Re: See myself leaning towards OCD. Am I going crazy?

I look at my weight today and it has gone from 243 to 249 in about 4 days.

WTF!? Is that normal? Is it that one day of really bad chicken that has done this? I have kept my calories really low since then and not let anything pass my lips. I am really trying to be so cautious. I messed up on one day! The other days I have been 100% better than I was on my previous fasts and I have still gained 6lbs. I am still able to wear my new pants though. I am so confused.

Hi 134,

WTF, Is it normal? :)

In adding to what Marionnette and MonteChristo said, in my experience it is exceedingly normal as we are regaining a lot of temporary water loss as well as intestinal contents. I have in every instance gained back a fair amount of the weight after fasting before it leveled off.

I start my workout tomorrow. Is this normal? I can slowly see myself becoming crazy counting calories and don't want that to happen. I need to know if I am overreacting and if such a weight gain is normal, even if you are having like 130calories /day(except that one fried chicken day).

In my opinion it is a mistake to have so few calories if it is not zero. Zero is good, 1200 is good, but 130 is no man's land where you are heightening your chances for burning muscle, something none of us want to burn. Thus I wouldn't try to stop the temporary losses from coming back by eating too few calories... best to let them naturally return and it will level off.

Will the weight gain stop and start to go down ? Is this just salt? Is this just food coming back into my body?

The weight gain will stop after the water levels off and will start to go down with the right diet and exercise program, yes... and this was the case for me when continued fat burning was my objective.

I haven't seen this in literature but my own theory (and what i believe i have personally experienced over several fasts) is that a fasting body requires less sodium and allows it to temporarily reach lower than normal levels... and water loss always accompanies sodium loss (that part is confirmed).

But once we begin eating again (even if we have zero added salt and zero high salt products such as many or most canned foods) the body gets back to it's normal sodium levels and the normal water levels follow. The normal, healthy sodium in good food contributes to this too including celery, kale, collards, parsley and carrots, foods of which i have plenty.

In conclusion, no way have you gained 6 pounds of fat or even 1 with what you have described.