Why You Should Stop Worrying About S-Day Gains (LONG)
Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2011 4:21 pm
Skip to second paragraph if you want to skip the back story. This relates to my "planned ignoring" of the scale. I've noticed some people check the scales on Monday morning and start hating themselves for enjoying S-Days. In a lot of my diet research, S-Day-type strategies are recommended. Since Tim Ferriss' "Slow-Carb Diet" was my last go at micromanaging my eating, I'll only reference him. Ferriss recommends a single "binge day" per week, for the purposes of causing thyroid and other hormones to resist down-regulation (in other words, to keep you healthy during rapid weight loss, because rapid weight loss is a disruption to the body I guess). This is similar to other, similar diets that use loading days, carb-up days, cheat days, etc.
Anyway, a pretty standard caveat is that after an S-Day or two, your body will be heavier for the following reasons about which you should NOT be alarmed:
1. Increased salt intake will cause TEMPORARY water weight gain/retention in quite a lot of your tissues. Drinking water and exercising help this.
2. Increased intake of carbs and fat will result in increased glycogen stores in your muscles and liver. This healthy and is also temporary, but may take a couple of days to wear off (you can burn the "excess" glycogen faster by Urban Rangering and Shovelgloving).
3. More food means more undigested food and accompanying water in your intestines (sorry if that grosses you out). Water, fiber, coffee, and time work well to fix this.
All this combined means that you may see as much as a 12-pound jump on your scale and have absolutely nothing to worry about. Also keep in mind that these things can look like fat gain in a mirror or in how your clothes fit.
The remedy? Stop weighing yourself daily, and opt for once per week as a maximum. Basically, the best time to weigh yourself should be Saturday as soon as you get out of bed, and weigh yourself nude if possible so you don't have to factor in the weight of your clothes.
Personally, weighing-in even once per week was way too much. I think I'll stick with no more frequently than once per month, for the reasons Reinhard has discussed.
Sorry that was so long.
Anyway, a pretty standard caveat is that after an S-Day or two, your body will be heavier for the following reasons about which you should NOT be alarmed:
1. Increased salt intake will cause TEMPORARY water weight gain/retention in quite a lot of your tissues. Drinking water and exercising help this.
2. Increased intake of carbs and fat will result in increased glycogen stores in your muscles and liver. This healthy and is also temporary, but may take a couple of days to wear off (you can burn the "excess" glycogen faster by Urban Rangering and Shovelgloving).
3. More food means more undigested food and accompanying water in your intestines (sorry if that grosses you out). Water, fiber, coffee, and time work well to fix this.
All this combined means that you may see as much as a 12-pound jump on your scale and have absolutely nothing to worry about. Also keep in mind that these things can look like fat gain in a mirror or in how your clothes fit.
The remedy? Stop weighing yourself daily, and opt for once per week as a maximum. Basically, the best time to weigh yourself should be Saturday as soon as you get out of bed, and weigh yourself nude if possible so you don't have to factor in the weight of your clothes.
Personally, weighing-in even once per week was way too much. I think I'll stick with no more frequently than once per month, for the reasons Reinhard has discussed.
Sorry that was so long.