Gaining weight over night?

I weighed myself before bed and weighed myself this morning. I didn’t eat or drink between weigh-ins. Yet my weight is higher this morning. WTF???
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Replies

  • Betty85JeanGirl
    Betty85JeanGirl Posts: 7 Member
    I see that too. I find if I clench my hands into fists, I can tell I have some water retention and that once I get moving and have some coffee, it will release later in the morning. Good luck!
  • Luke_rabbit
    Luke_rabbit Posts: 1,031 Member
    Are you the only person who uses the scale?
  • GretaGirl8
    GretaGirl8 Posts: 274 Member
    I agree it makes no sense to have gain weight over night. The scale is probably partly to blame. I know I didn’t eat an excess of 35,000 calories in the day that would translate into fat.
  • GretaGirl8
    GretaGirl8 Posts: 274 Member
    Well, my scale has seemed sketchy at times. Like I can weigh myself and ten minutes later it will show a different weight.

    My weight was up by a pound.

    I know I shouldn’t rely on the scale so much; but I feel if I don’t I will let myself get out of control.
  • GaryRuns
    GaryRuns Posts: 508 Member
    edited February 2020
    It's your scale or where you're placing your scale. Make sure you're putting it on a hard, flat surface before weighing yourself. Yes, our weight varies significantly over time due to water retention and variations in food digestion. However, it is impossible to get heavier overnight if you're not drinking or eating anything during that time.

    If you're going to rely so heavily on the scale as a metric I would suggest getting a better scale and using a weight tracker that gives you a trend in your weight. I've heard people mention Libra as an app that does this. I myself use trendweight.com but unless you have one of the supported scales, Withings and Fitbit, I think, it's a pain.

  • Urun4me
    Urun4me Posts: 37 Member
    How dirty is your bed? :open_mouth:

    I agree with others that it has to be an issue with the scale if you're in the same clothes, etc. But I don't think that necessarily means you need a new scale. Any home scale is going to have a margin of error associated with it.

    I do think it would be a very interesting question if it wasn't an issue with the scale, but I'm not aware of anything that would have that effect on weight. Theoretically, the atoms in your body are constantly moving so maybe there could be a reason for an incredibly small difference in weight, but I highly doubt that could possibly account for a full pound of gain.
  • PAV8888
    PAV8888 Posts: 14,303 Member
    GaryRuns wrote: »
    It's your scale or where you're placing your scale. Make sure you're putting it on a hard, flat surface before weighing yourself. Yes, our weight varies significantly over time due to water retention and variations in food digestion. However, it is impossible to get heavier overnight if you're not drinking or eating anything during that time.

    If you're going to rely so heavily on the scale as a metric I would suggest getting a better scale and using a weight tracker that gives you a trend in your weight. I've heard people mention Libra as an app that does this. I myself use trendweight.com but unless you have one of the supported scales, Withings and Fitbit, I think, it's a pain.

    All the above. But trendweight is not difficult at all to use connected with a freely available without the purchase of a device Fitbit account
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    edited February 2020
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    I'm a bit confused here why people are disagreeing with comments about weight gain being impossible without eating or drinking.

    Everyone does understand conservation of mass, right?

    Because biological functions cause water fluctuations that have nothing to do with whether or not you've eaten or drunken anything.

    Most people commenting here understand quite a bit...many commenting on this have been here for years and been there done that.

    That's not how it works. At night when the OP steps on the scale there are a defined number of atoms that constitute their body matter plus any food and waste in their intestinal tract. Food etc can go through various chemical reactions but the total number of atoms and therefore mass will stay the same throughout - matter is not created or destroyed; this is a physical law.

    Now, it is possible that losses are made through exhaled water vapour and perspiration etc so mass/weight can be lost but it can never go up unless more atoms/mass is added to the system/body through eating or drinking. For it to work any other way would be a violation of the laws of physics.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_of_mass

    Dude...I can fluctuate anywhere from 2-5 Lbs day to day up or down. I can go to bed and weigh in the morning and be up 3 Lbs and then be down 5 the next day, etc. I'm not talking about fat mass...I'm talking about water fluctuations for which your body is comprised of roughly 50-65% water and that fluctuates and has nothing to do with drinking water.

    If I eat a salty dinner at night, by morning I'm easily retaining water...if I'm stressed out, cortisol levels are raised and will retain water. Depending on where my wife is in here cycle, her weight can go all over the place because of water fluctuations...she's gone to bed completely normal and woke up bloated and 8 Lbs heavier than the previous day. If I fly I can easily gain 8-10 Lbs of bloat, etc, etc, etc.

    Weight loss plotted on a graph...

    weighttrendgraph1.gif
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    edited February 2020
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    I'm a bit confused here why people are disagreeing with comments about weight gain being impossible without eating or drinking.

    Everyone does understand conservation of mass, right?

    Because biological functions cause water fluctuations that have nothing to do with whether or not you've eaten or drunken anything.

    Most people commenting here understand quite a bit...many commenting on this have been here for years and been there done that.

