Weigh in day after a heavy workout day?

Khovde07

I heard someone mention once that weighing yourself the next morning after a hard workout might make the scale fluctuate a little more, especially in the upwards direction. I do primarily class-style workouts. Tuesday is Body Pump, Wednesday is Zumba, and Thursday is Cize. Saturday I do Yoga and/or Zumba or Cize depending on the instructor. I'm 5'6" and currently plateauing around 208 pounds. I'm on 1410 calories per day and a log everything.

I'm wondering if I should move my weigh in day or if that whole thing is just a myth?

I know a downward trend over time is more important but I've been getting frustrated lately with my slow loss and plateaus. I was hoping for some progress to help keep me motivated.

callsitlikeiseeit

unless its been 6 weeks or ore, it is not a plateau.

weight loss happens in the kitchen, not the gym .

Khovde07

I've been on my plateau since right after Christmas. Personally, I hate that flow chart. It's not helpful at all. It puts me in the bubble about the HRM and I know mine is accurate as I've tested it, and I don't eat back all of my workout calories anyway. My elevated HR isn't from stress or illness and I'm drinking upwards of 2.5-3 liters of water a day so I'm not dehydrated and my resting HR is around 68 bpm.

Khovde07

I should also add that while the scale may be staying relatively the same, I'm losing inches left and right. So something just isn't matching up and I was wondering if it could just be my choice of weigh in day.

pchca

My scale never moves the day after a big workout. Only the day after a rest day

VintageFeline

I just had about 6 weeks of no movement and I weigh every day and track the trends on Happy Scale. This week, whoooosh 3lbs off over the course of a week. I had also been losing inches. My weight flies up and down over about a 6lb range and for two weeks it looked like I was gaining.

That said, that flow chart is spot on the money whether you like it or not.

kshama2001

Khovde07 wrote: »

I heard someone mention once that weighing yourself the next morning after a hard workout might make the scale fluctuate a little more, especially in the upwards direction. I do primarily class-style workouts. Tuesday is Body Pump, Wednesday is Zumba, and Thursday is Cize. Saturday I do Yoga and/or Zumba or Cize depending on the instructor. I'm 5'6" and currently plateauing around 208 pounds. I'm on 1410 calories per day and a log everything.

I'm wondering if I should move my weigh in day or if that whole thing is just a myth?

I know a downward trend over time is more important but I've been getting frustrated lately with my slow loss and plateaus. I was hoping for some progress to help keep me motivated.

I weigh every day and chart it. I log new lows into MFP periodically. When I'm not losing as expected it's because I am eating back too many exercise calories.

Khovde07

VintageFeline wrote: »

I just had about 6 weeks of no movement and I weigh every day and track the trends on Happy Scale. This week, whoooosh 3lbs off over the course of a week. I had also been losing inches. My weight flies up and down over about a 6lb range and for two weeks it looked like I was gaining.

That said, that flow chart is spot on the money whether you like it or not.

Yes the flow chart is spot on, but in my case totally unhelpful. There's no suggestion for improvement in the HRM bubble. I'm only counting calories burned that I specifically track during a workout, not throughout the whole day. For example, yesterday I was moving around (dancing while listening to music) in my office chair and then did a Cize class. During Cize I burned about 750 calories but becuase I was bopping around all day my HRM told me I burned over 1,000 extra calories. I only counted the 750 and then rounded down just in case. So random bursts in HR wouldn't effect my overall daily calorie intake. I work in medicine and have made certain that my HRM is accurate by testing it against other equipment and human checks. There is absolutely no reason I can't trust my HRM.

I'm hoping that with my obvious loss in inches that my scale will catch up soon here. Hopefully I'll have a woosh moment like you I've been bouncing at about a 3-4 pound fluctuation in my plateau.

Also, the plateau isn't so concerning to me. I know they happen and I know that as long as I just stick with it, it will eventually break. Really I just saw someone post this thing about weighing in after a workout day and was wondering if I was unintentionally sabotaging myself. Call it curiosity, I guess.

jemhh

Khovde07 wrote: »

I heard someone mention once that weighing yourself the next morning after a hard workout might make the scale fluctuate a little more, especially in the upwards direction. I do primarily class-style workouts. Tuesday is Body Pump, Wednesday is Zumba, and Thursday is Cize. Saturday I do Yoga and/or Zumba or Cize depending on the instructor. I'm 5'6" and currently plateauing around 208 pounds. I'm on 1410 calories per day and a log everything.

