As I bounce around this Forum, I often come across posts from people that are upset about their weight gain. They get on their scales and see they have gained 300 grams (or whatever), or maybe have not lost any weight when they feel they should have, and wonder what is wrong with them, their food or 5:2. They have got nothing on me.
I don’t weigh myself that often. I have an old scale that has a dial that theoretically tells me my weight in pounds. I really can’t see the dial that well, so when I’m on the scale I am really only getting an estimate of what the dial says. If I really care what the dial says, I put a mark where it is pointing. That way, I can actually see the poundage line, and later on see if I am gaining or losing from that mark. It’s probably another reason I don’t weigh myself that often.
But I weighed myself awhile ago and was happy to see I was down 19 pounds in 19 weeks. I went through the rest of the week, and Saturday I went to a beer festival where there was much great beer and food. Under 5:2, I can eat normally if it is not a fast day, so I did.
I sampled over 20 beers (4 to 12 oz. a sample), had a large breakfast (can’t drink beer on an empty stomach), a large lunch, great dinner and some really good snacks in between. Overall, just a great day.
However, I got on my scale Sunday morning and could not help but notice I had gained 6 pounds since the previous Wednesday.
Now 6 pounds is a lot. It is about 21,000 cal. And that is over and above my daily TDEE that I can eat without gaining any weight. Add 12,000 calories for 5 days. I immediately started (trying) to remember what I had eaten that added up to 33,000 calories and had caused that much weight gain in only 5 days.
Let’s see – I like eggs, but I would have had to eaten 390 of them for that weight gain, and I could not remember doing that. I also like chicken breasts (with skin), but I would have had to eaten 132 of those and I did not see even one chicken bone in my garbage, so I must not have eaten that much chicken. Beer has no calories (or so I’ve been told, I think), so it could not have been the beer.
I proceeded to fast on Sunday, curious about what I had eaten that had caused me to wipe out 6 weeks of hard earned weight loss in only 5 days.
I stuck to my fast, and Sunday evening thought I would weigh myself to see how I was doing. I was down 2 pounds – a good start. I went to bed and was delighted to find upon waking that I had lost another 2 pounds overnight. Sort of magic. I ate a nice breakfast of bacon, eggs and bagel with lots of great coffee and went about my day. I just stepped on the scales again, and am delighted to report I am now the same weight I was last Wednesday. Now I’m trying to figure out how I managed to cut 21,000 calories out of my diet in just 2 days, when I ‘normally’ eat only 2400 calories per day. Seems like that would be hard to do, even if I ate nothing.
So for all of you that become concerned when you gain a little weight on 5:2, or don’t lose as fast as you feel you should, don’t sweat the small stuff. I gained 6 pounds on 5:2 in just 5 days.
But lost them all in 2.
Remember, it takes as much work to gain weight quickly as to lose it quickly. And most of us don’t put in that much work. So it’s usually just ‘easy on, easy off’ (otherwise known as water weight).
Good Luck!
9:54 pm
9 Apr 14