Given the time of writing, there’ll be a lot of people reading this who are either dieting, have recently dieted or about to start trying to lose weight.
If you’ve got some recent experience of weight loss, you may have noticed the fluctuations on the scales. Some weeks you might have lost a lot of weight. Other weeks you might have stayed the same. On some weeks you may have even gained weight, even though you’ve stuck to your calorie and activity targets.
If you don’t know what’s going on, this can destroy your confidence in the process, or make you as what’s the point of it all?
I’ve got some news for you…
THIS IS TOTALLY NORMAL. YOUR SCALE WEIGHT WILL FLUCTUATE DURING WEIGHT LOSS. IT’S NOT A LINEAR PROCESS - DON’T EXPECT IT TO BE!
Your body is an incredibly complex machine, and at any one moment there are millions of physiological processes occurring simultaneously. These processes produce waste products, sometimes they consume a lot of energy, water, etc.
All of these things can have an impact on your weight, irrespective of calorie consumption.
There was a research study performed in 2020 titled ‘Weekly, seasonal and holiday body weight fluctuation patterns among individuals engaged in a European multi-centre behavioural weight loss maintenance intervention’ by Turrichi et al.
They found that even during a calorie-controlled study (meaning there’s no calorie-driven reason for weight gain), the participant’s weight fluctuated by 0.35 - 1.35%. For perspective, that means if somebody weighed 210lbs (15 stone), their weight would sometimes fluctuate between just over half a pound, and 3lbs - this is in people who are calorie controlled.
Body weight fluctuations under ‘normal’ conditions are even more severe. We have a great study that examined this. A 2017 study called ‘Composition of two‐week change in body weight under unrestricted free‐living conditions’ was carried out by Bhutan et al.
They found that a within-week bodyweight fluctuation of 2.2–4.4 pounds was normal.
Why does our bodyweight fluctuate?
There are a lot of reasons why bodyweight fluctuates… Food intake, fluid intake, medicines, supplements, hormonal changes, temperature etc. There’s more than just one.
Assuming everything else is ‘normal’ - no medication, no obvious hormonal changes, no medication etc, it’s likely to be water intake. Water is responsible for a lot of bodyweight change - water retention or loss can see your bodyweight change by up to 10lbs in a week, depending on the severity of the condition.
Here’s a few elements that can positively or negatively effect water retention…
Dehydration: When a person does not drink enough water, their body stores water to prevent dehydration. Drink until your urine is clear - that’s the best hydration advice.
Sodium intake: Too much salt can lead to water retention and weight gain. You need salt for muscle contraction, but not too much. If you exercise and sweat a lot, you do need to replace lost salts.
Glycogen storage: The body turns carbohydrates from food into glycogen molecules. The body stores excess glycogen in the muscles, liver, and fat cells. Low carb intake reduces the glycogen stores, which sees dramatic weight loss from water removal.
Exercise: When you’ve exercised, you’ll have sweated out a lot of water (if you’ve trained especially hard). This will need replacing, so don’t be surprised if in the short term you gain a couple of pounds.
These 4 reasons can occur irrespective of the amount of calories you’ve consumed. So, if you’ve had a great week, hitting you protein target, your calorie target and your activity target, but have still gained weight, don’t worry about it! There could be other reasons.
Does the weight come off?
Absolutely!
What we’re interested in is the trend of weight loss, not the micro fluctuations.
Say for example you start the month weighing 200lbs, but you end the month weighing 190, we’re happy.
Whether that weight loss occurs at a steady rate, or you lose weight in week 1, gain in week 2, gain in week 3 but lose a lot in week 4 - it doesn’t matter. As long as the long term trend is downwards, the day-to-day isn’t important.
Just keep hitting your calorie targets and activity targets, then the rest will look after itself.
If you want help with your health, AdMac Fitness is the place to go!
We help people using tried and tested fitness approaches. Our expert team of personal trainers, based in both Bow and South Woodford can help you get a grip of your health and fitness. With our guidance you can see your health and fitness reach new levels!
For more information on who we are, what we do and how we can help you achieve your health and fitness goals, contact us on… 07921465108 or email us at admacfitness@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you!
Our locations are…
AdMac Fitness: Arch 457 Robeson St, London E3 4JA
AdMac Fitness South Woodford: Unit 4 Marlborough Business Centre, 96 George Lane, South Woodford, London, E18 1AD