+3lbs in 2 days? No way!!!

jessdecardigans
jessdecardigans Posts: 11 Member
edited November 24 in Health and Weight Loss
Getting super frustrated. I’ve been eating under my calories and try to stay active and exercise daily even if it’s just a 30 min cardio session. I weighed myself on Wednesday & was excited to see I was finally under 230lbs and had lost 1.5lbs in 2 days and then I weighed myself this morning (Friday) and the scale says I’ve put on 3lbs.. what!! I weigh myself when I wake up, after I pee, before I eat and fully naked. What am I doing wrong? It’s frustrating because I’m so excited and think I’m doing awesome every mid-week and then by the end of the week I’ve gained again.
This weight loss thing is tougher than I thought.

Replies

  • aeloine
    aeloine Posts: 2,163 Member
    There are so many factors that could be influencing this!
    Increased sodium intake, water retention due to a new exercise routine, stress, that time of the month, maybe you're weighing yourself at a different time of day.

    Have hope! I'm up 4.8 lbs this week because I've started a new work out routine. You never know what will affect your body this way. Just keep your logging tight by using a food scale, drink your water, and maybe weigh in once a week so that you're not so stressed out by daily fluctuations.
  • toxikon
    toxikon Posts: 2,383 Member
    edited January 2018
    Weight loss is not linear... there are several reasons why weight fluctuates.

    1. Water weight (your body holds onto extra weight after a day of eating a lot of sodium, after a hard workout, menstruation, hormonal changes, stress...)
    2. Poop (if you're constipated, had a lot of food the previous day or two, had a lot of fiber yesterday...)

    There's nothing wrong with tracking your weigh-ins every day, but record them in a weight-trending app like Libra or Happy-Scale if you can. Track the trends over weeks and months - if your trendline is trending downwards over longer periods of time, you're on the right track.
  • jessdecardigans
    jessdecardigans Posts: 11 Member
    aeloine wrote: »
    There are so many factors that could be influencing this!
    Increased sodium intake, water retention due to a new exercise routine, stress, that time of the month, maybe you're weighing yourself at a different time of day.

    Have hope! I'm up 4.8 lbs this week because I've started a new work out routine. You never know what will affect your body this way. Just keep your logging tight by using a food scale, drink your water, and maybe weigh in once a week so that you're not so stressed out by daily fluctuations.

    Thanks for the quick response hun :) On Wednesday I weighed myself at 1pm because I woke up late, and this morning I weighed myself around 8am. I assumed it didn’t matter what time as long as I just woke up and hadn’t eaten anything, but it’s good to know it might just be the time affecting it. I’ll definitely try to set a certain time every Monday and stick to it. It’s so hard to commit to just weekly weigh ins tho, I tried that but I always want to weigh myself to see how I’m doing
  • AliceDark
    AliceDark Posts: 3,886 Member
    That's 100% normal for someone doing daily weigh-ins. Everyone has a weight range, NOT a static weight, and when you're looking at more data points you're going to see more variation. There's nothing wrong with doing daily weigh-ins, but you have to be prepared to see that variation. Just for an example, I have about a 2-3 pound fluctuation range, and I go up and down every day, even weighing under the exact same conditions. As long as the overall trend line is going down, you're losing weight.
  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,140 Member
    To put it into perspective to gain 3lbs of fat you would have had to eat 10500 calories above maintenance since Wednesday (a pound of fat is equivalent to 3500 calories) so if you've been eating at your deficit then it's not fat.
  • aeloine
    aeloine Posts: 2,163 Member
    jessdecardigans wrote: »
    aeloine wrote: »
    There are so many factors that could be influencing this!
    Increased sodium intake, water retention due to a new exercise routine, stress, that time of the month, maybe you're weighing yourself at a different time of day.

    Have hope! I'm up 4.8 lbs this week because I've started a new work out routine. You never know what will affect your body this way. Just keep your logging tight by using a food scale, drink your water, and maybe weigh in once a week so that you're not so stressed out by daily fluctuations.

