5 reasons why the weight on the scale may fluctuate

Many of us know this situation. Every time we look at the Scale and look down at the display, we are struck and rack our brains as to why there are suddenly three kilograms more on the display. It can't be the workout. And it can't be the diet either, because every calorie is meticulously recorded, just like the daily calorie consumption. But before you go crazy and doubt your training or nutrition concept, we want to give you five reasons why your weight fluctuates on the scale.

Reason 1 - An imbalance in the sodium/water balance.

Your salt consumption has a significant influence on the water content of your body. This is primarily because the sodium it contains binds water to itself and transports it into your cells. So if you consume more salt than usual, your body will temporarily bind more water to restore the normal sodium concentration in your body. This can result in weight gain of up to 1.5 kilograms, according to a study published in the British Journal of Nutrition. But before you completely slash your salt intake, know this: Sodium has many essential roles in the body. These include maintaining blood volume, regulating nerve and brain functions, and controlling muscle contraction. You should therefore make sure that your daily sodium consumption is between 1,500 and 2,300 milligrams. This is especially important due to the fact that you lose enormous amounts of sodium through sweat during exercise. For example, if you sweat heavily during a 60-minute workout in the summer, you will lose a good 1,000 milligrams of sodium in addition to a liter of water. You need to compensate for this loss in any case in order to get your electrolyte content in the blood back into balance. The bottom line is that you can detect such fluctuations on the scale if they occur after consuming very salty foods. However, these fluctuations balance out over the course of a few days.

Reason 2 - Your intestine is still full to the brim

A very mundane reason that you may not immediately think of is a bowel still bulging with the leftover food from the last time you ate. So if you've eaten a very large meal recently or haven't had a bowel movement in the past 24 hours, you can be pretty sure that the weight increase is due to a full bowel. Accordingly, you should always create equal conditions when weighing so that the results are really comparable. It is highly recommended to weigh yourself regularly after the morning toilet in an empty state. If you often have digestive problems that cause irregular bowel movements, you can counteract this with sufficient fiber intake. The ideal is 25-40 grams of fiber per day. This softens the stool and can have other benefits as well. Among them is the stabilization of blood sugar levels.

Reason 3 - The carbohydrate stores are full

If you have eaten more carbohydrates than usual or significantly more carbohydrates than on the day you last weighed yourself, sudden weight gain is usually due to these extra carbohydrates. These extra carbohydrates are stored in the form of glycogen in the liver and muscles. Depending on how muscular you are, between 400 and 600 grams of carbohydrates are stored in skeletal muscle alone. Especially in the case of muscle glycogen, however, the end of the line has not yet been reached, especially since each gram of muscle glycogen binds 3-4 grams of water to itself. If you multiply the capacity of your muscle glycogen stores with the amount of water that the glycogen binds to itself, you come to a proud weight of 1,600 to 2,400 grams. Since the state of charge of our carbohydrate stores fluctuates just like the state of charge of our smartphones, for reasons of comparability of the result on the display, the rule applies again that you weigh yourself at fixed times and only compare these results.

Reason 4 - Your hormones annoy you

Your hormones can also have a strong influence on the development of your weight. This concerns cortisol, for example. If your cortisol level is elevated, this leads, among other things, to a higher storage of sodium, which, as we mentioned at the beginning, again leads to water retention. A high estrogen level can have a similar effect, because this hormone also tends to attract water like light attracts moths. This is also the reason why your weight can fluctuate by up to 2.5 kilograms during your menstrual cycle. So don't go crazy, because at the latest when you monitor your weight over several months at the same times of day, you will recognize these systematic fluctuations and deal with them much more calmly.

Reason 5 - Your body recovers from a hard workout

Did you know that a very intense workout leads to a short-term weight gain? Sounds paradoxical, doesn't it? But it's not, because the hard workout causes small painful tears in the muscle fibers, which are certainly better known to you as muscle soreness. These micro-injuries become inflamed, causing both pain and water retention between individual muscle cells. These swellings accordingly store water in the muscles until the soreness subsides. Depending on how hard your workout was, this condition lasts between three and four days. A study published in 2003 in The Journal of Strength & Conditioning Research even demonstrated a duration of up to 10 days for very intense workouts. So if you're sore, expect to weigh more when you step on the scale. However, the issue will take care of itself after a short time.

Conclusion

Even though weight gain may make you foxy, in return, it doesn't make sense for you to make artificial efforts to block out these factors. As long as you stick to your training and nutrition plan, everything will usually go as planned. In addition to monitoring your progress, use strength and power readings, a skinfold caliper to measure body fat, or simply your mirror, because the scale usually only tells you half the truth.