Experiment for the scale-obsessed

ashleyisgreat

I see a lot of posts on here where people panic if they gained a pound or two. I thought it might be useful to do a little one-day experiment and post my results. I am hoping that this will calm your fears (if a slight "gain" makes you feel uneasy, that is).

Yesterday I weighed myself all day long. This is not my normal behavior. I normally weigh myself once a day, in the morning, naked, right after I release the kraken from my bowels (TMI?), and I track my weight once a week. But yesterday I weighed myself pretty much every two hours just to see what would happen. Okay, I knew what would happen. But I wanted to do it so that you can see how much our scale weight fluctuates every single day. So here are the results:

8:30am: 234.6. This was my lightest weight of the day, and the one I consider to be the most "real." Even this number can fluctuate from day to day for a variety of reasons, but it's the one I take most seriously.

11:00am: 236.2. I had eat breakfast and was just about to eat lunch.

1:30pm: 237.4. Lunch happened, and I also went to the bathroom before hopping on the scale.

3:45pm: 236.8. Just checking in. Went to the bathroom before doing this one.

6:00pm: 237.0. Another random check-in.

8:00pm: 237.8. Dinner happened, as well as some dessert.

10:30pm: 236.6. Final weigh-in. Two pounds "up" from my morning weigh-in.

So, here's the lesson to be learned. Don't panic about weight fluctuations. Like...ever. We are constantly changing throughout the day and one or two or even three pounds don't mean squat in terms of your actual size. Did I look skinnier at 8:30am than I did at 10:30pm? Were my measurements different? Did my clothes fit differently? OF COURSE NOT!

I don't mean to suggest, of course, that small weight changes over time are meaningless. Today I logged a 0.6 lb loss from last week, and I am proud about that change. But if I weigh in tomorrow and I am back up again, it doesn't mean that I've suddenly gained weight and that I should eat way less than my goal or exercise until I'm sick. It could be water retention, it could be that I have some undigested food chilling in my bowels, whatever.

Don't panic if you go up a little bit. I have been known to go up 5 lbs in a day (on a really good day....mmmm, calzones). It's okay. If you're logging and you're consistently consuming fewer calories than you expend, you'll see progress. Don't consider a minor increase in your scale weight a failure or a derailment, because it's not! Just keep up the good work and you will absolutely see results.

ETA: stupid grammar!

kikiboniki

very interesting!

debbiesweety

I never tried all day tracking. I did once a day for about a month. Always in the morning. I was interested to see the fluctuations

ashleyisgreat

I never tried all day tracking. I did once a day for about a month. Always in the morning. I was interested to see the fluctuations

I definitely don't recommend weighing yourself all day! haha. I think that people become so obsessed over that number, and for a lot of people the fluctuations can be really disheartening. But I think it's definitely useful for people to see the changes, just to remind them that our bodies are constantly changing throughout the day.

Moral: don't weigh yourself all day long! lol

f1redshoes

My mornings have to be: get up, bathroom, then head to scales to weigh. If I'm maintaining, I'm pretty much exactly the same weight every morning, down to the decimal point level. Then throughout the day it can change up to 3 pounds. If my morning weight changes when I'm not trying to gain or lose and stays there for more than a couple of mornings, I have a look at what I've been eating and doing.

ashleyisgreat

My mornings have to be: get up, bathroom, then head to scales to weigh. If I'm maintaining, I'm pretty much exactly the same weight every morning, down to the decimal point level. Then throughout the day it can change up to 3 pounds. If my morning weight changes when I'm not trying to gain or lose and stays there for more than a couple of mornings, I have a look at what I've been eating and doing.

Yeah, I am pretty regular in the morning weigh-ins. Although I have noticed that I might fluctuate a pound or two even then, but it usually works itself out by the end of the week. Our bodies are weird.

ochibi91

Thanks for experimenting and posting your results! It really shows how our body weight fluctuates in a day. )

phorxy

Yeh, I found this. I gain about 3lbs in a day. I also find weighing myself everyday just drives me nuts more than anything. So I only weigh myself once a week. I've found that this has helped me tremendously.

nenshali

I weight myself several times a day (obsessed, still part of my ED) and I can only confirm that it varies a LOT. I can weight up to 6 (!) lb more than in the morning sometimes. Crazy, isn't it?
I wouldn't recommend doing it.
I, right now, still need it because it is keeping me sane and makes me not freak out. Even if numbers like 5lbs can be scary, it still makes me sure about going on and that I am not magically gaining 50lb just because I have "a bad day".

But really, don't freak out about it. Maybe it's water. Maybe you ate somewhat more. So what. It's not like you magically ruin anything forever

ThatSoundsHard

This is great. I have been seeing a LOT of "I gained 3 pounds whaaa" lately I hope that you helped some people feel better about the scale.

hlcook

I've definitely had some obsessions about this lately. And I KNOW everything you said ... I just still WANT TO SEE a smaller number. Initially I started so that I would stay focused on making good choices that day. Always weighed myself in the same state, at the same time of day. But it soon morphed into a way to beat myself up when I was a little (and I mean a LITTLE) bit up in weight.

