Recording weight question

lynette111

I realize that weight fluctuates from day to day. I know that you can show a higher number due to water weight, having just worked out, having too much sodium in your diet, etc... Question is whether the scale can lie the other way? Say your weigh in day says you are down 2 pounds but when you weigh each day the next few days (not to record-just for curiosity sake) you are showing up from that number each time. I have been at 176 lbs for a long while. I have been working out really consistently since the middle of March. Body composition is changing but I hadn't seen a drop on the scale until recently. It came in at 173 lbs. But since then -about a week and a half it has not read 173 again. It usually hovers at 174.6 or so. Do I really weigh 173 but other factors have caused the scale to read higher or do you think the scale lied to me that one day it read 173?

JesterMFP

Yes it can. If you are more dehydrated than normal, then you would weigh less. I don't drink alcohol very much, but if I have a night where I drink a lot, then I'm always down a pound or two the next day. I've noticed that for years! And, unless I burned tons of calories on the dance floor, the weight always goes back up over the next couple of days. So hydration does affect it. Also, if your digestive system has not been its usual self, that might affect it too. As it fluctuates so much even in one day, I think it's hard to say there's any such thing as a "true" weight, just an average.