Being sick takes a lot of energy…

I was sick all day yesterday. I slept some (3 hours?) and took it pretty easy. I packed fluids and vitamin C, and had several small meals during the day. Mostly I sat in front of the computer, and with the help of some cold medicine I got some coloring done.

I also lost 2.5 pounds.

I weigh myself every morning at the same time, on the same scale, and I think this is the single biggest one-day weight loss I’ve ever recorded. I lost the weight without fasting, without exercising, and without really being hungry. Apparently fighting off a sickness requires a lot of calories.

It’s nice to lose the weight, but I’d rather not drop it quite that quickly. This morning I feel shaky and weak, and still a little sick.

13 thoughts on “Being sick takes a lot of energy…”

  1. *nods* I was very sick about a week ago, and dropped about 8 pounds in 4 days. I was a little worried, but kind of pleased, in a “oh god, I’m going to die, but hey, cool, I lost weight” kind of way.

    Just getting over that sickness a little while ago, I wake up this morning feeling like hell. Hopefully I’m not about to go on another diet.

  2. When I caught a cold at the beginning of the year, I lost 11 pounds in 3 days. I’ve since gained most of it back, though.

  3. Lucky you. I once had gastro and could not eat for an entire week.

    I lost precisely no weight.

    It would appear that my body’s equilibrium mechanisms are so powerful that they’d rather violate the laws of thermodynamics than have me lose weight.

  4. It’s likely that you’ve lost it due to dehydration – that’s pretty common when you’re sick. Even when you drink more fluids, you tend to lose more when sick.

    At least, that’s my totally non-professional opinion. 😉

    1. (Beat me to it.)

      Yeah, it’s probably dehydration. You’ll want to tank up on fluids some to keep your electrolytes from getting all bolloxed up, though any effect will probably be pretty minor unless you loose a lot more water.

      1. Yeah, actually, using something like pedialyte is better than just tanking up on your usual fluids, since that actually replaces the lost electrolytes, though it’s more an issue if one is having a lot of vomiting and/or diarrhea. (Sorry for the grossness)

        And it looks like there are recipes you can use to make something similar.

        From my limited understanding, part of why people tend to feel crappy when sick is that electrolytes get all messed up, and that causes all manner of unpleasant sensations.

  5. Gastroenteritis and 11 pounds in 30 hours is my record. (4am Saturday – 10am Sunday when I weighed myself)

    That was *not* a pleasant Saturday.

  6. CAn empathize, Food poisoning- three days, don’t know how much I lost, but DANG, my clothes were LOOSE for a few weeks after!

  7. Few years ago, when I had Mono, I lost about 20 pounds in two weeks. That was more or less because I was forced to fast, though. My tonsils and whatnot were so swollen it was to painful to swallow anything but the necessary water–and I wasn’t hungry anyway.

  8. Fever over 100? If so, probably more likely a flu, than a cold. Look it up, its in the rules. Fevers need calories to produce all that heat.

Comments are closed.