How does your body drop 4 lbs overnight?

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90poundsoflard
90poundsoflard Posts: 81
in Health and Weight Loss
OK, first let me say I am absolutely thrilled! But, VERY confused about how this all works. In the last two months I've lost 9 lbs, but the way I've lost them leaves me scratching my head and wishing I understood how this ol' body works! Here's what's been happening - I used to lose 1-2 lbs a week, and I was happy. That's the best way to lose, right? Well, a couple months ago I stopped losing - no matter what I did to shake it up, the pounds were just being stubborn. I was losing inches, but the scales would not budge. Then one morning I stepped on the scale - down 4 lbs! This can't be right!?! Next morning, down another pound! And then, the scale got stuck again! For the last month it has stayed in the same place, but my clothes are staring to look really baggy, I've lost several more inches, and yesterday when I stepped on the scale - down 3 lbs! Today I'm down another pound! It's like it's a battle of the wills, and finally I win! LOL The first time it happened I thought it wouldn't stay off, because there is no way to lose 4 lbs a day, it's just not possible (I mean REAL weight - not just water weight from starting a new diet) So now that it's happened twice, I'm wondering if anyone else has had this happen to them? Do you know why I've started losing weight this way?
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Replies

  • christy_frank
    christy_frank Posts: 680 Member
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    Sodium. Make sure you are tracking & staying under.
  • starboardzor
    starboardzor Posts: 312
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    I've tried to figure it out too... but depending on how much I sweat, i can lose 2lbs just after a long run outside. When I wake up in the morning I can be 3-4lbs lighter and have gained it back by the end of the day (i weigh myself a lot out of curiousity). I can drop a couple pounds just taking a #2. So.... I wouldn't obsess about it too much!!
  • liftingbro
    liftingbro Posts: 2,029 Member
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    Water weight.

    If you carb up from a lower carb diet, you'll gain water weight. If you switch back to a lower carb diet you'll dump 2-3 pounds of water weight in a day no problem. Sodium intake can be an issue as well. You just tend to be more dehydrated in the morning.
  • geri25
    geri25 Posts: 43 Member
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    not sure hw its happens but sometimes your weight will stay th same then boom a big drop it happened to me also but great job keep it up
  • bzmom
    bzmom Posts: 1,332 Member
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    Sodium I agree drink lots of water and track your sodium in take!
  • bmontgomery87
    bmontgomery87 Posts: 1,260 Member
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    Porbably just water retention.
  • liz_bolin
    liz_bolin Posts: 88 Member
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    I experienced the same thing. I lost 3 pounds in a day. I dont even lose that in a week. It is just weird because I really havent been working out. I had to get off my exercise routine for 2 weeks.
  • schobert101
    schobert101 Posts: 218 Member
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    SImilar happens to me. I can go weeks without a change then a couple of pounds fall off. I have given up trying to figure it out but now I don't stress as much when the scale gets stuck. I think its pretty normal but agree it doesn't make sense. Too many people get frustrated and give up when they hit a plateau and the key is to just keep going!
  • 90poundsoflard
    90poundsoflard Posts: 81
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    SImilar happens to me. I can go weeks without a change then a couple of pounds fall off. I have given up trying to figure it out but now I don't stress as much when the scale gets stuck. I think its pretty normal but agree it doesn't make sense. Too many people get frustrated and give up when they hit a plateau and the key is to just keep going!


    I know - I was getting really frustrated since I was doing everything "right" and the scale never went up or down. It eventually moves tho' - I just know I can't join a challenge to lose a certain amount in a given time, 'cause the way my body's working now - I'd probably not lose anything until two days after the challenge was up, then I'd lose 5 lbs! LOL

    It could be water retention - but it seems that would fluctuate a little from one week to the next. Also, I only weigh myself in the morning, with no clothes on, after I've used the bathroom, and before I've put anything in my mouth. (It's my little OCD) I know I said overnight, but I didn't literally mean from 10 pm until 7 am LOL (In that case I'd be losing the same 4-5 lbs every day, then one day I'd lose 8)
  • SolidGoaled
    SolidGoaled Posts: 504 Member
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    This just happened to me today. I was at 222 yesterday morning - this morning, 218. Its isn't always "just water weight" or "sodium". I believe it is all the factors (all of them including sodium) adding up and finally balancing like a checkbook that has been up and down all week with your good eating, your bad eating, your sodium, your exercise... I've actually experienced plateaus that last 3 weeks, then suddenly I lose 7 lbs in one week - and it STAYS off.
  • ♥MyCrazyBeautifulLife
    ♥MyCrazyBeautifulLife Posts: 61
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    water weight
  • JDMPWR
    JDMPWR Posts: 1,863 Member
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    This just happened to me today. I was at 222 yesterday morning - this morning, 218. Its isn't always "just water weight" or "sodium". I believe it is all the factors (all of them including sodium) adding up and finally balancing like a checkbook that has been up and down all week with your good eating, your bad eating, your sodium, your exercise... I've actually experienced plateaus that last 3 weeks, then suddenly I lose 7 lbs in one week - and it STAYS off.

