Telling where we really are

donjtomasco

It does not seem like weighing first thing in the morning is a way to really see where our weight is, but it is consistently the best way to keep track of progress or lack of. When people fast, is that a better way to tell, since the body has more of a chance to be fully flushed of all sodium and most waste?

cmriverside

I supposed you could overthink that too.

I just get on the scale in the morning, record it and move on. It's about a trend, not an exact moment in time/digestion etc.

AnnPT77

Scale weight is just one stream of data points, in a multivariate world. There are tape measurements, before/progress/after photos, clothing sizes, body fat estimates, and more - just in the realm of weight management, not even bringing fitness or health into it.

Really, the only important thing with scale weight is consistency. Accuracy is very secondary.

Why?

We don't really have a "true weight", as you seem to be thinking. We have a weight range over any given short time period (hour, day, etc.) Over the longer term (weeks, months, years) we have a weight trend: Up, down, or level.

Weight loss is the process of trying to manage the trend downward, over time, then holding it level around a goal range.

If you're thinking about fasting to learn your "true weight", you're flirting with distorted thinking, along the edges of eating disorders.

Don't go there, please: Granny likes to see everyone stay healthy, physically and mentally.

Best wishes!

donjtomasco

Thanks for your replies. Makes sense.

kenyonhaff

Yeah, it's easy to get caught up in "THE number".

Instead, it's more accurate to get a lot of data points (within reason) to see the overall trend.

One illuminating exercise is to weight yourself throughout the day, to see how much your body actually varies. There's a lot in your body: water, undigested food, stuff (ahem) not quite on it's way out, and water retention due to exercise fatigue or in women monthly periods.

The most accurate weight would probrably after having the flu for a week, so you're clean inside and out. But not recommended.

AnvilHead

Yet another great example of why it's very useful and informative to use a weight trend app such as Happy Scale (iOS), Libra (Android) or Trendweight (web).

Any one scale reading is a snapshot of that exact moment in time. It was different an hour before and it will be different an hour later. It was probably different yesterday and it will probably be different tomorrow. I've weighed daily for almost 2 1/2 years and have very, very rarely had two consecutive days where my weigh-ins were identical numbers. Using a trend will show you what your weight is doing over time, which is what's truly important and relevant.

tess5036

As long as you are consistent, and weigh at same time of day, remembering even then it will fluctuate, you should get a good idea

donjtomasco

I do tess, and I am weighing 2 pounds more per day after eating the gumbo, leading me to surmise that the gumbo is high in sodium and is causing me to retain water.

donjtomasco

Is it fair to say though that your lowest weight of the day is what your weight truly is? This has nothing to do with how much weight one has lost, since that would be most fairly gauged on weighing at the same time every day, I get that. But it seems like if one took the effort to weigh at multiple times during the day, then the lowest weight of the day would be what a person really weighs. Yes? No?

tess5036

donjtomasco wrote: »

I do tess, and I am weighing 2 pounds more per day after eating the gumbo, leading me to surmise that the gumbo is high in sodium and is causing me to retain water.

It does sound like water weight!

kgirlhart

donjtomasco wrote: »

Is it fair to say though that your lowest weight of the day is what your weight truly is? This has nothing to do with how much weight one has lost, since that would be most fairly gauged on weighing at the same time every day, I get that. But it seems like if one took the effort to weigh at multiple times during the day, then the lowest weight of the day would be what a person really weighs. Yes? No?

You could just as easily argue that the highest weight is the true weight. There is no true weight, there is a weight range. Just pick a time of day to weigh and use that number.

Tacklewasher

donjtomasco wrote: »

Is it fair to say though that your lowest weight of the day is what your weight truly is? This has nothing to do with how much weight one has lost, since that would be most fairly gauged on weighing at the same time every day, I get that. But it seems like if one took the effort to weigh at multiple times during the day, then the lowest weight of the day would be what a person really weighs. Yes? No?

Read what @AnnPT77 said above and forget about trying to find your "true weight" is. You're chasing your tail and while that is cute when my dogs do it, it's pretty much useless.

RoxieDawn

donjtomasco wrote: »

Is it fair to say though that your lowest weight of the day is what your weight truly is? This has nothing to do with how much weight one has lost, since that would be most fairly gauged on weighing at the same time every day, I get that. But it seems like if one took the effort to weigh at multiple times during the day, then the lowest weight of the day would be what a person really weighs. Yes? No?

I think you are overthinking this a bit. We weigh what we weigh when we weigh (no matter time of day)

Honestly we have a weight range (not really a true weight) due to fluctuations going on at a constant in our bodies, I rarely ever weigh the same exact weight two or three days in a row. Your weight range be that up or down over a span of time will give you as close to a static number if you keep up with the data points (i.e. your daily scale weight and collected at the same time everyday).

