WILD Weight Fluuctuations

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mangazombie1
mangazombie1 Posts: 2 Member
edited September 2016 in Health and Weight Loss
This is something that I have always been wondering about and that has always tripped me up. I'll break it down into two parts:
1. I know that weight fluctuates a lot during the day, but I've NEVER heard anyone talk about the kind of fluctuations I've always seen. Out of curiosity, I've always weighed myself throughout the day at different points in the day all throughout my life (not every day, just every once in a while when I am curious), and my weight can fluctuate up to 9lbs in a day, sometimes 4 or more in the span of a single hour without having done anything other than drink and pee, basically. I see people mentioning tenths of a pound, but not a whole ten pounds like my situation. Does anyone else have any experience with this?! I know that they say you shouldn't weigh yourself every day, but since I am currently quite heavy, I weigh myself every day to keep my weight under control and make sure it isn't going up without me noticing. I've found the only way to reliably track my weight is to enter the value every day and look at the graph for trends in fluctuations and whether as a whole the graph is moving upwards or downwards.
2. One thing that has always bothered me to no end is the fact that scales (again, multiple scales in multiple places over the course of years. Different houses, too, so not an issue with the floor) can give wildly different readings as what it just gave literally seconds ago. For example, this morning I got on and it said 262.4. I waited and got back on immediately and it repeatedly read 266. Then I moved it an inch to the left and got 270. Obviously that is a BIG discrepancy. I've tried marking a certain spot on the floor and only weighing in that spot every day, but even then I still seem to have the same problems. It's not just with weight, either. I have a composition scale, and it will give me different body fat percentages within the course of those different readings, which doesn't make any sense to me.
3. I don't know if my body composition scale is just crappy or what, but no matter what, my muscle reading, over the course of multiple months (many of which I felt like I was gaining muscle for sure), has always been the exact same percentage, 25%. I don't know if it is a problem with the scale or something else, but I don't want to shell out money that I don't really have just to track my weight.

It has been a very frustrating journey, especially when nothing you do seems to take any weight off, and you always read new studies about how formerly obese people's bodies fight for the rest of their lives to put the weight back on and how someone who used to be obese can have to eat 800 calories a day LESS than what they should be eating for their size JUST TO MAINTAIN their weight. I feel like my body is actively trying to keep me fat. I gained it all so quickly, in the span of about 2-3 years (135 to 270 now). I've had every test done and they've all come back normal. I thought that I had all of the symptoms of Cushing's syndrome (fatty hump on neck, fat "moon" face, rapid weight gain, easy bruising, covered in stretch marks), but my blood tests were normal, and my 24 hour during test showed normal cortisol levels.
I feel like I'm just doomed to be fat. I'm only 21. I thought for sure that when I went from basically sitting and laying down all day to working on my feet at a retail store for 4 hours a day during the week and 8 hours a day during the weekends that I would lose some weight, but other than maybe 5lbs when I started, nothing! And now my feet and legs hurt so bad from working that I can't find the time or energy to exercise.

Replies

  • healthygreek
    healthygreek Posts: 2,137 Member
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    The only thing that will help you lose weight is eating at a deficit consistently.
    To do this you need a food scale and weigh and log everything you eat!!!!
    You will see a downward trend and rejoice!
  • jgnatca
    jgnatca Posts: 14,464 Member
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    My weight loss team advised me that water weight can fluctuate as much as ten pounds in a day. It's normal. You are normal.

    The scale and the body composition scale are estimates only.

    You can drive yourself crazy or enter your results in a weight trend app and forget about it.
  • bagge72
    bagge72 Posts: 1,377 Member
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    I think the problem is with people who over think things. I mean you give the explanation for your question in the second part of your question. You say does anyone see big weight fluctuations like I do, and then go on to give us an example of how with in seconds of weighing yourself multiple times your scale gave you an 8lb difference. To me, that would tell me that scales aren't always accurate, and to go by how I look and feel.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,565 Member
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    Your body is only doing what you're telling it to. If you aren't losing weight, it's because you're eating as much/more than you're burning. I've been in retail for seventeen years and it wasn't until I started counting calories that I lost weight. Make sure you're in a deficit by logging everything as accurately as possible.

    If you're going to weigh yourself often (no more than once a day), it's best to look at the trend over time (4-6 weeks) rather than between each time you step on the scale.
  • LazSommer
    LazSommer Posts: 1,851 Member
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    Eat less. Your body is not special and you just recently became obese. You eat too much, put your stats in MFP and weigh your food.
  • bfanny
    bfanny Posts: 440 Member
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    Trying to understand fluctuations can drive one crazy, and there is not much you can do, if it affects you, check your weight once and walk away its just data, keep your daily cal goal in check and what you weight weekly is more realistic as long as its going down everything is right, no need to suffer in between and this goes for me too :*
  • rileysowner
    rileysowner Posts: 8,224 Member
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    First, Stop weighing yourself throughout the day. All you are doing is weighing the various foods, drinks, and stuff in, and the poop, pee, and sweat out. It have nothing, nothing at all to do with fat gain or loss. All the variations you mention are completely normal.

