Is a 1 -2 pound weight fluctuation normal?

Jmoney711

So before beginning my calorie maintaining intake of around 2500 - 3000 calories while being very active as a cyclist who rides 6 times a week. I am 5 foot 10 150 pounds, I woke up this morning weighing 152.2, yesterday I weighed 151.4. Is this normal or am I eating to much?

Kathryn247

Totally normal. Water weight, hormones, food in your system all fluctuate. Look at the trend over weeks.

sijomial

That would be very usual for me to fluctuate 1 or 2lbs even on days where food and exercise are consistent.
When I'm cyclng (esp. in hot weather or intense or long rides) 3lbs/day is quite normal for me.
A Chinese meal can be a 5lbs fluctuation.
Air travel or getting plenty of sun also very clear and obvious factors for me.

All inclusive holiday is a perfect storm for me: more food, saltier food, more booze, more sun, different exercise and flying. 10lbs in 10 days not unknown.

Diatonic12

The sky is not the limit for the daily UP or morning down and evening UP. From 1-5 lbs in a day's time it can be all over the place. It's only one data point so try not to overthink the daily changes. Think long term waaaaay down the road for overall weight stability. That's where the rubber meets the road.

PAV8888

Weight trend apps and websites are a useful thing. 5lbs out of a single hike. Lasted for several days too as I flew out within 48h.

kgirlhart

That's definitely normal. It's best to have a maintenance range as your weight will always fluctuate. A five pound range seems to be good for most people, but some have larger fluctuations and some not as large. About 2 pounds is pretty normal for me.

heybales

If fat gets added to your waist first like many - now is the time to get a more meaningful that just weight figure to follow.

If weight goes up along with waist size, and not talking about a high sodium meal that is leaving you bloated too, over a period of decent time - then you may need to tighten things up.

Sat ride I drank 3 lbs of water, and still lost 3 lbs despite that - and still down on Sun by about 2 lbs.
I don't even use trend weight on totally invalid weigh-ins like that.

Maxxitt

My usual fluctuation is +/- 3 pounds. It's been consistent for years. If the bottom part of that range begins to creep up - which can happen slowly over a month's time - then I make adjustments with calories-in.

HeidiCooksSupper

Salt can have a big impact on water weight. I know that if I have a take-out Chinese meal I'll gain about 4 pounds over the next two days and pee them out over the next four. Normally, I eat a low salt diet.

17adf33

I can gain 7lbs overnight. But one slip and I gain so some would be water weight. Have to either go very low carb or 800 cals to lose half a pound a week. And weight shoots back on if not really strict. Two days of maintenance cals, 1200, and back to weight I was 4 weeks ago. Very frustrating.

spiriteagle99

I am a runner. I never weigh myself the day after a hard workout, because the odds are I will have gained. I can also gain because of a high fiber meal (chili) or a salty meal (any take out food) or because I haven't been drinking enough water so my body is retaining what it has. Not enough fiber can also have an effect. I maintain within a 5 pound window. If I get above the high mark, then I cut back. If I go too low, I eat more. If I weigh more than I think I should on a given day, I shrug it off and weigh myself again the next couple of days to see if it's a trend or just an off day.

cwolfman13

Jmoney711 wrote: »

So before beginning my calorie maintaining intake of around 2500 - 3000 calories while being very active as a cyclist who rides 6 times a week. I am 5 foot 10 150 pounds, I woke up this morning weighing 152.2, yesterday I weighed 151.4. Is this normal or am I eating to much?

Normal...body weight isn't a static number. You will always have varying levels of water and inherent waste in your system.

pfprimo

Totally normal. I'm also very active, average 4 workouts per week (mainly running and mountain biking) and I'm often perplexed as to how my weight can fluctuate despite my activity level and mostly-healthy diet. After a month or so of weighing myself once per day, as opposed to once weekly, I have a much better feel for how much my weight fluctuates day-to-day. I've varied as much as 3.5 pounds in 24 hours. As others have chimed in, has a lot to do with liquid / food intake, exercise (or lack of), bowel movements, among other factors. I can say from experience that craft beer has been my biggest bug-a-boo and likely responsible for many weight gains over a 24hr period.

LivingtheLeanDream

Yep normal, I'm a shortie, at goal weight and can still fluctuate up to 2lbs day to day.

Curvybaja55

that is normal I had a 5 pounds increased from the day before from eating salty foods, drink plenty of water and it was back to normal the next day.

chris89topher

Normal. I fluctuate 3-4 lbs throughout the day due to eating volumes of veggies every day which are loaded with water. I actually "lose" about 2-3 pounds from night to morning from middle of the night bathroom breaks. That's the one con from so many vegetables and drinks (I'm vegetarian).