AnvilHead

donjtomasco wrote: »

Is it fair to say though that your lowest weight of the day is what your weight truly is? This has nothing to do with how much weight one has lost, since that would be most fairly gauged on weighing at the same time every day, I get that. But it seems like if one took the effort to weigh at multiple times during the day, then the lowest weight of the day would be what a person really weighs. Yes? No?

It's what you weigh at that specific moment in time. The point which has repeatedly been tried to be conveyed is that there is no one weight that you "really weigh".

That's why many people recommend weighing in the morning immediately upon rising, naked, before eating/drinking anything and after going pee. You eliminate as many variables as possible and make it more of an apples to apples comparison from weigh-in to weigh-in - but nonetheless you still aren't accounting for more/less food in transit through the intestines, water retention due to sodium, hormones, exercise, etc. The human body isn't like a block of lead, which is static in its weight - it's a living, breathing organism which is constantly in flux.

It's easy to screw with your weight. If I was hypothetically going to enter a weight loss contest, I'd max it out for the initial weigh-in; I'd carb up good for a couple days, then the day before the weigh-in I'd eat a bag of potato chips for breakfast, drink a ton of soda and eat a whole pizza or a ton of Chinese food for dinner (plenty of sodium and lots of carbs to soak up/retain even more water). Have a huge breakfast, drink about a pint of water and don't use the bathroom on the morning of the weigh-in so my stomach/intestines were as full as possible. All of that should easily put me up 8-10 pounds above my normal weight.

Then for a week I'd cut carbs and sodium intake to a minimum, do lots of cardio, and do a good, long glycogen depletion workout the night before the weigh-in. Get up in the morning, nothing to eat or drink, go to the bathroom and make sure I'm fully evacuated, then go for a run in a sauna suit to sweat off a couple more pounds worth of water. In that one week span between the two weigh-ins, I'll bet I could cut 15-20 pounds off.

So which one of those is my "real weight"?

[ETA:] And just to further throw a wrench in the works - if you step on five different scales one immediately after another, you're going to get five different readings. Now which one is your "real weight"? How do you know which scale is correct? "Man with one watch knows what time it is; man with two watches is never sure."

donjtomasco

kgirlhart, if I drink a gallon of water during and after stuffing myself at a buffet restaurant and eat till I am so stuffed that I might explode (think of Paul Newman's stomach in Cool Hand Luke after eating 50 hardboiled eggs) then I immediately weight myself, you are saying this would be my true weight? I think the low weight of the day would be a better indicator of a true weight then the highest after most likely eating a full meal.

mph323

donjtomasco wrote: »

kgirlhart, if I drink a gallon of water during and after stuffing myself at a buffet restaurant and eat till I am so stuffed that I might explode (think of Paul Newman's stomach in Cool Hand Luke after eating 50 hardboiled eggs) then I immediately weight myself, you are saying this would be my true weight? I think the low weight of the day would be a better indicator of a true weight then the highest after most likely eating a full meal.

THERE IS NO TRUE WEIGHT! Your "average" weight over time is about as close to a "true" weight as you'll get, using the same scale and weighing under the same conditions. This is not a healthy obsession.

AnnPT77

donjtomasco wrote: »

kgirlhart, if I drink a gallon of water during and after stuffing myself at a buffet restaurant and eat till I am so stuffed that I might explode (think of Paul Newman's stomach in Cool Hand Luke after eating 50 hardboiled eggs) then I immediately weight myself, you are saying this would be my true weight? I think the low weight of the day would be a better indicator of a true weight then the highest after most likely eating a full meal.

That stuffed weight would be as much your true weight as any other scale reading.

Read my other post above. We don't have a single true weight. We have a current range and a longer term trend.

You're overthinking. You're flirting with disordered thinking about body weight. Stop.

What's next? A course of antibiotics to kill off your several pounds of gut flora and evacuate them, because they aren't genetically "you"? Don't.

The number on the scale at any one moment is just not that important to mentally, emotionally and physically healthy adults. Truly.

donjtomasco

I give up!

fuzzylop72

I prefer just weighing every day at the same time, and using a trendweight or happyscale average to track progress and don't really pay any attention to the specific number (just the direction of the trend).

donjtomasco

If you looked at my daily page of what I eat and exercise calories I add then eat back you will see that I am not on a dangerous disordered diet by any means. My goal is to lose anywhere between 0.00001 to 1.0 pounds per week, and so far since Oct 30th I am averaging 0.5 pounds loss per week (on average).

I just like exploring different possibilities. Sometimes it seems like asking off beat questions really rocks the boat in this community. But that's fair. I enjoy all the comments.

gracegettingittogether

When I worked as a RN on cardiac floor with lots of patients with kidney problems, who retain fluid which can cause potentially fatal issues, we always weighed first thing in the morning, after the patient had used the bathroom. The physicians who were closely monitoring weight as a sign of fluid retention, would often check with us if the weights were accurate, meaning right after awakening and after using the bathroom. So it is technically and medically the most accurate.