How much weight can you actually lose in one day?

Dewymorning
Dewymorning Posts: 762 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I know, I know, "Don't weigh yourself daily"

I know that water weight and the content of your stomach can make a difference.

How much can you actually lose in one day? Is it possible to lose 1 or 2 pounds, or is such a quick change going to be water weight or a change in the contents of your stomach/intestine.

Last week I was 160 pounds, however on Monday I went to a restaurant with my friends, and the meal was quite salty. So even though I weighed myself as having gone up to 161 pounds I discounted that weight gain as being water weight and did not record it.

Then after having a few healthy days, yesterday I weighed in at 159 pounds, which shows up as a 1 pound lose from my previous weight.

Then this morning I weighed myself again and I am 157.5 pounds.

It seems like a lot to lose just in one day, even though I went to the gym yesterday and didn't eat all my exercise calories back.

Did I actually lose weight the quick, or is it more like I lost 2.5 pounds over the whole week, and the water weight just disguised it.

Thanks.

Replies

  • jwdieter
    jwdieter Posts: 2,582 Member
    Nothing wrong with weighing yourself daily.

    If you worked at it, you could probably lose 12+ lbs in a day of water weight.
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,294 Member
    How much fat, muscle, or water weight? Or do you mean just weight in general. Some weight class competing sports athletes cut as much as 10lbs in a day or so to make weight, 99% of that would be water weight though.
  • KateK8LoseW8
    KateK8LoseW8 Posts: 824 Member
    Fluctuations can easily disguise true weight loss. This week I "lost" 3 pounds over two days. I absolutely know that isn't true, because that's impossible considering my intake for those two days. I just let go of some water weight, pooped more than usual, and didn't have much salt.
  • keem88
    keem88 Posts: 1,689 Member
    depends how big of a dump you take
  • likitisplit
    likitisplit Posts: 9,420 Member
    I was about to say, that I've lost a pound in 20 minutes on the toilet, but it looks like that has been covered.
  • climbing_trees
    climbing_trees Posts: 726 Member
    I weigh myself every day and then take the average for my weekly weigh ins.
    Keeping a copy of the data in a spreadsheet helps me see where I've come from and picture where I'm going. This is my chart. (oops, part of the end is cut off but you get the idea~)
    wCtu84A.png
  • rb16fitness
    rb16fitness Posts: 236 Member
    This was in a post yesterday on why it doesn't make sense to be a slave to the scale. The guy lost 12kg:

    http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/health/how-ross-edgley-lost-12kg-in-24-hours/story-fneuzkvr-1226761474692
  • _jayciemarie_
    _jayciemarie_ Posts: 574 Member
    I record my weight every Thursday, but I do weigh myself every day. Today is the heaviest I have been all week--I weighed in at exactly 194, but earlier this week I was 192.4. It fluctuates. I've lost 3.8lbs since last Thursday. Do I really believe I lost 3.8lbs? Probably not. I bet next week I only record .5 loss or something along those lines. It all evens out in my opinion.
  • jayladey
    jayladey Posts: 7
    you're not supposed to weigh yourself every day yo. the reason why? because people can fluctuate from 1 pound to like...14 pounds. depends how much you eat, how much water your body is holding onto..etc.
  • Holly_Roman_Empire
    Holly_Roman_Empire Posts: 4,440 Member
    How much fat, muscle, or water weight? Or do you mean just weight in general. Some weight class competing sports athletes cut as much as 10lbs in a day or so to make weight, 99% of that would be water weight though.

    This. Losing a lot of weight in one day is not impossible, as is gaining a lot of weight in one day. But I'm sure you're mostly interested in fat loss, right? It depends how much person to person.
  • Francl27
    Francl27 Posts: 26,371 Member
    I read somewhere that your fat cells fill with water before you shed them... so basically even if you lost 3 lbs of water in one day, it means a big part of it could have been fat at one point. I mean, I eat 20% under my TDEE and don't lose any weight for 3 weeks... then I lose 4-6 lbs in one week (record is 3 lbs in one day, I think). Can't all be water weight.
  • emmad2
    emmad2 Posts: 59
    my weight can fluctuate by about 5-6lbs throughout the course of the day
  • nytrifisoul
    nytrifisoul Posts: 499 Member
    How much fat, muscle, or water weight? Or do you mean just weight in general. Some weight class competing sports athletes cut as much as 10lbs in a day or so to make weight, 99% of that would be water weight though.

    Ive heard figures of cutting around 20-30lbs.
  • fat2fitdancody
    fat2fitdancody Posts: 259 Member
    I read this the other day, a sports scientist lost 24 lbs in 24 hours:

    http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2507184/I-lost-nearly-2-stone-24-HOURS-Sport-scientist-proves-rapid-weight-loss-IS-possible-youre-prepared-exercise-wearing-bin-bags-eat-carbs-drink-nothing.html
  • Danny_Boy13
    Danny_Boy13 Posts: 2,094 Member
    Fighters lose 10's of lbs before they weight in but put almost all of it back on within 24hrs. All water weight though.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    weight loss is a general trend over time...you can lose and gain quite a bit day to day with natural fluctuations...these fluctuations can easily mask true fat loss...thus weight loss and weight control in general should be viewed as a trend over time, not a day to day or week to week linear function.
  • coolraul07
    coolraul07 Posts: 1,606 Member
    Can you lose that much in 1 day, yes. The key question is, "What was the composition of said weight loss?" I can gain 5-7# in 24 hours, and I can lose up to 6# during a 2-3 hour cardio session.
  • Showcase_Brodown
    Showcase_Brodown Posts: 919 Member
    Well, given that a pound of fat equals about 3500 calories...

