Why Does My Weight Fluctuate Daily? Scale Mindset Tips

Nikkiey: The scale is one of the biggest mental roadblocks when it comes to anyone's fitness journey. The scale can change by several pounds on a daily basis, overnight, and for so many reasons that have nothing to do with actual fat gain. When you step on the scale and you see a higher number, instead of freaking out, just ask yourself these questions: Did I eat more carbs, or did I have more salt yesterday? Am I close to my period? Have I had a bowel movement yet today?

What's going on, you guys? Hey, everyone. Welcome back to The WarriorBabe Show with Nikkiey Stott, co-founder of WarriorBabe. On this podcast, we talk about mindset, methodologies and tactics that will help you lose body fat, build muscle, be strong and feel insanely confident. I'm your host, Nikkiey Stott, and welcome to today's episode, episode number 245.

Before we even get into today's episode and the topic I want to talk to you about, I just want to say that I'm excited to be back here recording a fresh new episode for you. Over the last couple of weeks I've been doing tons and tons of traveling, so we've been sharing a lot of the WarriorBabe success interviews, because I got behind on recording new episodes, and we used those as fillers. But I'm excited to be back here and bring you a fresh new one. Today we're going to talk about how the scale isn't the problem. It's more your mindset around it.

I feel like the scale is one of the biggest mental roadblocks when it comes to anyone's fitness journey. I've heard it time and time and time again. If the scale is going up or down, people take it to mean they're doing good or bad on their journey. If it goes down, it means they're winning. If it goes up, they feel frustrated. How many of you have stepped on the scale, seen a number you didn't like, and immediately felt like you failed, or like your hard work wasn't paying off, or like now you need to eat less and do more cardio, or maybe you just wanted to quit altogether?

Or vice versa. If you see the number go down, it's like, sweet, I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing. I'm going to keep following this plan. I'm going to keep showing up. I'm motivated to go do my workout today, right? You have an emotional roller coaster tied to that number. If it goes up, you feel a certain way. If it goes down, you feel a certain way. Like I said, I see it all the time. People let that single number dictate their mood, their self-worth and their commitment to their fitness goals.

But here's the truth, you guys. The scale doesn't have to be the enemy. The problem is how you're using it and what you're making that number mean. So in today's episode I want to talk about why the scale fluctuates daily and why most of that isn't related to any type of fat gain. If you see the scale go up three or five pounds, it doesn't mean you just gained three or five pounds of fat. And vice versa, if the scale went down three to five pounds, it doesn't mean you lost three to five pounds of fat.

I'm going to talk about why, so you can understand the behind the scenes of why that number fluctuates on a daily basis. I want to talk about how to shift your mindset and stop giving the scale so much freaking power. Here's a little preview of what I'm going to talk about: if you continue to give it so much power, you're letting that number write the whole story of your journey, and your journey is so much more than the number on the scale. Then I want to give you some tactics, better ways to track progress beyond just stepping on the scale.

And how to use the scale as a tool so it's not going to kill your mood. Because that's exactly what it is. It is a tool in your fitness journey, and that is it. So if you've felt any of the ways I just talked about, I hope this episode resonates with you. I want to get right into talking about how the weight you see on the scale is not just a reflection of your body fat.

It's not a reflection of "I'm gaining fat" or "I'm losing fat." The scale can change by several pounds on a daily basis, overnight, for so many reasons that have nothing to do with actual fat gain. So first I want to dive into why it fluctuates on a daily basis, and hopefully you can see that it's not that you're gaining fat or gaining weight. Maybe you already know this, and this is just a refresher along your journey. Maybe you've been in the game for five years, eight years, and you had a season of knowing this.

You stepped off the scale and you weren't using it to solely measure your progress. But maybe you've stepped back on because you're going into a cut and you want to see some progress via the scale. I hope this is a reminder that if you see it fluctuate on a daily basis, it doesn't mean you're gaining or losing fat. It could be for several other reasons. One is water retention. Think about the day prior. If you ate more carbs or had more sodium than usual, your body is going to hold on to extra water.

And that isn't fat. It's just temporary water weight, and it will balance out in a day or two. Even sugar can do the same thing. Your body is just holding on to more water, and it's not fat. Another reason could be your hormones. As women, we fluctuate several pounds throughout our cycle, because of the hormones shifting in our body during our cycle. If you're approaching your period, I always used to say this to clients.

With the ones we were trying to build a better mindset with around the scale, I would always say, the week before you get your period, let's just not weigh ourselves that week. Let's go bi-weekly at that point, because it's almost guaranteed. Now I have clients who just say, "Yeah, Nikkiey, I'm starting my period this week," because they know that when they approach their period, or they're in that last phase, the luteal phase of their cycle, the scale is going to increase.

I don't even want to say gaining weight. The scale is going to increase. So expect the increase in weight from water retention, and again, that's from your hormones shifting. Another thing to think about, and we're going to talk about poop on this podcast right now, is digestion and your bowel movements. If you haven't gone to the bathroom yet, you're literally weighing undigested food. So I always tell people: never, ever, ever weigh yourself at night. First of all, the scale is going to be higher.

