Why You Gained 5 Pounds in 3 Days (And Why It's Not Fat)

The scale jumps 3–5 pounds after you start eating more and your brain screams, “I knew it, fat gain!”

Not so fast. We break down the real reasons behind that early spike and show you how to navigate the first two weeks with confidence (instead of fear). 

Why does the scale goe up 3-5 pounds or more so quickly? What's actually happening physiologically, and why do most people reverse course right when they should hold steady?

If you've ever tried to "eat more" (reverse diet) and felt like you immediately started gaining fat, this explains exactly what's going on.

Learn the complete 10-Week Recovery Diet at our live workshop this Tuesday, Oct 21 at noon Eastern. Learn the systematic approach to raising your intake so you can add up to 400-600 calories a day by New Year's without gaining more body fat.

Register here: https://live.witsandweights.com

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Episode Transcript

Philip Pape (00:00):
Hey everyone, I have another quick bonus episode
today because I'm seeing amistake made over and over again
that I think costs people lotsand lots of progress.
And it has to do with when youtry to increase your calories,
right?
You hear the advice to reversediet or you have to increase
your metabolism and then yourscale jumps like three to five
pounds.
It's probably going to happen.

(00:20):
And I want to talk about why ithappens so that you have a
little more confidence if thishappens next time.
Now, let's let's pick a number.
Let's say you're eating 1200calories, and some advice tells
you, or you've listened to acoach, or if you've listened to
a podcast, and they say you needto eat more, right?
Maybe you're exhausted, you'refeeling the effects of being at

(00:41):
such low energy.
And so you're like, okay, Ineed to increase my calories.
I'm going to increase them by,let's say, 400 calories to 1600.
And then a few days go by andyou check the scale and it's up
like three or four pounds.
This is actually quite common,but a lot of us panic because of
the emotional connection to thescale.
And you think, okay, look, Iknew I would gain fat if I ate

(01:02):
more, so I kind of have to stepback down to 1200 calories.
And it's kind of a cycle,vicious cycle where you're
stuck.
But if you've ever listened tothis show, we talk about water
weight fluctuations.
You probably know in the backof your head that that it's that
it's not fat gain, but are yousure?
And will that will that patterncontinue?
And I think that's where thefear comes from.
And when you increase calories,if your body has been

(01:26):
suppressed, your metabolism hasbeen adapted for a long time,
your body does two things.
The first thing it's going todo is replenish your glycogen
stores.
Glycogen is stored carbohydratein your muscles and liver.
And when you're under-eating,they get depleted.
It's the reason that people canlose weight quickly on like a
low carb or a keto-style dietbecause they're immediately

(01:48):
immediately depleting a lot ofthat glycogen.
When you eat more, especiallymore carbs, then they refill.
So if you think of the numbers,each gram of glycogen holds
about three to four grams ofwater.
So if you restore 200 grams ofglycogen, that's another six to
eight hundred grams of watercoming with it, which is two
pounds of not fat, but water.

(02:10):
The second thing that happensis the increased food just means
you have more in yourdigestion, but digestive system
in your gut, right?
You're literally carrying morefood and water because you're
eating more.
And then that shows up on thescale.
And so the three to four poundjump you might see in the first
few days is glycogen, water, gutcontent, zero fat gain.
You're not going to gain thatfat that quickly because you

(02:33):
would have to overconsume by3,500 calories just to gain one
pound of fat.
Most people aren't quiteunderstanding this or are too
emotionally tied to the scale.
And then it causes you toreverse course.
And that's the mistake I'mtalking about.
Because if you had held steadyfor let's say, I'll say seven to
14 days, it varies byindividual, you probably would
see your weight stabilize, andthen you could have assessed

(02:55):
from there.
And even if it didn'tstabilize, if it kept going up
there, that could be informationin and of itself.
But if you panic, if you cutback, if you keep your
metabolism where it is, you'renot going to find that out and
find out what to do.
So this is why a recovery diet,right, when you're coming out
of this suppressed state,requires being systematic about

(03:15):
it.
You can't just wing it.
You have to understand thephysiology behind it.
What is, you know, normaladaptation versus fat gain?
When do you hold steady versuswhen do you increase?
Like, is it a plateau or not,or do we have to wait a bit?
How do you use biofeedback toconfirm that you are actually
recovering?
Because those are going to bemore important than the scale.

(03:36):
And then what happens when lifedisrupts all of this because
life is messy, right?
So it's not just about addingcalories, is kind of my point.
It's based, it's doing all thethings together based on your
body's response.
And I'm actually teaching thatcomplete protocol this Tuesday,
October 21st, noon Eastern, in alive workshop.

(03:56):
It is our monthly workshop inPhysique University.
We have every month either aworkshop or a challenge.
Like next month, we're going todo a finish strong challenge
for the end of the year.
But this Tuesday, it's a10-week recovery diet workshop.
You're going to learn theassessment that you can perform
on yourself.
It's like a little quiz or testthat tells if you're ready to

(04:17):
start or what needs to beadjusted so that you're ready to
recover.
A week by week roadmap based onhow your weight is changing.
So it actually says if this, dothis over 10 weeks.
And then how to monitor yourbody feedback to know if you're
recovering or if you're kind ofin a rut.
And then, of course, aplaybook.
I always includetroubleshooting like here are

(04:38):
the common issues and then whatyou do.
If you have this problem, thisis what you do.
And all that's going to becrammed together into a 20-page
workbook that you get along witha whole bunch of other goodies.
I'm not going to spend timeexplaining here.
I think the workshop alone isplenty worth the price of
admission.
It's $27.
Registration closes tomorrownight, Monday.
If you're stuck at lowcalories, if you want to rebuild

(05:00):
that metabolic capacity withoutusing reverse dieting or
guesswork, but really to do itthe right way, join us Tuesday.
Link is in the show notes or goto live.witsandweights.com.
Again, that'slive.witsandweights.com.
I'll see you there.