5 Reasons Your Weight Fluctuates 1. Food volume Even if you eat the same number of calories from one day to the next, the volume of food changes (because 500 calories worth of spinach does not not weight the same as 500 calories worth of chicken). One day you might eat 2,000 calories of food which weighs a total of 2 lbs. The next day you might eat 2,000 calories of food that weighs only 1lb. Therefore, the amount of waste product that sits in your intestines produced by digestion of this food varies daily, affecting your total body weight. 2. Salt Eat foods with a higher salt content and the next day you will be heavier. Eating salty foods make you thirsty. As a result you drink more water than normal, and your kidneys work to increase the volume of water held in the bloodstream (in order to ensure that the concentration of electrolytes remains constant). The extra water also flows from the bloodstream into other cells (such as skin cells) via the process of osmosis. This leads to ‘puffy’ looking skin – caused because of that extra water in there. When you decrease your salt intake, the reverse happens. Bodybuilders will eliminate virtually all salt from their diets in the few days before a contest in order to make their skin as flat as possible on the day, revealing the shape of their muscles underneath. 3. Exercise A bout of intense exercise can also lead to an increase in water retention. Exercise makes you hot causing sweating and the loss of salt. To prevent further dehydration your body releases an anti-diuretic hormone and the hormone aldosterone. Together these hormones help balance your fluid levels and keep saline levels normal. They can, however, can cause the body to overcompensate and hold on to too much salt, which causes 10-15% more water to be retained in your body, leading to a weight increase on the scales. 4. The ‘Whoosh’ Effect This isn’t really based on scientific fact, but a phenomenon that many people seem to experience. Your body...
Posted on: Thu, 14 Aug 2014 04:04:56 +0000
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