Yesterday 289.8 lbs on the scale. Today 286.4lbs - Why is it so variable?

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JHALLISGETTINGsmall
JHALLISGETTINGsmall Posts: 54 Member
edited March 2016 in Health and Weight Loss
I don't understand the scale. Ill take the 3 lbs loss but how can it vary in one day so much? Im not logging it, as I only log on Mondays. But still seems weird

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  • galgenstrick
    galgenstrick Posts: 2,086 Member
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    Water retention, undigested food, glycogen etc. My weight will fluctuate around +/- 5lbs over the course of a day just depending on what I eat and activity I do
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
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    Each day you're adding food to your body and (some days) food is leaving -- this will constantly change your weight. Your muscles can retain water if you exercise hard, if you have extra sodium or if you are in certain times of the month (for those who menstruate) you can also retain water.

    This is why many people see fluctuations from day to day. I have seen swings up to 7 pounds day to day.
  • WakkoW
    WakkoW Posts: 567 Member
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    I weigh every day at the same time and under the same condition and have gained/lost three pounds day to day. It ebbs and flows with sodium intake, carb intake, and TOM.

    My current range is 139-144 pounds.
  • rnelson88
    rnelson88 Posts: 122 Member
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    Congrats! Are you weighing yourself when you first wake up in the morning?
  • GreyKnight120
    GreyKnight120 Posts: 60 Member
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    One thing that helped me realize how these fluctuations can occur...

    Weigh yourself.
    Drink 6 cups of water. (I have two 24oz. glasses)
    Weigh yourself again.

    Instant ~3 lb. gain. (luckily not the bad kind though!!)

    I tend to think of a little extra sodium in my diet as behaving like sponges... causing the body to hang onto more water and thus cause the scale to reflect an increase. If I have less sodium, there is less water and the number on the scale is thus a bit lower.
  • JHALLISGETTINGsmall
    JHALLISGETTINGsmall Posts: 54 Member
    edited March 2016
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    im logging my weight every Monday Morning- before I get in the shower. I weigh with no clothes on, want to get my actual weight. What is a bummer is I went to the Dr yesterday for something unrelated - weighed 7 lbs more than I do at home on their scale - with clothes on and I was holding my purse as well. Kind of sucked too.

    I guess the daily fluctuations are related to many things - can be frustrating though
  • scolaris
    scolaris Posts: 2,145 Member
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    Why is it frustrating? You are never one number. You will never be one number. As long as you are a living, breathing, ingesting & excreting living organism being one single fixed weight 'number' will never, ever happen. Change your thinking!
  • CurlyCockney
    CurlyCockney Posts: 1,394 Member
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    If you're weighing yourself frequently (even though you only log it on Mondays) it might be useful to use a trending app or site. Trendweight.com is popular, as are Happy Scale (for iOS) and Libra (for Android). That way you'll see that weights go up and down all the time, and it may take some of the frustration away.
  • jdhcm2006
    jdhcm2006 Posts: 2,254 Member
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    JHALLISGETTINGsmall wrote: »
    im logging my weight every Monday Morning- before I get in the shower. I weigh with no clothes on, want to get my actual weight. What is a bummer is I went to the Dr yesterday for something unrelated - weighed 7 lbs more than I do at home on their scale - with clothes on and I was holding my purse as well. Kind of sucked too.

    I guess the daily fluctuations are related to many things - can be frustrating though

    Of course you weighed more. You had on clothes, shoes, your purse, plus you had eaten. Plus, it's a different scale. That's not even something I would worry about.
  • blues4miles
    blues4miles Posts: 1,481 Member
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    janejellyroll wrote: »
    Each day you're adding food to your body and (some days) food is leaving -- this will constantly change your weight. Your muscles can retain water if you exercise hard, if you have extra sodium or if you are in certain times of the month (for those who menstruate) you can also retain water.

    This is why many people see fluctuations from day to day. I have seen swings up to 7 pounds day to day.

    This! A gallon of water weighs around 6.5 lbs.

    Consider weighing every day and using a tool like TrendWeight or HappyScale to even out the fluctuations for you, it will give you trending data for your weight.

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