Weight differences??

Weight will fluctuate by several pounds a day. I weigh myself at least twice daily, and depending on sodium intake, food choices, time of day, rest day, heavy lifting day, or basketball day my weight is all over the place. It's normal, there are just too many factors to consider, it's basically a game of averages.

Rigger

Mine does that too. I weigh myself everyday and one day I'll be 198, the next I'll be 200 and the next I'll be 201. I'll start to wonder what I'm doing wrong when I know I'm at a 500 cal/day deficit and I work out every day. Then the next day I'll be down to 196 or something. I just assume it's water retention and kick myself for weighing daily.

Everyone has said what a bad idea it is...not really sure why, lol

It's only a bad idea if you're going to let the daily fluctuations affect you mentally and emotionally. A lot of people weigh daily because they like data, but they also understand that weight will fluctuate depending on workouts, water retention, alcohol consumption, bowel movements, etc.

And to answer your original question, yes, those fluctuations are normal. My weight can change as much as 3 pounds between 24 hours. And again, if those kinds of weight fluctuations are going to bother you, I probably wouldn't weigh every day.

It's only a bad idea if you don't take into consideration that weight can fluctuate by several pounds due to many factors. If you accept the +/- a few pounds factor and it doesn't mess you up, go ahead and weigh yourself frequently. I weigh myself almost every day because I can see trends better that way. If over the course of a week I am trending the same or at a decrease, I know I'm doing fine. If I start to trend up, that's bad. I'd rather catch actual weight gain as early as possible so I can look at my lifestyle to see where I'm starting to get lax. If I only weighed in once a week, two weeks or more could go by before I caught an upward trend.

Everyone has said what a bad idea it is...not really sure why, lol

It is a bad idea to weight yourself daily because of this exact reason you just wrote about. Weight can fluctuate DAILY and weighting yourself daily will only create frustration and confusion. This is due to water weight gain, sodium, bowel irregularity, etc. Even working out can make you temporarily gain weight as muscle tends to get inflamed and retain water while repairing muscle. Some people's weight can fluctuate between 3-5 pounds in any giving week. So weighing yourself daily may lead to frustration.

If you prefer to weigh every day, my advice is to chart your weight daily , total the weights every seven days and divide by 7. Consider that your "true" weight for that week. As each week goes by you should see the downward trend, That way the daily fluctuations will not have the same impact.

I weigh daily and yes there is fluctuations, water retention or having a bigger workout can have an affect on the scales. I do it not to see if I lost that ounce or two but to keep track of which food seem to be a trigger. So I know to eat these only in very small portions when I do have them with a meal. I wont deny my family or myself flavorful meals but also try to balance the meal to keep it as healthy as possible, And as much as I would like, my family and I just wont eat certain foods no matter the health benefit. We all have to find that balance of what we will eat and what works in our bodies and the only way to do that for me anyhow is to monitor and learn.

Water retention. Maybe you had a lot of sodium the day before you weighed yourself the first time... That, or did you go to the bathroom before the 2nd time you weighed yourself? At least for me, my weight can fluctuate by 2-3 pounds just by going to the bathroom. I don't go everyday (more like every 3 days), so I try to weigh myself AFTER I go. Sorry if that is TMI! :embarassed:

Everyone has said what a bad idea it is...not really sure why, lol

Because weight can fluctuate rather substantially throughout a given day and day to day due to water retention/release, food and beverage consumption (it has mass right?), waste in your system, etc. A lot of people don't understand this and freak out so they are better off weighing in less frequently.

Personally, I advocate weighing in daily or at least 3-5 days per week to better understand those fluctuations and to have more data points for trend analysis...if you only weigh in once per week, it could be that you have more or less waste in your system than last week or your are retaining more or less water, etc and that can either mask fat loss (Oh noes, I didn't lose weight this week...but next week they lose 5 Lbs of scale weight) or it can inflate loss (yay, I lost 5 Lbs this week...and then the next week they see a gain because it wasn't really a 5 Lb fat loss).

Why shouldn't you weigh daily?

Because weight fluctuates during the week. Ideally, weighing yourself once a week is the best idea. Also, weigh yourself in the morning, naked and after you've used the batheroom.

Everyone has said what a bad idea it is...not really sure why, lol

Because weight can fluctuate rather substantially throughout a given day and day to day due to water retention/release, food and beverage consumption (it has mass right?), waste in your system, etc. A lot of people don't understand this and freak out so they are better off weighing in less frequently.

Personally, I advocate weighing in daily or at least 3-5 days per week to better understand those fluctuations and to have more data points for trend analysis...if you only weigh in once per week, it could be that you have more or less waste in your system than last week or your are retaining more or less water, etc and that can either mask fat loss (Oh noes, I didn't lose weight this week...but next week they lose 5 Lbs of scale weight) or it can inflate loss (yay, I lost 5 Lbs this week...and then the next week they see a gain because it wasn't really a 5 Lb fat loss).

Pretty much this. I weight most days then plot it in Excel and pay attention to the trend line. I think there are also apps that do this.