I Gained 4 Pounds In My Sleep! (or else my scale needs new batteries)

Evelyn_Gorfram
Evelyn_Gorfram Posts: 706 Member
edited September 2018 in Health and Weight Loss
So, I weigh myself far too often, sometimes several times a day (but that's so that I enter the data in a spreadsheet and geek out over things like whether the daily incremental change exceeds the standard deviation of my 10-day moving average (if I didn't do all that, I might have to get a life or something...)).

And I sleep like *kitten*. This morning, I woke up nice and early; and of course, immediately weighed myself. 297.8. That's 2.8 pounds lower than yesterday's weight, and a big deal since I haven't weighed below 300 for a while. This is the end of my second week of working at weight loss, so that big a drop has to be water weight (and so is nothing to worry about), but hey - I'll take it.

But I hadn't gotten to sleep until really late last night, and I was still sleepy; so, after drinking one 10 oz. glass of milk, I went back to bed for a couple of hours. And when I woke up again, I weighed myself again: 303.4.

That's 4.6 lbs more than I'd weighed four hours previously. My glass of milk could account for the 0.6 lbs (although I had peed out at least that much between weighings), but the other four pounds are something that my body must have manufactured out of thin air.

Either that, or - my scale batteries are at least two years old. It makes more sense to think that they are running low and causing erratic readings, than that pounds of matter are somehow slipping through wormholes in space to occupy my being.

TL;DR - My scale said I gained 4 more pounds than was physically possible, because its batteries are old. Other people whose weight seems to be acting weird might take comfort in this, and might want also want to check or replace their scale batteries.


Replies

  • SCoil123
    SCoil123 Posts: 2,111 Member
    My weight fluctuates an average of 4lb through the day depending on time, water and calorie intake, and activity that day. That 4lb is an average, sometimes it fluctuates more or less. This is pretty normal
  • RAinWA
    RAinWA Posts: 1,980 Member
    So, I weigh myself far too often, sometimes several times a day (but that's so that I enter the data in a spreadsheet and geek out over things like whether the daily incremental change exceeds the standard deviation of my 10-day moving average (if I didn't do all that, I might have to get a life or something...)).

    And I sleep like *kitten*. This morning, I woke up nice and early; and of course, immediately weighed myself. 297.8. That's 2.8 pounds lower than yesterday's weight, and a big deal since I haven't weighed below 300 for a while. This is the end of my second week of working at weight loss, so that big a drop has to be water weight (and so is nothing to worry about), but hey - I'll take it.

    But I hadn't gotten to sleep until really late last night, and I was still sleepy; so, after drinking one 10 oz. glass of milk, I went back to bed for a couple of hours. And when I woke up again, I weighed myself again: 303.4.

    That's 4.6 lbs more than I'd weighed four hours previously. My glass of milk could account for the 0.6 lbs (although I had peed out at least that much between weighings), but the other four pounds are something that my body must have manufactured out of thin air.

    Either that, or - my scale batteries are at least two years old. It makes more sense to think that they are running low and causing erratic readings, than that pounds of matter are somehow slipping through wormholes in space to occupy my being.

    TL;DR - My scale said I gained 4 more pounds than was physically possible, because its batteries are old. Other people whose weight seems to be acting weird might take comfort in this, and might want also want to check or replace their scale batteries.


    Imma gonna go with this. Aliens doing weird things to you while you sleep. :#

    ^^ The most likely explanation. Or the cat is sneaking up behind you and "helping".
  • L1zardQueen
    L1zardQueen Posts: 8,753 Member
    RAinWA wrote: »
    So, I weigh myself far too often, sometimes several times a day (but that's so that I enter the data in a spreadsheet and geek out over things like whether the daily incremental change exceeds the standard deviation of my 10-day moving average (if I didn't do all that, I might have to get a life or something...)).

    And I sleep like *kitten*. This morning, I woke up nice and early; and of course, immediately weighed myself. 297.8. That's 2.8 pounds lower than yesterday's weight, and a big deal since I haven't weighed below 300 for a while. This is the end of my second week of working at weight loss, so that big a drop has to be water weight (and so is nothing to worry about), but hey - I'll take it.

    But I hadn't gotten to sleep until really late last night, and I was still sleepy; so, after drinking one 10 oz. glass of milk, I went back to bed for a couple of hours. And when I woke up again, I weighed myself again: 303.4.

    That's 4.6 lbs more than I'd weighed four hours previously. My glass of milk could account for the 0.6 lbs (although I had peed out at least that much between weighings), but the other four pounds are something that my body must have manufactured out of thin air.

    Either that, or - my scale batteries are at least two years old. It makes more sense to think that they are running low and causing erratic readings, than that pounds of matter are somehow slipping through wormholes in space to occupy my being.

    TL;DR - My scale said I gained 4 more pounds than was physically possible, because its batteries are old. Other people whose weight seems to be acting weird might take comfort in this, and might want also want to check or replace their scale batteries.


