Someone in the March 10 Pound Takedown Challenge asked a question about weight loss stalls:

“So I’m a bit discouraged. Went out with my girlfriend yesterday. Asked her if we can eat our dinner early, around 4:30. We settled on a Mexican restaurant and I ordered a taco salad with no shell. I even resisted the tortilla chips! I ate only half the salad. Everything on it seemed to be CR approved, but this morning I woke up 1.7 lbs up from yesterday. Does anyone know if commercial taco meat has hidden ingredients? I definitely feel inflammation. My rings are tight this morning.”

This Rebel clearly wants to get this weight off and was determined to follow the program while eating out.

So I can see why she’d be discouraged by a 1.7-pound weight jump on the scale; and why she’d wonder if the restaurant food she ate might have chemicals in it that caused her weight to jump. 

Without more information, it’s impossible for me to say for SURE that her 1.7 pound overnight weight jump was inflammation from a bad reaction to chemicals in the food.

But is it a possibility?

Sure.

Inflammation can be caused by a lot of things: A bad reaction to food, lack of sleep, injuries, exercise, sunburns, stress, and surgery, to name a few possibilities.

Whatever its root cause, inflammation almost always leads to water retention, which often translates to a weight increase on the scale.

The good news is that if you eliminate the inflammation, that water weight usually comes right off.

In this lady’s case, if inflammation really is why her weight jumped up, AND that inflammation was caused by a bad reaction to chemicals (or even inflammatory oils) in the restaurant food, then that weight increase should come off in a couple of days (give or take).

Remember: If a weight jump is caused by water retention, the scale isn’t up because you gained 1.7 pounds of fat overnight.

It’s up because your body’s simply holding onto extra water.

Water weight can be frustrating, but it also is fast to come off.

If you gain weight due to inflammation, try not to let it get you down.

Once the inflammation subsides and your body feels safe to drop the water weight, it will!