I feel, at least in part, the answer to that is: yes.
Why else would they not always represent the work you’ve put in? Why is it that you can eat utter rubbish on Saturday, then lose half a kilo by Sunday morning. And why can you eat like an advert for healthy living for a week straight, then gain weight!
Well.
The first thing to remember is that weirdly low and weirdly high weigh-ins are probably just that – weird. They have absolutely nothing to do with your overall progress and are not an indication that you gained or lost half a kilo of fat over night.
Really, these types of changes on the scales are most likely to be caused by:
1) Did you go carb crazy yesterday?
When we eat more carbohydrate than usual, our body stores it in our liver and muscles. For every gram of carbohydrate we store (the amount we can store varies hugely depending on various things; perhaps somewhere between 400-800g), we also store somewhere around THREE times the amount of water.
So worst case, if you go pretty bonkers on the carbs after being on the low side, you could see the scales jump as much as 3.2kg, which is half a stone!
2) A salty meal?
Sodium is another cause for water retention, or water loss. Changing your sodium intake can be responsible for a jump or a fall on the scales.
Aldosterone is the hormone which controls sodium retention. If you’re not eating much sodium, aldosterone production increases in order to maintain balance within the body. If you then eat a high sodium meal, aldosterone doesn’t have a chance to adapt and so more sodium will be retained, leading to more water retention.
3) Inflammation
Inflammation is part of our bodies way of healing itself. So if you’re brewing up a bug, you’ve done a hard workout or two or your body is trying to heal itself from stress for whatever other reason, you’re also likely to see the scales jump up.
4) Hormones
Hormone imbalances are also associated with fluctuations on the scales. Raised cortisol, increased insulin and out of balance thyroid hormones are just some possible causes of hormone related weight changes.
So what should you do?
Well, definitely make your results about more than just what the scales say. See how your clothes are fitting, take some photos so you can see if your figure is changing. Perhaps you’ll also pay attention to how you feel overall – your energy, mood, skin, aches and pains – etc. Then when when you do get on the scales; look at the trends, rather than the day to day weigh-ins.
If you can truly make your peace with WHY the scales are jumping around day to day and the fact that it doesn’t always make sense, then carry on weighing yourself every day.
But if the difference between a happy day and a miserable day is the direction the scales have gone, then give them a miss. Maybe just weigh yourself once every week or two. Perhaps even monthly would be enough to give you a gauge on whether you’re heading in the right direction.