I'm wondering if I should move my weigh in day or if that whole thing is just a myth?

I know a downward trend over time is more important but I've been getting frustrated lately with my slow loss and plateaus. I was hoping for some progress to help keep me motivated.

If you are consistently weighing on the day after the heavy workout, it does not matter if the workout causes you to gain water weight or not. I mean, let's say you gain 2 pounds of water weight after heavy workout. If, during the week, you lose 1 pound of fat and then you go up that 2 pounds, which comes off the next day, you'd still see an overall downward trend.

What are you defining as a slow loss? IMO, 1 pound per week is a good rate of loss for you. 1.5 pounds would be awesome but not something I'd expect regularly. 2 pounds would be rare.

Khovde07

jemhh wrote: »

Khovde07 wrote: »

I heard someone mention once that weighing yourself the next morning after a hard workout might make the scale fluctuate a little more, especially in the upwards direction. I do primarily class-style workouts. Tuesday is Body Pump, Wednesday is Zumba, and Thursday is Cize. Saturday I do Yoga and/or Zumba or Cize depending on the instructor. I'm 5'6" and currently plateauing around 208 pounds. I'm on 1410 calories per day and a log everything.

I'm wondering if I should move my weigh in day or if that whole thing is just a myth?

I know a downward trend over time is more important but I've been getting frustrated lately with my slow loss and plateaus. I was hoping for some progress to help keep me motivated.

If you are consistently weighing on the day after the heavy workout, it does not matter if the workout causes you to gain water weight or not. I mean, let's say you gain 2 pounds of water weight after heavy workout. If, during the week, you lose 1 pound of fat and then you go up that 2 pounds, which comes off the next day, you'd still see an overall downward trend.

What are you defining as a slow loss? IMO, 1 pound per week is a good rate of loss for you. 1.5 pounds would be awesome but not something I'd expect regularly. 2 pounds would be rare.

By "slow loss" I mean that I haven't really lost poundage since Christmas. I've been bouncing between 207-209.7. But I've been losing inches. A few weeks back I started adding weight lifting to my regular workouts and I saw the inch loss increase but the pounds stay the same. I agree that an overall trend should be seen, but it's confusing to me that I'm losing inches but not pounds.

Also, as my husband pointed out to me this morning, we aren't necessarily doing this to lose weight. We're on MFP and hitting the gym to get healthier. Weight loss is a happy side effect. I can definitely say I'm getting healthier. My Zumba classes are getting easier, my Body Pump instructor suggested I start adding more weight, and I feel better in my day to day.

cthakkar1985

Khovde07 wrote: »

I heard someone mention once that weighing yourself the next morning after a hard workout might make the scale fluctuate a little more, especially in the upwards direction. I do primarily class-style workouts. Tuesday is Body Pump, Wednesday is Zumba, and Thursday is Cize. Saturday I do Yoga and/or Zumba or Cize depending on the instructor. I'm 5'6" and currently plateauing around 208 pounds. I'm on 1410 calories per day and a log everything.

I'm wondering if I should move my weigh in day or if that whole thing is just a myth?

I know a downward trend over time is more important but I've been getting frustrated lately with my slow loss and plateaus. I was hoping for some progress to help keep me motivated.

Yes, your body will retain water weight after vigorous exercise - basically anything that made you feel sore. After a heavy leg day, I retain 2-4 lbs of additional water weight the next morning. This can be upsetting to see on the scale. I weigh myself once a week. It is always the day after a low-intensity e.g. cardio only workout. It is always in the morning so my stomach is empty. I also try to eat something similar the evening before a weigh in. I'm consistently seeing 1 - 2 lb loss every week on the scale doing this, which is my goal.

jemhh

Khovde07 wrote: »

jemhh wrote: »

Khovde07 wrote: »

I heard someone mention once that weighing yourself the next morning after a hard workout might make the scale fluctuate a little more, especially in the upwards direction. I do primarily class-style workouts. Tuesday is Body Pump, Wednesday is Zumba, and Thursday is Cize. Saturday I do Yoga and/or Zumba or Cize depending on the instructor. I'm 5'6" and currently plateauing around 208 pounds. I'm on 1410 calories per day and a log everything.

