I went on my cruise and ate LC for five days (much higher calories than normal) and last two days were free for all. I weighed five days later after returning to induction and now Fat fast and I have gained six pounds back. Will it come off? Is it water? How much do u gain with a cheat and how long til it comes off?

Well a lb equals about 3500 calories. So if you pass your "maintenace" daily calories (or the amount of calories needed in order for your weight not to fluctuate) by 3500, then you will gain a pound. I doubt you ate that much in 5 days to gain 6lbs of fat! So therefore I say most of it IS water Now, just drink a ton of water, reduce your salt and carb in take and you should see your weight sliding down a bit..

How much did you gain? It's impossible to know, but you should keep in mind that for every gram of cabs you eat your body will hold onto 3g of water. When you overindulge in carbs and step on the scale the following day what you're seeing is the water the carbs attract - this is the reverse of a whooosh, when fat cells let go of water.

-Nat

bumping for more info please

Just wondering where you got that number... I've never heard the 3g for 1g before.

I cheated - gained 6 lbs. in 3 days. It took me a full cheat-free week, including drinking tons of water and my usual exercise to lose the 6 lbs. I figure the cheating put me behind by a week.

BTW, I was 11 days into induction when I had my cheat wknd. As soon as I got home, I continued with 20g carbs a day.

i cheated from tuesday to sunday and gained about 6 pounds. but i ate everything i wanted to get it out of my system since i had already blew it and cheated. i started back on monday and i have lost all but 1.5 pounds. ihavent really done anything special to get it back off.

I'm pretty sure I picked that up from Trainerdan or over at abcbodybuilding. I've seen the number as '3' and as '2.4' but personal experience has it pegged around 3 for me.

-Nat

I cheated badly tonight, Ill let you know how much I gained. I also ran 2.5 miles a little bit before-hand, so I actually probably wont gain much.

I'm trying really hard not to fall into the "throw the baby out with the bathwater" trap myself. I'm getting better at looking at a lapse as an isolated thing, since I know it's easier to un-do ONE mistake than a carbohydrate free-for-all. I've been making pretty good progress trying not to let guilt take me over and beat myself up over a momentary slip.

Food and emotion have been linked for me for TOO long. I can't undo it all at once, but any tips or hints would be welcome.

ive never heard it put that way before, lol. it was just too hard and too expensive to stay on this woe while in the hospital. my dh was in there for 2 days and with nothing else to do seems like i was hungry the whole time i was there. there was no way i could have planned for it because it was an emergency. i had been wanting or craving or whatever an ice cream blizzard for at least a week so i went ahead and got one while i had already messed up. today is my 6th day on the straight and narrow tho and i have done pretty good. 176.5 this morning so it is coming back off, it is just gonna take a while to get all that bad stuff out of my system.

The reason you lose so much weight the first few days of atkins is not because you are losing body fat, but you are losing water from carbs. The 6 pounds you gained is probably only partially body fat (attributed to the over eating), the rest is water. Just get back on the wagon and you will be okay.

Stacysheil-- I hope everything turned out okay with the hubby. I know first-hand how hard it is to stay lc in that situation. Last year when my son had surgery, I was stuck for three days, trying to stay on-plan. I drove myself nuts trying to count carbs when it would have been less stressful to have been able to just concentrate on staying sane! I was still in my "need to be perfect" stage, though.

I found a passage in Chris Carmichaels book "The Ultimate Ride" that says "Remember that each gram of carbohydrate stored in your muscles stores three to five grams of water with it..."

Thank you! I *knew* I'd read it somewhere - at least from two other sources. I'm thinking now it must have been something from last September when I did a CKD and was reading everything and anything by Lyle MacDonald I could get my hands on.

I appreciate the corroboration :0

Nat