And I know that as a woman, my hormones and cycle also contribute to some weight gain/ water retention that has nothing to do with my food and exercise choices...

ashleyisgreat

This is great. I have been seeing a LOT of "I gained 3 pounds whaaa" lately I hope that you helped some people feel better about the scale.

Thanks! I hope so too!

Suziq38

Thank you!
Very interesting results.

Mom_of_X

This is great. I have been seeing a LOT of "I gained 3 pounds whaaa" lately I hope that you helped some people feel better about the scale.

YUP!

Thanks for putting yourself out there, and hopefully really helping someone who is struggling to find that balance and happy place.

Tanya949

When I lost my first 18 lbs last year, I didn't believe the scale when it went down! Because I was weighing every day and there were a few pound fluctuations I got discouraged. I got the mindset of, OK, if it goes below 248 then I've really lost. Then it would be at 245 and I still believed it was just a fluctuation. So then it was OK, when it gets below 240 then it's real. But when I got below that I still didn't realize it was a loss. I finally saw 236 one day.. 15lbs down before I actually stepped back and said "whoa! I lost weight!" Crazy how the scale and fluctuations affect me.

tms07036

Interesting because I am definitely one of those people that get on the scale and get overly upset. Especially when I feel like I have been doing so well.

ashleyisgreat

Interesting because I am definitely one of those people that get on the scale and get overly upset. Especially when I feel like I have been doing so well.

I used to be that way. I would eat healthy and work out and then I would expect that the scale would reflect all my hard work, and when it was actually higher than I expected, I would get bummed out and it would even derail me sometimes. I would think, "what's the point?" I've learned a lot since those days!

Foodiethinking

I see a lot of posts on here where people panic if they gained a pound or two. I thought it might be useful to do a little one-day experiment and post my results. I am hoping that this will calm your fears (if a slight "gain" makes you feel uneasy, that is).

Yesterday I weighed myself all day long. This is not my normal behavior. I normally weigh myself once a day, in the morning, naked, right after I release the kraken from my bowels (TMI?), and I track my weight once a week. But yesterday I weighed myself pretty much every two hours just to see what would happen. Okay, I knew what would happen. But I wanted to do it so that you can see how much our scale weight fluctuates every single day. So here are the results:

8:30am: 234.6. This was my lightest weight of the day, and the one I consider to be the most "real." Even this number can fluctuate from day to day for a variety of reasons, but it's the one I take most seriously.

11:00am: 236.2. I had eat breakfast and was just about to eat lunch.

1:30pm: 237.4. Lunch happened, and I also went to the bathroom before hopping on the scale.

3:45pm: 236.8. Just checking in. Went to the bathroom before doing this one.

6:00pm: 237.0. Another random check-in.

8:00pm: 237.8. Dinner happened, as well as some dessert.

10:30pm: 236.6. Final weigh-in. Two pounds "up" from my morning weigh-in.

So, here's the lesson to be learned. Don't panic about weight fluctuations. Like...ever. We are constantly changing throughout the day and one or two or even three pounds don't mean squat in terms of your actual size. Did I look skinnier at 8:30am than I did at 10:30pm? Were my measurements different? Did my clothes fit differently? OF COURSE NOT!

I don't mean to suggest, of course, that small weight changes over time are meaningless. Today I logged a 0.6 lb loss from last week, and I am proud about that change. But if I weigh in tomorrow and I am back up again, it doesn't mean that I've suddenly gained weight and that I should eat way less than my goal or exercise until I'm sick. It could be water retention, it could be that I have some undigested food chilling in my bowels, whatever.

Don't panic if you go up a little bit. I have been known to go up 5 lbs in a day (on a really good day....mmmm, calzones). It's okay. If you're logging and you're consistently consuming fewer calories than you expend, you'll see progress. Don't consider a minor increase in your scale weight a failure or a derailment, because it's not! Just keep up the good work and you will absolutely see results.

ETA: stupid grammar!

amarisstorm

Thank you.

I knew this but today I really needed the reminder. Yesterday I was at a new low- 17 pounds down- and I was really excited. Then I miss calculated my dinner and when I corrected it I was still 200 calories over my goal after my workout.????

Today my weight went up 2 pounds, and I have been overreacting. (Wahhhh!) Cutting more calories, exercising more... everything you just said.

I need to be calm and stick with it -even if it is a real gain, which seems unlikely, it will come back off.

thegingerpirate

Thank you so much for this! Right now I'm weighing myself daily (just for a month of so, to get a feel for how my body fluctuates naturally while I'm losing, and when I'm on my period and such). I was on this nice downward slope at about 2lbs per week, then this morning, after a weekend where I was not as good as I could have been but still was not that bad, I was a pound up for the first time since I started weighing. I was so upset! Even though I know it's totally normal! Thank you for forcing me to see the logic of my silly obsession

ashleyisgreat

Yay! I'm loving the replies on this. Don't let a number get you down! It's temporary, and if it's not, then you just need to reevaluate and make little adjustments. Just don't panic and starve yourself or exercise until you're sick! Haha. Small steps.