-> I cheated on my diet. How long will it take to show up on the scale?
-> Short answer: Probably never and even if it does, it’s most likely temporary fluid retention caused by excess salt or sugar intake; however, in the extremely unlikely event that you binged so massively over the weekend that you actually gained body fat, there’s nothing you can do about it now, so quit being neurotic and beating yourself up over it. Instead, get on with the business of reversing the damage by jumping back in with your portion controlled container system, 30 min workouts and daily Shakeology. Doubling up and starving yourself do not make up for indulging, which is why Weight Watchers doesn't keep the weight off like Beachbody does. You can't borrow from Monday and Tuesday so that you can go crazy on Saturday, our metabolisms just aren't built that way. Sadly because the alternative sounds pretty fun :)
->Longer answer: The scale is not an accurate indicator of damage caused by a binge meal / weekend. There are about 3,500 calories in a pound of fat. But before you bust out your calculator or app on your phone, keep in mind that the notion that eating 3,500 calories beyond your normal daily caloric burn (2,000–2,500 calories) will automatically cause you to gain a pound of fat doesn’t work like that. Other factors — including hormone shifts, gut bacteria levels, how active you were during said "binge" mean that 2+2 doesn't = 4 in this case.
The biology on the salt thing is simple; your body likes to maintain a certain salinity in your extracellular fluid. If you consume too much salt, the salinity goes up, so your body holds on to more water to restore balance, but once you stop consuming all that salt, balance is restored, and the water flushes out.
The fuel-starved muscle thing is a little more complex. Your muscles contain their own internal carb-based fuel source called glycogen. Glycogen also brings water into muscle. When you consistently eat at a calorie deficit, your muscles tend to run low on glycogen — which also means they’re dehydrated. So if you eat at a surplus, your body recharges your glycogen stores, increasing the fluid volume in your muscles, and bringing up the number on the scale.
I know a number of very fit women who claim they can’t eat more than 1,200–1,400 calories a day without gaining weight. While they’re technically correct, odds are that the “weight” they see when they increase calories is actually their glycogen stores being restored. It’s sad because if they actually increased calories with healthy food, they’d probably see a boost in performance because their muscles would be properly fueled. I am so guilty of this!!!!!!!!!! I don't count calories anymore (thank you 21-day fix container system) but I have a ballpark in my head which can be a dangerous thing. And flat out, life is too short for calorie counting. Just don't do it!
Chronic dieting aside, there are times when an increase in calories thrown into the middle of a longer period of eating at a calorie deficit might even benefit you. If you’ve been eating at a deficit for a while, your body can slow down your metabolism, slowing weight loss or bringing it to a standstill entirely. Occasionally jacking up the calories may relax this slowdown. This is one of the reasons why people doing our programs sometimes lose a few pounds even after finishing and resuming a higher calorie diet. It can also happen during a recovery phase when someone is eating the same amount, but exercising less (therefore burning less calories) and technically creating a smaller overall deficit. In both instances, it’s a sign that they may have been better off eating slightly more the whole time.
Follow Beachbody blog HERE.