    This is water weight. Your body cannot process 3lbs of fat loss overnight. Your body works on consistency and when it sees that your sodium intake has not been nothing but peaks and valleys it realizes that it can shed water weight and as for measurements seeming smaller but the weight not dropping that also has to do with 1 or two possible scenarios, your muscles are shedding water that is binded to glycogen as well as shedding some glycogen itself and the second scenario is muscle growth that replaces body fat weight. I have stayed dam near the same weight for 2 months and still have dropped a pant size BUT my body composition has changed and my bf% went from 24 to 20% at the same weight.
  • 90poundsoflard
    90poundsoflard Posts: 81
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    This is water weight. Your body cannot process 3lbs of fat loss overnight. Your body works on consistency and when it sees that your sodium intake has not been nothing but peaks and valleys it realizes that it can shed water weight and as for measurements seeming smaller but the weight not dropping that also has to do with 1 or two possible scenarios, your muscles are shedding water that is binded to glycogen as well as shedding some glycogen itself and the second scenario is muscle growth that replaces body fat weight. I have stayed dam near the same weight for 2 months and still have dropped a pant size BUT my body composition has changed and my bf% went from 24 to 20% at the same weight.

    Thanks for the explanation. I knew it wasn't fat that I lost overnight - but it wasn't making any sense why the scale would stay EXACTLY the same, then suddenly drop. This makes it a little easier to understand.
  • BunnybeeJG
    BunnybeeJG Posts: 344 Member
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    hm i usually lose a pound or so when i take a duece .

    fancy.
  • SolidGoaled
    SolidGoaled Posts: 504 Member
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    This just happened to me today. I was at 222 yesterday morning - this morning, 218. Its isn't always "just water weight" or "sodium". I believe it is all the factors (all of them including sodium) adding up and finally balancing like a checkbook that has been up and down all week with your good eating, your bad eating, your sodium, your exercise... I've actually experienced plateaus that last 3 weeks, then suddenly I lose 7 lbs in one week - and it STAYS off.

    This is water weight. Your body cannot process 3lbs of fat loss overnight. Your body works on consistency and when it sees that your sodium intake has not been nothing but peaks and valleys it realizes that it can shed water weight and as for measurements seeming smaller but the weight not dropping that also has to do with 1 or two possible scenarios, your muscles are shedding water that is binded to glycogen as well as shedding some glycogen itself and the second scenario is muscle growth that replaces body fat weight. I have stayed dam near the same weight for 2 months and still have dropped a pant size BUT my body composition has changed and my bf% went from 24 to 20% at the same weight.


    No - not in my case, my friend. I have lost 31 lbs this way - days and days with no loss, then suddenly, it all drops off in one day (on the scale) 31 lbs gone in 3 months is not water weight. Sorry.
  • Kim4Kim
    Kim4Kim Posts: 3 Member
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    I found this explanation helpful:

    "Fat cells are resilient, stubborn little creatures that do not want to give up their actual cell volume. Over a period of weeks, maybe months of "proper dieting", each of your fat cells may have actually lost a good percentage of the actual fat contained in those cells. But the fat cells themselves, stubborn little guys, replace that lost fat with water to retain their size. That is, instead of shrinking to match the reduced amount of fat in the cell, they stay the same size! Result - you weigh the same, look the same, maybe even gained some scale weight, even though you have actually lost some serious fat."

    This is what we have been telling folks. You lose inches but not pounds because your body plumps the fat cells. I tell them it is a complicated biochemical process that your body replaces the fat molecules with water and fluids until you exceed your bodies predetermined fluid level. Then your body will release a chemical that releases all this stored water and you get a sudden overnight loss of several pounds. Then the cycle starts over again with inches gone and the scales lag behind."

    Source: http://www.atkinsdietbulletinboard....read.php?t=6737 (http://www.atkinsdietbulletinboard.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6737)
  • highervibes
    highervibes Posts: 2,219 Member
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    That my friend, means you got a visit from what I call the "whoosh fairy". I lose weight this way sometimes as well. I'm stalled for a couple of weeks and then WHOOSH... it's gone, and it's not fluctuating back up and down in the next week and I might continue to lose 1lb/week from there on out. I say if your food is clean and you're happy with your exercise regime - don't look a gift horse in the mouth :)
  • servilia
    servilia Posts: 3,452 Member
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    Google whoosh and Lyle McDonald. I'm on my phone so can't post the article directly.
  • ladyraven68
    ladyraven68 Posts: 2,003 Member
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    http://www.bodyrecomposition.com/fat-loss/of-whooshes-and-squishy-fat.html
  • Mishinmite
    Mishinmite Posts: 43 Member
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    I lost 3lbs overnight after two weeks of dieting. I believe my body was so used to storing fat that it didn't want to let it go. I've been steadily piling on the pounds for the last few years and now that I'm eating healthy, I guess it took my body a little while to figure out it was okay to let it go. Whatever the reason...Yay!

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