AnnPT77

Last 7 days' AM scale weights, chronological order, in year 4+ of weight maintenance, nothing weird happening in my life: 129.4, 129.2, 127.4, 129.0, 131.0, 129.0, 129.2. 🤷‍♀️

Congrats, you're normal.

I don't think anyone's linked this article yet. It's a good read:

https://physiqonomics.com/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-weight-and-fluctuations

I think we don't have a "true current weight". I think we have a current typical range of weights.

Speaking from the perspective of maintaining for a while now: Sudden jumps are more likely to be water or digestive contents fluctuations. Did you recently eat 7,000 calories above your true maintenance level? If not, water & digestive contents. Unless you eat a massive amount all at once (or a truly massive amount in a very short period of days), actual fat regain tends to be a slow upward creep on the scale, basically the current range just keeps nudging upward gradually over time.

GaryRuns

Nothing to worry about. If you're trying to gain or lose weight you need to judge your progress on a trend rather than a day-to-day value. My fluctuations are generally 2lbs, but I've had bigger ones. Below is what my weight looks like in my preferred trending application. The diamond symbols are my scale readings for a particular day while the solid reddish line is my weight trend. I try to ignore the diamonds (daily scale readings) and focus on the trend when making decisions about my diet.

Jmoney711

@AnnPT77 do you think I’m at a normal weight and calorie intake level? It just feels weird eating so much food now.

AnnPT77

Jmoney711 wrote: »

@AnnPT77 do you think I’m at a normal weight and calorie intake level? It just feels weird eating so much food now.

I can't answer that for you. It doesn't sound crazy, on the surface of it. Monitoring your intake, exercise, and bodyweight will tell you. If you haven't read it, this thread might help you think about how to find maintenance calories:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10638211/how-to-find-your-maintenance-calorie-level/p1

"Normal body weight" is very, very individual. There's a range of weights that could be close to (statistically) similarly healthy for any given individual. Frame size/shape, muscularity, personal aesthetic preferences, cultural values, and maintainability really do enter into it, in finding where in that healthy range to end up . . . or even, whether to end up a little outside it, if there's some other factor that outbalances a truly tiny increase in health risk. If you don't have a distorted body image, you can have confidence in your judgement. If in doubt, talk with your doctor (in person, where s/he can look at you, run tests, etc.).

Many people have a distortedly low idea of how many calories regular people can eat. There are a lot of average-height women thinking anything over 1200 calories is a lot, that eating like a tiny little bird is a good thing, somehow kind of extra feminine and delicate, seemingly. I assume men do similar stuff (but I'm not one, so I don't know). 2500-3000 to maintain, for a 5'10 man, doesn't seem crazy to me.

This does seem a little crazy to me, but it's nonetheless true: I maintain in the low-to-mid 2000s (gross calories), even as a 5'5" 129-pound 64-year-old, sedentary (outside of exercise) hypothyroid woman. I'm lucky in that, it's unusually high, but nearly 5 years now of careful logging says it's 100% true. (At first, I was kind of psychologically looking over my shoulder, thinking I shouldn't talk about it, in case I jinxed it. ).

You can find your "true". Follow the data. Believe the data. Trust yourself (in consultation with your doctor) about how you want to look and feel. It'll be fine.

sijomial

As a fellow cyclist the mileage (and intensity in terms of power output) have a huge impact on my calorie needs and will do on yours too.

"do you think I’m at a normal weight and calorie intake level? It just feels weird eating so much food now. "

Certainly 150lbs and 5'10 isn't unusual for someone who cycles a lot as power to weight ratio has a huge performance impact. I'm 5'9 and usually 168lbs and in the cyclist demographic I'm regarded as heavy - not so much in the general population though.
"6 rides a week" typically means what in terms of hours or miles?

In May I had my biggest cycling volume month ever (43 hours) and my calorie goal was typically 3,500 to 4,000 cals on riding days. My weight fluctuations were more extreme than normal but overall trend weight was downwards and it's the trend that matters and not the individual data points.

GBO323

Totally expected. This is why WW has the Target weight and then maintenance range because fluctuations happen...food weight, salt, exercise, carbs, etc all make the scale move a little. So take a breath...if you're still +/- 5 pounds, then consider yourself at GOAL.

koalathebear

Ha, I fluctuate in kilograms, not pounds. In the last few months since I hit maintenance, I've fluctuated 1-5kg depending on exercise, food etc.