    That's not how it works. At night when the OP steps on the scale there are a defined number of atoms that constitute their body matter plus any food and waste in their intestinal tract. Food etc can go through various chemical reactions but the total number of atoms and therefore mass will stay the same throughout - matter is not created or destroyed; this is a physical law.

    Now, it is possible that losses are made through exhaled water vapour and perspiration etc so mass/weight can be lost but it can never go up unless more atoms/mass is added to the system/body through eating or drinking. For it to work any other way would be a violation of the laws of physics.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_of_mass

    Dude...I can fluctuate anywhere from 2-5 Lbs day to day up or down. I can go to bed and weigh in the morning and be up 3 Lbs and then be down 5 the next day, etc. I'm not talking about fat mass...I'm talking about water fluctuations for which your body is comprised of roughly 50-65% water and that fluctuates and has nothing to do with drinking water.

    If I eat a salty dinner at night, by morning I'm easily retaining water...if I'm stressed out, cortisol levels are raised and will retain water. Depending on where my wife is in here cycle, her weight can go all over the place because of water fluctuations...she's gone to bed completely normal and woke up bloated and 8 Lbs heavier than the previous day. If I fly I can easily gain 8-10 Lbs of bloat, etc, etc, etc.

    Yeah, I do that too but it's only retention of water that has been consumed during the day so if I weigh myself immediately before bed any water that will be retained is already in my system and will show up as weight on the scale.

    Where are you suggesting this water that is retained over night comes from? It can't just materialise.

    You retain it...sweat less...urinate less in the morning, etc.

    There are any number of things that cause water retention and release that aren't related to drinking water.
  • gothchiq
    gothchiq Posts: 4,590 Member
    The water content of your body varies from day to day. Water is heavy. If you feel bloated, some dandelion tea will cause you to pee it out.
  • gothchiq
    gothchiq Posts: 4,590 Member
    I also think that humidity, temperature and barometric pressure may affect our scales. Especially if you have a cheap one like I do.
  • babyluthi
    babyluthi Posts: 285 Member
    You absolutely can gain water weight without drinking more water. People with congestive heart failure do it all the time.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    cwolfman13 wrote: »
    I'm a bit confused here why people are disagreeing with comments about weight gain being impossible without eating or drinking.

    Everyone does understand conservation of mass, right?

    Because biological functions cause water fluctuations that have nothing to do with whether or not you've eaten or drunken anything.

    Most people commenting here understand quite a bit...many commenting on this have been here for years and been there done that.

    That's not how it works. At night when the OP steps on the scale there are a defined number of atoms that constitute their body matter plus any food and waste in their intestinal tract. Food etc can go through various chemical reactions but the total number of atoms and therefore mass will stay the same throughout - matter is not created or destroyed; this is a physical law.

    Now, it is possible that losses are made through exhaled water vapour and perspiration etc so mass/weight can be lost but it can never go up unless more atoms/mass is added to the system/body through eating or drinking. For it to work any other way would be a violation of the laws of physics.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_of_mass

    Dude...I can fluctuate anywhere from 2-5 Lbs day to day up or down. I can go to bed and weigh in the morning and be up 3 Lbs and then be down 5 the next day, etc. I'm not talking about fat mass...I'm talking about water fluctuations for which your body is comprised of roughly 50-65% water and that fluctuates and has nothing to do with drinking water.

    If I eat a salty dinner at night, by morning I'm easily retaining water...if I'm stressed out, cortisol levels are raised and will retain water. Depending on where my wife is in here cycle, her weight can go all over the place because of water fluctuations...she's gone to bed completely normal and woke up bloated and 8 Lbs heavier than the previous day. If I fly I can easily gain 8-10 Lbs of bloat, etc, etc, etc.

    Yeah, I do that too but it's only retention of water that has been consumed during the day so if I weigh myself immediately before bed any water that will be retained is already in my system and will show up as weight on the scale.

    Where are you suggesting this water that is retained over night comes from? It can't just materialise.

    You retain it...sweat less...urinate less in the morning, etc.

    There are any number of things that cause water retention and release that aren't related to drinking water.

    Yes but you can't have more water in your body than you started with at the beginning of the night. Even if you didn't lose any water you'd be the exact same weight in the morning as you were last thing at night.

    Your body can produce water through cellular respiration...the water in your body isn't just water you drink and isn't variable solely by how much water you drink or don't drink.

    Yes but that process is just a chemical reaction where one substance is transformed into another and as per my earlier link chemical reactions always conform to the principle of conservation of mass.

    So when the body makes water it converts glucose (already in the body) with Oxygen (breathed in) and produces water (retained) + CO2 (breathed out). Overall in that process weight is lost because CO2 is heavier than just Oxygen on its own

    Explain how people gain a lot of water weight when going from a low carb diet to eating higher carbohydrates and the body producing more water. 1 gram of carbohydrates is going to come with about 4 grams of water.

    I really can't believe you think water weight fluctuations are attributable only to how much water you drink. If this was the case, one could drink a gallon of water everyday and shouldn't see any fluctuation...which I can assure you isnt the case.