    Thanks for the quick response hun :) On Wednesday I weighed myself at 1pm because I woke up late, and this morning I weighed myself around 8am. I assumed it didn’t matter what time as long as I just woke up and hadn’t eaten anything, but it’s good to know it might just be the time affecting it. I’ll definitely try to set a certain time every Monday and stick to it. It’s so hard to commit to just weekly weigh ins tho, I tried that but I always want to weigh myself to see how I’m doing

    I've found that if I sleep in, the extra couple of hours mean that I'll hit a new low. Which is great in itself, but it's not an "accurate" comparison. If you can't commit to a day, at least try to commit to a time or at least keep in mind if you're weighing earlier or later.

    Yesterday I woke up at 5 am to go to the gym, weighed.... and went back to sleep :D But then I woke up at my usual time and was a pound less.
    It won't always be that dramatic, but it really does show how important it is to weigh at the same time every day.
  • Need2Exerc1se
    Need2Exerc1se Posts: 13,575 Member
    jessdecardigans wrote: »
    aeloine wrote: »
    There are so many factors that could be influencing this!
    Increased sodium intake, water retention due to a new exercise routine, stress, that time of the month, maybe you're weighing yourself at a different time of day.

    Have hope! I'm up 4.8 lbs this week because I've started a new work out routine. You never know what will affect your body this way. Just keep your logging tight by using a food scale, drink your water, and maybe weigh in once a week so that you're not so stressed out by daily fluctuations.

    Thanks for the quick response hun :) On Wednesday I weighed myself at 1pm because I woke up late, and this morning I weighed myself around 8am. I assumed it didn’t matter what time as long as I just woke up and hadn’t eaten anything, but it’s good to know it might just be the time affecting it. I’ll definitely try to set a certain time every Monday and stick to it. It’s so hard to commit to just weekly weigh ins tho, I tried that but I always want to weigh myself to see how I’m doing

    If you are going to weigh every day you'll have to get used to the fluctuations. Even weighing once a week you will likely see fluctuations up and down. Your weight is not solely determined by fat.
  • quiksylver296
    quiksylver296 Posts: 28,439 Member
    aeloine wrote: »
    jessdecardigans wrote: »
    aeloine wrote: »
    There are so many factors that could be influencing this!
    Increased sodium intake, water retention due to a new exercise routine, stress, that time of the month, maybe you're weighing yourself at a different time of day.

    Have hope! I'm up 4.8 lbs this week because I've started a new work out routine. You never know what will affect your body this way. Just keep your logging tight by using a food scale, drink your water, and maybe weigh in once a week so that you're not so stressed out by daily fluctuations.

    Thanks for the quick response hun :) On Wednesday I weighed myself at 1pm because I woke up late, and this morning I weighed myself around 8am. I assumed it didn’t matter what time as long as I just woke up and hadn’t eaten anything, but it’s good to know it might just be the time affecting it. I’ll definitely try to set a certain time every Monday and stick to it. It’s so hard to commit to just weekly weigh ins tho, I tried that but I always want to weigh myself to see how I’m doing

    I've found that if I sleep in, the extra couple of hours mean that I'll hit a new low. Which is great in itself, but it's not an "accurate" comparison. If you can't commit to a day, at least try to commit to a time or at least keep in mind if you're weighing earlier or later.

    Yesterday I woke up at 5 am to go to the gym, weighed.... and went back to sleep :D But then I woke up at my usual time and was a pound less.
    It won't always be that dramatic, but it really does show how important it is to weigh at the same time every day.

    Same here.

    For future reference, OP, water weight is a big factor (even though it seems like this time it was due to time of day you weighed).

    Water can be retained in the muscles for repair, if you've done new-to-you exercise.

    In females, hormones cause lots of water weight issues.

    Eating more carbs or sodium than your body is used to will cause water weight. (I can't remember the scientific reason behind it.)

    Travel/flying can cause water weight. I gain like 8 pounds in one flight.

    Excessive temperatures can cause water weight.

    Sunburns and other inflammatory-type injuries can cause water weight.
  • curryspicegirl
    curryspicegirl Posts: 28 Member
    I read this yesterday. Crazy :smile:
    https://www.womenshealthmag.com/weight-loss/weight-fluctuation-experiment/slide/2
  • diannethegeek
    diannethegeek Posts: 14,776 Member
    See also: http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10634529/why-did-the-number-on-the-scale-go-up-this-week-heres-why/p1
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