Weight not lowest first thing in the morning!?
 

S, I weighed myself this morning after going to the bathroom and weighed in at 216.4. About an hour later, I hadnt eaten or drank yet and was getting in the shower, I decided to hop on the scale again..215.4! A full lb down? What was there before? Water retention?

I weigh myself once a week at the same time and under the same circumstances. My weight is most stable at midmorning so I do it on Sunday (although once in awhile I do have to change the day of the week due to some schedule or something) since my lifelong habit is to have Sunday brunch a bit later and celebrate the week ahead.

I occasionally hop on for a check during the week but my true and official weight is the weekly one and I use that in my data. I never get on more than once a day as weight fluctuates during the day.

I'm assuming you mean you lost a pound after going to the bathroom a second time, right?

If not, your scale is to blame. There's no way to lose a pound in an hour without body fluid loss. So to lose a pound in an hour, you would have had to peed, pooed, threw up, coughed up, and/or sweated out a pound worth of body fluid (and with sweat, it would have also had to evaporate off your body).

If you DID go to the bathroom again, and as a result lost a pound, it doesn't necessarily mean "water retention." Not everyone's lowest weight for the day is first thing in the morning, nor is it on a predictable schedule for everyone.

My lowest weight is usually, but not always my first weigh-in of the day. It depends on a whole bunch of variables including the time of my monthly cycle, what time I got up, what I've eaten over the past three days (because undigested food can take several days to go from mouth to toilet - sorry to be graphic but it illustrates the point better than euphemism), the temperature, how much water I've been drinking, the temperature, even how well I've slept - all sorts of stuff.


It's not unusual for home scales to be be a bit inconsistent over small discrepancies. My current scale is very reliable. If I get on and off my scale ten times, all the weighs are within one or two tenths of a pound. However my last scale was off my as much as 1.5 pounds. If I weighed myself ten times in succession, I could get ten different weights (to try to get a more accurate guesstimate I would weigh myself three times in a row and average the three weights).

This question comes up often (there was one earlier this week). Your scale's not perfect, and you're body (assuming you're human, of course) is going to act in weird ways. Your scale will show all sorts of bizarre numbers, especially if you weigh yourself enough. What matters is how things change from week to week, not hour to hour. Also, will knowing why this happens help you lose body fat any faster? Probably not.

I weigh myself 3 times in the morning. First thing after waking up, right after peeing, usually in a t-shirt. This is always the highest of my 3. Then I go downstairs, eat breakfast, have a cup of coffee, have a poo, and go upstairs. Right before I get in the shower, I weigh myself and this is my official weigh-in. It is always lower than the first. Then, I take a shower and weigh myself after I am dry but with still wet hair. This is about 1/2 of the time lower than the official or exactly at the official. Sometimes the difference between the post-shower weigh and the first thing upon waking weigh can be a lb, but is usually more like .6. That's why I count the middle one as official.

And I no longer weigh myself at any other time of the day because I've always been HUGELY disappointed when I do. My pre-bed weight can be 3 lbs. more than my morning weigh-in. I've decided there is just no reason to see that.

I've noticed this too. It makes sense - you get up, don't put anything into your body, burn some calories and pee some more out.

My weight is always lowest in the afternoon. Even after eating breakfast and lunch and drinking a ton of water all day, it will still be 1-2lb lower than the morning.

My pre-bed weight is also two to three pounds more than my morning weigh-in, but I have a great reason to see it... because it allows me to see a weight loss every morning.

Now I know it's not "real" weight loss, but since I lose so slowly, it's nice to celebrate any loss even if it's not real.

Do you mind sharing the scale you have? Mine is cracked and I have been thinking of getting a new one ( although it is still pretty accurate for me! It's a Tania ). Thanks!

I'm always 2 pounds heavier in the morning but after 2-3 hours I'm my lowest. I know it's because I swell at night and the fluid moves out of me.

That said, different things like temperature and humidity I've read can affect scales. I don't really worry about it too much. The scale weight is one thing, but I also monitor measurements and how my clothes feel.

I've noticed the same thing. I can usually tell by looking at my fingers if I'm going to have water retention, and for whatever reason they're usually pretty sausagey looking when I first wake up but then are normal an hour or two later (which is when my weigh ins are best).