A false low on scale?
 

Hi everyone,

I have a scale question. Yesterday, I weighed 245.1. Last night, I went out drinking and dancing with friends. I had 2.5 gin and tonics, and only danced maybe 30 minutes. There was also food there, but I was good with the food. I figure though it must have been fairly salty though. I was just over my calories by maybe 150. I'm not too upset about this, I've been on and under all week, so the average is still in my favor.

I expected to see a bump in the scale this morning, since whenever I have more than 2 drinks, the scale goes up the next day even if I stay under my calories.

Instead, I weighed 243.5! Over 1.5 lbs lost...in one day...that was over my calories because of alcohol! What the...

Now, I'm not complaining, of course. I'm just surprised. I know that we talk about false highs on the scale due to water weight, so could this be a false low? I just don't want to be dissappointed should the numbers jump back up for seemingly no reason.

Not to get too picky with words... but I'm not sure we can call these things a "false" high or low, since the scale just weighs whatever is in or on your body... fat, muscle, bones, water, food, waste, clothes... it has no idea that all we really care about is the fat. :) The only time I'd call the numbers "false" would be if your scale batteries were dying, or you had it on an uneven surface or something.

Ok, now to answer your question... I always weigh less after drinking - I figure it's because alcohol has such a strong dehydrating effect. Do you usually eat more on days that you drink, or eat foods with more sodium? Maybe that's why you usually gain.

I've been throwing this link around a lot lately, but I think the picture is a simple and strong reminder that we will probably see a lot of weight fluctuations due to water, because that's most of what goes in and out of our body each day. http://www.fourmilab.ch/hackdiet/www...1_2_2_0_6.html

Maybe your weight the day before was higher than it "should" have been for some reason, and this IS your real weight, and you won't see it go back up. That's the optimistic answer. :D

No, scales measure what you weigh. You could have been a little under what you expected because of dehydration or something, but the scale isn't "lying" -- that's what you weigh.

I've noticed that weight loss definitely isn't an immediate equation: calories in + calories out + exercise = might or might not be weight loss right now, might be in a few days.

Alcohol dehydrates you. It will probably bump back up once you've rehydrated with water and food.

But, good on you for being diligent about your food and not gaining! :)

It's not a "false" weight, but it may go back up once you've had some water. Alcohol always makes my scale temporarily go down as it dehydrates me.

IMO--there is no such thing as a false low unless I have the other leg on the floor :)--I'll take what I can get, whenever, however.

I always weigh less after drinking, and then the next few days, usually -- without fail -- there will be a bump up from where I was before I was drinking. That is why I don't usually drink while I am trying to lose weight -- I feel like I am always playing catch up with rehydrating. My friend, Amy, though is on WW and drinks about four times a week, a beer or two a day and loses just fine.

Thanks for the feedback. I did think about the dehydration as a possibility. I imgaine that was it. I try to drink water to compensate, but I guess that's not always possible. It's just so odd because they say if you don't drink enough water, you retain water and then carry water weight, but you weigh less if you're dehydrated...seems contradictory!

And you're right about the word "false", I'll chose my words more carefully in the future! :)

Thanks for the link...great visual!

Same here when I drink (rarely nowadays even though I have mini alcohol bottles in my new avatar hehe). The next day my weight goes down by at least 2 - 3 lbs. Then the 2nd day after drinking my weight will shoot up 5 - 6 lbs (hence the fact that I rarely drink now). It will take me a week sometimes to get back to the weight I was the morning before I drank. This will happen even if I only have 2 drinks...it really sucks!

I also lose when I drink alcohol, unless I drink a couple of big glasses of water before I go to bed. I'm sure it's only dehydration because if I wake up thirsty the scale always has good news! But I gain it back the next day and more, as several others have said.

Alcohol can be considered a diuretic as it decreases the production of anti-diuretic hormone. This hormone works in the kidney by creating little pores that shuttle water from the kidney back into the body. When alcohol prevents this hormone from being produced, those little pores can't be made and water is forced to stay in the kidney and then get expelled as urine. You might be urinating a lot, but probably didn't notice? I agree with others that the blip down might be due to alcohol.

I will be encouraging and say that in a few days, that blip will go down and you might actually see this number again soon! :hug: :)