Last night before I went to sleep, I weighed myself and I was 151.6. This morning I woke up and weighed myself, I came in at 147 even and checked it several times to make sure I wasn't going crazy! How do I lose 4.6 pounds in one night? I'm happy and shouldn't question it, but seriously? LOL.
Has it happened to you guys before? It's usually normal for me to go down maybe 2 pounds at the most overnight, but almost 5 pounds, no.
You were either very hydrated the last time you weighed, and/or on the dehydrated side when you weighed last, but I'm sure you know this. Or - it's your scales flaking out. Were you wearing the identical clothes before and after? I'm assuming you had a bathroom break between weigh-ins? Still, quite a difference overnight, to be sure. However, I always weigh at the same time every day to keep things at a constant. I would always expect a gain if I weighed right before bed after eating all day, then weighed again when I got up.
I once went on a 3-day no-food fast. I lost nine pounds in three days by my scales. Once I started back eating (only 1600 calories a day), I gained nine pounds in the same amount of time. I went from very happy to very sad.
Our bodies are composed of so much water, just by breathing in/out throughout the hours of the night, you'll drop some water weight. It'll fluctuate by a few pounds throughout the entire day/night. Just use it as one of your measuring tools, don't base too much thought/success/failure on it. It's a snapshot of that instant.
My weight can fluctuate easily by more than 5 lbs in any given day. The weight of water, digesting food, and waste not yet voided (unpooed poo and unpeed pee, unsweated sweat)... they all add up.
Comparing any weight to any other weight really can drive you crazy, but it's especially important not to compare today with yesterday, because the fluctuations will make you jump to false conclusions (what am I doing wrong... when the answer might be "nothing, you just haven't pooped yet.")
If you weigh daily, you can't compare today's weight to yesterday's and draw any valid conclusions. Too much goes into what you see on the scale.
My weight is usually a pretty even two pounds lower in the morning than at night, but last week I had one 3.6-pound drop overnight that never bounced back up, so I guess sometimes "whooshes" just happen! Enjoy it
My weight is usually a pretty even two pounds lower in the morning than at night, but last week I had one 3.6-pound drop overnight that never bounced back up, so I guess sometimes "whooshes" just happen! Enjoy it
I hope it doesn't go back up!! I wanna be in the lower 140's already!!! I think it's because of the amount of water I drink.. I drink water excessively. I LOVE water! Only cold water though. But yeahh, hopefully it stays
During an Ironman once where they weighed me before the event... after the 2.4 mile swim, a 112 mile bike ride and than a 26.2 mile run... They weigh you as soon as you come across the finish line and I lost 9lbs. over the course of the day...! But they whisk you right into the medical tent and give you IV fluids... So after 3 IV bags (3 liters) I was back up 7 lbs. in no time... And I felt much better too...
So if we accept that we have to create a calorie deficit of 3,500 kcal. to burn off 1lb. than we have to realize that it's physically not possible to burn 5lbs. of calories off overnight... It is possible however to "lose" that much "weight" in water overnight whether it be because someone is fluid overloaded or is becoming dehydrated... But our bodies aren't going to be happy about it and work pretty hard to get back to "normal"...
Last edited by TripSwitch; 01-26-2013 at 10:35 AM.
But an overnight drop doesn't necessarily mean something was way off and your body is adjusting. From what I see around here, most of us aren't seeing .2 pounds a day coming off the scale, we're seeing — on a regular basis — the same number for a few days and then a jump down, over and over again.
But an overnight drop doesn't necessarily mean something was way off and your body is adjusting. From what I see around here, most of us aren't seeing .2 pounds a day coming off the scale, we're seeing — on a regular basis — the same number for a few days and then a jump down, over and over again.
and some of us see the number for a few weeks and then a jump down, over and over again.
Our bodies don't work on a daily, weekly or sometimes even a monthly schedule. I've had jumps of several pounds after six weeks of doing "nothing different."
It would be great to see even a .1 loss every day, or even .5 every week, instead I never know when I'm going to "get my pay check," for the work I'm putting in. It could be in a week. It could be in a month, and it even could be in six weeks (thankfully I don't usually have to wait that long).
I also gain up to 10 lbs EVERY month with PMS/TOM. If I allow myself to see it as a "real" gain that I have to DO something to fix, I usually end up doing something stupid. If I just focus on staying on plan and weathering out the storm, the weight falls off the next week (but often gives me only a two week window of opportunity to lose weight every month). And, if I give in to the PMS/TOM cravings, even to a limited degree, that window of opportunity gets smaller and can even close completely. Having to be EXTRA diligent for 7 to 10 days every month is exhausting, but to succeed I can't afford the luxury of allowing the scale gain to discourage me, even for a few days (because I can undo all the work of a month in the span of only 2 to 4 days).
I have to remember always what the scale can and can't tell me.