255
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4371661/