With Christmas coming this post is a reminder that changes in weight aren’t just fat. To gain 1kg of extra body fat you’d have to consume 7700kcal ABOVE your normal maintenance level. Even with a big Christmas dinner and all the trimmings, desert and lots of mince pies, that’s a lot of food!
Your weight isn’t only fat. It includes your muscle, organs, bones and any water you’re holding. It also includes any food currently in your digestive system/gut. Depending on when you last went to the loo that will influence your total weight!
Carbs are stored as glycogen. Every 1g of glycogen is stored with 3-4g of water. When you have a day which includes more carbs than normal you can see why this may make your weight spike.
Muscle, or lean body mass (LBM), changes will also affect your total weight. This is why if you are in the process of a body recomp (losing fat and gaining muscle at the same time), this changes your physique while the scale weight may not move much.
Some hormones will influence your overall weight as well. For women their menstrual cycle can mean at different times of the month they hold more water. High levels of cortisol (the stress hormone) can also increase water retention. These things increasing or changing weight, but not fat.
To bring this back to my main point. If you do eat more over the next couple of days, firstly I hope you enjoyed Christmas and celebrating with family (if you’re somewhere that’s allowed at the mo). Secondly don’t worry as once you go back to your normal diet your weight over the coming days will likely fluctuate back down.
(Reposted from Instagram)