Did I REALLY Gain 3 Pounds Over Night, Or Is The Scale Lying To Me?

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Replies

  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    Sometimes you just have to use the F word when you want to get a strong point across!
  • libbydoodle11
    libbydoodle11 Posts: 1,351 Member
    http://exercise.about.com/od/gettingweightlossresults/ss/4-Things-You-Do-Not-Know-About-Weight-Loss.htm



    http://www.healthdiscovery.net/articles/scale_lies.htm

  • fluffyasacat
    fluffyasacat Posts: 242 Member
    christinev297 wrote: »
    Sometimes you just have to use the F word when you want to get a strong point across!

    Being Australian I can't really help it :wink:
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    fluffyasacat wrote: »
    christinev297 wrote: »
    Sometimes you just have to use the F word when you want to get a strong point across!

    Being Australian I can't really help it :wink:

    Haha can totally f***ing relate!! Im an Aussie too :D@fluffyasacat‌

  • jchite84
    jchite84 Posts: 467 Member
    Thanks for sharing this as I weigh daily, but don't want to drive my friends nuts with daily weigh ins.

    You can also track your weight in an outside program like excel, google docs, or WeightTracker (iphone app, probably has an android version as well) that will track your moving average and give you a nice smooth line like Fluffy showed. Then no friends will be harmed by your daily weigh ins and you'll still get a more accurate idea of your progress.
  • Jruzer
    Jruzer Posts: 3,501 Member
    Cortelli wrote: »
    More than likely you did gain 3 pounds. The one alternative explanation is that your scale is defective, or you were wearing clothes, etc.

    But there's good news! You certainly didn't gain 3 pounds of fat, nor even any fat necessarily. Water weight (even though you say no salty and not TOM), food and waste in your system - there are a lot of variables at play. Don't stress and don't let it get you down.

    Just quoting this because this is a point that needs to be emphasized. Yes, you DID gain 3 pounds. The scale is not lying. No, you DID NOT gain 3 pounds of fat. The scale can't tell the difference between adipose tissue and water.

    Water is actually quite dense: at 1 g/cc it is denser than fat at ~0.9 g/cc.

    A pint's a pound, the world around.
  • PugBug20
    PugBug20 Posts: 55
    Thanks for the advice! I'm back down to "normal" today, so I guess it was just the scale? I usually don't freak out when it goes up or down a few ounces, but I was just confused as to why it went up 3 pounds overnight for no apparent reason. I weigh myself daily because I find that it holds me more accountable, but hey, whatever works for you! On another note, how accurate are gym scales, exactly?
  • Original_Beauty
    Original_Beauty Posts: 180 Member
    stop weighing yourself daily!
  • fluffyasacat
    fluffyasacat Posts: 242 Member
    Original_Beauty wrote: »
    stop weighing yourself daily!

    Why?
  • dougpconnell219
    dougpconnell219 Posts: 566 Member
    I normally wouldn't ask a lady this, but... How's the bowel movement situation going? That could be part of the gain.
  • Christine_72
    Christine_72 Posts: 16,049 Member
    fluffyasacat wrote: »
    Original_Beauty wrote: »
    stop weighing yourself daily!

    Why?

    Because you have to be mentally strong to weigh everyday. Some folks get disheartened when the scales go up and down.
    Some even give up dieting altogether, because the scales, unknowingly to them haven't caught up with what their bodies are doing yet.
    If you can handle the flucuations, by all means weigh everyday. However, if you break down in tears when there's a 1 pound increase, weighing everyday is not a good idea.

  • fluffyasacat
    fluffyasacat Posts: 242 Member
    edited January 2015
    christinev297 wrote: »
    fluffyasacat wrote: »
    Original_Beauty wrote: »
    stop weighing yourself daily!

    Why?

    Because you have to be mentally strong to weigh everyday. Some folks get disheartened when the scales go up and down.
    Some even give up dieting altogether, because the scales, unknowingly to them haven't caught up with what their bodies are doing yet.
    If you can handle the flucuations, by all means weigh everyday. However, if you break down in tears when there's a 1 pound increase, weighing everyday is not a good idea.

    This is what I mean. So many recommend not weighing every day, but it seems to be based on a personal inability or refusal to apprehend basic realities about water weight and natural hormonal fluctuations, or they "get obsessed with the scale". What if you don't get obsessed with the scale?

    The reason I don't weigh weekly is because I could wait all week for that weigh-in date only to have it fall on a day when I have a random 2kg fluid retention out of the blue. I want to have a way of seeing that fluctuation and understanding it. Weekly weighing just limits my access to information about my own body.
  • chouflour
    chouflour Posts: 193 Member
    I actually started weighing every day because I WAS obsessed with the scale. Now I have a year's worth of data that tells me I always have a spike about CD 10, and another about CD 21. I also tend to shrug a lot about the number on the scale. It probably took me two months to stop obsessing.
  • LAWoman72
    LAWoman72 Posts: 2,846 Member
    christinev297 wrote: »
    Don't mean to hijack this post. But I have been sitting on a 2kg (4lb) gain all week! My totm is due on Monday. Could the weight gain happen so early before they arrive?

    Mine does! Or rather, as long as I'm on plan I won't show a gain, but I will not lose at all for maybe five days before my period. After the water lets go, I often get a whoosh.
  • Jruzer
    Jruzer Posts: 3,501 Member
    Yes, your weight can easily fluctuate by several pounds. I was up 3 pounds yesterday, and down 5 pounds today. Totally normal. I must have had a salty dinner that night.
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