Can you gain weight without ingesting anything or is my scale busted? lol
Verity1111
Posts: 3,309 Member
So Ive been wondering about my scale for a while but I tested out of curiosity today. Took my weight twice before I left twice when I came back from somewhere. All I ingested was a sip from a water fountain and one chip between leaving and coming home. Same clothes, same spot on the floor where I weighed - I gained 1 lb. lol. Also, any scale recommendations? I was considering just rebuying the one I have but maybe not. I have a Bowflex Caloric and BMI Scale. Someone said water retention and not my scale...that's why I asked in the title. But retention within a few hrs without drinking much of anything? o_o
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Replies
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My weight normally fluctuates 1-4lb depending on the time of day and it is completely normal for me regardless of what I’ve eaten or done on that specific day5
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Your scale's probably a little wonky. If it has a changeable battery, putting a new one in might be a good idea
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I dont take the small amounts that seriously. I can fluctuate 5lbs in a day if I dont drink enough fluids. If you are like me and have the habit of stepping on the scale every time you pass it, you might want to slow down. I keep telling myself I will stop it, but so far NOPE. I just dont take it seriously.
Pick a time of day to weigh and stick with that. I swear I am going to not weigh myself the whole month of December.4 -
I dont take the small amounts that seriously. I can fluctuate 5lbs in a day if I dont drink enough fluids. If you are like me and have the habit of stepping on the scale every time you pass it, you might want to slow down. I keep telling myself I will stop it, but so far NOPE. I just dont take it seriously.
Pick a time of day to weigh and stick with that. I swear I am going to not weigh myself the whole month of December.
The point was to see if it's working right due to weird readings though. You can gain weight without eating or drinking anything???My weight normally fluctuates 1-4lb depending on the time of day and it is completely normal for me regardless of what I’ve eaten or done on that specific day
Literally without drinking even water?? It seems impossible o_o I cant recheck now to see how its working tho I drank a giant diet coke but still Lol at the time I had nothing but 1-2oz water which obviously weighs 1-2oz and then 1 chip (like 5grams lol) so I dont get how I could go up 16ounces.0 -
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Yes, your weight can fluctuate anywhere from 1 to 5 pounds during the day, because even if you're not eating anything or drinking anything, your body can be retaining water or salt, or processing foods you've recently eaten, or any other number of functions it does to keep you alive. The reason people say to weigh yourself on the same day at the same time every week is because of these constant fluctuations. It is totally normal, and your scale is not broken, probably :P5
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Home scales aren't accurate to a pinch, and environmental factors can affect. I don't imagine that you could gain a lb without ingesting a single thing, but if the temperature changed in the room where your scale is between those times, that could be enough to affect the inner workings and have it give a slightly different result.1
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All home digital scales are inaccurate within a couple of percent, even ones that claim to be accurate to within .2 lbs. It's a function of the way they are made and new batteries or a new scale will not help. Most scales have a memory which conceals the inaccuracy by making the weight the same as the most recent weight if it's within a certain amount and time. You can get around this and see how accurate the scale really is by weighing yourself while holding something that weighs a couple of pounds, then weighing again.5
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Verity1111 wrote: »I dont take the small amounts that seriously. I can fluctuate 5lbs in a day if I dont drink enough fluids. If you are like me and have the habit of stepping on the scale every time you pass it, you might want to slow down. I keep telling myself I will stop it, but so far NOPE. I just dont take it seriously.
Pick a time of day to weigh and stick with that. I swear I am going to not weigh myself the whole month of December.
The point was to see if it's working right due to weird readings though. You can gain weight without eating or drinking anything???My weight normally fluctuates 1-4lb depending on the time of day and it is completely normal for me regardless of what I’ve eaten or done on that specific day
Literally without drinking even water?? It seems impossible o_o I cant recheck now to see how its working tho I drank a giant diet coke but still Lol at the time I had nothing but 1-2oz water which obviously weighs 1-2oz and then 1 chip (like 5grams lol) so I dont get how I could go up 16ounces.Verity1111 wrote: »
Not sure why you asked since you already knew what answer you would accept.
