the combination of being bloated plus being close to your menstrual cycle can indeed lead to a considerable weight gain. I know what I am talking about because I am a woman.
Expressed in absolute mumbers your bloating induced weight gain of 8 pounds seem very similar to San's weight gain of 10 pounds. However not in percent of the body weight. Your bloating induced weight gain made up ridiculous 4,32 % of you total body weight (you started out from 185 pounds, right), which is not very much.
If you start out from 115 pounds and gain 10 pounds then were are talking about 8,7 % of the total body weight. In other words: about twice as much.
And this is striking.