Quote:
Originally Posted by cfmama
Do you mean that your weight swings 5 pounds from one day to the next? Are you weighing at the exact same time in the same clothes (or not) every single day? Because if you are... then you are either taking in a BUTTLOAD of sodium OR your scale is wonky.
Absolutely not true. My weight can easily fluctuate 10 lbs or more during TOM and up to 6 the rest of the month. At my highest weight, the fluctuations were even greater. My scale is extremely accurate (it weighs my husband the same from day to day), and my dietary sodium is extrememly low, often too low. I grew up in a low-salt household, and I've never developed much of a "salt tooth." My blood levels run low, and in the past, I even had to take prescription sodium before surgery.
Weight can fluctuate for a lot of (completely normal and healthy) reasons, and the more weight to lose, the more it can fluctuation. 5 lbs to me, is not the same as 5 lbs to someone weighing 110 lbs. It's probably more like 1 lb to someone that thin.
Weight fluctuations can come from
water retention (sodium or hormonally related as well as other reasons)
the weight of water in the digestive system (16 ounces of water, weighs a lb)
the weight of undigested food and waste in the stomach and intestines (particularly if you eat a large quantity of vegetable).
The human body can hold 20 lbs or more of undigested food. Most people don't retain that much, but if you eat higher fiber foods, even if they're low in calorie, they can cause temporary fluctuations due to the weight of the food during digestion. Even if you're eating 1800 calories every day - 1800 calories of food weighs anything from 1/2 lb (if it were all fat) to several pounds. A pound of mustard greens has about 60 calories (which I ate for dinner tonight, along with a couple ounces of beef). I simmered the greens and beef in 2 cups of chicken broth (about 50 calories, but it weighs a lb). I also had a 20 oz beverage with dinner (that means if I had weighed myself before and after dinner. After dinner I would have seen a gain of about 3.25 lbs).
Weighing at the same time, nude every day would help some, but many of us don't have clockwork digestive systems. To be graphic, since I don't
poo every day (and that can be perfectly normal and healthy for some people. It can also be a side effect of IBS, which I have) Even though I eat a lot of high fiber fruits and vegetables and take a fiber supplement, I tend to carry around my undigested food a bit longer than most people. I also don't eat the same weight of food every day, so the fluctuations are completely normal for me.
My solution to the problem of getting stressed over the unpredictability of the scale wasn't to give up weighing daily, it was to learn not to get stressed out over the daily fluctuations. I did that by learning about why and how my weight fluctuates. I weighed several times a day. Before and after eating or drinking, going to the bathroom, before bed, first thing in the morning, after exercise. It helped me see the patterns of weight fluctuation.
Now, I weigh daily, but I only "count" my Monday weigh-in. When I don't weigh daily, I find I'm more likely to be less rigorous with my food plan. I fall off plan, because I'm not paying attention.
Whatever it takes (whether it's weighing every 15 minutes or once every 3 months) to see the scale as a tool and your weight as an indication of success, not proof of failure.