Gaining weight over night?
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GretaGirl8
Posts: 274 Member
I weighed myself before bed and weighed myself this morning. I didn’t eat or drink between weigh-ins. Yet my weight is higher this morning. WTF???
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Replies
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This happens a lot to me, but experience has shown me its water weight gain (due to health issues).
It used to freak me out, but I've learned to live with it. As it can be upto 7lbs, but goes, usually within a week.
Knowing its not fat gain & nothing I can do about it helps me.
Don't not what it is in your case, but hope my experience helps.6 -
I see that too. I find if I clench my hands into fists, I can tell I have some water retention and that once I get moving and have some coffee, it will release later in the morning. Good luck!3
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Are you the only person who uses the scale?0
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Sounds like your scales might be faulty. If you haven't consumed anything over night it's impossible that you'd be heavier.6
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GretaGirl8 wrote: »I weighed myself before bed and weighed myself this morning. I didn’t eat or drink between weigh-ins. Yet my weight is higher this morning. WTF???
Body weight fluctuates naturally. Your body is comprised of anywhere between 55-65% water and that will always be in flux and you will always have varying degrees of inherent waste in your system. Also, do the math...do you understand the math behind weight management?5 -
I agree it makes no sense to have gain weight over night. The scale is probably partly to blame. I know I didn’t eat an excess of 35,000 calories in the day that would translate into fat.2
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How much weight are we talking here? The scale can show a different weight if the ambient temperature in the room has changed. I have "gained" .4 pounds without eating or drinking anything in as little as an hour because of air conditioning.
Is your scale on a hard surface?
Does it have reasonably fresh batteries?
Has it been moved? If so, does it have a self-calibration function?
If scale fluctuations are going to bother you I would suggest that you only get on the scale once a day and in the most consistent conditions as possible.7 -
Well, my scale has seemed sketchy at times. Like I can weigh myself and ten minutes later it will show a different weight.
My weight was up by a pound.
I know I shouldn’t rely on the scale so much; but I feel if I don’t I will let myself get out of control.2 -
GretaGirl8 wrote: »I agree it makes no sense to have gain weight over night. The scale is probably partly to blame. I know I didn’t eat an excess of 35,000 calories in the day that would translate into fat.
The scale doesn't just weigh your fat, it weighs everything else in your body, including all that water (like 70% of you or so). Your water weight can fluctuate up and down hour to hour by even several lbs. Your weight will not go down in a straight line, but should average down over weeks.
Quoting for emphasis:quiksylver296 wrote: »
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Time for a new scale.
You can’t add water weight without eating or drinking!! In fact you should have lost a little because the body passes water through breathing.
Unless.... if your floor is really off level (happens with tile floor) it could be because of scale placement. Move the scale an inch or two and see if the reading changes. I used to have to move the scale to the same exact spot every time I used it.6 -
It's your scale or where you're placing your scale. Make sure you're putting it on a hard, flat surface before weighing yourself. Yes, our weight varies significantly over time due to water retention and variations in food digestion. However, it is impossible to get heavier overnight if you're not drinking or eating anything during that time.
If you're going to rely so heavily on the scale as a metric I would suggest getting a better scale and using a weight tracker that gives you a trend in your weight. I've heard people mention Libra as an app that does this. I myself use trendweight.com but unless you have one of the supported scales, Withings and Fitbit, I think, it's a pain.
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How dirty is your bed?
I agree with others that it has to be an issue with the scale if you're in the same clothes, etc. But I don't think that necessarily means you need a new scale. Any home scale is going to have a margin of error associated with it.
I do think it would be a very interesting question if it wasn't an issue with the scale, but I'm not aware of anything that would have that effect on weight. Theoretically, the atoms in your body are constantly moving so maybe there could be a reason for an incredibly small difference in weight, but I highly doubt that could possibly account for a full pound of gain.2 -
It's your scale or where you're placing your scale. Make sure you're putting it on a hard, flat surface before weighing yourself. Yes, our weight varies significantly over time due to water retention and variations in food digestion. However, it is impossible to get heavier overnight if you're not drinking or eating anything during that time.
If you're going to rely so heavily on the scale as a metric I would suggest getting a better scale and using a weight tracker that gives you a trend in your weight. I've heard people mention Libra as an app that does this. I myself use trendweight.com but unless you have one of the supported scales, Withings and Fitbit, I think, it's a pain.
All the above. But trendweight is not difficult at all to use connected with a freely available without the purchase of a device Fitbit account1 -
I'm a bit confused here why people are disagreeing with comments about weight gain being impossible without eating or drinking.
Everyone does understand conservation of mass, right?
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thescouselander77 wrote: »I'm a bit confused here why people are disagreeing with comments about weight gain being impossible without eating or drinking.
Everyone does understand conservation of mass, right?
Because biological functions cause water fluctuations that have nothing to do with whether or not you've eaten or drunken anything.
Most people commenting here understand quite a bit...many commenting on this have been here for years and been there done that.8 -
cwolfman13 wrote: »thescouselander77 wrote: »I'm a bit confused here why people are disagreeing with comments about weight gain being impossible without eating or drinking.
Everyone does understand conservation of mass, right?
Because biological functions cause water fluctuations that have nothing to do with whether or not you've eaten or drunken anything.
Most people commenting here understand quite a bit...many commenting on this have been here for years and been there done that.
That's not how it works. At night when the OP steps on the scale there are a defined number of atoms that constitute their body matter plus any food and waste in their intestinal tract. Food etc can go through various chemical reactions but the total number of atoms and therefore mass will stay the same throughout - matter is not created or destroyed; this is a physical law.
