I will never fully understand what the scale does?

OAS5
OAS5 Posts: 376 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Even after loosing 75 pounds and bring just about 15-20 pounds from ultimate goal I still will never full understand what the scale does in a day to day basis. I'm not coming at it like a disappointment, more of fascination. I weigh daily, and yesterday I was 200 even which is not what I wanted to see. We had a wedding at 6 o'clock so by the time we had dinner it was well past my 8:00 o'clock cutoff for eating. Hey it's a special occasion what are you gonna do. Anyway today's weigh in was 197.7 Normal fluctuations but fascinating.

Replies

  • springlering62
    springlering62 Posts: 8,399 Member
    Endlessly fascinating.

    I expect salt, carbs etc to increase my weight the following day, but it seems when I intentionally faff around with either, it does the opposite just to mess with my head.

    My latest fascination has been that my weight goes down in late morning- after a large breakfast and 40-50oz of water and coffee.
  • Beverly2Hansen
    Beverly2Hansen Posts: 378 Member
    I only get scale magic like that when I forget to warm up my scale. A lot of digital scales need to be reset by weighing a small item before you weigh yourself or they read inaccurately by around 5lbs. That being said congradulations on your massive atcheivment so far. I love it when hard work pays off even after a splurge of celebrating.🙂
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,168 Member
    Meh. Bodies are weird. 😆 Even at around 125 pounds, my scale weight (unclothed) will vary by several pounds through a day, let alone over multiple days, sometimes for not very clear reasons. Meaningless.

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

    I figure I don't have a true current weight, just a current weight range (that applies over a day or few), a longer term weight trend (up, down, or more or less level range, over weeks to months and beyond). Differences across one day up to a week or so is mostly about water weight changes; multi-week to few months or more can clarify fat gain/loss effects; muscle mass changes take more like months to years to have meaningful scale impact that won't be obscured by the daily fluctuation nonsense. 🤷‍♀️
  • OAS5
    OAS5 Posts: 376 Member
    Thanks guys, it is fascinating to me. Makes me wish I weighed myself everyday back when I was 75 pounds heavier and ate whatever throughout the day. I wonder what the swings were then? But I'll never know now.
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,974 Member
    edited May 2021
    Scales just measure weight. It DOESN'T tell you what KIND of weight. But many people always assume it's fat.
    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
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  • scarlett_k
    scarlett_k Posts: 812 Member
    Yeah. Occasionally I'll eat 1000+ excess calories fully expecting a fluctuation on the scale just from the extra food in my system if nothing else... except quite often I have actually dropped weight the next day.
  • OAS5
    OAS5 Posts: 376 Member
    scarlett_k wrote: »
    Yeah. Occasionally I'll eat 1000+ excess calories fully expecting a fluctuation on the scale just from the extra food in my system if nothing else... except quite often I have actually dropped weight the next day.

    Yes I have found this also. Just expecting to be up and I was down. That is a perfect example because I ate way late and had wedding cake at 10 o'clock at night.
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,930 Member
    Sometimes strange things happen. I know when I eat hard cheese in the evening. Just about 30gr, not old and neither very salty I'll be 1kg heavier the next morning. Then the waterweight vanishes again within a day or two. My guess to the whole thing simply is: bodies are weird.
  • Jackie9003
    Jackie9003 Posts: 1,115 Member
    It's definitely weird, I like numbers so often weigh before going to bed and then do an official one in the morning, for years I had a regular 2lb drop overnight, lately it's been 3lb but twice over the last month it's been 6lbs. How is that even possible! The scales are in exactly the same place on the bathroom floor as I don't move them.
  • Lietchi
    Lietchi Posts: 6,807 Member
    Jackie9003 wrote: »
    It's definitely weird, I like numbers so often weigh before going to bed and then do an official one in the morning, for years I had a regular 2lb drop overnight, lately it's been 3lb but twice over the last month it's been 6lbs. How is that even possible! The scales are in exactly the same place on the bathroom floor as I don't move them.

    A difference between your evening weight and morning weight will mostly be explained by water loss: perspiration, moisture lost through breathing and urine.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,168 Member
    Lietchi wrote: »
    Jackie9003 wrote: »
    It's definitely weird, I like numbers so often weigh before going to bed and then do an official one in the morning, for years I had a regular 2lb drop overnight, lately it's been 3lb but twice over the last month it's been 6lbs. How is that even possible! The scales are in exactly the same place on the bathroom floor as I don't move them.

    A difference between your evening weight and morning weight will mostly be explained by water loss: perspiration, moisture lost through breathing and urine.

    Plus the products of fat loss are mostly exhaled - about 80%. Sleeping, by percent of fuel used, we burn mostly fat. In a calorie deficit, that will be mostly net loss.

    No calorie (or food/water weight) intake while literally asleep, burning fat, exhaling the end products, losing moisture: Adds up to scale weight drop overnight
  • Jackie9003
    Jackie9003 Posts: 1,115 Member
    edited May 2021
    Lietchi wrote: »
    Jackie9003 wrote: »
    It's definitely weird, I like numbers so often weigh before going to bed and then do an official one in the morning, for years I had a regular 2lb drop overnight, lately it's been 3lb but twice over the last month it's been 6lbs. How is that even possible! The scales are in exactly the same place on the bathroom floor as I don't move them.

    A difference between your evening weight and morning weight will mostly be explained by water loss: perspiration, moisture lost through breathing and urine.

    Ah, yes I know that, but I'm bewildered about why the jump from a very predicable 2lb to 6lb, especially when I'm not sweating, don't spend all night running to the loo and not eating loads before bed.
  • penguinmama87
    penguinmama87 Posts: 1,155 Member
    One of the things that has helped me with weight fluctuations is consciously reminding myself that bodies are adaptable and built to survive and thrive in different conditions. Even being overweight, to some degree, is part of this. To me weight loss is coaxing my body to slowly let go - giving enough reassurance that no, in fact, I'm not in a famine scenario, but please use up some of this stuff that I've stored away for that purpose anyway.

    I think our bodies are much more than machines, but looking at them from that perspective is fascinating. Highly intricate, responding to lots of data we might not even be aware of. Some of it I can figure out and play with and control, which is like a fun science experiment, but other parts are beyond my ability to observe and fathom. In that way it's more like art, I guess.

    Something to marvel about. :)
  • Ann262
    Ann262 Posts: 266 Member
    Our bodies are complicated and their is so much more to them than the number on the scale. I was once told not to weigh myself more than once per week when trying to lose weight. I thought that was good advice.
  • NovusDies
    NovusDies Posts: 8,940 Member
    I think linear stability and linear weight loss is far more fascinating. It doesn't happen that often but I have had a few impressive runs of ~2 weeks of it.

    I have added it up a few times just to know and on a normal day I add between 8 and 10 pounds of weight between food and beverages. For my weight to be the same the next day it means I have to "unload" that amount of weight. When it is (with rounding) dead even the next day I am shocked at how efficiently I have operated. When it happens for about 2 weeks it is remarkable.

    Of course, more often there are differences which, to me, are far more understandable. After all, if my food and beverage weight added today is 8 pounds why would I be shocked if I only "dispose" of 7.5 pounds of it by tomorrow?
  • OAS5
    OAS5 Posts: 376 Member
    Excellent info guys, excellent posts, thanks. I weigh each morning but sometimes when I get home from work at around 4 in the afternoon I will myself just before I step in the shower and I'm often 2 pounds lower than the morning or the same. Now I have a very physical job so I'm thinking it's all the calories I burn throughout the day. I drink a lot of water and because of that I pee a lot. Might have something to do with all this too.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    OAS5 wrote: »
    Even after loosing 75 pounds and bring just about 15-20 pounds from ultimate goal I still will never full understand what the scale does in a day to day basis. I'm not coming at it like a disappointment, more of fascination. I weigh daily, and yesterday I was 200 even which is not what I wanted to see. We had a wedding at 6 o'clock so by the time we had dinner it was well past my 8:00 o'clock cutoff for eating. Hey it's a special occasion what are you gonna do. Anyway today's weigh in was 197.7 Normal fluctuations but fascinating.

    Because "weight" isn't all fat. The human body is roughly 55-65% water and that composition will always be in flux...and water has weight. You will also always have varying degrees of inherent waste in you system which has mass and thus weight. Even the amount of blood circulating through your body can be slightly variable and blood makes up roughly 7-8% of an adults bodyweight on average.
  • Olafiina
    Olafiina Posts: 14 Member
    edited May 2021
    My most "fun" scale experience was when I ate in a deficit for a month and gained a few pounds according to the scale, only to then eat at maintenance(or slightly over) for 2 weeks and dropped 4 pounds(The two I "gained" and two extras). Technically I lost then maintained that loss, but the scale didn't add up to the timeline because of water weight or something. It was really bizarre

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