Weight fluctuation in day

The most logical time to weigh in is in the morning before you've ingested anything and with empty bladder and bowels. That said, you're still always going to have water fluctuations as well as more/less inherent waste in your system, etc. If you weigh yourself after ingesting foods or liquids, that's obviously going to show up on the scale as food and whatnot have mass and thus weight...

amtbhatnagar wrote: »

I will check n keep tab on morning weight cool n not check in night :-)

Also, find a trending app (I use trendweight.com) to focus more on what your weight is doing over time vs. what the number is today. Realize it will still go up and down daily, but should trend down if you are trying to lose weight.

weight is not a static number. There are so many things that will affect it and it will vary throughout the day..

I have access to scales at work. I've monitored my weight during the day and it really is an eye-opening lesson. My weight has varied anywhere from two to five pounds over the course of eight hours.

Some of the things that will affect your weight. what did you eat the day before. If it was salty or you consumed alcohol you'll retain water weight more than non-alcoholic or salty things. Your bathroom movements during the day will affect you. How much water did you drink over the course of a day. Are you using the same scale to weigh yourself or using different scales. The calibration of scales will vary from scale to scale sometimes. I think you're getting the picture of what I'm talking about.

Myself I like to weigh myself at 9 o'clock in the morning and use that as my reference point.

Why is there a "best time" to weigh yourself? It struck me just now that people are trying to avoid the time when fluids are higher. Fluids are a fact of life right? It's going to be there to varying degrees all day long every day. If you're looking for long-term fat loss (which is really the only way to tell if you are losing fat), the trend is all that matters. STEVE142142 above has it right.

Fluid retention doesn't just go up and down by the day, it goes up and down during the day. Folks that are looking to weigh in the morning after going to the bathroom and before eating I'm guessing are looking for the lowest number possible. In my case, the lower number possible is usually after my afternoon workout where I've sweated out a bunch of fluid. I record my weight whenever I feel like it and watch the trend. (And I'm a bit of a stats and numbers geek, so I enjoy observing the process).

All I care about is losing fat - I want my body to do what it does with fluids. If my trend is good and my CICO is on target, I don't worry about the scale day to day...at all.

whittlepauly wrote: »

Feel lucky its only 2 lbs,I weigh myself in the morning and by night I'm 10 lbs heavier!

This is me as well! That's why I started my DietBet challenge with and evening weigh and will finish with one in the morning, first month's loss goal already in the bank.

Silentpadna wrote: »

Why is there a "best time" to weigh yourself? It struck me just now that people are trying to avoid the time when fluids are higher. Fluids are a fact of life right? It's going to be there to varying degrees all day long every day. If you're looking for long-term fat loss (which is really the only way to tell if you are losing fat), the trend is all that matters. STEVE142142 above has it right.

Fluid retention doesn't just go up and down by the day, it goes up and down during the day. Folks that are looking to weigh in the morning after going to the bathroom and before eating I'm guessing are looking for the lowest number possible. In my case, the lower number possible is usually after my afternoon workout where I've sweated out a bunch of fluid. I record my weight whenever I feel like it and watch the trend. (And I'm a bit of a stats and numbers geek, so I enjoy observing the process).

All I care about is losing fat - I want my body to do what it does with fluids. If my trend is good and my CICO is on target, I don't worry about the scale day to day...at all.

Because weighing in the morning before eating and drinking anything is about as accurate as you're going to get. Why would i weigh myself at night when there's a full day's worth of food and fluids sitting in my gut, which will give me a skewed and rather depressing number.
I put on a pound after drinking 2 cups of tea, I dread to think what a fulls day of eating and drinking would do to the scale number.

Also weighing in the nude is a good idea,clothes and shoes can weigh 5-6 lbs,I've weighed them

I tend to weigh myself first thing in the morning.

But if you want more data about yourself, feel free to just weigh yourself every so often during the day to see where you are.

AnvilHead wrote: »

If you're a stats and numbers geek, I'd think that you would want to eliminate as many variables as possible to get the best data you can get from a process which is inherently inaccurate in the first place. Recording your weight "whenever you feel like it" introduces a lot of unnecessary noise into the equation and skews the trends.

If I weigh first thing in the morning, naked, after going to the bathroom one day, then weigh mid-afternoon the next day with clothes on after eating breakfast and lunch and drinking fluids all morning/afternoon, what validity is there to comparing the data? I might as well just toss the scale, put up a dart board and throw darts at it for my weight numbers and chart my trend from there.

The reason many consider first thing in the morning the "best time to weigh yourself" is because you can eliminate the most variables by doing it then. The human body is still subject to fluctuations for several different reasons, but at least you've controlled as many variables as you can. Identical scale, identical place, identical clothing (or lack thereof), hydration/feeding status as identical as possible - it's a lot more controlled than randomly stepping on the scale whenever the mood strikes you during the day.

I understand this line of reasoning as well. As a numbers geek, I am interested in the fluctuation and (but mostly) the trend. I get the idea of consistent, controlled data, however what control do you really have?

I would argue that the trends are not being skewed by when you take the data, but shortness of the time window you use. I think when you have fluids vary in a day 2-3 times as much as the magnitude of fat loss you can expect in a week (if you're aggressive, even more if you are not as aggressive), means that any time you weigh yourself more than, say once a month (if not longer), you'll get "noise".

What I mean by saying there is not really a "best time", is that I don't think consistency in day-to-day data buys you anything meaningful. In fact, because of the fluid v. fat rates, I don't think it's wise to make any major decisions or changes without observing for enough time to see a trend. A week or two is not nearly enough time establish a trend. A month might not be even long enough.

In my own example, it appears that my CICO is resulting in a 2 lb / week steady rate. But I've only been at this for about 8 weeks. It's probably getting close enough to a long enough timeline to confirm my CICO works. My measurements day to day mean almost nothing by themselves - and probably nothing within the context of a week. Taking data at any time in the day, for me, is simply a way to watch how the body works.

Its perfectly normal, even in maintenance I fluctuate up 1.5 to 3lbs in any given day- I step on the scales each morning.
Pick one time of the day to weigh in and stick to that.

When I eat full sodium soup, I gain 10 lbs in water weight.... Very uncomfortable