The Wedding, and 9.2 Pounds in a Day
September 2018 — the wedding weekend and the week after
My sister's wedding was the finish line. Not the end of keto, just the date a few of us in my family had been aiming at. I went into that weekend more than 50 pounds down from where I started the summer before. My mom had started with me in July 2017, and one of my goals all along was for her to feel good in her dress on that day. She did (live KIZL8182).
I was in the wedding party, so I got sized up for a suit, and it was a slim-fit coat. Slim. After years of buying XL and 2XL, I wasn't even a large anymore. I was wearing mediums. That's a non-scale victory you can actually hang in a closet (live TYFB1957).
Then I ate everything
I didn't do keto that weekend. At all. I'm not going to describe it, because I'm not trying to trigger anybody, but it was a wedding and I went way off plan on purpose (live KIZL8182).
The morning of the wedding I did a short live while I was getting ready, a bit snotty and emotional, and I told everybody: I put on 9.2 pounds yesterday. In one day. Some of it was just water and needing to go to the bathroom, but most of it was carb bloat (live KIZL8182).
I showed you that number on purpose. A lot of people in the group would panic when the scale jumped five or seven pounds overnight. So here was the guy running the group doing it in a day, and it wasn't fat. It happens to me. It happens to everybody (live KIZL8182).
A week later: "carb-loaded dick"
The wedding turned into a week off, between traveling and everything after. By September 8th I was back on a live calling myself carb-loaded dick, because I sure wasn't KetoDick. I weighed 202 or 203 that morning, my cheeks were puffy, and my body-fat reading had crept up close to 18%. I said I'd probably go through a little re-adaptation, because after two weeks off there was a good chance I was off the wagon entirely. And I said I wasn't afraid of that. I know what's going to happen, so I know what to expect (live TYFB1957).
That was also the live where I said the real total out loud: 240 down to 190, fifty pounds (live TYFB1957).
The part that surprised me
Here's what I didn't expect. After fifty pounds, I didn't feel thinner. Day to day I looked like the same guy to myself. It was only when I watched a video from the year before that I could see how different I looked. Meanwhile the whole world had changed its description of me. Mediums. Slim fit. And in my own head I still felt the way I had at the start (live TYFB1957).
I said that live: maybe the gap between how your body is and how you see it isn't some rare condition, maybe it's the normal state for most of us. Which is exactly why I keep pushing better metrics than the scale and the mirror (live TYFB1957).
So I pushed the string test again. Take a string to the fattest part of your neck, belly, arm and thigh, pinch it, cut it, and hang the four pieces up with the date. Do it again later and watch yourself shrink. If you're building muscle and losing fat at the same time, you can lose a lot of volume while the scale barely moves. I also said I was watching my resting heart rate on my Fitbit, and body-fat and lean-mass readings from an impedance scale. Those scales aren't ideal for body fat, but they told me whether I was losing fat or just losing everything because I'd missed my protein (live TYFB1957).
The lesson I took from that weekend: trust the string and the coat, not the scale. The scale told me I gained 9.2 pounds in a day. The coat told me I'd changed sizes. Only one of those was the real story.
What I'd tell you now
I'd still show you the 9.2. A big jump after a high-carb day is mostly water coming back with stored carbohydrate, and it goes back off once you're back on plan. I walk through that in water weight on keto and gained 5 pounds overnight?. For measuring without the scale, see non-scale victories and losing inches but not weight. And if you're planning an off-plan weekend like I did, what happens if you cheat on keto is the honest version. If you have a history of disordered eating, a planned "cheat" weekend and a daily weigh-in can both do damage; work out a plan with your doctor or therapist first.
Watch the originals: the wedding-morning live and the September 8 live.
Earlier: Five People, Pay What You Think · Later: Resting Heart Rate: 53 to 70