Early morning weigh-in after big protein dinner

standout00
standout00 Posts: 150 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hi everyone!

If I had a big protein dinner by 18:20 is it best that I don't eat anything else so that I don't sabotage tomorrow's early morning weigh-in and cancel out any incidental activity/exercise I've done earlier today?
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Best Answer

  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,202 Member
    Answer ✓
    I agree with others: Frankly, you're overthinking. Your fat gain/loss isn't what shows on the scale from one day to the next. Mostly, those day to day fluctuations are water retention shifts, or waste in the digestive tract on the way to the toilet.

    Even fast fat loss (like 2 pounds or 1 kg per week) is only about 4.5 ounces or maybe 143 grams respectively per day on average. Everything else beyond the calorie-driven body fat changes is water/waste shifts, part of how a healthy body weight stays healthy, so not worth worrying about.

    It's the multi-week average that gives the best indication of body fat gain/loss.

    I'd suggest this as a good read (especially the article linked in the first post), if you haven't read it already:

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10683010/the-weird-and-highly-annoying-world-of-scale-fluctuations/p1

    My opinion: If you assume your daily weight is the fat gain/loss outcome of the previous day's behavior, you may drive yourself batty. Look at the trend over 4-6 weeks, or a whole menstrual cycle if you have those.

    Best wishes!

Answers

  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,941 Member
    Chil! It's a single day and a single data point. No need to try and trick the scale after a bigger dinner. Your body does what it does, and if it means it's a big more weight on the scale due to more food waste in your intestines then so what? Learn that it's not bodyfat. If you had more carbs than usual you might be a bit heavier due to glycogen binding to water. It's also not bodyfat but normal, healthy water. If you had more salt then the same was true. Learn that those fluctuations happen and are totally normal. If you didn't have them I'd be more worried about you not being alive anymore 😅
  • yirara
    yirara Posts: 9,941 Member
    On that note, if you only weigh once per week, then why not weigh every day for a while to get a better grasp on these fluctuations. Use a free weight trending app like Libra (android) or happy scale (iOS), ignore the day to day fluctuation and look at the overall trend.
  • neanderthin
    neanderthin Posts: 10,216 Member
    Maybe a small carb breakfast will balance everything out. :#
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,326 Member
    yirara wrote: »
    Chil! It's a single day and a single data point. No need to try and trick the scale after a bigger dinner. Your body does what it does, and if it means it's a big more weight on the scale due to more food waste in your intestines then so what? Learn that it's not bodyfat. If you had more carbs than usual you might be a bit heavier due to glycogen binding to water. It's also not bodyfat but normal, healthy water. If you had more salt then the same was true. Learn that those fluctuations happen and are totally normal. If you didn't have them I'd be more worried about you not being alive anymore 😅

    THIS!
  • tomcustombuilder
    tomcustombuilder Posts: 2,221 Member
    If daily weigh ins are that stressful then don’t do it or only weigh the days after having a low calorie dinner or when you get on the scale when you know you ate lot the night before just be prepared for a higher reading and don’t let it bother you.
  • Retroguy2000
    Retroguy2000 Posts: 1,847 Member
    edited July 6
    You shouldn't let the noise of water retention and food processing disrupt your diet like that, just to try and make a snapshot scale reading look better. Use a running daily average if weighing daily, problem solved. If weighing weekly, log it anyway, then check again a couple of days later if you want, to make sure things are on track and to put your mind at ease.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    Did you see our replies about the noise of ordinary, expected fluctuations on your other thread?

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10919317/why-is-it-bad-to-weigh-in-on-a-daily-basis/p1
  • SweatLikeDog
    SweatLikeDog Posts: 318 Member
    Skip the weigh in. Eating a big meal once in a while is good for your metabolism.

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