Getting weighed on a regular basis can be a great indicator to your weight loss progress and help to keep you on track, however, if you’ve had a really good week of healthy eating and exercise and it doesn’t immediately show on the scales, don’t be disheartened that you’re not seeing results overnight. Unless you overate by 3500 calories, the change in your weight on the scales is water, not fat.
Our bodies are 70% water, so usually the daily fluctuations are water.
Many people don’t automatically see a weight-loss when they start to exercise either, in fact sometimes the number on the scales goes up – but it’s not a reason to stop exercising!
A few reasons you see fluctuations on the scale may be:
Recent increase in cardio activity
Cardio increases blood volume, so if you’ve recently taken up more exercise than usual, its common to see an increase in weight until it stabilises
Recent increase of weight training
Sore muscles retain water and eventually this leads to muscle gain.
Illness, Soreness, injury or bruising
This causes inflammation which leads to local water retention.
Change of meal timings
Although your calorie intake maybe exactly the same, eating meals later on an evening can affect the weight on the scales the next morning.
Single unusually large meal
Large meals take days to digest, along with the equivalent mass of water will remain in your gut.
Increasing your carbs
If you’ve had a low carb phase in your diet, a sudden increase will cause your liver and muscles to increase glycogen stores which will again increase your water weight.
Menstrual Cycle
Again, this will affect your bodies blood volume which will show up on the scales.
Change in fibre
This will affect your poo weight!
In short – trust your calorie intake! If you’re tracking your food accurately and are eating at a calorie deficit, you WILL be losing fat. The fat loss is just hidden on the scales by many causes of fluctuation in water and digestive waste.
The answer isn’t to eat less but to trust in your body and give it time to make any adjustments. Just don’t give up because of a number!
