In other words if someone regains 3% of their bodyweight in water weight within a few days of a diet, or whatever is a reasonable figure, does that look like an increase in bf% or is it more complicated than that?
I asked this in a bodybuilder forum assuming it would be common knowledge but nobody seemed to have an answer.
How do you know it’s water weight?
Well say you’re eating at what you reasonably estimate to be your TDEE and you gain five pounds in a few days. Is there a likely alternative?
If you’re eating at maintenance, you shouldn’t be gaining weight. Most likely scenario is overestimation of caloric needs and/or some extra food in the GI system.
That said, if someone was coming off a low carb diet and starts eating carbs again- gaining water weight would be more likely.
Sounds like you’re eating too much, but I wouldn’t worry about what happens over a few days as much as I would track trends over a few weeks.
Ok thank you.