Why does my weight keep fluctuating while I'm still eating the same amount of calories

Rivvvy
Rivvvy Posts: 63 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
It's extremely discouraging

Replies

  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    Because your body weight fluctuates from day to day and hour to hour based on the processes that are going on. That's what it's supposed to do. We're too complex to have one single static weight. Does it suck sometimes? Absolutely. But the fluctuations are going to be with you for the rest of your life. You have to find a way to make your peace with them.
  • zachsus
    zachsus Posts: 6 Member
    Weigh yourself first thing in the morning. Wake up, go take a piss or whatever you feel like and step on the scale. Not even a glass of water in between, ideally not even if you wake up in the middle of the night.

    It's biased compared to your day weight, since you'll be quite dehydrated from having not drank anything in the past 8 hours or however long you sleep, but it's the most accurate.

    Also, keep your meal timing and volume consistent. Having a huge meal the day before, mostly in the evening, is gonna show up on the scale the next day.
  • YalithKBK
    YalithKBK Posts: 317 Member
    edited April 2017
    Weight fluctuation is completely normal. Even if you're not trying to lose/gain, your weight will vary from day to day. If it's that discouraging I recommend one of two things:
    1) Do not weigh yourself daily, espcially if you're expecting the scale reading to go down every single day.
    2) Use a weight-tracking app that provides a trend line. I use Trendweight.com. It uses fancy math to smooth out your weight fluctuations and makes a smoother line. It also can pull your weight from Fitbit if you use that. Here's mine:
    4w.png

    Also make sure you are weighing yourself at the SAME TIME. Your weight will be different in the morning vs the evening.
  • Silentpadna
    Silentpadna Posts: 1,306 Member
    zachsus wrote: »
    but it's the most accurate.

    How is that? If the scale is assumed accurate, whenever you weigh yourself is by definition the most accurate. What exactly do you mean by accurate?

    If you weigh yourself at the same time each time and expect it to be the same conditions, you're kidding yourself. There are too many systems that change at varying rates for you to create them (the same conditions). Even if you:
    1) Weigh at the same time to the same minute every day
    2) Eat the same calories from the same exact foods every day at the same exact time every day.
    3) Go to bed at the same time and wake up at the same time.
    4) Workout at the same exact time each day, burning the same amount of calories each time, keeping the same deficit.
    5) Move your bowels at the same time every day

    ......you still would not create the same conditions. And there is no way to do all 5 above (and more). Does your digestive track work on intervals of multiples of 24 consistently? Do you eat the same thing at the same time exactly each day? Does your water retention cycle on a 24 hour basis (or a multiple thereof)?

    Do you have the same exact amount of fat this week as you did last week? Probably not - meaning your burn is likely to be different.

    There are simply too many things changing for there to be consistency. Just take the data points over a long enough period to see a trend. And appreciate that trying to find an "accurate" weight in the short term is like chasing the wind.

    Your weight at any given point is a snapshot in time, in the middle, or at the edge of a fluctuation. This is always, 100% of the time, true. And you will never know, at that time specifically, if you are in the middle of a fluctuation or at the high or low end. You can't know until you have more data...and we do not weigh ourselves continuously.

    Relax and trust your deficit.

  • Silentpadna
    Silentpadna Posts: 1,306 Member
    I would add that I don't think there is anything wrong with weighing yourself at the same time. But if you are doing that to create the same conditions, that's not buying you anything.
  • STEVE142142
    STEVE142142 Posts: 867 Member
    As previous posters have stated, weight is not a static number it's going to vary from day to day hour to hour. What you have to do is track your weight over time. If you fixate on the number you're going to go totally nuts. What you have to do is look and how your clothes feel and fit over time.

    I have access to scales at work. As part of educating myself I weighed myself different times during the day under different conditions and my weight fluctuate anywhere from 2 to 5 pounds in a single day.

    I'll give you an example Thursday before Easter I weighed myself my weight was 208. Over the weekend I ate a lot of salty foods, potato chips and appetizers and drink a couple beers. When I came back to work on Monday my weight was around 215. Tuesday my way was 210. When I weighed myself Friday my weight was approximately 208. I would have to say most of the extra weight was either water weight or material that my body did not excrete yet.

    Did I freak out the answer is no. My clothes still fit the same way when I weigh 215 as I weigh 208. I was just surprised how much water your body can retain as it adjust to a change in how you eat over a few days.
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
    And for women there's the monthly hormonal cycle. I found that my body tends to hang on to the weight until my cycle starts then I'll lose it all in about four days.

    I weighed myself daily for forty-five days to figure out this cycle.

    Now I don't sweat it.
  • Chadxx
    Chadxx Posts: 1,199 Member
    Weight fluctuations are like the sun rising and setting. They are gonna happen no matter what. After holding steady within 1 pound of a new low, mine went up 4 pounds and I couldn't for certain tell you why. Then it dropped 5 pounds in the last 2 days and hit another new low this morning. It is just something you have to get used to. If you are seeing the occasionalnew low or general downward trend, you are doing great.
  • TxTiffani
    TxTiffani Posts: 799 Member
    I think it's been really helpful for me to weigh daily. I always weigh in the morning, nude, right after my morning pee. It expect some small changes day to day whether it be up or down and have noticed that each time I hit a new low I typically will bounce back up or at least hold steady for days before dropping again. Knowing that my body does that helps me to know what to expect when I'm getting on the scale. Also being as accurate as possible with my tracking (weighing/measuring food etc) makes me freak out less because I know if there is a small rise in weight it's normal and I'm doing everything right so it will straighten itself out;)

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