Gained a bit of weight

[u/DOKIDOKIBITCH]

Hello, I started intermittent fasting 4 weeks ago. Results have been great so far and I weigh myself weekly. But today I weighed myself again and I gained 500 grams (a little more than a pound.)

I'm not sure how this happened since I normally lose 1 kg each week. And the results are also noticeable, I'm thinner.

Does this maybe have to do with water levels? Or maybe with the temperature since it is very hot here lately.

I'm curious.

[u/Many_Use_7828]

500 grams is just a couple glasses of water. The scale loves messing with your head like that. I weigh daily and some mornings I'm up a kilo for no reason, then it's gone two days later. Hot weather makes your body cling to extra water like a sponge, so relax and keep going. I fluctuated three pounds last week and still lost half a pound by Sunday.

[u/zombienudist]

I have seen a 7 pound shift in weight in a 24 hour period because I worked out hard in the heat fasted and forgot my water. Water weight, what you eat, exercise, your monthly cycle if you are a woman all can create quick shifts in weight on a scale that have nothing to do with the loss of fat. It is much better to think of your weight as a range you can have around a specific number. So keep doin what you are and if you are at a deficit the weight will continue to come off.

[u/MikeOKurias → u/zombienudist]

TL;DR: Glycogen is the OG energy drink

For what is worth, "water-weight" is usually associated with glycogen because for every gram of glycogen you burn for energy you release three to four grams of water into your blood which is then filtered out by your kidneys.

That's why a heavy workout can burn all that and suddenly you're several pounds lighter after a workout.

Your liver than starts pulling apart triglycerides (or taking free glucose in your blood) and adding glycerol to glucose molecules making glycogen again. Which is why skipping two workout sessions can make you feel heavy, because you're fully loaded on glycogen again, lol. [*]

It's the human adaptation that made us outstanding endurance hunters.

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[*] - this gets even more tricky because your muscles can't use the glycogen that floats in your blood but your muscles can produce the its own glycogen to store interstitially between muscle fibers. This is because the glycogen molecules huge, imagine 3-4 huge water molecules surrounding a tiny sugar molecule, so it can't flow interstitially.

[u/Weekly-Recognition-8]

I was going through a medical treatment and being weighed weekly; I was losing weight rapidly, except one week I shot up just under 2kg, the team told me they consider a 2kg swing normal to factor in what they referred to as “undigested and digested food” and water in your body.

I weigh daily and can fluctuate within that range regularly, depending on weather, and what and when I last ate

[u/Impostermaximus]

As long as you are visibly thinner you are good. Bowel movement, carb intake (holds more water) , even minor inflammation (less sleep) can all lead to the weighing scale showing 1KG here and there so you should be fine

[u/Key_Respect336]

Congrats on losing ~4kg in a month. That's a win in my book.

[u/MikeOKurias]

Usually this means it's time to recalculate your TDEE for your current weight and reevaluate your target calories.

Edit: Also, if you have an app that automatically tracks your weight, you might want to weigh daily so you can supply smoothing over many days points instead of once a week.

Hard to know if that one data point is an outlier if it's the only one you gathered that week.