    Imma gonna go with this. Aliens doing weird things to you while you sleep. :#

    ^^ The most likely explanation. Or the cat is sneaking up behind you and "helping".

    My husband does that to me. Lol He thinks he is being funny.
  • Evelyn_Gorfram
    Evelyn_Gorfram Posts: 706 Member
    edited September 2018
    AnvilHead wrote: »
    Other people whose weight seems to be acting weird should also read this: http://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations/
    Good article, and cool site. Thanks!
    TrishSeren wrote: »
    Completely normal, I can get huge fluctuations from one day to the next. Look at the overall trend not day by day difference.

    Also, I'd suggest you stop weighing yourself more than once a day. Once a day is fine, I do first thing in the morning, post toilet stop, pre-breakfast.
    Right. My point being that this is an anomaly,* presumably caused by wonky scale batteries, and not to be taken seriously in terms of my weight loss progress. Sorry not to have made that clear.

    (*I can even statistically prove that it's an anomaly, since it exceeds the current 2.9 lb. standard deviation of my 10-day moving average. ;) )

    Also, yeah, more than once a day is indeed excessive. It's just that, when my sleep cycles as this messed up, I just never know which attempt at "first thing in the morning" is not going to result in me just falling back asleep; and then I'm curious the next time it's "first thing in the morning." Usually I just discard the earlier numbers, but I thought this particular set of circumstances might be interesting to others.

    (ETA, FWIW: With my fresh new scale batteries, today's last "first thing in the morning" weight was 300.0. That makes a respectable but not alarming drop from Friday's 300.6, and still gives me my "making the 300-lb threshhold" jolt of happiness. B) (Even more FWIW: 0.3 lb/day works out to 2.1 lb/week, which is just about my current 0.75% body-mass/week goal.))
  • Evelyn_Gorfram
    Evelyn_Gorfram Posts: 706 Member
    RAinWA wrote: »
    So, I weigh myself far too often, sometimes several times a day (but that's so that I enter the data in a spreadsheet and geek out over things like whether the daily incremental change exceeds the standard deviation of my 10-day moving average (if I didn't do all that, I might have to get a life or something...)).

    And I sleep like *kitten*. This morning, I woke up nice and early; and of course, immediately weighed myself. 297.8. That's 2.8 pounds lower than yesterday's weight, and a big deal since I haven't weighed below 300 for a while. This is the end of my second week of working at weight loss, so that big a drop has to be water weight (and so is nothing to worry about), but hey - I'll take it.

    But I hadn't gotten to sleep until really late last night, and I was still sleepy; so, after drinking one 10 oz. glass of milk, I went back to bed for a couple of hours. And when I woke up again, I weighed myself again: 303.4.

    That's 4.6 lbs more than I'd weighed four hours previously. My glass of milk could account for the 0.6 lbs (although I had peed out at least that much between weighings), but the other four pounds are something that my body must have manufactured out of thin air.

    Either that, or - my scale batteries are at least two years old. It makes more sense to think that they are running low and causing erratic readings, than that pounds of matter are somehow slipping through wormholes in space to occupy my being.

    TL;DR - My scale said I gained 4 more pounds than was physically possible, because its batteries are old. Other people whose weight seems to be acting weird might take comfort in this, and might want also want to check or replace their scale batteries.

    Imma gonna go with this. Aliens doing weird things to you while you sleep. :#

    ^^ The most likely explanation. Or the cat is sneaking up behind you and "helping".

    My husband does that to me. Lol He thinks he is being funny.
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    Local space-time gravitational anomaly.
    My cat in cahoots with incorporeal interdimensional entities to influence the degree to which the planet and I are attracted to each other? Now that makes sense! B)

  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,242 Member
    (*I can even statistically prove that it's an anomaly, since it exceeds the current 2.9 lb. standard deviation of my 10-day moving average. ;) )

    Can I have you run my spreadsheets for me? Cause I can barely manage averages! :love:
    --> nice --> B) (Even more FWIW: 0.3 lb/day works out to 2.1 lb/week, which is just about my current 0.75% body-mass/week goal.))

  • Evelyn_Gorfram
    Evelyn_Gorfram Posts: 706 Member
    PAV8888 wrote: »
    (*I can even statistically prove that it's an anomaly, since it exceeds the current 2.9 lb. standard deviation of my 10-day moving average. ;) )

    Can I have you run my spreadsheets for me? Cause I can barely manage averages! :love:
    Sure. Just PM me with your product requirement specs and I'll put a quote together for you. B)

  • LivingtheLeanDream
    LivingtheLeanDream Posts: 13,342 Member
    edited September 2018
    Fluctuations are normal. Even in maintenance I can see 4lbs +/- on the scale from day to day.
    Stick to once a day to weigh in at same time. You can use a trending weight app which will help you see the overall trends and that its going in the direction you want it to in general.