Scale Fluctuations

Did you gain fat overnight? What weight fluctuations are normal? How do you use the scale as one objective measure of feedback?

First, let’s talk about how to use the scale as a tool, nothing more.

The scale can be one form of feedback if losing, gaining, or maintaining weight is a goal for you. We’ll mainly be talking about the goal of fat loss today, but this information is important to know regardless.

Scale weight is handy because it can be a form of daily feedback, whereas something like a BodPod or DEXA scan, while more accurate, is only done every few months at most. Other forms of progress like body circumference measurements, clothes fitting differently, and visual feedback, also only come every few weeks, though I still recommend using them.

So the scale is simply another tool but to use it as such, you gotta understand it first.

How the scale works:

The scale shows your body’s relationship with gravity that day. That’s it. It doesn’t determine worth, shouldn’t determine mood or change your actions for the day, and doesn’t tell you what else is going on inside your body or in your environment. It is highly subjective to fluctuations, thus you don’t want to put too much stock into single numbers. Instead, look at trends over time.

What weight fluctuations are normal?

Weight fluctuations up to 8 pounds a day may be considered normal, depending on the person. I tend to see fluctuations of +/- 2-4 pounds per day with most clients. Weighing daily and viewing your own trends will help you know what’s normal for you.

What causes scale fluctuations?

If you “gained three pounds overnight” here’s what most likely happened in the days prior:

• You ate extra carbs.

  • Glycogen (the storage form of carbs) likes to be stored with water. For every one part glycogen, 3-4 parts water are stored with it. For example, if you ate 400 grams of carbs in a day (250-300g is a more “normal” number, for reference), you could be holding on to an extra 1200-1600g, or ~3-4 pounds, of water.

• You ate extra sodium.

  • Your body is smart and wants to maintain a certain fluid-electrolyte balance. So if you eat a little extra salt, your body will hold on to a little extra water to balance it out.

• You drank less water.

  • Same idea, if you didn’t give your body enough water, it might be holding onto extra just for safe measure. Drinking MORE leads to less water retention.

• Undigested food is still hangin out.

• You had a hard workout.

  • When muscles are recovering from a stimulus, they hold onto water and extra glycogen to help fuel and repair.

• Your sleep has been poor.

• You are extra stressed.

  • When you’re stressed - you guessed it - your body holds on to extra water. With an increase in stress comes an increase in a hormone called antidiuretic hormone (ADH). High levels of ADH tells your kidneys to return water to the body, as opposed to getting ride of it through urine. When ADH and cortisol (the “stress hormone”) are at regular levels, a normal fluid balance is maintained. When they are increased, water retention increases.

• You’re near menstruation, ovulation, or menopause.

  • Two hormones involved with your menstrual cycle, estrogen and progesterone, can contribute to more or less water retention depending on where you’re at in your cycle.

• Muscle gain.

  • Muscle gain is one of the best things you can do for your body - yes most of the time it’s even better than fat loss. And muscle weighs something, so weight gain (or maintenance when trying to lose) may be a good sign - a sign of muscle gain.

Thus, weight gain DOES NOT always equal fat gain.

Unless you ate >4,000 extra calories the day before, you likely didn’t gain any significant amount of fat, it’s just water doin it’s thang.

How to use the scale in the most objective way possible:

Weigh under the same conditions each day: immediately upon waking, after using the restroom, in little to no clothes, and before eating or drinking anything is best. More weigh-ins = more data points = a better trend line over time. For those who have a weight-related goal, I recommend weighing in 4-7 days each week, and paying attention to weekly averages. For those who menstruate, you might also want to give more weight to monthly averages, and/or compare similar weeks in your cycle, as opposed to week to week.

Is the scale for you right now?

If you are having a hard time viewing the scale objectively; if it tends to affect the rest of your day or make you want to decrease your energy intake or take other drastic measures, it might be time to take a step away from it, at least for a while. For some people, the right choice is to never use a scale. For others, stepping on the scale each day actually helps - familiarity breeds indifference.

What is best for you only you can say, and it might take some time to learn that. And what worked for you in one season might not in another.