    Second, If you desire to weigh every day, pick one time of the day, ideally morning before eating or drinking anything and after going to the toilet. Use a trend weight app or web page to record your weights so that you can see the trend after a week or so of weighing daily. Or, perhaps better, lock the scale away, concentrate on logging your food carefully (weighing all solids and using measuring cups and spoons for liquids) for a month, then weigh yourself.

    Third, Stop focusing only on the scale. Take a picture of yourself in a bathing suit and take another one after a month or two of logging your food carefully. Take measurements of your chest, waist, hips, and the like and take them again in after a month of logging.

    At this point you are far too focused on the scale.
  • RoxieDawn
    RoxieDawn Posts: 15,488 Member
    edited September 2016
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    This is was used in another thread yesterday about fluctuations and daily weighers. Its a good read and perhaps helpful to someone else.

    http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10196160/scale-stress-syndrome/p1

    eta: body composition readings on scales are not useful at all. If you want true body composition data, you have to get for example a professional DEXA scan, etc. Even BIA are highly inaccurate.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,988 Member
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    Another vote for just weighing yourself once per day, looking at the trends, and not worrying about normal fluctuations.

    Watch how Scooby's weight fluctuates wildly throughout the day:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cYMNPP2ZR1U
  • mitch16
    mitch16 Posts: 2,113 Member
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    Industrial scales that weigh accurately to the .1 lb increment cost several hundred to several thousand dollars. They are calibrated in situ on a regular basis, are not moved from that location, and generally aren't kept in locations that have huge swings in humidity...

    I would hazard to guess that none of those things are true for the scale that you are using. It's an estimating tool--use it as such--don't over-analyze the readings, but look at the big picture and trends.
  • CharlieBeansmomTracey
    CharlieBeansmomTracey Posts: 7,682 Member
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    mangazombie1 wrote: »
    This is something that I have always been wondering about and that has always tripped me up. I'll break it down into two parts:
    1. I know that weight fluctuates a lot during the day, but I've NEVER heard anyone talk about the kind of fluctuations I've always seen. Out of curiosity, I've always weighed myself throughout the day at different points in the day all throughout my life (not every day, just every once in a while when I am curious), and my weight can fluctuate up to 9lbs in a day, sometimes 4 or more in the span of a single hour without having done anything other than drink and pee, basically. I see people mentioning tenths of a pound, but not a whole ten pounds like my situation. Does anyone else have any experience with this?! I know that they say you shouldn't weigh yourself every day, but since I am currently quite heavy, I weigh myself every day to keep my weight under control and make sure it isn't going up without me noticing. I've found the only way to reliably track my weight is to enter the value every day and look at the graph for trends in fluctuations and whether as a whole the graph is moving upwards or downwards.
    2. One thing that has always bothered me to no end is the fact that scales (again, multiple scales in multiple places over the course of years. Different houses, too, so not an issue with the floor) can give wildly different readings as what it just gave literally seconds ago. For example, this morning I got on and it said 262.4. I waited and got back on immediately and it repeatedly read 266. Then I moved it an inch to the left and got 270. Obviously that is a BIG discrepancy. I've tried marking a certain spot on the floor and only weighing in that spot every day, but even then I still seem to have the same problems. It's not just with weight, either. I have a composition scale, and it will give me different body fat percentages within the course of those different readings, which doesn't make any sense to me.
    3. I don't know if my body composition scale is just crappy or what, but no matter what, my muscle reading, over the course of multiple months (many of which I felt like I was gaining muscle for sure), has always been the exact same percentage, 25%. I don't know if it is a problem with the scale or something else, but I don't want to shell out money that I don't really have just to track my weight.

    It has been a very frustrating journey, especially when nothing you do seems to take any weight off, and you always read new studies about how formerly obese people's bodies fight for the rest of their lives to put the weight back on and how someone who used to be obese can have to eat 800 calories a day LESS than what they should be eating for their size JUST TO MAINTAIN their weight. I feel like my body is actively trying to keep me fat. I gained it all so quickly, in the span of about 2-3 years (135 to 270 now). I've had every test done and they've all come back normal. I thought that I had all of the symptoms of Cushing's syndrome (fatty hump on neck, fat "moon" face, rapid weight gain, easy bruising, covered in stretch marks), but my blood tests were normal, and my 24 hour during test showed normal cortisol levels.
    I feel like I'm just doomed to be fat. I'm only 21. I thought for sure that when I went from basically sitting and laying down all day to working on my feet at a retail store for 4 hours a day during the week and 8 hours a day during the weekends that I would lose some weight, but other than maybe 5lbs when I started, nothing! And now my feet and legs hurt so bad from working that I can't find the time or energy to exercise.

    body composition scales are very inaccurate and will fluctuate as well(depending on water weight,sodium intake,etc just like your weight).

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