Weight Loss + Scale Fluctuations
Did you know that women's weight can fluctuate up to 5-10lbs?! 10lbs!
If you are in a weight or fat loss journey, the scale is going to fluctuate. Please please please do not get discouraged by it! It is 100% totally normal.
A lot of different things factor into this like where you are in your menstrual cycle, stress, workouts, sleep, hydration etc. If your weight spikes up overnight a couple pounds and hangs out there a few days, it does not mean that you suddenly gained a few pounds of fat overnight. It could mean that your body is retaining water. This is very common after an extremely strenuous workout that put a lot of stress on your body (like intense cardio sessions, or a heavy leg day) or even in periods of mentally stressful times. It also happens when your body doesn't get enough rest or sleep. Your cortisol levels are increased and as a result your body is retaining more water.
Increased cortisol levels from stress are not the only reasons for spikes on the scale, and avoiding stressful situations altogether is 1. not feasible and 2. not going to stop the scale from fluctuating.
Let’s first talk about why that is not feasible. If you are doing any sort of training, you are putting stress on your body. Stress is not just a mental thing but also physical. Your body requires some stress in order to adapt and change. So avoiding putting any stress on your body, would make it very difficult to achieve a fat loss goal. You obviously don’t want to over do it, especially if you are just getting started or getting back into it, but there is some level of good stress to put on your body.
Other situations can also cause fluctuations in your weight:
Water retention in your body can occur from being dehydrated. It might seem like if you drink more water than your body is going to store more right? It’s actually the opposite, if you don’t drink enough water and your body is dehydrated, then it will actually store and retain more water.
Drinking alcohol can dehydrate your body which again can lead to water retention.
Having too much sodium. Sodium in the right amount is essential to the body in blood regulation and balancing the water content in your body, but too much of it can cause your body to hold onto more water.
Starting a new exercise routine or program as a beginner. If you are just starting out and haven’t previously exercised or haven’t exercised in the last 6 months or so, it is normal for your body to retain more water as your muscles and body adapt to this new routine (this goes back to stress on the body - but remember this is good stress!).
Not getting enough sleep or not enough rest between exercise sessions. Sleep + rest are your bodies times to recover from physical and mental stress. While you are sleeping, your body is working to bring you back to a state of homeostasis or balance in your body. If you aren’t prioritizing your sleep or giving yourself enough rest between training sessions, your body may not be able to properly recover the way it needs to. This can then cause your body to be under higher levels of stress in your next training session because it is already starting at an increased point.
Maybe you just need to poop 🤷🏻♀️
In the image on the left, you can see how my weight has fluctuated and spiked high and low over the course of the last 3 months. Remember that when my weight spiked up, I didn’t gain fat overnight, even when my weight hung out in that spike for a couple days. What I am looking for is that my graph is trending down. I share this with you to encourage you if you are also in a weight loss journey.
I like to weigh daily because it allows me to see these trends. If I only weighed myself once per week, I might always be weighing myself when I am fluctuating up and that can be discouraging. (I also recognize that weighing daily can also be a huge mental game that can cause more stress. You need to decide what is best for you.) I make sure to weigh first thing in the morning, after using the bathroom and before consuming any food or water to be as consistent as possible.
As a side note, there was a lot of mental and mindset work that went into this journey BEFORE January when I really started focusing on weight loss by tracking my nutrition and being more consistent with my workouts. I truly believe that mindset work made it possible for me to be ok with weighing daily. This is what works for me now, but not necessarily what worked for me in the fall.
Wherever you are in your journey, I'd love to help and support you. Whether it is getting in the right mindset to start, you're ready to track macros or you want to start adding in a specific and targeted fitness program, I got you.
If you are interested in beginning a program to help you on your health + fitness journey, click here to complete your form and get started!
Note: this graph shows the trend in weighing myself daily from beginning of January to end of march. My current weight is covered because that brings no value to the context of this post and is completely irrelevant.