How to read your weight accurately

Have you been worried about why your body weight particularly if your body fat keeps fluctuating? Have you found yourself blaming the weighing machine or the person who took the measurements?

Your weight can fluctuate between 0.5 kilogrammes and 2 kilogrammes in a day.

These weight fluctuations are normal. The amount of food you eat, how much water you drink, how much you exercise and how much you have gone to the bathroom can all temporarily influence your weight.

Weight training, excess carbohydrate intake, salty food intake, hormonal fluctuations and constipation affects water retention, and can temporarily make you a few kilogrammes heavier.

The extra weight that you see on the scale does not necessarily come from an increase in body fat; it can be water, waste products or other substances that are present in your body.

It takes some time for the digestive system to process food, fluids and salts consumed, and the substances that are still being processed will contribute to your weight.

If you had a big dinner the previous evening, your weight will still be up in the morning if you have not had bowel movement.

Carbohydrates from the food we consume are stored as glycogen in various places within the body — like the liver and the muscles.

The storage of glycogen in the liver does not vary too much from person to person; it ranges between 50 and 100 grammes.

On the other hand, the storage of glycogen in the muscles depends on an individual’s bodyweight, muscle mass, body fat percentage and level of activity among other factors.

Fat Percentage

Research shows that the range of muscle glycogen storage is between 350 and 750 grammes with some studies showing we can store as high as 15 grammes/ilogramme of body weight.

Each gramme of carbohydrate storage can cause your body to retain up to four times that amount in water, ultimately increasing one’s weight.

On the other hand, your body fat percentage reading is affected by the amount of water in your body.

Since the amount of water in your body is constantly fluctuating, so does the estimate of your body fat percentage.

If the amount of water in your body decreases, your estimated body fat percentage will increase and vice versa. The amount of water in your body decreases after taking a bath, sitting in a hot tub, using a sauna or after exercising. The amount of water in the body increases after eating or drinking.

Hormonal fluctuations cause the body to redistribute body fat or draw in more water, resulting in fluctuating body-fat percentages over the course of several days.

Women are particularly sensitive to these fluctuations that it is recommended you avoid measuring your body fat and weight a few days before, during and immediately after your menstrual period.

So, when you are taking your body measurements it is important to know that the time of day plays a role in irregular readings. If you weigh yourself in the morning one day and in the afternoon the next, you are more likely to get varied readings.

To minimise fluctuations, get the measurements taken at the same time, in the same environment and under the same circumstances each time.

Use other methods of assessments apart from weight and BMI like body fats percentage, waist circumference and changes in how your clothes fit.