I put on 3lbs of fat in a weekend!

We have all heard someone say what is in the title (or being honest, have said it ourselves). But surely, if that is what the scales say, how can it not be true? This is a very good example of how we can take a piece of information ( the scales show a 3 pound weight gain) and come to a conclusion that is not correct (I have gained 3 pounds of fat).

Constantly changing

The answer is found in the fact that your weight is in a constant state of change. It is influenced by lots of things -  hydration levels, hormonal fluctuations,  what you have recently eaten and when you last went to the toilet!

The good news is you can’t put on 3 pounds of fat over a weekend - your body just doesn’t work like that. So where has this mysterious weight gain come from? And equally important - where does it go?

Suspect No 1

The answer is found in what you have recently eaten and the effect this has on your body. If you eat a lot of ultra processed, hyperpalatable food (translation: most things that taste really yummy or anything you can buy in a garage that’s not fuel!) the chances are it will contain high levels of sodium (salt). Your body will retain a lot of water in order to balance out this extra sodium in your system. This extra water will alter the number on the scales. That’s suspect No 1.

Suspect No 2

Suspect No 2? Carbs. Before we go any further, this is not an attempt to demonise carbohydrates but rather to explain the short-term effects they have on your scale weight. Carbohydrates (found in bread, rice, pasta but also vegetables) are all eventually broken down into sugar to give you energy to fuel your activity and are an important part of your diet. In order to store carbohydrates in your body you also need to store water (each gramme of carbohydrate needs 3-4 grammes of water for it to be stored).

Water retention

 So if you eat a whole pizza (isn’t it cruel just to leave those last few lonely slices by themselves?) you will be consuming a large amount of carbohydrates and you will retain a large amount of water in order to store them. This shows up on the scales and our understandable conclusion is “I’ve put on weight!”. 

Three days later, your body has processed this food, the water you had retained in order to store it is no longer needed and has been lost through bodily fluids etc. “ I've lost that weight from the weekend!” You never really had it in the first place - it was just visiting. 

4 Measures of Progress

If the scales can’t be trusted - in many ways it can be but we can’t be trusted to interpret the information  -  is it then useless? Not necessarily, but it's more useful to give you a long term perspective, not a snapshot over a few days. 

We always advise our clients to use 4 ways of measuring their progress if weight change is their goal: the scales (over a long period); tape measurements; progress pictures and clothes. All of those things together will give you a much more accurate reflection of your progress.

To sum up - use the scales by all means but think about what it is actually telling you!