3 pounds of water weight IN MY SLEEP?
 

Sometimes the scale just drive me nuts!

Last night, I did an awesome swimming workout and came home pumped. Hopped on the scale before bed and I was down .4 pounds... I KNEW this meant that I'd probably be down a whole pound in the morning since I usually am a pound or two heavier at night.

So, I get on the scale in the morning, all happy. BAM. Up three. So I step on it about eight more times, and since my scale is kind of temperamental, by the time i'm done stepping on it, I now weight EIGHT pounds more.

Bummer... Oh well.:dizzy:

I hope it behaves better tomorrow.

Unless it's a battery problem, it has to behave better! There's no way to actually gain weight overnight!

I'd suggest that you stop weighing like a jumping jack! And consider getting a new scale.

Weigh no more than once a day, and preferably once a week, always at the same time. You're letting the scale numbers make you mental.

Jay

ubergirl - don't know if it's going to be any comfort ... but when I started swimming hard again I had exactly the same thing happen. I've read in the other forums that anything that stresses your muscles enough to make them sore will cause a blip up in the scale - the prevailing thought is that the body is using the extra water to repair the miniscule tears in the muscles.

Way to go with the swimming! It sounds to me like you got in a great workout and your body is just adjusting to it. You'll see it come off again... just be patient for a couple days. :)

Sore muscles definitely mean water weight for me, as is evidenced by the 2 pounds I'm up today over yesterday! :dizzy:

It should settle back out in a day or so. :high: on the swimming!

Ha! Well I couldn't figure out why every time I stepped on the scale it weighed a pound or two more...

Then, last night, I got on and I weighed 435 pounds.

This morning, it reads ERROR.

Guess it's time to invest in a new battery.

Am kind of irritated as I bought this scale 3 months ago because my old one was inaccurate... only after I bought it did I see numerous comments on Amazon complaining about battery life. And the body fat% function stopped working after about 6 weeks.

But, at least I'm not going mental. :dizzy:

That makes sense! All the explanations about muscles holding water make sense *except* that you described gaining weight between bedtime and am, not one morning to the next.

all householdscales are inacurrate. they are a rough guide with an error of anything upto 5% so the more you weigh the more the inaccuracy will be that could be 15lbs for a 300lb person.

as for weighing more when you wake up than before you went to bed. unless you eat or drink anything after weighing in the evening it is physically impossible to gain any weight at all.

I don't know if the particular figure of 5% is correct, but if so, that must be in reference to a systematic error (i.e., the scale is always 5% too high), and not a random error.

I have a old, cheapo scale, I weigh about 140 pounds, and I can tell you it is not randomly 7 pounds off from day to day. I only vary a few pounds, and that is not much due to the scale, as the variations are quite predictable based on my monthly cycle.

digital scales the error is lower admittedly i'm however working of spring scales. and the error increases with higher mass as the spring is pushed to its limits.

its like the speedometer in your car doesn't tell you the true speed its always higher than what your actually doing

OK, I guess I was confused because you said all household scales. In any event, she has a digital scale (battery problems) - that's a real bummer that is has problems after 3 months :(

I am bummed, especially since it takes TWO lithium batteries...

Although, I must say that I probably weigh as often in 3 months as the average person weights in a year...

You should try to return it. That's just wrong.

Scales just give you a number, those skinny jeans never lie!! Just keep swimming, swimming, swimming
:swim: