Reasons for overnight weight gain? (not calorie related)

rjdunn87
rjdunn87 Posts: 385 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
So I was wondering what you guys thought about the reasons behind one's weight occasionally jumping up anywhere from 2-5 pounds overnight. I got on the scale this morning and had gained a few pounds despite only going over my goal by 12 calories yesterday. It's happened occasionally before and I'm not that worried about it, but I've always been curious as to what could cause it to fluctuate so much. Is is just water weight, or are there other factors that might be more within my control that I'm just missing? My diary is public, by the way, if that helps any.

Replies

  • bwogilvie
    bwogilvie Posts: 2,130 Member
    So I was wondering what you guys thought about the reasons behind one's weight occasionally jumping up anywhere from 2-5 pounds overnight.

    Do you mean "overnight" literally, as in you weigh (for example) 125 just before you go to bed, and then you weigh 127-130 the next morning? In that case, you must be drinking lots of water or eating snacks during the night.

    If you mean that your morning weight is 2-5 lbs. more than the previous morning, then it's just normal fluctuation: retained water (especially if you have eaten more salty food than usual), extra food solids that haven't been eliminated, etc. Exercise makes a difference: if I do a hard workout, I lose water weight from the water that's stored with glycogen, so I weigh less the next morning; the day after I often weigh more as that water is replenished.
  • rjdunn87
    rjdunn87 Posts: 385 Member
    Ah okay, yes I should have clarified that I usually weight myself in the morning, so I suppose "overnight" is not quite accurate, it would be more in the span of 24 hours.
  • Brandolin11
    Brandolin11 Posts: 492 Member
    Be encouraged! These crazy fluctuations are totally normal. The best thing you can do is not focus on it as a problem, in any way shape or form.

    Suggestion: If you like to weigh everyday then I recommend logging it into MFP each day so that the program charts it. That way, over time you can see what's "really happening" behind the scenes. If you are doing everything you should, then what should happen is that your line graph will look like a heart monitor, going up and down and up and down each day... BUT, after you have logged in for a month/two months, etc. you'll start to see the OVERALL line moving DOWNWARD as a whole. And *that* is what counts.

    As long as you are consistently losing weight on average, over the long haul, then you have absolutely nothing to worry about when that scale goes "up and down" each day. :) I lost ~70 lbs and you should see what my year looked like. Crazy ups and downs each day but a beautiful big overall line moving downward. :)

    Hope that helps.
  • Brandolin11
    Brandolin11 Posts: 492 Member
    Can someone teach me how to post a photo on here? I'd love to show this person my chart as an example! :)
  • rjdunn87
    rjdunn87 Posts: 385 Member
    Be encouraged! These crazy fluctuations are totally normal. The best thing you can do is not focus on it as a problem, in any way shape or form.

    Suggestion: If you like to weigh everyday then I recommend logging it into MFP each day so that the program charts it. That way, over time you can see what's "really happening" behind the scenes. If you are doing everything you should, then what should happen is that your line graph will look like a heart monitor, going up and down and up and down each day... BUT, after you have logged in for a month/two months, etc. you'll start to see the OVERALL line moving DOWNWARD as a whole. And *that* is what counts.

    As long as you are consistently losing weight on average, over the long haul, then you have absolutely nothing to worry about when that scale goes "up and down" each day. :) I lost ~70 lbs and you should see what my year looked like. Crazy ups and downs each day but a beautiful big overall line moving downward. :)

    Hope that helps.

    Thanks! That's really encouraging. I actually think I should stop weighing every day because I do tend to get discouraged when I see the number go up, even though I know it's totally normal. It makes me feel like I'm doing something wrong! But I've also only been consistently logging on MFP for about a week now, so I don't have that "overall picture" that you're talking about just yet. But seriously, thank you!
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    natural fluctuations do to changes in the volume of water in your body, waste, glycogen, etc. Weight loss isn't linear due to these natural fluctuations...nor is it static in maintenance. Nobody weighs exactly XXX Lbs...ultimately yoiu have a range. Don't get wrapped up in the minutia of a singular data point...you loss is going to be measured as a general trend over time and numerous data points.
  • cookiealbright
    cookiealbright Posts: 605 Member
    It's water retention.
  • Brandolin11
    Brandolin11 Posts: 492 Member
    Here's what my weight chart looks like from the past year (I'm on maintenance but lost a little more at the end of the year after I hit my goal Dec 15th). You can see how much weight fluctuates when you view it over the long term. If I could break it down into day-by-day increments as well, this chart would be even more insane. But you see the even line over time? That's what you're looking for: the overall BIG line, not the little ups and downs - those don't matter. Hope that makes sense!

    2j1mpt2.png
  • Brandolin11
    Brandolin11 Posts: 492 Member
    Well THAT didn't work... one moment....
  • Brandolin11
    Brandolin11 Posts: 492 Member
    Take 2?

    2j1mpt2.png
  • Brandolin11
    Brandolin11 Posts: 492 Member
    [IMG]<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=2j1mpt2&quot; target="_blank"><img src="http://i42.tinypic.com/2j1mpt2.png&quot; border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>[/IMG]

    OR


    [IMG]<a href="http://tinypic.com?ref=2j1mpt2&quot; target="_blank"><img src="http://i42.tinypic.com/2j1mpt2.png&quot; border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a>[/IMG]
  • Brandolin11
    Brandolin11 Posts: 492 Member
    I give up.
  • RGv2
    RGv2 Posts: 5,789 Member
    Lower case
    2j1mpt2.png
  • Brandolin11
    Brandolin11 Posts: 492 Member
    Ohhhhhhh! LOL - thank you, sir. :)
  • Brandolin11
    Brandolin11 Posts: 492 Member
    Interesting that it didn't display the entire pic (the original goes through December) - any ideas on why that happened? (Sorry, I'm a tech newbie here).
  • xSirensSong
    xSirensSong Posts: 615 Member
    Interesting that it didn't display the entire pic (the original goes through December) - any ideas on why that happened? (Sorry, I'm a tech newbie here).

    Super interesting to see! And the photo was just too big, silly girl. That's all! :glasses:
  • rjdunn87
    rjdunn87 Posts: 385 Member
    Thank you guys! That's really helpful to see

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