Why is my weight fluctuating so much?

You really need to be naked, on the same scale, and same time of day to know how much it is actually fluctuating. I think you should way yourself daily at home only in the morning to get a more accurate gauge of how much you weigh.

A salty meal can put on two pounds in hours.

Different scales can weigh differently. I think to be sure they are accurate you’d need to have them calibrated.

Your weight can be affected by where you are in terms of your menstrual cycle, what you ate the day before (some foods seem to make you retain water more than others), have you been to the loo, what time it is. If you drink any alcohol it will affect your weight. So, so many variables.

I’m not going to say don’t weigh yourself. Don’t obsess about what the scales say though. What about starting to use something like MyNetDiary? Log your weight once a week or every couple of weeks and in the meantime, just use the scales as a rough guide.

This is the long answer :/ lol

If the personal trainer weighed you on their scale then most likely that scale is more accurate. I never found a problem at the doctors or with the personal trainers scale.

Are you sure it said 144? I know that seems a stupid question, but I’m honest. I know before I had the digital scale the other scale’s numbers were so hard to see, and that is why I changed to the digital. Because I never knew my accurate weight I always guesstimated because I couldn’t see the little notches that were 4.5ft from my face.

On the other hand, maybe the trainers scale was wonky. That would be weird. I always thought they were vigilant about making sure everything was in top shape.

If it keeps happening then I’d say something weird is going on. If it is a one time thing, someone our something somewhere was inaccurate, and I wouldn’t worry so much. Just continue with your once a week weigh in’s.

Don’t get too obsessive about it..you are losing weight and that is all that matters right?

Maybe you are antsy to see results?

The longer it takes to get it off, the longer it will stay off. My doctor told me losing 1lb a month was way to much.

People who commit themselves to exercise not as a weight loss are less likely to put weight back on than people who commit themselves only to exercise as weight loss because usually once the weight loss is accomplished going to the gym stops and so begins the yoyo of putting the weight back on. That’s my only advice to you.

I coach my mother about this all the time. She was obsessed with fad diets and losing weight for years. When we joined the gym I told her its not a diet and its not a weight loss program, it is to promote a healthy lifestyle and maybe we will benefit from it. So far in 8 weeks I’ve lost 14lbs, mom has lost 8. We have not changed our diet one bit. I can tell you if we stopped going tomorrow for good we would put that all back on, but I don’t think I can do that, I’ve always been active. Its only been since the doctor started me on these bipolar pills that my weight went from normal to outrageous. I want to get back to my rollerblading and bike riding days..I miss them!

Anyway, maybe I just broke the rule of “don’t tell me to stop obsessing about the scale and please don’t tell me to stop weighing myself so often”

sorry for breaking the rules

Take into account the difference. Weigh yourself at home and then go straight to the gym and weigh yourself wearing the same clothes. That will tell you the difference just from the scale. Then subtract the difference each time you weight yourself on that scale.

Make sure which is most accurate though.

Lots of good answers here, especially @JLeslie and @marinelife. I have been losinga lot of weight lately, and I do myself often, much to be mindful of how my body reacts to different foods and different activities through the day.

I was dating a woman in March and April, who’s digital scale was consistently four pounds less than mine. Her’s seemed accurate and calibrated, mine seems accurate and calibrated. I, just for my own consistency, have to use my own.

See if you can gauge the consistent difference between the trainer’s scale and your own. Then use whichever one you want as your base number and keep track on their.

The weight fluctuation can bounce around a lot during the day. I can have a “healthy” soup, but because it is packed with sodium end up 2½ pounds heavier in no time. Same with exercising when I sweat a ton but concentrate on being hydrated. I end up heavier after an 3 mile walk than before.

Yes, lots of people will tell you to not obsess with continual weighing, but I like knowing how things change during the day. And I just keep an eye on the daily range generally trending lower. My highest weight for the day and my lowest weight for the day are both lower than they were a week ago. So I know I am going in the right direction.

If you see your self bounding up a couple days in a row, take a look at what you have eaten and what exercise you are doing. And if you have a trainer, remember if you lose fat and gain muscle that muscle weighs more than fat! So keep an eye on the gradual decrease in inches around your abdomen and hips. If you stay the same weight and lose inches, you are getting healthier.

If your in weightless mode, weigh on the same scale once a week with the same clothes on. I weigh naked in the morning after I pee.
Fluctuations happen and scales are different. Once you’re in maintenance mode, then you can start weighing yourself envy day at different times of day so you can understand your bodies natural fluctuations. It’s important to know so you will recognize and correct weight gains before they get out of control and understanding your “normal” helps you to avoid the denial that many of us get into as our weight starts to creep back up.

(Weight loss not weightless. Lol)

I agree with those who said weighing even more often during the day helps you understand how your weight fluctuates. Also, most women have some weight gain and loss during their cycle. I lose about 1.5–2 pounds day three after I have peed 5 times in two hours. LOL. Well, that is after having gradually gained that weight the week leading up to my period. I also lose 1.5 pounds while I sleep.

So, I can weigh myself any time of day and kind of know if I am gaining weight, because I know what I weigh morning and evening. I can tell where I am at even if I have not weighed myself in 3 days. I take into account if I ate a very salty meal and if I have my period or not. I tend to eat salty anyway, it isn’t that I watch my salt.

I weigh myself daily when losing and maintaining, but many people prefer once a week while losing. I think the fluctuation daily maybe is discouraging for some people. The initial weeks a lot of the loss is water, so it fluctuates easily. One big meal as a cheat from the diet you might be utilizing and the meal might weigh a half a pound on it’s own, plus the water your body needs to hold onto to adjust to the needs of your electrolytes maintaining balance from the larger meal.

I definitely don’t think I’ll be weighing myself daily. To me, that’s obsessive and I am very easily discouraged. Seeing fluctuations like that would hurt my progress, not help it. I’ll just stick to my once a week weigh-ins.

Thanks for all the answers. According to a Google search I conducted, a 10 lb fluctuation from morning to night isn’t unheard of, even if you are doing everything right. It varies for everyone. I don’t take in a lot of sodium, I hadn’t eaten a big meal, and I wasn’t on my period. I guess it’s just one of those things…

My mother-in-law suggested that the gym’s scale is off and it may be on purpose. I doubt it, but that’d be a good way to sell their $200/month personal training sessions.

@livelaughlove21 Is the scale at the gym a balance scale? The kind you slide the thingy mabob to 100 and the other one up or down until it balances? If so, you can put everything on 0 and see if it is in balance. Those scales should really be left at 0, but people at a gym never do it, and so over time they become out of balance and innacurate. @marinelife had a great idea to weigh yourself at home and as soon as you get to the gym to see if both scales weigh the same.

Whenever I work out, I always put on weight. Because muscle weighs more. You could change your routine to more cardio. Sorry didn’t read all the replies so hope I don’t repeat anything.

You should weigh yourself naked in the morning or at least the same time every day. Taking into consideration during your menses you will also pick up weight. Watch salt in your diet as this leads to water retention. Also make sure you are using the same scale. Often a better way when you are working out to judge how things are going is to measure yourself. To check inches loss. That would be around waist, bust, arms (top) hips and thigh tops.

@JLeslie No, it’s a digital scale.