Gaining weight after a long ride?

[Crankin]

It's true that much of my cycling involves social stuff and eating. I have never expected to lose weight on tours where visits to gourmet restaurants are involved, but I do expect to be able to maintain my weight during normal week day and weekend riding.
I cannot ride and restrict my calories too much. I normally try and eat a low glycemic diet, but I absolutely have to add in some good carbs when I ride. It seems that I am at the point that eating a whole wheat bagel causes me to gain a pound! I don't want to obsess on my weight, but I have worked hard to still be thin at age 55. I's not effortless, as some people think.

[OakLeaf]

I haven't been following this thread too closely, and I think it did sound like the OP's issue was likely calorie-related.

BUT. I read something a while back that said the #1 predictor of hyponatremia after a long run was weight gain. Not total water intake, not anything else - weight gain.

I really struggle with electrolyte replacement, so I don't have any good advice on how to know when plain water is enough and when it isn't. Often it seems I just can't get enough salt, but my BP tends to run a little high so I'm careful with it, and I wind up hyponatremic. Thank goodness, never so severely that my heart has been affected, but enough that I've wound up severely dehydrated after a few days of just trying to sip plain water because I couldn't keep anything down. It honestly took me over a decade to figure out what was going on, including a trip to the ER for rehydration where neither the ER doctors nor my PCP figured it out. At least I know now that whenever I'm nauseous, it's probably hyponatremia. But I still have no idea how to figure electrolyte quantities preventively.

Just another thing to think about. As if there isn't already enough in this thread to think about.