Weight fluctuations

[edro]

Anyone track their weight closely?
I have been cutting for the last 2 months.
I weight myself on the same scale, every morning after I get out of the shower.

I spiked up 3 lbs in 1 day. I weighted myself 4 times slightly moving the scale each time to verify.
The next day I was back down on track.
It's like a 1 day anomaly.
Diet the whole time was very consistent and so was physical activity.
No major poops or sweats either. 🙂

Day 1, 178
Day 2, 178
Day 3, 178
Day 4, 181
Day 5, 177

Anyone ever see weird fluctuations like that?
Problem with the scale? Water retention? Body acting weird?

What can cause this?

 

[z1ggy]

If EVERYTHING was truly constantly, then it's probably scale.

But I highly doubt every single thing over those 5 days was 100% the same. One of the nights you could have slept much worse for whatever reason, thus produced elevated levels of cortisol, slowing down your metab slightly... Holding more water, etc etc.

It's a 1 time anomaly and over the course of months of data, will have a very small effect.

 

[edro]

You're right, I did sleep poorly a few of those nights.
I hadn't factored that in or thought it could even affect weight.

 

[vi edit]

I really see no value in daily weight measurement for the exact reason you state. Too many daily factors can influence weight as much as you are seeing. Once every two weeks is about as frequent as I would go if you were looking for a long term trend to smooth out the daily fluctuations.

 

[edro]

Yeah but 2 weeks is too long for feedback if you need corrective action corrective.
I know the spikes occur, I am just curious what factors cause them and how drastic they can be.

 

[z1ggy]

I really see no value in daily weight measurement for the exact reason you state. Too many daily factors can influence weight as much as you are seeing. Once every two weeks is about as frequent as I would go if you were looking for a long term trend to smooth out the daily fluctuations.

Or... take the weight measurement every day, and do weekly averages. It makes no sense to take random weekly or biweekly measures for the reasons listed, not the opposite.

Body builders and people who are actually serious about physique/weight take the measurement daily, and trend averages over time.

/thread.

 

[vi edit]

Another thing you could do is just take the daily's and average them out. Then use the average as your baseline.

As far as fluctuation, our body is basically a giant sponge and more than half of our composition is water. Diet can make a huge difference in water retention salt will hold on to it, diuretics like coffee/alcohol will drop it. Dry air can wick away a lot of skin moisture. Even just breathing releases a lot of moisture from your body. Exercise, stress, bathroom duties, ect. It doesn't take much between all those to swing your weight a few pounds any direction on a given day.

 

[edro]

I remember reading that most of your weight loss is through breathing.
Every exhale is composed of water and carbon dioxide/oxygen/hydrogen.
Some is from radiant energy. You also have normal waste (pee/poo).

http://www.livescience.com/49157-how-fat-is-lost-body.html

The researchers showed that during weight loss, 84 percent of the fat that is lost turns into carbon dioxide and leaves the body through the lungs, whereas the remaining 16 percent becomes water, according to the study published today (Dec. 16) in a special Christmas issue of the medical journal BMJ.

The calculations also show the frightening power of, for example, a small muffin over an hour of exercise: At rest, a person who weighs 154 pounds (70 kg) exhales just 8.9 mg of carbon with each breath. Even after an entire day, if this person only sits, sleeps, and does light activities, he or she exhales about 200 grams of carbon, the researchers calculated.

A 100 g muffin can cover 20 percent of what was lost.

On the other hand, replacing one hour of rest with exercise such as jogging, removes an additional 40 g of carbon from the body, the researchers said.

Even if one traces the fates of all the atoms in the body, the secret to weight loss remains the same: In order to lose weight, one needs to either eat less carbon or exercise more to remove extra carbon from the body.

 

[vi edit]

Interesting. I'm 38 and V02 max is around 56. I do a lot of running. Maybe it's my lungs and not my legs that keep me skinny.

😀

 

[nakedfrog]

I've been weighing daily for a good long while now, and have definitely seen fluctuations like that.

 

[Koing]

How was your fluid and stalk intake? Did you eat pizza the previous day?

Get your 7day average and if this does not trend down after 2-3 weeks and you are cutting you are over eating.

I use to weigh myself religiously every morning. This is more so when I did my cut a few years ago. I also track my weight due to comps. The next one is in 10 weeks today so I have 27 training sessions and 2 sessions to taper.

For me

Monday heavy due to eating a lot on Sunday
Tuesday light due to training on monday and not eating post training
Wednesday normal
Thursday light due to training on Wednesday night
Friday normal
Sat heavy due to Friday
Sunday heavy due to Sat

Koing

 

[Pantlegz]

I'd say it's fairly normal. When I'm eating to maintain weight sometime's it moves a couple pounds in either direction, your body has natural cycles it goes through throughout the week and sometimes that will effect weight. It could be building up a big poop, increased or decreased water retention, glycogen might be higher or lower depending on physical activity, stress can also play a big factor on hormones, sleep or lack there of. Sodium intake also effects water weight a lot more than most people think so if you ate the same number of calories but had a higher sodium intake your body might retain more water the following day.

 

[Zivic]

I weight myself daily and 3 lbs is nothing. I'll do up to 7-8 lbs in a 24 hr period. almost all of this is due to diet/water consumption. Sodium intake for me is a huge driver. If am down a 1lb or 2 i'll eat pickles and an extra glass of water in the evening and it's usually good for a 3-4 lb gain by morning

another factor is your activity level. cardio sessions have a delayed showing for me on the scale, usually will be a couple lbs down 48 hrs out. also rest days usually have a 2-3 lbs increase the following morning.

do 5-7 day averages. your weight loss or gain isn't going to be 100% linear if tracked on an hourly (every 24 hrs), but should average down over combined days or a week.

^^ this is just all getting to know how your body reacts to inputs and stimulus. if you have complete control of your diet it can be fun to manipulate things to fill out with 6+ lbs in a day. Going from a deflated balloon, to filled out and pumped up in one day.

 

[hightree]

I see only 3 possible explanations:

1. Water retention in your circulation due to a sudden increase of salt intake.
2. A sudden increase of your body glycogen. This happens when you go from starvation or from a low-carb diet to normal-carb diet. The glycogen amount in your body goes from about zero to about 500 grams. Every gram of glycogen can hold up to 4 grams of water, so 500 g x 4 = 2 kilograms = 4 pounds of water. http://www.nutrientsreview.com/water (search for "glycogen")
3. 3 pounds of food from the previous day stuck in your bowel.

It's not realistic to get 3 pounds of body fat overnight. You would need to consume about 10 k Calories in excess of your body needs to achieve that.

 

[edro]

I see only 3 possible explanations:

2. A sudden increase of your body glycogen. This happens when you go from starvation or from a low-carb diet to normal-carb diet. The glycogen amount in your body goes from about zero to about 500 grams. Every gram of glycogen can hold up to 4 grams of water, so 500 g x 4 = 2 kilograms = 4 pounds of water. http://www.nutrientsreview.com/water (search for "glycogen")

Wow, that seems to be what's going on.
I have definitely noticed it when I have 2-3 low carb days, then have a weekend day of high carbs (and salt).

Thank you!