ehmamasc's Journal, 03 March 2011

2 lbs in a few days. Great job. Italy sounds so cool. Take me with you:) LOL 

i am doing a program that asks you to weigh in every day...I dont like it. I wont weigh again until Monday. How often do you weigh? 

I weigh daily, but I record my weight once a week usually sat or sun morning. That keeps me from eatting to much on the weekend when I have to weigh in. (Reverse psychology psyching myself out) Also you should weigh in the morning no clothes right after you wake up and after you go to the bathroom. That really is as close to your true weight as possible. I gain 2-4 lbs from morning to night with as much water as I have been drinking. Geez clothes add a pound, shoes another. I compared my nude weight against the weight at the gym and I gain a pound just in shorts and t shirt:0 I found this post and it made so much sense as to why my weight changes so much. That is why I only record once a week now. This post really was a morale booster for me since I was down over the evil scale. Your scale weight can fluctuate 3-5lbs in any direction any given day or any given week due to factors that have nothing to do with your body fat. Intense exercise, especially strength training - this makes the scale go up due to water and blood shifting within the muscle. It's normal and it's not a fat gain. Constipation/irregular bowel movements - even your body waste has a weight because everything inside you is affected by gravity. Normal fluid and hormone shifts - your body has bioryhthms related to menstruation, sleep/wake cycles, etc. Your hormones and body fluids will shift in response to these rhythms, and that can make the scale go up. Not a fat gain. Eating fiber, drinking water - because everything is affected by gravity, these two heavy elements will have great weight inside you as well. Fiber can also cause bloating. Not fat gain. Too much stress - plays with hormones, not fat gain Too little sleep - plays with hormones, not fat gain Eating too much sodium, eating processed and packaged foods - causes water retention leading to a gain on the scale. Not fat. Any change to diet or exercise program - makes the scale go up as your body tries to work out these changes. Not fat gain. Remember that to gain one pound of fat - ONE POUND - you'd have to eat 3500 calories ABOVE your weight maintenance calorie level. Meaning, if you maintain your present weight at 2000 calories a day, you'd have to eat 5500 calories to gain just ONE POUND of body fat. So don't' trust the scale too much. It can be influenced by other things that have nothing to do with your body fat. If you are strength training and eating in your calorie range reliably, then you did not gain fat. If you lose inches and your clothes loosen up, you're losing body fat no matter what the scale says. Thing is, people say they want to lose "weight" when really what they want is to lose fat. The scale is not the best way to measure that all of the time. You could cut your leg off and instantly lose 20 lbs of weight. But it's harder to lose body fat and body fat is what matters -not your scale weight