Losing 1 lb or more in 24 hours

I was recently unfriended by someone for giving her a wake up call regarding this, and people seem to be making this mistake all the time, so I thought I'd just share it with you all.

If you measure yourself daily and go up or down 1 or more pounds every day, you have NOT gained or last 1 pound of fat. It just doesn't work that way.

First of all, when our bodies need energy, the fat cells are the last place it goes to find that energy. Why, you ask? It's because out of carbohydrates, protein, and fat, fat is the hardest to break down into glucose (usable energy). Our bodies do what nature always does: it finds the easiest path to achieve what it's set out to do. I'm not saying it will NEVER burn any fat, but when you're working out, the calories you burn will be 50% fat, at most. The harder you push yourself, the less % of the calories burned will be fat.

[side note]
Now, before you start pulling back on your workout routines, when you work harder, you burn more calories, and even though a lower % will be fat, it will be still be more calories per hour than if you just took it easy. Get out there and bust you butt!!!
[/side note]

To add to that, there is approximately 3500 calories in 1 pound of fat. If you were to lose that 1 pound of fat in 24 hours, you would have to burn at least 7000 calories MORE than what you ate. For the average person, that would be more than 10 hours of moderately hard exercise... If you think you lost a pound of fat, think again...

Now, our bodies are constantly losing and bringing in water. When we sweat, go to the wash room, or even just sit around, we're losing water. We need to constantly replenish the water we lose. If you don't, then you will dehydrate. The side effect of this? You'll lose weight. If you drink too much? You'll gain weight. It's simple.

Now, I just checked out the numbers, and found that 1 pound of water is 500 mL (or 0.264 Gallons, for you American folks). That's a mere 2 cups. Less than 2 glasses. If you're working out (or clubbing, or dancing at a concert), you can easily lose twice that much every hour from sweat alone. That's why, if you ever watch a serious endurance event, some athletes will be stepping on a scale after every few laps of the race - they're checking to see if they're keeping their water levels up high enough. If you lose 2% of your body weight in water, you're body's efficiency drops by 20%. Lose any more, and you're facing dehydration.

That last part wasn't meant to scare anyone. If you're not working out too hard, and you lose some water, you'll be fine. Just drink some more and you'll be good.

Other reasons why you could lose weight from water? How much sodium do you eat? Did you have a big meal at the end of the day prior to weighing yourself (only applicable if you weigh yourself in the morning)? Do you eat a lot of processed foods, and cut them out recently? Do you have and food sensitivities? A lot of things can make you retain/stop retaining water.

So next time your out late at night, and the next morning your weight suddenly drops by a dramatic amount, or goes up an equal amount, don't worry about it. It's a simple fluctuation. You're not gaining or losing fat that quickly. Fat takes a decent amount of time to build/drop.

Thanks for this post!

So, a .20 loss/day for real and not water weight? sorry if it is a stupid question.

Now I'll let myself prepare for some flaming. Oh, and if you say "everyone is different," unless you have a medical condition, the only way for you to be so different that you CAN lose of gain a pound of fat, you can't be human. Stop being so ignorant. We are all 99.9% identical. No one is so different, their body functions completely different from the rest of the population.

who weighs every day? i check in once a week tops for the very reasons you mention OP. you speak the truth - thanks for posting!

What kind of monster are you?