Water weight

I had a couple of really bad weeks where I let stress get the best of me and I overate and underexercised. This was right after a huge loss from having a stomach virus (9 pounds in 5 days). In 5 days, I gained 20 pounds of mostly water weight. In the last 2 days, I've lost 9 pounds of mostly water.

Anyone else have these huge water weight fluctuations. I felt it in my clothing, too. With the 20 pound gain, the clothes felt snug. With the 9 pound loss, I feel normal. I'm back to where I was before the stomach virus.

If I didn't know better, this kind of up and down would drive me crazy! But, I know it's water retention, food in my belly, and maybe a pound or two of real weight.

Ok. Just had to share and see if anyone else has gone through this.

Yep, I can gain 4-5 lbs in one night. I traced it down to over indulgences in high carb or high sodium foods. That's why this site is so awesome if you input all your food. If you see big jumps in weight or losses, you can figure out what you did to yield those results!

Mermaid, your description sounds more on the extreme side of water retention/loss but not completely out of the ordinary. Weight fluctuations are quite normal for many many reasons that have nothing to do with actual fat loss/gain so it's important to notice when these tings happen but not get hung up on it. I think it is pretty normal to experience a weight increase after recovering from illness because your body tends to go into a mode of repair and rehabilitation. Our bodies will do everything possible to keep us living and after periods of severe illness, dehydration, starvation, etc, we can pack on pounds simply due to evolutionary survival processes. It's one reason why cutting calories drastically can result in weight gains, because our bodies freak out and become super efficient to keep us "alive".

I second the above comments. I see it too.