Your weight can fluctuate wildly over the course of a 24-48 hour period, by up to 5 to 6 pounds.
• All food & water have weight to them. A250ml glass of water will add weight to you, (half a pound). Even eating a salad will affect your weight, since vegetables are heavier than air.
• Consuming salt will make you retain water. The more water you are holding, the more you will weigh.
• Speaking of water weight, eating carbohydrates can make you hold onto water. Refined carbohydrates in particular, like bread & pasta, cause a high insulin response. When insulin is high, you hold onto more sodium, meaning more water. Which is why people often lose a lot of water weight when following a low-carb or ketogenic diet.
• Additionally, carbs are stored in your muscles as glycogen. What’s attached with the glycogen? More water.
• Following along on our trend of water weight, a menstrual cycle will also cause water retention, meaning more overall weight.
• Urine and feces weigh something. You do the math.
• Exercising will cause you to sweat, which means less water. But you’ll also likely drink more water in response, which will have an impact on the scale too.
If you’re trying to lose weight the healthy way (A POUND A WEEK IS A FOOD GOAL TO SHOOT FOR) your successful weight loss could be hidden by any number of circumstances that falsify your statistics.
You could be down 3 pounds since last week, but because you ate Fast food last night (sodium), drank water this morning, & didn’t get to weigh yourself til the afternoon (while wearing jeans), the scale could show a GAIN of one pound.
After working so hard, this “weight gain” can instantly demoralise you. Conclusion, throw the scales away, take 3 before photos, front, side and back. Compare you progress with tape measurements & progress photos!