Clothing. Wearing clothing while weighing yourself can add up to two pounds—more if you're wearing shoes. Again, this isn't a big deal if you consistently weigh yourself wearing the same thing, but since our clothes vary with our moods and seasons, it's best to go without when you step on the scale.
Men can lop off nearly 2.5 lbs to account for their clothing while women can only subtract around 2. And this holds true, unfortunately, no matter what the weather outside.
The Right Way to Weigh In
Use your scale every morning after you empty your bladder (and before you eat or drink anything), wearing as little clothing as possible. Because you lose water weight overnight, you'll get a lower number, too. Place your scale on a hard, even surface—no carpeting.
Why does my weight fluctuate so much? “Everyone's weight fluctuates throughout the day, and especially from morning to night,” says dietitian Anne Danahy, MS, RDN. “The average change is 2 to 5 pounds, and it's due to fluid shifts throughout the day.” If you see fluctuations of less than 5 pounds, you needn't worry.
In fact, there are days when my weight increases by 1-2kg by the end of the day!" Since most of us can't eat so much in a day or two that we actually gain a couple of kilos a day, a dramatic increase in weight could be due to water retention.
Clothing. Wearing clothing while weighing yourself can add up to two pounds—more if you're wearing shoes. Again, this isn't a big deal if you consistently weigh yourself wearing the same thing, but since our clothes vary with our moods and seasons, it's best to go without when you step on the scale.
The 2 kg that you gain right after a huge dinner is not fat. It's the actual weight of everything you've had to eat and drink. The added weight of the meal will be gone several hours later when you've finished digesting it.
That's because each brand of scale may have different calibrations, and some scales may be synchronized for your own body type or BMI. If they're good scales, they'll probably get an accurate reading that's very close to your correct body weight.
A person should avoid weighing themselves at gyms, health clubs, and other fitness facilities. Although the scales may be accurate, there are more variables that are hard to control, such as the time of the day, activity level, and clothing choices.
“Your skin is the largest organ in the body and absorbs fluid easily,” says Dr. Keith Kantor, a leading nutritionist and CEO of the Nutritional Addiction Mitigation Eating and Drinking (NAMED) program. “After a swim or a shower, your body can absorb 1 to 3 cups of water, increasing your true weight by a few pounds.”
While it's a myth that muscle weighs more than fat—after all, a pound is a pound—it is denser, which means it takes up less space in the body. This may explain why you look slimmer but the scale hasn't budged. Water weight could also be a factor, according to strength and conditioning coach Brandon Mentore.
Digital scales can easily be manipulated. Stick a jug of water or something the weight you need to lose from your actual weight on the scales and let them calibrate to zero with that on them. Then stand on the scales, remove the heavy item and voila. You appear to have lost 3–4 pounds.
When you hit the lowest weight on the scale you will ever hit, that is an artificially low weight. You are probably running low on muscle glycogen and you are probably a bit dehydrated. Your actual true lowest body weight when it isn't depleted is probably a few pounds heavier.
You'll get the most accurate reading from your scale if you weigh yourself first thing in the morning after using the restroom and before your breakfast or first chug of water.
That's because, over time, the wear and tear of regular use can cause a scale to lose its accuracy. If you've recently moved your scale or notice that it's not performing within its allowable tolerance, then it should be calibrated. If you have test weights, check that the calibration is within tolerance.
#1 Every time a digital scale is moved it needs to be calibrated. Initializing the scale resets the internal parts allowing the scale to find the correct “zero” weight and ensure accurate readings. If the scale is moved and you do NOT calibrate it, you are likely to see fluctuations in your weight.
“Most of the time, weight fluctuations are due to water retention in the body,” she adds.
So, if you want to lose 5 kg (which is equivalent to 11 pounds) in one week, you would need to create a calorie deficit of 38,500 calories over that week. This means that you would need to burn or cut 5,500 calories per day in order to achieve this level of weight loss.
To gain that much weight, you'd have to consume 7700 calories more than you burned. Being the average person should eat about 2000 calories and most probably eat about 2500, you'd have to eat about 4–5 times as much as normal to gain that kind of weight in a day.
It's possible to gain muscle and reduce body fat without actually seeing a change in your weight. This happens when you lose body fat while gaining muscle. Your weight may stay the same, even as you lose inches, a sign that you're moving in the right direction.
Wear as little clothing as possible when you weigh yourself, and try to wear the same or similar clothing each time you weigh in. Put your scale on a hard, flat surface, as a scale on an uneven surface won't read correctly.
How Much Does Your Weight Fluctuate From Morning to Night? Weight-loss statistics show on average, daily weight can fluctuate from 1 to 2 kilograms (2.2 to 4.4 pounds), per a July 2017 article in Physiological Reports.