Now, it is possible that losses are made through exhaled water vapour and perspiration etc so mass/weight can be lost but it can never go up unless more atoms/mass is added to the system/body through eating or drinking. For it to work any other way would be a violation of the laws of physics.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_of_mass8 -
thescouselander77 wrote: »cwolfman13 wrote: »thescouselander77 wrote: »I'm a bit confused here why people are disagreeing with comments about weight gain being impossible without eating or drinking.
Everyone does understand conservation of mass, right?
Because biological functions cause water fluctuations that have nothing to do with whether or not you've eaten or drunken anything.
Most people commenting here understand quite a bit...many commenting on this have been here for years and been there done that.
That's not how it works. At night when the OP steps on the scale there are a defined number of atoms that constitute their body matter plus any food and waste in their intestinal tract. Food etc can go through various chemical reactions but the total number of atoms and therefore mass will stay the same throughout - matter is not created or destroyed; this is a physical law.
Now, it is possible that losses are made through exhaled water vapour and perspiration etc so mass/weight can be lost but it can never go up unless more atoms/mass is added to the system/body through eating or drinking. For it to work any other way would be a violation of the laws of physics.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_of_mass
Dude...I can fluctuate anywhere from 2-5 Lbs day to day up or down. I can go to bed and weigh in the morning and be up 3 Lbs and then be down 5 the next day, etc. I'm not talking about fat mass...I'm talking about water fluctuations for which your body is comprised of roughly 50-65% water and that fluctuates and has nothing to do with drinking water.
If I eat a salty dinner at night, by morning I'm easily retaining water...if I'm stressed out, cortisol levels are raised and will retain water. Depending on where my wife is in here cycle, her weight can go all over the place because of water fluctuations...she's gone to bed completely normal and woke up bloated and 8 Lbs heavier than the previous day. If I fly I can easily gain 8-10 Lbs of bloat, etc, etc, etc.
Weight loss plotted on a graph...
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cwolfman13 wrote: »thescouselander77 wrote: »cwolfman13 wrote: »thescouselander77 wrote: »I'm a bit confused here why people are disagreeing with comments about weight gain being impossible without eating or drinking.
Everyone does understand conservation of mass, right?
Because biological functions cause water fluctuations that have nothing to do with whether or not you've eaten or drunken anything.
Most people commenting here understand quite a bit...many commenting on this have been here for years and been there done that.
That's not how it works. At night when the OP steps on the scale there are a defined number of atoms that constitute their body matter plus any food and waste in their intestinal tract. Food etc can go through various chemical reactions but the total number of atoms and therefore mass will stay the same throughout - matter is not created or destroyed; this is a physical law.
Now, it is possible that losses are made through exhaled water vapour and perspiration etc so mass/weight can be lost but it can never go up unless more atoms/mass is added to the system/body through eating or drinking. For it to work any other way would be a violation of the laws of physics.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_of_mass
Dude...I can fluctuate anywhere from 2-5 Lbs day to day up or down. I can go to bed and weigh in the morning and be up 3 Lbs and then be down 5 the next day, etc. I'm not talking about fat mass...I'm talking about water fluctuations for which your body is comprised of roughly 50-65% water and that fluctuates and has nothing to do with drinking water.
If I eat a salty dinner at night, by morning I'm easily retaining water...if I'm stressed out, cortisol levels are raised and will retain water. Depending on where my wife is in here cycle, her weight can go all over the place because of water fluctuations...she's gone to bed completely normal and woke up bloated and 8 Lbs heavier than the previous day. If I fly I can easily gain 8-10 Lbs of bloat, etc, etc, etc.
Yeah, I do that too but it's only retention of water that has been consumed during the day so if I weigh myself immediately before bed any water that will be retained is already in my system and will show up as weight on the scale.
Where are you suggesting this water that is retained over night comes from? It can't just materialise.5 -
thescouselander77 wrote: »cwolfman13 wrote: »thescouselander77 wrote: »cwolfman13 wrote: »thescouselander77 wrote: »I'm a bit confused here why people are disagreeing with comments about weight gain being impossible without eating or drinking.
Everyone does understand conservation of mass, right?
Because biological functions cause water fluctuations that have nothing to do with whether or not you've eaten or drunken anything.
Most people commenting here understand quite a bit...many commenting on this have been here for years and been there done that.
That's not how it works. At night when the OP steps on the scale there are a defined number of atoms that constitute their body matter plus any food and waste in their intestinal tract. Food etc can go through various chemical reactions but the total number of atoms and therefore mass will stay the same throughout - matter is not created or destroyed; this is a physical law.
Now, it is possible that losses are made through exhaled water vapour and perspiration etc so mass/weight can be lost but it can never go up unless more atoms/mass is added to the system/body through eating or drinking. For it to work any other way would be a violation of the laws of physics.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conservation_of_mass
Dude...I can fluctuate anywhere from 2-5 Lbs day to day up or down. I can go to bed and weigh in the morning and be up 3 Lbs and then be down 5 the next day, etc. I'm not talking about fat mass...I'm talking about water fluctuations for which your body is comprised of roughly 50-65% water and that fluctuates and has nothing to do with drinking water.
If I eat a salty dinner at night, by morning I'm easily retaining water...if I'm stressed out, cortisol levels are raised and will retain water. Depending on where my wife is in here cycle, her weight can go all over the place because of water fluctuations...she's gone to bed completely normal and woke up bloated and 8 Lbs heavier than the previous day. If I fly I can easily gain 8-10 Lbs of bloat, etc, etc, etc.
Yeah, I do that too but it's only retention of water that has been consumed during the day so if I weigh myself immediately before bed any water that will be retained is already in my system and will show up as weight on the scale.
Where are you suggesting this water that is retained over night comes from? It can't just materialise.
You retain it...sweat less...urinate less in the morning, etc.
There are any number of things that cause water retention and release that aren't related to drinking water.4
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