Fluctuations

zane856
zane856 Posts: 60 Member
edited November 26 in Health and Weight Loss
good morning!! Do most people's weight fluctuate ? Mine is never the same from day to day, and fluctuates Wildly through out the week. Is this how most people are or do most stay constant through the week? For fluctuators, how do you know what you really weigh? It seems like such an arbitrary number if it changes all the time. While I can recognize the merit in not putting all my faith in the scale, it makes it hard to have a goal weight to work towards when i know once i reach it, it may not be there the next day ? What do other people do ?

Replies

  • riffraff2112
    riffraff2112 Posts: 1,756 Member
    super normal. I can change 5lbs a day easy. mostly hydration, lack thereof.

    I give myself a 7lb window (I am in maintenance). If I go over the top of my window, I get hardcore serious for a few weeks and get to the bottom of the window. Works for me.

    It would be nice to stay the same but I have one of those body types that can gain and lose weight fast. The window is the only thing that keeps me sane.
  • AspenDan
    AspenDan Posts: 703 Member
    Unfortunately most ppl fluctuate constantly..I've weighed myself in the morning and then the night and was 9lbs heavier...
    It's frustrating because it makes tracking progress on the short term basically impossible...
    Oh well, that's life =)




  • Liftng4Lis
    Liftng4Lis Posts: 15,151 Member
    Yes. 2-5 pounds of daily fluctuation is normal.
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    This content has been removed.
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    edited November 2015
    zane856 wrote: »
    good morning!! Do most people's weight fluctuate ? Mine is never the same from day to day, and fluctuates Wildly through out the week. Is this how most people are or do most stay constant through the week? For fluctuators, how do you know what you really weigh? It seems like such an arbitrary number if it changes all the time. While I can recognize the merit in not putting all my faith in the scale, it makes it hard to have a goal weight to work towards when i know once i reach it, it may not be there the next day ? What do other people do ?

    Yes ...nobody has a fixed weight but we have a weight range - pick a goal weight and accept a 5lb meander (mine is 160lb)

    Me in maintenance s 34k9wkb0onz3.jpg

    NORMAL


    Use happy scale or libra apps

    I use trendweight.com for those charts...it presets the green range around your goal
  • lorrpb
    lorrpb Posts: 11,463 Member
    Looking over my weight log, in the last 45 days I've had 5 times that my weight was the same 2 days in a row. In 17 months I don't think my weight has EVER been the same 3 days in a row. I hit a new low every 7-10 days (usually). The rest of the time it's bouncing up, down, and all around. That's the human body for you.
  • ncboiler89
    ncboiler89 Posts: 2,408 Member
    zane856 wrote: »
    good morning!! Do most people's weight fluctuate ? Mine is never the same from day to day, and fluctuates Wildly through out the week. Is this how most people are or do most stay constant through the week? For fluctuators, how do you know what you really weigh? It seems like such an arbitrary number if it changes all the time. While I can recognize the merit in not putting all my faith in the scale, it makes it hard to have a goal weight to work towards when i know once i reach it, it may not be there the next day ? What do other people do ?

    https://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10155495/just-another-plateau-and-weigh-in-thread/p1
  • blkandwhite77
    blkandwhite77 Posts: 281 Member
    I weigh myself every Monday morning an hour after I get up. Keep it simple stupid is my model. I would probably get frustrated if I checked every day at different times during the day. It seems to have worked well for me as I've only seen loses on the scale and even if it's a small loss it's till a loss so I'm happy.
  • sinbadfxdl
    sinbadfxdl Posts: 103 Member
    riffraff2112 wrote: »
    super normal. I can change 5lbs a day easy. mostly hydration, lack thereof.

    I give myself a 7lb window (I am in maintenance). If I go over the top of my window, I get hardcore serious for a few weeks and get to the bottom of the window. Works for me.

    It would be nice to stay the same but I have one of those body types that can gain and lose weight fast. The window is the only thing that keeps me sane.

