Is it normal to gain four lbs in one day?

luvsubrooke
luvsubrooke Posts: 85 Member
in Getting Started
My weight seems to fluctuate terribly. My weight will fluctuate four to five pound from one day to the next. I'm burning six hundred calories a day with cardio and doing small amounts of weight training, along with a strict diet! I don't understand what I'm doing wrong here. The only junk I eat is an occasional protein bar.

Replies

  • wkwebby
    wkwebby Posts: 807 Member
    Mine shot up almost 6 lbs when I went from a lower carb diet to only eating carbs one day. It was all water retention and went away in two days (down 3lbs a day). Mine was water retention.

    Time of the month can also affect me with water retention up to 4 lbs. almost overnight.
  • jazzie_red
    jazzie_red Posts: 180 Member
    I got a new scale and when I got it I wieghed 195. I was so excited I wanted to see that number again. A couple of hours later: 196.5 I chose to select the lower number!! It worked for me.

    I forgot to say I was a day before cycle.
  • monie5903
    monie5903 Posts: 48 Member
    Do not freak out! This has happened to me before. 2 things always account for an enourmous gain (for me):

    1) Bloating from my period because I'm retaining water the first couple days

    2) Not enough water. When I don't drink enough, I retain a couple pounds of just fluid. Be sure you're drinking enough water and you should see this fluctuation stop

    If it's not either of these things, it may be what you're eating. I hope this helps :)
  • luvsubrooke
    luvsubrooke Posts: 85 Member
    Yes, I have my period! Lol I was getting so excited be I'm almost under the milestone I wanted to meet and then suddenly the scale shot up six lbs. I felt like skipping lunch but I figured I couldn't possibly gain six pounds of fat over night. Lol the struggle...
  • parasshelawala
    parasshelawala Posts: 29 Member
    Yeah, its pretty normal. Its all water weight fluctuations... Only the weekly average or overall trend matters.
  • AskTracyAnnK28
    AskTracyAnnK28 Posts: 2,817 Member
    Would you consider weigning yourself just once a week? Everyone's weight fluctuates daily....

    Oh and make sure that you're always weiging in under the same conditions (ie - scale in the same place, same time of day, wearing the same thing)

    That's just from my personal experience, but eveyone is different. If you prefer daily weigh-ins, just don't make yourself crazy over it. In the end, you'll lose if you follow your plan correctly.
  • husseycd
    husseycd Posts: 814 Member
    Yes. All the time. I actually weigh daily because it makes the fluctuations easy to track. I'm always heaviest on a Monday because of weekend fun.
  • McCloud33
    McCloud33 Posts: 959 Member
    My weight seems to fluctuate terribly. My weight will fluctuate four to five pound from one day to the next. I'm burning six hundred calories a day with cardio and doing small amounts of weight training, along with a strict diet! I don't understand what I'm doing wrong here. The only junk I eat is an occasional protein bar.

    I've posted on this topic before because I was frustrated with the same thing. My conclusion after digging into it is two fold: Salt intake and Carbs. Both cause you to retain water. I'm not sure the correlation for salt, but for carbs, your body will retain 4 grams of water for every 1 gram of carbs you eat. Think of it this way...a bagel will make you hold about .5 lb of water all by itself.
  • bwogilvie
    bwogilvie Posts: 2,130 Member
    Every day you consume on average something like 11-13 pounds of food, water, and oxygen, and you eliminate 11-13 pounds of waste (solid and liquid) and carbon dioxide. (More if you're really big or active, less if you are petite.)

    Thing is, those are averages. Meanwhile, if you're losing 2 lb./week (very aggressive), that's still less than 5 ounces of body fat a day, or nearly two orders of magnitude less than your daily intake.

    Not surprisingly, your real fat losses are swamped by ordinary fluctuations in your hydration level, waste retention (from variations in salt and fiber intake), etc.

    Try this experiment: weigh yourself right before a meal. Weigh yourself immediately after, without going to the bathroom. You will have gained weight: the weight of the food and drink you consumed. Does that mean you gained that much *fat*? Of course not. You would gain the same amount of weight as if you had picked up the food and carried it onto the scale without eating it. If you eat a pound of cabbage, you'll temporarily weigh a pound more, but you will have consumed only about 115 calories, the equivalent of less than half an ounce of fat.
  • shireeniebeanie
    shireeniebeanie Posts: 293 Member
    ^ Which makes perfect sense. That's why you should weigh yourself upon waking, in a fasted state, after using the bathroom. That's as consistent as it gets.

    Water is your friend. It weighs something. Drink more of it in and you'll pee more of it out. Done.
  • mz_getskinny
    mz_getskinny Posts: 258 Member
    I weigh 3 to 4 lbs heavier in the afternoon than I do in the morning. I have no idea why! But I ALWAYS go by my early morning weight ....for the obvious reasons :)
  • willywonka
    willywonka Posts: 743 Member
    Mine shot up 5 lbs Monday after having a few drinks/eats on Saturday, I'm hoping most of it is water weight, dang.
  • bfergusonii
    bfergusonii Posts: 208 Member
    Yep.

    The fluctuations where driving me crazy. At this point I only weigh ever 3-4 weeks.
  • AllOutof_Bubblegum
    AllOutof_Bubblegum Posts: 3,646 Member
    Perfectly normal.

    It's ToM for me, and I gained six. No big deal, I know it'll drop in a few days.
  • IILikeToMoveItMoveIt
    IILikeToMoveItMoveIt Posts: 1,172 Member
    Carbs grab water like crazy. Sodium and not drinking enough water will stick it on as well.
  • Iceprincessk25
    Iceprincessk25 Posts: 1,888 Member
    Totally normal!
  • Justifier
    Justifier Posts: 336 Member
    I weigh 3 to 4 lbs heavier in the afternoon than I do in the morning. I have no idea why! But I ALWAYS go by my early morning weight ....for the obvious reasons :)

    By the afternoon, you've probably consumed food. Food has mass, even sitting partially digusted in your gut. The scale doesn't differentiate between "you" weight and "food in you" weight.
  • BombshellPhoenix
    BombshellPhoenix Posts: 1,693 Member
    Yep...and then I poop
  • srslybritt
    srslybritt Posts: 1,618 Member
    You're gonna die.





    ETA: Just like the rest of us. We're all moving at a slow and steady clip toward death. Weight fluctuation is normal. I suggest not weighing daily if you find it discouraging.

    :flowerforyou:

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