Weight fluctuating from day to day

Okay, I weigh myself every time I go to the gym, which is almost every day, not in an obsessive way, but simply out of curiosity. The strangest thing I find is that my weight can fluctuate by a few pounds from one day to the next.  Once I went from 174 to 170.5 like overnight!  I know water weight plays a part in this, but still.. Is that normal? Just curious.

Laura, I weigh myself every day and my weight fluctuates also.  Some days it will be a 1/2 pound to one pound higher than the day before.  Then it will drop again.  Yesterday I weighed in at 233 and today I was 230.  The highest one day drop has been 5 pounds but I had the flu and didn't eat an ounce of food the previous day.  Todays drop doesn't make any sense to me because yesterday wasn't unusual in any way.   In the long run the trend continues to equal weight loss and that is all that matters to me.  I need to track my water intake and see if that makes a difference.  Good luck reaching your goal!!

I hope so!  I weighed myself this morning right after peeing and was 182...Right before my bath I weighed myself again and I was 179...whatever

This drives me crazy too!!  I think the best way to avoid it is to only weigh once a week - but I can never stick to that!!

I only weight myself in the morning after going to the bathroom.   If your scale shortly after that says you weight a few pounds less then it's probably not a good scale at all.    If you are taking this diet seriously, then maybe it's time to buy an accurate scale?

I weight myself everyday aswell.  The most I've put on in a day was 8.5 pounds!!!!  Honest....(needless to say it was NOT a good day).  I've managed to lose 4 pounds in a day also.  It's obviously not 8.5 pounds of FAT I've put on .......so don't worry about it.  

Yeah, water weight can effect and the amount of food and water in your system can also effect it, obviously :] Along with the clothes you are wearing.

Best time to weigh yourself is in the morning, naked, after peeing heh. It's as accurate as you can get.  

At risk of sounding disgusting, there's a lot of fluids and solids in your body. Water is one of the fluctuating weight variables, but feces is another. We can carry something like 2-10 pounds of feces depending on our diets. If you eat a lot of fiber, you're probably not going to carry as much as someone who eats none. I don't know if it's 100% accurate but I know it carries some truths.

Haha, I am not disgusted. That makes plenty of sense. I was just hoping that I was not the only one. :)

I think I am going through the same thing! I ate about 3000 cals before with no exercise then the past week ate 1200 cals with quite a lot of exercise! :) I dont see any weight loss! I went from drinking a bottle of water or two a day along with the 3000 cals and LOTS of diet coke down to now no diet pop and 4+ bottles of water. I even balance all of my carbs, protein, protein, sodium, etc! Is it all the water new that I am drinking that is making me think I havent lost any weight? Please someone help me out! :) Thanks.

*Amber*

Well awms I suppose if you're excercising AND only eating 1200 cals, you're going into "starvation mode," because you're net calorie intake is really less that 1200. that is, if you burned 400 cals at the gym, your net calorie intake is really only 800. Which is not enough for your body to function. And so it holds onto all of the calories it can get.  This is what I hear, anyway. So maybe that's why you're not losing.

I find the scale addicting. And I dont think it's healthy to have it 'chained' to your leg like that. I used to weigh myself everyday and was completely unsatisfied and I would get very moody when the scale would go up and down. Now I only weigh myself on Saturday mornings. Keep up your guys' good work and also let your clothes tell you how much you're losing!

Hydration status is what is responsible for most weight fluctuations on a day to day basis.  Wrestlers in particular use this to make weight limits, and can drop at least 5 lbs in a day to do this. 

I don't have the source to point to, but have read that one pound of weight loss or gain = 3500 calories either in deficit or excess.  This is a reachable goal on a weekly basis for many of us.

One of the previous posts mentioned weighing in the morning after going to the bathroom.  Really its not a bad idea, as the idea is to make the conditions similar from day to day.

I am having this exact same problem and it's kind of scary. My doctor actually thought I was starving myself to lose weight, but I do eat a lot. I just can't seem to gain any weight. I do have anxiety problems but I don't know if that has anything to do with it. One day I will be my normal weight, 125 lbs., and the next day I will be 120 lbs. My weight over time has actually decreased. I used to weigh 135 lbs. about 6 months ago. I am fairly tall too so I look a lot skinnier. I try to stay healthy by taking vitamins, but I do eat junk food a lot. This might be part of the problem but it seems like it is more than that. I drink tons of water.