Large weight variations

lmccarty94

I weight myself every morning at the same time (as soon as I use the restroom after waking up). My weight varies anywhere from 3-4 pounds. How can I know what my true weight is if they're so different?

alyssa0061

Three to four pounds is within normal fluctuation. You don't have "one true weight". It's a range, usually somewhere around five pounds

rileysowner

To see progress use a weight trend app or site like Libra. They will give a general idea of the trend. Overall, as stated, weight will fluctuate in about a 3-4 pound range for various reasons other than fat loss or gain.

trigden1991

Weight loss is not linear. Weight is not stable, it fluctuates. Your fluctuations are well within "normal" ranges.

Keep doing what you're doing.

PS- My best fluctuation was 17lbs up over a weekend which went within 4 days.

jemhh

trigden1991 wrote: »

Weight loss is not linear. Weight is not stable, it fluctuates. Your fluctuations are well within "normal" ranges.

Keep doing what you're doing.

PS- My best fluctuation was 17lbs up over a weekend which went within 4 days.

I am always amazed by people who have fast rebounds from upward fluctuations like that. When I have an uptick in water retention due to something I've eaten it takes several weeks for me to get back to normal (e.g., going up 4 pounds on a high carb/sodium day takes around 2 weeks to recover, 8 pounds over Christmas/New Years week takes all of January to recover.)

sbrandt37

A few pounds variation day-to-day is normal, especially with a bathroom scale, which isn't that accurate to begin with. It depends on water retention, food waste in your system, etc., and for women can also depend on time of the month. My own weight with a very accurate balance scale over the past seven weeks has been flat for 2 weeks--down 10 in two weeks(!)--flat for two weeks--now down 2 this week. As long as your trend month-to-month is going in the right direction, don't worry about it.

sllm1

Use an app (I use Happy Scale). You log daily, but it removes the daily fluctuations and tells you whether you're really gaining or losing over the long haul.

TavistockToad

Weight fluctuates....

JenHuedy

jemhh wrote: »

trigden1991 wrote: »

Weight loss is not linear. Weight is not stable, it fluctuates. Your fluctuations are well within "normal" ranges.

Keep doing what you're doing.

PS- My best fluctuation was 17lbs up over a weekend which went within 4 days.

I am always amazed by people who have fast rebounds from upward fluctuations like that. When I have an uptick in water retention due to something I've eaten it takes several weeks for me to get back to normal (e.g., going up 4 pounds on a high carb/sodium day takes around 2 weeks to recover, 8 pounds over Christmas/New Years week takes all of January to recover.)

Thank you for sharing this! I do this too. If I have a high carb/sodium day or weekend, weight generally goes up 3-7 pounds over two days and takes at least a week to settle back down. It's frustrating when even trend apps spike up and down several pounds at a time.

CasperNaegle

It's very normal to have these fluctuations every day. Here is what I do that works very well. Weigh like you do every day and track it. Then do a 7 day running average with those numbers, it will smooth out the fluctuations and give you a trend you can see if you are trending up or down.

trigden1991

jemhh wrote: »

trigden1991 wrote: »

Weight loss is not linear. Weight is not stable, it fluctuates. Your fluctuations are well within "normal" ranges.

Keep doing what you're doing.

PS- My best fluctuation was 17lbs up over a weekend which went within 4 days.

I am always amazed by people who have fast rebounds from upward fluctuations like that. When I have an uptick in water retention due to something I've eaten it takes several weeks for me to get back to normal (e.g., going up 4 pounds on a high carb/sodium day takes around 2 weeks to recover, 8 pounds over Christmas/New Years week takes all of January to recover.)

There was a lot of junk food and high sodium after being in a carb/glycogen depleted state for a week. It is fairly unrepresentative of normal but I am fortunate enough to fluctuate towards normal weight quickly. Lot's of toilet visits required

MommyMeggo

Lots of Sodium- im up easily 2-3lbs for about 4 days. My body hates high sodium meals. I pay for them.

Ovulation- im up 1-2 lbs

The 2 days before flo- and the first 4 days of- Im up 3-4lbs.

Also those with chronic constipation or other health issues will have varying weight. We all have it.
Keep weighing- as long as the trend over a few weeks is going down- dont even think twice about the very high and the very low numbers.

jessiferrrb

sllm1 wrote: »

Use an app (I use Happy Scale). You log daily, but it removes the daily fluctuations and tells you whether you're really gaining or losing over the long haul.

i use happy scale too, i only wish that you could somehow make notes about ovulation, tom, etc. so that i could track the fluctuations better (i'm irregular so i can't just look at a month prior)

spiriteagle99

I also find that hard workouts will make me retain more water. I only weigh myself after rest days.

The daily fluctuations are the main reason I don't like to weigh myself often. Once a week or every 10 days or so gives me a better idea of what is happening, and even then a high sodium meal or a very low carb day can tilt the balance.

Tedebearduff

Water , it's because of water. Don't get obsessed with the scale either.

Around you menstrual cycle you can gain upwards of 10lbs in water.

CaladriaNapea

I definitely second that weight loss is in no way linear, particularly for us women. Here is my personal example:



The above image is of my own weight loss, since I started October 30th, to the present. I weight myself daily and add all my details to the weight-trending app Libra. Now if you look at the picture, the pretty blue line is what I thought my weight loss would be like. That was the initially predicted line of what my weight loss should look like from my starting weight to my goal weight within the time frame I gave it (one year). However, my actual weight loss numbers have been all those little red dots. You can see that they are all over the place. Some of that "all over the place" has clear explanations--TOM, Christmas, the fact that my mother-in-law is the world's best cook, etc. Throughout all that time, by the way, I was still tracking everything I ate and eating within my goal calories (my calorie goal was higher during December, albeit). Some of those bumps have no explanation that I am aware of, perhaps my sodium intake was higher or I was constipated, or perhaps my body just plain rebelled that day.

