What can cause weight fluctuations?

You have probably been told so many times not to panic if the number on the scale increases but it is hard not to if you don’t actually know what causes scale fluctuations.

In this post I am going to outline the main causes of weight fluctuations to help give you a better understanding as to why the number on the scale can change without meaning you've gained weight.

So many of my clients when starting with me let the number on the scale fully determine whether or not they are making progress, but it is so important to have a healthy relationship with the scales and to not let it control your journey and mood.

At the end of the day it is just a number on an electronic machine and in my opinion, having a healthy relationship and neutral emotion associated with the scales is just as important as having a healthy relationship with food and exercise.

If you are someone who, when stepping on the scale, can feel their heart drop when seeing a number increase, then hopefully this post will be really helpful for you and provide you with some information as to why this is, and why I always tell my clients not to panic if one day the number on the scale has spiked up.

1. Water intake. Did you know that for every 8 ounces of water you drink it is equal to 1 pound. Also eating more carbs results in a slight increase in water weight. For every one gram of carbohydrate stored in the body (in the form of  glycogen) there is around  2-3 grams of water retained. This is NOT weight gain.

2. If you need to wee/poo. If you weighed yourself before going to the toilet that can cause an increase in the scale due to all the waste that is in your gut that needs to be removed. Food can stay in your gastrointestinal tract for as long as 4 days after you consumption and so can be a large reason why your body weight may be increasing/decreasing daily.

3. Stress levels. Did you know that stress can cause weight fluctuation? This is because when you are stressed it causes a hormonal response which results in cortisol levels increasing, which results in a weight spike. Also when we are stressed it's very normal to eat more which means you may have slightly more food in your stomach than normal. This doesn't mean extra fat, it just means you have extra food in your stomach from slightly overeating. 

4. Food volume is a term used to describe how much a certain food actually weighs or even the physical size of the food. So what is the difference between higher and lower volume foods? Foods that have fewer calories per pound of weight are known for having a higher food volume.If you are eating a lot of high volume food the immediate after effect of this is that your weight actually goes up. Why is this you are probably thinking? effect of eating foods that weigh more

   Think of this as an example to put it into perspective:

   One pound of Doritos has around 2000 calories whereas one pound of broccoli has around 100 calories. This means you could eat 4 or even 5 pounds of cauliflower and only have consumed a small percentage of the calories in a single pound of Doritos. If you eat 4 pounds of cauliflower(not many people would but just to put it into perspective) it would actually create an immediate increase in your body weight that is a lot larger than eating a single pound of Doritos. Just to make it clear, this does not mean cauliflower is going to impact weight loss(if that is your goal) in fact by consuming more high volume foods you are going to feel fuller for longer. Most raw vegetables are high in volume and this is because high volume foods often much less fat and more water. So to summarise, if next time you weigh yourself and you realise you ate a lot of lower calorie, high volume foods do not panic.

5. Hormonal fluctuations. On average for women, the week of and/or during their cycle can result in them holding onto anywhere from 3-7 pounds of water weight. Again let me emphasise this is water weight not fat. The scale doesn't know the difference between water weight and fat so don't panic if you see a slight increase one morning. 

6. Supplements. There are certain supplements that have been scientifically proven to cause more water retention. One example of this is creatine. Whenever one of my clients starts taking creatine daily I always explain that are most likely going to see a small increase in bodyweight for a few days due to the increase in water retention which I spoke about earlier.

   It is important to remember this is simply water weight, not weight gain.

7. If you have weighed yourself before or after eating/drinking. Always try and weigh yourself at the same time, preferably in the morning before you eat and drink otherwise you are likely to see a spike in weight due to water retention.

   So next time the number on the scale is higher than the last time you weighed yourself don’t panic, it doesn’t mean you aren’t progressing or that something isn’t working. Remind yourself that your worth is not determined by a number on an electronic machine, yes it is a good indicator of progress if your goal is weight loss/weight gain but there are also many other ways of assessing progress that shouldn’t be overlooked.