Cheated and the effects on the scale

(Susan) #1

So to start, I know that to avoid all of this, many will say that you should avoid cheating all together. I understand that, so there is no need for those sorts of opinions :slight_smile:

I’ve been doing keto pretty religiously for about 3 months now. I went home to visit family and maintained keto for most of the time, but I’d say in the last week, I’ve cheated on and off… but mostly been off keto.

I had lost up to 30 lbs at this point. I got on the scale this morning just to see, and was up 8 lbs. I know you become bloated and retain water when cheating, so I’m sure that does contribute. But is it possible to have gained back over 5 lbs of fat in a matter of a week?

#2

When you go ‘out’ of ketosis, your body stores glycogen in the muscles, and glycogen is bound to water–so there is usually a ‘gain’ of 5-8 lbs of water involved. That’s the initial loss when people go low carb and get into ketosis, snd it’s reversed when you ‘leave’ ketosis.

You may have gained 1-2 lbs of body fat, but most (if not all) of your gain was the water I’ve described.