You Didn’t Gain 3 Pounds Overnight; Weight Fluctuations Explained

What you should know when the scale makes you say WTF

By Voyagerix

It’s that time of year when millions of us renew our focus on health and lifestyle changes we want to make for the coming year. Whether you choose to go on a diet, start exercising, exercise more, or some combination of new habits, the start of a new year is a great time to approach your goals with enthusiasm and vigor.

As with any goal, you’ll need to measure your progress. For those interested in losing weight, the bathroom scale often becomes a torture device — one that can make or break your day in a matter of seconds.

As a fitness coach, I ask my clients to weigh themselves daily. I like to see how their bodies respond to various stressors like training and sleep and to changes in calorie consumption. Plus, research generally agrees daily weighing leads to greater weight loss than less frequent weighing.

One study found a group of subjects who weighed daily for six months lost, on average,13 more pounds than those who weighed less frequently. The daily weighers reported adopting more weight control measures due to constant feedback from the scale.

Yet, weighing every day can come with a host of panic moments if you don’t understand the factors at play when your weight bounces up. I’ve received countless frantic emails from clients wanting to know how they could possibly gain three pounds overnight after a solid week of losing.

Seeing the scale go up, even when you’re doing everything right, can make you want to slam it against a wall or throw it in the nearest trash bin, but there are perfectly reasonable explanations as to what’s happening. Knowing what makes your weight fluctuate will allow you to remain calm on your “off” days and help you learn more about your body. I’ll explain how.

What it Takes to Lose/Gain a Pound of Fat

When the scale goes up, it’s natural to believe we’ve gained fat. Forget physics and the laws of thermodynamics. I’ve been there —all logic goes out the window when we see the scale jump several pounds from one day to the next.