Wild Weight Flunctations

leahprufrock

Hello!

I weigh myself every morning and every evening. While I know this is not standard for a lot of people, it actually keeps me from spinning out about my weight because I always know where I stand. Weighing myself does not cause me anxiety.

I am, however, puzzled by how much I can fluctuate over the course of a day or from one day to the next. I can easily be up 9 lbs in the evening from the morning (naked both times). If I have a carb heavy night, the scale will be up at least 6 lbs the next day. I know this is water weight, so I don't worry about the gain, but I am a little worried that it happens at all. Sometimes I will feel my body actually retaining the water because the skin will start to get tight on my legs and arms. I eat pretty healthy and drink about 150 oz of liquid a day (mostly water). Does anyone have any idea why I might fluctuate so wildly or start swelling suddenly? It's been happening for a few years now and I always feel fine other than the discomfort of the retention.

Thanks!

CattOfTheGarage

This can just be an individual variation. I fluctuate 3-4lb easily from one day to the next, more if I've done heavy exercise.

You will get bigger fluctuations the heavier you are, and more fluctuations if your diet varies from day to day (mine does) compared to someone who eats the same thing all the time; but other than that, it's just because we're all different. It would be a boring world if we weren't.

LivingtheLeanDream

For me I might not fluctuate as much as 9lbs because I'm small/light but I can see up to 4lbs after a carb heavy or high sodium meal. Its normal for this to happen.

angelsja

You weigh in a morning naked on a empty stomach and then in the evening after eating/drinking all day the extra weight is food/waste/water

Need2Exerc1se

It could be a mild food intolerance causing inflammation. Have you always had these fluctuations or is this something new?

singingflutelady

Of course you weigh more after eating and drinking

Poisonedpawn78

You do realize that 150oz of water is around 10lbs right.. and you arent sure why your weight changes by 9lbs ??

stanmann571

Need2Exerc1se wrote: »

It could be a mild food intolerance causing inflammation. Have you always had these fluctuations or is this something new?

This.

IF your diet varies from day to day it could be meat(beef/fish/chicken/pork) or carbs(rice/wheat/potato/corn) And it might not be an intolerance, but merely a difference in sodium/electrolyte/nitrate levels within the food.

DX2JX2

I fluctuate about 5-6 pounds from morning to evening and lose the same amount overnight.

If you really want to screw with yourself, make a small change to the time of day that you weigh yourself. I used to weigh myself religiously at 7AM. A recent schedule change means that I now tend to weigh myself at 5AM with no other changes to my schedule.

It actually took me a couple of weeks to figure out why I seemed to put on two pounds.

wizzybeth

DX2JX2 wrote: »

I fluctuate about 5-6 pounds from morning to evening and lose the same amount overnight.

If you really want to screw with yourself, make a small change to the time of day that you weigh yourself. I used to weigh myself religiously at 7AM. A recent schedule change means that I now tend to weigh myself at 5AM with no other changes to my schedule.

It actually took me a couple of weeks to figure out why I seemed to put on two pounds.

This is also impacted by the time of your last meal. Sometimes we end up eating our dinner after 8pm. So the next morning I *am* going to weigh more than I weighed the morning after I had dinner at 5pm.

CattOfTheGarage

Poisonedpawn78 wrote: »

You do realize that 150oz of water is around 10lbs right.. and you arent sure why your weight changes by 9lbs ??

I completely missed the 150oz water thing. OP, water is heavy. That high turnover of water alone could explain your weight fluctuation.

jflongo

Personally, I wouldn't bother worrying about this. Wake up, use the bathroom, and weight yourself. Do it the same weight every time you want on the same scale. It's pretty simple.

The only time I would worry about weighing myself again, is if you are cycling 100 miles or running marathons and want to figure out how much water you lose during this.

ladyhusker39

Poisonedpawn78 wrote: »

You do realize that 150oz of water is around 10lbs right.. and you arent sure why your weight changes by 9lbs ??

I just calculated this myself as it was the first obvious place to look. And it seems like kind of a lot to drink in a day.

CattOfTheGarage

I absolutely agree it's not worth worrying about. An idle academic interest is fine, but it's not worth anything more than that.

aeloine

Weight fluctuations are very normal. The more water you drink, the wilder the fluctuations. If I don't have a bowel movement on time, I could easily be up 8 pounds by the end of the day and it can take me a couple of days to go back to "normal".

cheryldumais

I have also observed that if I sleep in my weight tends to be lower and I think part of that is just due to the amount of water lost through breath and getting up to use the washroom without drinking anything. As for the morning to night fluctuation it clearly has to do with the amount of food and fluid consumed in the day. I find certain meals cause more water retention in my body in particular spaghetti sauce is bad probably due to the sodium. You could consider an herbal tea in the evening that reduces water retention if you have no health issues that would prevent you from using it.

CSARdiver

Yeah - 16 oz water weighs 1.04 lbs.

150 oz of water weighs 9.375 lbs.

Nothing unusual about this - just water fluctuations. I've monitored myself and fluctuate ~5 lbs throughout the day.

Are you working out like mad? Why are you drinking that much water?

angelsja

I drink a UK gallon every day which is 3.78 litres

lorrpb

You fluctuate so much because you are a normal human! Now you understand your pattern do you don't need to get stressed every time it happens.

try2again

leahprufrock wrote: »

Hello!

I weigh myself every morning and every evening. While I know this is not standard for a lot of people, it actually keeps me from spinning out about my weight because I always know where I stand.

I see people say this kind of thing a lot- "I want to know where I stand", "weighing daily keeps me accountable", etc- and I don't understand it. Not that I am against daily weighing- just the idea that one day's data tells you anything of importance about your weight management. You said you know about water weight, so tell me, how does knowing your water weight fluctuation throughout the course of a day tell you "where you stand"? We are trying to lose fat, not water, and daily fluctuations tell you nothing about your progress in losing fat- only tracking the trend over time (weeks) tells you that. Also, when it comes to fat loss or gain, what you did today or yesterday is not going to show up as fat today. It takes a cumulative deficit of 3500 calories to lose a lb of fat, and a cumulative surplus of 3500 calories to gain a lb of fat, neither of which is going to happen in a day or two (except in the most exceptional situation). Again, I'm all for daily weighing because viewed as a trend it's quite valuable, but I wouldn't bat an eye at the day-to-day numbers, and getting on the scale multiple times a day is a genuine waste of time.

leahprufrock

Thank you for all the feedback. Everything I've read online says daily fluctuations of more than 2-3 lbs. are unusual, so to hear from many of you that you, too, have bigger fluctuations is relieving.

To answer a few questions raised: I'm small - 5'1 and 120 lbs. - so the variations are fairly big. I drink that much water because I work out very strenuously (because I enjoy it) and, as a runner, I've just trained myself over the years to drink a lot of water throughout the day. While I know 150 oz. is about 9 lbs, that's not accounting for elimination - at the risk of tmi, I urinate at least 8-10 a day, so I'm not keeping the 150 oz in. The fluctuations have only started in recent years, but my diet hasn't really changed - I've been a vegetarian for 20 years.

As for try2again's question, knowing where I stand has to do with anxiety. Weighing myself twice a day was something I learned from a therapist a long time ago to keep from spiraling. I know that, realistically, a daily measurement of my weight doesn't tell me much about loss, but it has worked for me given my particular feelings and struggles.

Thanks again for all of the feedback!