Did you have a treat meal?
Are you freaking out now that the scale says you’ve sabotaged all your hard work from the previous week?
Well, you did NOT just gain 2 – 5 lbs of fat…
It’s OKAY.
Your body will retain some water when you eat extra carbs. When you ingest 1 gram of carbohydrate, your body holds onto 4 grams of water. So it might seem like you’ve gained back all your weight, but it’s just water weight.
Just get back on the clean eating wagon.
Have a sweaty workout.
Drink lotsa water – I know this sounds counter intuitive but it will help flush out anything you’re retaining.
Having a treat meal, (within an hour eating window not a 24 hour period) about once a week will raise the hormone ‘leptin’. Leptin is the hormone that helps your body let go of fat.
If you’re on a restrictive diet for even as little time as a week, there’s a decrease of this hormone.
Your body may think it’s in starvation mode and it starts to hoard fat to ‘survive’. Your body is incredibly efficient – it doesn’t know that food is plentiful, it thinks that it’s in short supply (because you’ve been feeding it less) so it will save fat for a rainy day.
So, it’s fine to enjoy a treat meal about once a week. Enjoy what you’d like for an hour, then get back to your regular programming.
Then don’t have a fit when the scale reads more for a day or two after. Know that it’s normal and that the scale will settle when you get back to your routine.
If you’d like a little more direction with your fitness and nutrition, I’d be happy to answer any questions for you in my free Facebook group called: