Ugh.

I weigh myself yesterday morning and it reads 261.8, which is great bc it was down 1.2 lbs from a few days earlier. Then at work I did have a peice of cake for a co-workers bday. I ate a lighter lunch bc of this. I then go out last night for a "girls night out" and have wings and veggies with dip, and ONE cookie. Oh, and I had one glass of wine. I get home and thought eh, I"ll weigh myself, and it reads 267!! I think to myself what the heck!!?! Anyway, I weigh myself again this am and I"m back down to 263. Not sure what to think, but I thought it was strange and thought I'd share.

Water Retention

The weight of the water you drink and food you drink takes time to digest and process, and until it "passes" you're going to see it on the scale. Things like salt and fiber content, and even your body's natural cycles can affect the time it takes to process.

food you eat, I meant

I can weight myself in the morning and then without eating anything weigh again two hours later and my weight has gone up, sometimes more than a pound. It's so bizzare! Just goes to show how artificial our ideas of weight are. You can fluctuate five pounds in a day easily.

If you go to the main page for Weight Loss Support, you'll see a Sticky at the top called "Why Body Weight Fluctuates," by ennay. It has a lot of good information.

Remember that a 12-oz. glass of water, cola, beer, or whatever, weighs 12 ounces, which is 3/4 pound right there. And food has weight also, whether digested or not. And salty food causes the body to hang on to water that otherwise would be excreted. All of those things can cause weight to go up.

Jay

I think luey's post brings up another point - scales aren't always extremely reliable. If you don't eat or drink anything after weighing yourself the first time, it would be impossible by the laws of physics to gain any weight before the next weigh in whether it was a couple hours or a couple days (assuming you weigh in the same clothes or lack of them at both times).

Alcohol also makes me retain water. Wine doesn't as much for my body (beer is really bad for me, and my roommate says 2 beers will make her gain a size for a week). Mixed drinks are somewhere in the middle. Also food from just about any restaurant has a lot more sodium and processed junk that can make you retain water.

Lots of people weigh more in the evening, after they've drank liquids all day. Water is heavy!

Thanks everyone. Your comments make me feel a little better. When I got on the scale last night I was thinking no way I gained 5 lbs in a day!!