    A great peice of advice. I will adapt that whe I get to my desired weight.
  • zane856
    zane856 Posts: 60 Member
    Thanks guys ! That is all super helpful. I do only weigh myself once a day as some suggested, since i know it can go up and down, but the day to day fluctuations is what gets me. Sometimes I don't care but other times it makes it hard to know what the real weight even is. I'll focus more on finding a window to stay between ! Thanks !
  • MommyL2015
    MommyL2015 Posts: 1,411 Member
    Wake up, pee, weigh. :) It will fluctuate even when you weigh the same time every morning, but doing that will show you your average weight over time.
  • bobinpeterboro
    bobinpeterboro Posts: 20 Member
    I understand that variations are normal and to be expected. What I didn't expect was how my weight doesn't vary from day to day.
    I have a good scale which is accurate and I've weighed myself at various times in the same day just to check the scales hasn't got stuck on one reading. This is my weights, first thing in the morning, after a pee but before getting dressed. Starting from this morning and going backwards.
    Sun. 12st 13.4
    Sat 12st 13.4
    Fri 12st 13.4
    Thur 12st 13.4
    Wed. 12st 12.8
    Tue. 12st 12.8
    Mon. 12st 12.8
    Sun 12st 12.8
    Sat 12st 12.8
    Fri 12st 13.8
    Thur. 13st 0.0
    Wed. 13st 0.4
    Tue 13st 0.4
  • Asher_Ethan
    Asher_Ethan Posts: 2,430 Member
    Definitely normal. I recently started weighing myself everyday and my weight is hardly ever the same.
  • PinkPixiexox
    PinkPixiexox Posts: 4,142 Member
    I don't weigh daily BECAUSE I know I'm going to fluctuate.
    If you aren't familiar with fluctuations - or aren't particular happy about seeing them, I'd definitely suggest sticking to weekly weigh-in's.

    In regards to knowing your 'true weight' - Our body does so many strange and different things every minute of every day, so it's really not possible to have an actual solid set 'weight'. Morelike a 'weight range' :)
  • Sued0nim
    Sued0nim Posts: 17,456 Member
    bobinpeterboro wrote: »
    I understand that variations are normal and to be expected. What I didn't expect was how my weight doesn't vary from day to day.
    I have a good scale which is accurate and I've weighed myself at various times in the same day just to check the scales hasn't got stuck on one reading. This is my weights, first thing in the morning, after a pee but before getting dressed. Starting from this morning and going backwards.
    Sun. 12st 13.4
    Sat 12st 13.4
    Fri 12st 13.4
    Thur 12st 13.4
    Wed. 12st 12.8
    Tue. 12st 12.8
    Mon. 12st 12.8
    Sun 12st 12.8
    Sat 12st 12.8
    Fri 12st 13.8
    Thur. 13st 0.0
    Wed. 13st 0.4
    Tue 13st 0.4

    That's fluctuations of less than a 1lb ... that's really low IMO but it helps that you're male - I haven't checked your diary but possibly your exercise, sodium and carbs are quite static
  • zayneamer
    zayneamer Posts: 5 Member
    zane856 wrote: »
    good morning!! Do most people's weight fluctuate ? Mine is never the same from day to day, and fluctuates Wildly through out the week. Is this how most people are or do most stay constant through the week? For fluctuators, how do you know what you really weigh? It seems like such an arbitrary number if it changes all the time. While I can recognize the merit in not putting all my faith in the scale, it makes it hard to have a goal weight to work towards when i know once i reach it, it may not be there the next day ? What do other people do ?

    Yes, like everyone else says, fluctuation is pretty normal. In order to see if I'm reaching my goals or not, I weigh myself at the same time every day (in the morning, before I eat or drink anything, after I've gone to the bathroom). I don't log a change until I've been within .1 kg of the same weight for about a week. So for example, let's say I am 81 kg and want to be 80 by the end of the week. Every morning when I weigh myself for this week, I see a steady drop towards 80. Over the next few days, if I stay around 80.1 or 79.9, I log the change (as 80). This seems to work pretty well for me.
  • cafeaulait7
    cafeaulait7 Posts: 2,459 Member
    I used the weekly average of each morning's weigh-in to record as that week's weight. It still has fluctuation problems, like around the ToM as an obvious one, but I felt like it was the best choice of one number.

    I'm in maintenance now, so I use a range that usually covers my fluctuations and try to see the lower or middle numbers more often than the top ones.
  • jennifer_417
    jennifer_417 Posts: 12,344 Member
    Yep. Normal.
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