    Divide the number of calories you burn in a day (Your TDEE) by 3500. It should give you how many pounds you could theoretically lose by not eating anything.

    If you burn 2000 in a day, 2000/3500 = .57 pounds.
    Extrapolate that out to a week and you have about 4. Not recommended!

    This is too perfect though. It doesn't account for anything like water weight, digestive contents, glycogen, muscle loss.... or any other factors.
  • likitisplit
    likitisplit Posts: 9,420 Member
    A serious answer? If you lose 2# of fat a week, with a healthy diet and exercise to maintain your muscle, then you will be losing an average of 4.5 ounces a day.
  • Dewymorning
    Dewymorning Posts: 762 Member
    Well, given that a pound of fat equals about 3500 calories...

    Divide the number of calories you burn in a day (Your TDEE) by 3500. It should give you how many pounds you could theoretically lose by not eating anything.

    If you burn 2000 in a day, 2000/3500 = .57 pounds.
    Extrapolate that out to a week and you have about 4. Not recommended!

    This is too perfect though. It doesn't account for anything like water weight, digestive contents, glycogen, muscle loss.... or any other factors.
    A serious answer? If you lose 2# of fat a week, with a healthy diet and exercise to maintain your muscle, then you will be losing an average of 4.5 ounces a day.

    Thank you for giving me a serious answers, this was the kind of info I was looking for.

    From these answers it seems to me that the answer is that I was slowly losing fat over the whole of this week, but it only just showed up on the scales these past two days.

    My main reason for the question was that I was surprised at how much I had lost this morning, thinking that my weight decrease yesterday had accounted for any gain from water retention, and so I was concerned that I had overestimated my calorie intake, or something.

    However your answers suggest that even if I had overestimated my calorie intake it would not have led to that big of a decrease in fat content.

    I want to lose weight at a healthy rate.

    I weigh myself every day because I just want to learn how my body works and everything like that. And the statistician in me wants MORE DATA, MORE DATA.

    Hehehe.
  • likitisplit
    likitisplit Posts: 9,420 Member
    I weigh myself every day too. The reason is that I spike and drop regularly (and even more so once a month). One day, I weighed myself in the morning and then again (on the same scale) after breakfast and coffee. I'd dropped three pounds.

    If I weigh myself each day, I can see that I added 3 pounds overnight = not real. If I weighed once a week and found I was six pounds up, I'd have no idea whether that was a progressive gain, or just water weight.

    I use an app called Happy Scale to provide a regression line.

    However, and my best advice to you is, take measurements: arm, chest, waist, hips, legs. Do it every month. That way, if you hit a plateau, you can see whether its a real plateau or a body recomp. Because that scale doesn't measure what you really need to to measure - fat loss.
  • rosemary98
    rosemary98 Posts: 632
    I think you just have to look at the trend over time. that is why personally i weigh daily. i enter my weight on a line graph and see where I am trending. If the trend line is horizonal for the most part...I am basically just maintaining, but if it is slanted (one way or the other) I know I am doing things right (or wrong).
  • Dewymorning
    Dewymorning Posts: 762 Member
    I weigh myself every day too. The reason is that I spike and drop regularly (and even more so once a month). One day, I weighed myself in the morning and then again (on the same scale) after breakfast and coffee. I'd dropped three pounds.

    If I weigh myself each day, I can see that I added 3 pounds overnight = not real. If I weighed once a week and found I was six pounds up, I'd have no idea whether that was a progressive gain, or just water weight.

    I use an app called Happy Scale to provide a regression line.

    However, and my best advice to you is, take measurements: arm, chest, waist, hips, legs. Do it every month. That way, if you hit a plateau, you can see whether its a real plateau or a body recomp. Because that scale doesn't measure what you really need to to measure - fat loss.

    Yeah, the scales might not accurately measure fat loss, but my clothes do.

    My once tight-fitting jeans are now baggy. It appears my bottom has moved upwards an inch. :P
  • kikijennifer
    kikijennifer Posts: 6
    In the past as much as 3 pounds. Probaly water. I just don't understand why the water loss when we start eatin very little?! Even when I keep drinkin to not dehydrate.
  • RaggedyPond
    RaggedyPond Posts: 1,487 Member
    50 pounds.
  • Flabulousss
    Flabulousss Posts: 106
    I was about to say, that I've lost a pound in 20 minutes on the toilet, but it looks like that has been covered.

    20 minutes on the toilet!?? Wow. Is this normal? Maybe take a fiber supplement if you're not getting enough. There's no need to waste more than a couple minutes of valuable time in the loo. lol
  • likitisplit
    likitisplit Posts: 9,420 Member
    I was about to say, that I've lost a pound in 20 minutes on the toilet, but it looks like that has been covered.

    20 minutes on the toilet!?? Wow. Is this normal? Maybe take a fiber supplement if you're not getting enough. There's no need to waste more than a couple minutes of valuable time in the loo. lol

    IBS
  • likitisplit
    likitisplit Posts: 9,420 Member
    In the past as much as 3 pounds. Probaly water. I just don't understand why the water loss when we start eatin very little?! Even when I keep drinkin to not dehydrate.

    Your muscles store glycogen for easily accessed energy. Each molecule of glycogen is attached to a water molecule. When you cut, your muscles use the glycogen and release the water.
  • termi21
    termi21 Posts: 1 Member
    One day, I weighed myself in the morning and then again (on the same scale) after breakfast and coffee. I'd dropped three pounds.
    I can see that I added 3 pounds overnight = not real

    You really need to buy a new scale... Your current one defies physics :p
  • amittelstedt1202
    amittelstedt1202 Posts: 1
    You can actually lose weight 3x faster if you weigh yourself daily at least that's what I've read... no promises

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