Your scales lie to you.It's true! At the beginning of this week the scales told me I had lost over a stone (14lbs), but the very next day is said I had gained nearly 4lbs. My initial thoughts were "holy crap, what the hell have I eaten?!" However, if you think about it logically it's just not possible to gain that much fat in the space of 24hrs.
In fact, their are many reasons that could cause the scales to change their mind so wildly in such a short time. Your weight can actually vary by as much as 5 pounds (or more!) over the day depending on what is happening to your body. If you don't believe me, see for yourself; weigh yourself several times over the next day and notice the changes throughout that time.
The reason we usually we come up with for quickly gaining weight is food. If you're anything like me, you probably beat yourself up a little for eating too much bad stuff whenever you see the numbers jump up on the scale. Honestly though, one day of bad eating doesn't mean you'll instantly gain fat. It actually takes a surprisingly long time for your body to create fat. When I think about how long it took for me to gain as much fat as I have now - i.e. many years - I realise that I couldn't possibly have gained that much fat overnight.
Of course, there are many reasons that would cause a temporary weight gain. Please note the use of the word temporary - this is key! If you weigh yourself just after eating before your body has had a chance to digest the food then yes the scales will give you a higher number than perhaps expected...but that doesn't mean you've gained fat as a result of eating it. If you drink a lot of water that's probably going to make a difference, too. Also, if you happen to be experiencing any...erm..."digestive issues", that's going to add to your temporary weight increase. Looking more long term, an increase in weight could also be from an increase in muscle. There are too many reasons to list, but suffice to say a day here of there of breaking the rules isn't going to make you pile the fat on.
So although I immediately blamed this week's higher weight on my recent (and deliberate) increase in calorie consumption, there's a far more likely explanation that has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with gaining fat. The ladies will be familiar with this one...TOM. Honestly, sometimes I really hate being female. Anyway, as Mother Nature does her thing that temporarily higher scale reading has been slowly dropping again. Thanks the gods!
Next time you see a fluctuation in weight, try to use logic rather than paranoia when your scales lie to you. You'll find it much easier to keep going when you realise you haven't "failed" and you haven't grown fatter overnight. Of course I'm not great at taking my own advice so I have to keep reminding myself lol. I'll be honest, after feeling so positive while I could see my weight measurement dropping that damned number on the scale has been getting me down a bit for the entire week even though I
know I was doing all the right things. To try to raise my spirits, I ended up going to the hairdressers today and getting a new style to make me feel better about myself. Yes, it looks awesome :)
Then I remembered that dress I showed you a little while ago. Even if my scale is lying to me, if I've still been losing fat then surely a new photo would tell me the truth? Below is the original photo I showed you previously, plus a brand new photo from today featuring the same dress...can you see the difference? It's actually baggy under the arms and slightly looser around my waist. Just a little, but it means everything is still going in the right direction!
<a href="http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v180/Sheona/Food%20and%20FS/?action=view&current=2011-04-01165435-1.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v180/Sheona/Food%20and%20FS/2011-04-01165435-1.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" width=250></a> <a href="http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v180/Sheona/Food%20and%20FS/?action=view&current=2011-04-22191015.jpg" target="_blank"><img src="http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v180/Sheona/Food%20and%20FS/2011-04-22191015.jpg" border="0" alt="Photobucket" width=250></a>
Moral of the story: weight and fat are absolutely not the same thing. If your scale tells you you've gained, consider the fact that it may be lying to you. As long as you keep doing all the right things, losing fat is eventually inevitble.
PS - met all my April goals no problem again this week! :)