Now because Libra is a trending app, it smooths out all the bumps and dips into what is supposed to be a nice red line that shows my actual weight loss, however, if you look at that red line it still does not look like the pretty blue one. It still has little bumps and dips, even though it is mostly smoother than all the dots.

All to say: weight loss is not linear. Even when you average it out with a seven day rolling average. Weight loss happens, but you cannot get discouraged when your weight jumps up a pound or three, and likewise, don't get overly elated when you "magically" drop two pounds overnight, because that water weight/TOM/MIL's amazing cooking is going to come back and bite you sooner or later. Keep in mind that weight loss still works! . . . But not always how we wish it would.

ETA: Typos are the fiendish enemy of us all.

callsitlikeiseeit

its called being normal.

callsitlikeiseeit

leanjogreen18

jemhh wrote: »

trigden1991 wrote: »

Weight loss is not linear. Weight is not stable, it fluctuates. Your fluctuations are well within "normal" ranges.

Keep doing what you're doing.

PS- My best fluctuation was 17lbs up over a weekend which went within 4 days.

I am always amazed by people who have fast rebounds from upward fluctuations like that. When I have an uptick in water retention due to something I've eaten it takes several weeks for me to get back to normal (e.g., going up 4 pounds on a high carb/sodium day takes around 2 weeks to recover, 8 pounds over Christmas/New Years week takes all of January to recover.)

This is so true...I'm sitting at 4 lbs up going on a week now, from I think sodium, and possibly a new strength training routine. I'm hoping for a big whoosh soon but reality is it may take another week or so.

GottaBurnEmAll

There are many different, very normal reasons for weight fluctuations. A new workout routine, an increase in intensity to an existing one, fluctuating carbohydrate intake, high sodium intake, more retained food in your system, monthly cyclical water retention for women -- that's just to name a few.

I agree with everyone else to use a weight trending app. It makes things so much easier.

I use a web site because I like seeing things on my computer instead of my phone: http://www.weightgrapher.com/

Terpnista84

Can anyone recommend an app for tracking weight that lets you add notes for that particular day. When I go back to look at my logging I'd like to be able to see the reason for my fluctuations (increase in sodium, TOM, alcohol consumption,etc)

Elsiebeane

sllm1 wrote: »

Use an app (I use Happy Scale). You log daily, but it removes the daily fluctuations and tells you whether you're really gaining or losing over the long haul.

Thanks for the tip! I hadn't heard of that site.

CaladriaNapea

Libra does. I keep a record of TOM in there.

GauchoMark

jemhh wrote: »

trigden1991 wrote: »

Weight loss is not linear. Weight is not stable, it fluctuates. Your fluctuations are well within "normal" ranges.

Keep doing what you're doing.

PS- My best fluctuation was 17lbs up over a weekend which went within 4 days.

I am always amazed by people who have fast rebounds from upward fluctuations like that. When I have an uptick in water retention due to something I've eaten it takes several weeks for me to get back to normal (e.g., going up 4 pounds on a high carb/sodium day takes around 2 weeks to recover, 8 pounds over Christmas/New Years week takes all of January to recover.)

What I have found is if you want to get rid of the water weight quickly and it is from eating a lot of carbs and sodium, drink a lot of water. It sounds counterintuitive, but drinking water will help you normalize the water balance within your body. You can also do some cardio (nothing too intense) to use some of the glycogen, but I would not suggest that unless you actually have a weigh-in for some reason.

For the record, you CAN drink too much water and screw up the electrolyte levels, but that is pretty difficult to do in practice. Between the bathroom runs and the lack of desire to drink ANYTHING else, you would literally have to force yourself to go down that path.

dfc4

I use the monthly average method, weigh in every day first thing in the morning.
Take the last 28 days ad all the weights togehter then devide by 28,

jemhh

GauchoMark wrote: »

jemhh wrote: »

trigden1991 wrote: »

Weight loss is not linear. Weight is not stable, it fluctuates. Your fluctuations are well within "normal" ranges.

Keep doing what you're doing.

PS- My best fluctuation was 17lbs up over a weekend which went within 4 days.

I am always amazed by people who have fast rebounds from upward fluctuations like that. When I have an uptick in water retention due to something I've eaten it takes several weeks for me to get back to normal (e.g., going up 4 pounds on a high carb/sodium day takes around 2 weeks to recover, 8 pounds over Christmas/New Years week takes all of January to recover.)

What I have found is if you want to get rid of the water weight quickly and it is from eating a lot of carbs and sodium, drink a lot of water. It sounds counterintuitive, but drinking water will help you normalize the water balance within your body. You can also do some cardio (nothing too intense) to use some of the glycogen, but I would not suggest that unless you actually have a weigh-in for some reason.

For the record, you CAN drink too much water and screw up the electrolyte levels, but that is pretty difficult to do in practice. Between the bathroom runs and the lack of desire to drink ANYTHING else, you would literally have to force yourself to go down that path.

Would this be extra water on top of regular water? I get in a good amount of water simply because I like it (it's my "go to drink") and because I am thirsty a lot. Between plain water and coffee and iced tea, I get close to 200 oz. of water per day.