I'm wondering if I should move my weigh in day or if that whole thing is just a myth?

I know a downward trend over time is more important but I've been getting frustrated lately with my slow loss and plateaus. I was hoping for some progress to help keep me motivated.

If you are consistently weighing on the day after the heavy workout, it does not matter if the workout causes you to gain water weight or not. I mean, let's say you gain 2 pounds of water weight after heavy workout. If, during the week, you lose 1 pound of fat and then you go up that 2 pounds, which comes off the next day, you'd still see an overall downward trend.

What are you defining as a slow loss? IMO, 1 pound per week is a good rate of loss for you. 1.5 pounds would be awesome but not something I'd expect regularly. 2 pounds would be rare.

By "slow loss" I mean that I haven't really lost poundage since Christmas. I've been bouncing between 207-209.7. But I've been losing inches. A few weeks back I started adding weight lifting to my regular workouts and I saw the inch loss increase but the pounds stay the same. I agree that an overall trend should be seen, but it's confusing to me that I'm losing inches but not pounds.

Also, as my husband pointed out to me this morning, we aren't necessarily doing this to lose weight. We're on MFP and hitting the gym to get healthier. Weight loss is a happy side effect. I can definitely say I'm getting healthier. My Zumba classes are getting easier, my Body Pump instructor suggested I start adding more weight, and I feel better in my day to day.

How many weeks back did you start lifting? I'm not always sure how different people define "a few" (to me it's 3, to others it might be 6.)

Overall, if you are noticeably (with a measuring tape) losing inches, I would not change anything for several more weeks. I'd probably give it until the end of February. After that I'd seriously look at how I was weighing/measuring/logging/etc. At your height, with all of that activity, you should be easily losing at 1600 calories per day and you're eating less than that. Yes, health and fitness are your goals but weight loss is a big part of that right now. I can understand what your husband is saying but I don't think that you are at a point where you can consider weight loss to be a happy side effect. I'm not saying that to be rude, I'm just trying to be realistic. Your concern about not seeing weight loss is valid.

liv_namaste

jemhh wrote: »

Khovde07 wrote: »

I heard someone mention once that weighing yourself the next morning after a hard workout might make the scale fluctuate a little more, especially in the upwards direction. I do primarily class-style workouts. Tuesday is Body Pump, Wednesday is Zumba, and Thursday is Cize. Saturday I do Yoga and/or Zumba or Cize depending on the instructor. I'm 5'6" and currently plateauing around 208 pounds. I'm on 1410 calories per day and a log everything.

I'm wondering if I should move my weigh in day or if that whole thing is just a myth?

I know a downward trend over time is more important but I've been getting frustrated lately with my slow loss and plateaus. I was hoping for some progress to help keep me motivated.

If you are consistently weighing on the day after the heavy workout, it does not matter if the workout causes you to gain water weight or not. I mean, let's say you gain 2 pounds of water weight after heavy workout. If, during the week, you lose 1 pound of fat and then you go up that 2 pounds, which comes off the next day, you'd still see an overall downward trend.

What are you defining as a slow loss? IMO, 1 pound per week is a good rate of loss for you. 1.5 pounds would be awesome but not something I'd expect regularly. 2 pounds would be rare.

Gotta agree with jemhh here. Be consistent with your weigh in day and you'll see your weight loss. However, if you want to weigh in at your lowest weight I would change the day you weigh in.

As far as your plateau... just keep going. It really sounds like you're doing the right thing here. Keep changing up your work outs and logging absolutely everything. Because you're working out you may not see big success on the scale but you should start to see your muscles firm up and suck in, which will be motivating. Make sure you're measuring your success in matters of inches as well as weight so that you don't get discouraged.

If you still aren't seeing results change it up. Maybe cut out a "cheat" food you've been indulging in or just go salad crazy for a week or two. Sometimes my body just needs different nutrients and I need to change what I'm eating before I see any new results, even though the calorie count is the same. Another way to change it up is to change out your workouts. Perhaps try going to a new studio or working out differently at home, I almost always notice a drop in my weight when I change my workout routine as well as a overall improvement in muscle tone.

You want to make changes that last, so remember it's going to be a long journey and the only way to succeed is to go through it. There's no shortcuts that will give you the long lasting results you want. Keep it up and stick with it!