Water weight?

I went for my surgical consult last week and weighed 276. I had my regular bariatric appointment and weighed 279. I left in a rush yesterday for work and forgot to take my water pill. Could I be holding 3 pounds of water? I am having protein shakes for breakfast and lunch, a snack in the afternoon and a normal dinner. There is no way I could have gained 3 pounds in a week. I still feel like a big, bloated failure!

I can gain 8 pounds of water in a day.  I usually weigh about 5 pounds more at the end of the day than I do in the morning when I wake up.

Jane

You'd be surprised... The body can hold on to water like crazy. That's why it's so important post op to get in as much water as possible... so that you DON'T retain water!

I can retain anywhere from 3 to 5 pounds in a day. That is post op.....

PRE-OP....  5 to 10 in a day.

You can easily retain that much water weight.  In fact, you can retain even more.  But you have to remember, it doesn't matter.  If you're following the guidelines, you're burning fat.  If some water skews the figures from time to time, it doesn't really matter.

I'm a proponent of making sure you maximum water every day so that it takes fluctuations out the equation a little better.  Think of your body as a cup, if you do something on one day that leaves the cup half full, the next day's water goes toward filling the cup back up.  As a result you see an increase in weight.  The opposite holds also except that you'll see a weight drop that is arbitrary and not reflective on true fat loss.  If you can keep that cup full everyday, then weight shifts will be more reflective of true loss in body fat.

Of course, nothing is so perfect as the above so it'll still fluctuate anyway.  You're just trying to minimize the impact from water as best you can.