I know that our bodies weigh differently throughout the day depending on meals, beverages, activities, etc. But, I have a quick question....say you woke up at X time, were up for about 5-30 mins - didn't eat or drink anything, maybe used the restroom, weighed yourself - and decided to lay back down for an hour or so. (Love the days when this is even an option, haha.)
Okay, about an hour or two later, you get up for good and weigh yourself again....there is a full 1 lb difference from just a bit ago. You didn't eat or drink anything before weighing, and you don't need to use the restroom...lol. Which weight do you consider your weigh-in for the day?
Also, do any of you notice significant weight changes (1-2lbs+) in a single hour or two, up or down, after taking a nap? My body doesn't fluctuate much through the day, even sometimes after meals, but it definitely does after napping. Even shorter ones. Just trying to see if others have noticed the same thing.
I recently had that 'going back to bed for a couple hours and loosing an entire lb' thing happen recently. My scale is pretty consistant so I have no explanation for it. Can't wait to hear what others say about it!! I just go with "WTH? and yay! I like that weight better!"
Honestly, I take the weight that is lowest. If I saw its fair game. Some have more willpower and wait untill they have weighed in a few times in a row at that weight, but I flucuate like crazy and NEED that gratification RIGHTNOW to stay motivated.
Sometimes I find that I feel more bloated after napping, which is odd. Also, after napping I get SO HUNGRY. I have no idea why. I don't feel that hungry in the morning but I eat within 15 minutes of getting up, so I guess my body associates waking up with hunger. Weiiiird.
Anyway, count whichever weight is going to keep you motivated. I weigh myself most days (sometimes more than once a day) and it's compulsive, but I mentally prepare myself for ONLY counting the reading I get at WW once a week. So I get to feed my compulsion but try to stay as sane as I can about it.
Hey -- you lose weight napping because you're breathing in and out with your mouth open. I do this too. It's dehydration. You can count it as you like; the water level in our bodies fluctuates so much that it's silly to say dehydration "doesn't count," but obviously it's temporary. I always weigh in the morning when I wake up and after using the bathroom -- on a typical day I can gain 3 lbs of water and fiber weight during the day (literally from drinking water and eating healthy, high-weight foods like cucumbers). It goes in and out and I don't worry about "counting it."
Weighing in the morning will usually give you the lowest number, all things considered. And that weight is more likely to move down consistently because it doesn't depend on what/whether you've just eaten. Consider it for your sanity
I weigh myself all the time, and no, it's not obsessive. After naps I am consistently 2 pounds down. I'm also consistently 2 pounds down the next morning after an evening weigh in.
The only weight I count is the one I get when I first wake up in the morning. I consider this my "true" weight. After that, it's all about breathing, drinking, eating and eliminating waste.
If you haven't eaten or gone to the bathroom, it's probably a scale discrepancy. Weight has to come and go from somewhere, and you really can't absorb it from the air. You can lose weight without going to the bathroom, because sweat does evaporate, but to lose a pound during a nap, it would have had to be sweat and moisture loss from breathing. You would wake up wet and have had to dried off (unless maybe you live in the desert).
I used to notice all sorts of weight fluctuations like this, and had all sorts of guesses as to how or why they had occurrred (thinking it was my body that was fluctuating). I thought I could gain half a pound from eating a 2 ounce candybar, because I saw it (or thought I did) on the scale.
That changed when I bought my first really good scale (my first was a doctor's balance scale. My current scale is a digital scale Weight Watcher's scale. It varies by only about two tenths of a pound).
A few years ago, I experimented with weighing myself dozens of times during the day - Dressed, undressed, before and after using the restroom, before and after sleeping, before and after eating... and I learned a lot (though I wouldn't have learned as much if my scale wasn't extremely accurate).
Now I weigh first thing in the morning, naked after going to the bathroom, and last thing at night.
In the morning, I'm almost always two pounds lighter than I went to bed. When I was weighing all the time, I learned that I lose about a pound through peeing in the middle of the night, and another pound peeing first thing in the morning.
It's not unusual though for me to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night and not remember it (actually this can happen any time a person sleeps). So it is possible to go to the bathroom and go back to bed without fully waking (For that matter it's possible to eat and drink without fully waking).
Most of the time though the simplest explanation is the most accurate, and the simplest explanation is that your scale isn't uber-accurate.
Really? A pound of hydration for one hour of mouth breathing? Why aren't I 8 lbs down every morning? (Always 1-3 lbs lighter by morning but I usually credit food digestion, dehydration and elimination for that)
I guess I can't think of another explanation other than scale inconsistancy. *shrug, I'll take it!
Kaplods - you posted that experiment here in the forum didn't you? I remember someone doing that when I poked around here a few years ago - it was fascinating!
My two next purchases/rewards are 1. food scale, 2. good good walking shoes......and now 3. will be a really good scale!
Last edited by BigBlueStar; 02-12-2011 at 05:03 PM.
Kaplods - you posted that experiment here in the forum didn't you? I remember someone doing that when I poked around here a few years ago - it was fascinating!
I don't think so, but my inspiration for my own experiments WAS based on reading about someone else's - probably on this site, so it may have been the same post that you read. I've seen the topic come up several times here.
The common wisdom is that weighing more than once a week is "frustrating" because you won't see a loss every day. I never really questioned that wisdom before my experiments. I WAS frustrated when I weighed frequently and didn't see steady impressive losses, but I was only frustrated because I had learned that frustration was the appropriate response to weighing daily.
Essentially I was frustrated, because I was told to be. Frustration is the result of unmet expectations. When you have no preset expectations, you cannot be frustrated. You can choose to be ok with weight fluctuations.
I think the assumption that intense frustration is unavoidable, and setting ourselves up for more and more frustration has become such an intrenched weight loss "tradition" that failure is built into the system. We experience more and more frustration (because our expectations vastly exceed our results) until we're burnt out on it. We feel so much more failure than success until quitting seems like the most sensible thing to do.
A little bit of frustration can be motivating, but an overdose of frustration squashes motivation. Mild frustration thoughts like "I'm not doing well enough, I want to do so much better," can inspire more effort, but severe frustration "I will never succeed, I can't do this..." those are the beginning of the end. And we assume that the latter is inevitable, and it's not. You can learn to avoid severe frustration, by avoiding unrealistic expectations, and the only way to make realistic expectations is to experiment without judgement.
"What can I expect fro myself?" It's a question I still haven't answered fully, but for me I must take specific weight loss off my expectations. I can't say "x number of pounds per week/month," because if I fall short, even by a tenth of a pound I feel like a failure rather than a success.
My TOPS group (taking off pounds sensibly) does a pledge contest each month. To participate, you have to pledge at least 4 lbs most months, and 3 lbs in February (you can pledge more). If at the end of the month, you haven't met your pledge, you pay a quarter. The quarters are divided by everyone who did meet their pledge.
We all write our pledges on the same card, so unless you're first, you can't help but see what other people pledge. Some people make huge pledges (especially newbies to the club), and I can't help but wonder if the person who pledges 20 lbs, is upset if they "only" lose 16. I know in the past, I would have. I would obsess over the 4 lbs I didn't lose, forgetting the 16 lbs I did).
It's still hard for me to pledge 3 or 4 lbs though. Even though I would be happy with that loss, putting it in writing makes me feel like I'm selling myself short, or doing something wrong by not aiming for huge weekly losses (it's what 40 years of dieting American-style has done to my brain. I can't help but feel pulled into the patterns I've learned - even as I know they're patterns that don't work for me).
I still participate in the monthly pledges, but I have to give myself a little peptalk about the purpose. Reminding myself it's a game and a challenge, not a "test" of my worthiness or value or effort.
Jasmine, I believe they're talking about the 'several weigh-ins a day to learn your pattern' experiement that Kaplods mentioned in their first reply here:
Quote:
Originally Posted by kaplods
A few years ago, I experimented with weighing myself dozens of times during the day - Dressed, undressed, before and after using the restroom, before and after sleeping, before and after eating... and I learned a lot (though I wouldn't have learned as much if my scale wasn't extremely accurate).
Actually sounds like an interesting way to get to know your body and its workings more intimately...may try this one day after I get a more professional-grade scale.
Last edited by opheliaphoenix; 02-13-2011 at 03:22 PM.
Napping and Weight Differences?
After naps I am consistently 2 pounds down. I'm also consistently 2 pounds down the next morning after an evening weigh in.