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Your just overthinking it. This is about overall long term changes. You know the funny thing is when gaining weight to get where we are currently we walked past the same scale and didnt care to know. Now that we are trying to lose weight we scrutinize every .1 of a pound6
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water weight!! drink more water!! consume less sodium14
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tiffaninghs wrote: »water weight!! drink more water!! consume less sodium
She didn't drink any water between weighing...3 -
Muscles. Expand. And. Swell. When. Moving.
If you were a non-living object without biologically responsive tissue, 1) you literally wouldn’t see a change on the scale, because 2) you wouldn’t be cognizant of gravity or life.11 -
Assuming you weigh something like 140 pounds a variation of 1 pound is nothing, it is less than 1% of your weight. 1 pound is likely within the error of even fairly accurate scale. Don't worry about it....it's not like you have an exact weight anyways, even at maintenance your weight will vary by like 5 pounds. You don't weigh one exact number, you weigh in a range. It's what that range does over time that matters.9
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Step away from the scale. Do not weigh yourself repeatedly.
Seriously.
Once a day, morning, after your potty chores, naked or in the same pajamas each day, will give you the most consistent reading possible. When them it can vary by several pounds based on digestive rate and water retention. This is why experienced folks look at the trend over time and ignore the small jumps up and down every day.4 -
Something as simple as standing in a slightly different position on the scale can cause that. I've stepped off the scale and then right back on and gotten different readings.3
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Verity1111 wrote: »So Ive been wondering about my scale for a while but I tested out of curiosity today. Took my weight twice before I left twice when I came back from somewhere. All I ingested was a sip from a water fountain and one chip between leaving and coming home. Same clothes, same spot on the floor where I weighed - I gained 1 lb. lol. Also, any scale recommendations? I was considering just rebuying the one I have but maybe not. I have a Bowflex Caloric and BMI Scale. Someone said water retention and not my scale...that's why I asked in the title. But retention within a few hrs without drinking much of anything? o_o
If you don't eat, or drink anything, or use the bathroom then no your weight really shouldn't change too much. You can lose water from sweating, and breathing, but that shouldn't be too much in a short period of time unless you are working out or an excessive sweater. The problem with people and scales is that they don't understand that most scale can change each time you step on it, just because it's a stupid scale and has a margin of error.
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Also, you are thinking about this way to much, and you don't seem like somebody who can actually handle weighing yourself so often. Some people can, but most people it's not good for their mental stability in this journey. If you think you can handle and understand how the body fluctuates everyday, weigh yourself every morning naked right after you wake up after going to the bathroom, and leave it to that.1
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Put a known weight on it. Like a dumbbell. It's how I check mine.
But yeah, you need to not think about this stuff so much.2 -
Shalaurise wrote: »Verity1111 wrote: »I dont take the small amounts that seriously. I can fluctuate 5lbs in a day if I dont drink enough fluids. If you are like me and have the habit of stepping on the scale every time you pass it, you might want to slow down. I keep telling myself I will stop it, but so far NOPE. I just dont take it seriously.
Pick a time of day to weigh and stick with that. I swear I am going to not weigh myself the whole month of December.
The point was to see if it's working right due to weird readings though. You can gain weight without eating or drinking anything???My weight normally fluctuates 1-4lb depending on the time of day and it is completely normal for me regardless of what I’ve eaten or done on that specific day
Literally without drinking even water?? It seems impossible o_o I cant recheck now to see how its working tho I drank a giant diet coke but still Lol at the time I had nothing but 1-2oz water which obviously weighs 1-2oz and then 1 chip (like 5grams lol) so I dont get how I could go up 16ounces.Verity1111 wrote: »
Not sure why you asked since you already knew what answer you would accept.
Notice the extra questions as in IF incorrect HOW is the other possible. Somehow you missed that.1 -
rheddmobile wrote: »All home digital scales are inaccurate within a couple of percent, even ones that claim to be accurate to within .2 lbs. It's a function of the way they are made and new batteries or a new scale will not help. Most scales have a memory which conceals the inaccuracy by making the weight the same as the most recent weight if it's within a certain amount and time. You can get around this and see how accurate the scale really is by weighing yourself while holding something that weighs a couple of pounds, then weighing again.
That's an awesome sounding experiment. I might try that and also see if it works well when I do that because it really is fluctuating way more than it did in the past and just seems off. It was great when I first though it though. It's a very good brand/quality scale in general. I've just had it for years.0 -
Step away from the scale. Do not weigh yourself repeatedly.
Seriously.
Once a day, morning, after your potty chores, naked or in the same pajamas each day, will give you the most consistent reading possible. When them it can vary by several pounds based on digestive rate and water retention. This is why experienced folks look at the trend over time and ignore the small jumps up and down every day.
Weighing once a week wont tell me if its broken though. I was purposely testing it because it seems really off lately and seems to vary a lot more than before. Not sure if my body is acting weird or if the scale is.1 -
Test your scale with a weight - then step away. This much obsession with the scale isn't healthy. If the natural weight fluctuations cause you this much distress then a break from the scale may be in order.2
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Your just overthinking it. This is about overall long term changes. You know the funny thing is when gaining weight to get where we are currently we walked past the same scale and didnt care to know. Now that we are trying to lose weight we scrutinize every .1 of a pound
Well I wheeled past because I gained most of my weight due to being bedridden lol TBH I didnt care at the time because I had bigger problems haha. Once I could walk though and knew my weight yeah I was really bothered. And again Imnot scrutinizing - I want to know if I need a new scale!1 -
Verity1111 wrote: »So Ive been wondering about my scale for a while but I tested out of curiosity today. Took my weight twice before I left twice when I came back from somewhere. All I ingested was a sip from a water fountain and one chip between leaving and coming home. Same clothes, same spot on the floor where I weighed - I gained 1 lb. lol. Also, any scale recommendations? I was considering just rebuying the one I have but maybe not. I have a Bowflex Caloric and BMI Scale. Someone said water retention and not my scale...that's why I asked in the title. But retention within a few hrs without drinking much of anything? o_o
If you don't eat, or drink anything, or use the bathroom then no your weight really shouldn't change too much. You can lose water from sweating, and breathing, but that shouldn't be too much in a short period of time unless you are working out or an excessive sweater. The problem with people and scales is that they don't understand that most scale can change each time you step on it, just because it's a stupid scale and has a margin of error.
Well it's always been incredibly accurate and I have OCD (Obsessive compulsive disorder) so if its breaking I want a new one lol0 -
VintageFeline wrote: »Put a known weight on it. Like a dumbbell. It's how I check mine.
But yeah, you need to not think about this stuff so much.
Good idea! and I need to because if its inaccurate it wont work?0 -
I dont take the small amounts that seriously. I can fluctuate 5lbs in a day if I dont drink enough fluids. If you are like me and have the habit of stepping on the scale every time you pass it, you might want to slow down. I keep telling myself I will stop it, but so far NOPE. I just dont take it seriously.
Pick a time of day to weigh and stick with that. I swear I am going to not weigh myself the whole month of December.
I usually weigh once every 2 weeks but it has been acting really weird so Im weighing more often trying to see if its my scale. Thats why Im weighing when I dont have time to eat yet because I figure if my weight goes up its broken. But then someone told me that doesnt mean anything it could be water, and thats how this post was made.0 -
Alatariel75 wrote: »tiffaninghs wrote: »water weight!! drink more water!! consume less sodium
She didn't drink any water between weighing...
That's what I'm saying! I was trying to test my scale but someone told me it wont matter it could be water so Im asking "how???" like are they wrong or could I really somehow magically gain weight without taking anything in... The temperature changing in the room explanation makes more sense though.0 -
Muscles. Expand. And. Swell. When. Moving.
If you were a non-living object without biologically responsive tissue, 1) you literally wouldn’t see a change on the scale, because 2) you wouldn’t be cognizant of gravity or life.
That's pretty awesome.... Ok so I didn't know that muscles swell for any reason other than injury lol0 -
Something as simple as standing in a slightly different position on the scale can cause that. I've stepped off the scale and then right back on and gotten different readings.
Not with the one I have. Usually I can step on step off in multiple spots of the room and have the same reading. I can pick up my kid step on get a new reading, step off. Step on, on my own, and get the same original reading. It was very accurate - before. Seems less so now. I didnt even consider the battery though. I probably havent changed it in over a year... lol0
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