You're going to have a higher number, especially if you weighed yourself in the morning and then again at night on the same day. You're going to be like, why did I gain five to ten pounds? It's because you're literally weighing undigested food. You're weighing all the food you consumed, the water you consumed, the sodium and the carbs and all the things throughout the day. Of course the number is going to go up. A higher weight on the scale doesn't mean, again, that you gained fat. It just means you need to digest this food, speaking to the bowel movements, and you need to poop. And I bet you, after you go to the bathroom and weigh yourself again, you're going to see that the scale has gone down a little bit.

That's because you just pushed out the digested food. So keep all of this in mind. Water retention. Your hormones shifting, which increases the scale from water retention as well. Sodium, carbs, sugar, all of those things cause temporary weight gain. Not pooping and then weighing yourself gives you a higher number on the scale. It doesn't mean that's fat. And the last thing is muscle soreness. I always remember when I did leg day and back day,

and then weighed myself the next day, the scale always increased. That's because I had an intense workout, and when you have an intense workout, your muscles hold on to water to help repair them. So the more sore you are, the more likely your weight will be temporarily higher. Keep all these things in mind, especially if you're new to the fitness space, you're just starting out on this journey, you're so attached to the scale and you're wondering why it fluctuates so much. Here are the answers. And as a reminder, if you're going into a cut and you're experiencing one of these four things,

or even other things, the number on the scale alone isn't telling you the full story. So the major takeaway from the fluctuations you may experience on a daily basis is that your weight is going to fluctuate two to five pounds in a single day. It can, and it will, and it has nothing to do with actual fat gain. So when you step on the scale and you see a higher number, instead of freaking out, just ask yourself these questions: Did I eat more carbs? Did I have more salt yesterday?

Am I close to my period? Am I super sore from a workout, or just sore from a workout in general? Have I had a bowel movement yet today? Keep these in mind, because when you start seeing the scale as data, not emotion, which is exactly what it can get roped up in, it changes things. Like I was saying earlier, if it's higher or lower, you have an emotional response to it. If you can see the scale as data, it stops having power over you.

Basically, you have power over it, because you can ask yourself deeper questions. When you see it increase slightly, or if there's any type of negative emotion attached to it, you can ask yourself the questions I just said, and it will bring you back to center so it doesn't have to ruin the rest of your day. Now, to those points, next I want to talk about your mindset. The problem isn't the scale itself. It's not the device. It's how you're interpreting the number. Hey, while you're listening, if you're getting value from this episode,

take a moment to tap that review button or share this podcast with a friend. It's a small gesture that goes a long way in helping more women find their way to feeling stronger and more confident in their skin. I appreciate you so much for taking the time to support this show. So many people use the scale as a mood check instead of a data point. As I was just saying, if the number goes down, they feel amazing. If the number goes up, they spiral into self-doubt, restriction and frustration. I'm going to give up. I'm going to fail. This isn't working. But here's the thing.

Your weight doesn't define your progress. That number on the scale does not tell you the whole story. It doesn't define your worth. It's just one piece of the puzzle along your fitness journey. So I want to challenge you to ask yourself this: would you throw away your entire plan just because your progress photos look off one day? This is a shift, to start seeing the scale as a tool and not as a judge. And you should take pictures, because pictures are going to

tell you so much more than the scale is going to tell you. I've seen people lose only three pounds on the scale, yet their photos look drastically different. So if you're experiencing those emotions, ask yourself: would you throw away your entire plan just because your progress photos looked off for a day? Would you quit strength training just because you had a bad workout? Of course not. So why would you let the scale, and the number it's showing you, derail you?

Instead, I want you to detach yourself emotionally from that number, which is a lot easier said than done, because in that moment you have to catch the emotion you're experiencing and be able to course correct it. That's not easy for everyone, especially when the scale has had so much control over you for a long period of time, which it has for a lot of you listening to this podcast. But now that I'm bringing it to your awareness, the next time you step on the scale I want you to be able to tap in and ask, am I having an emotional reaction to this?

Or can I just look at it as data, like tracking my workouts or my macros? Because that's exactly what you need to do to switch your mindset and start changing the narrative. If you're someone who weighs yourself daily and it messes with your head, stop doing that. This is where working with a coach is so valuable, because you may not be able to see the emotional attachment you have, remove yourself from the situation and look at it from a 30,000-foot view. But a coach can say, "Oh, I see that this is triggering

you in some way." From the coach's standpoint, if you're constantly bringing it up, you're constantly frustrated about it, you're constantly X, Y and Z, we're going to be able to read that in you and say, all right, can we make a plan moving forward where you only weigh yourself every week, or every other week, or three times a week, or maybe once a month, whatever you need. That's why a coach is so solid, because they're going to say, this is how we're going

to navigate this together. And then you're going to focus on other progress markers instead. So those are two things I think are really important to identify. One, again, it's just data, so in the moment, can you emotionally detach yourself from the number? And two, figuring out what's going to best support you: whether you should weigh weekly, every other week, or once a month. And I want you to ask yourself: is the scale the only thing that defines my progress? Ask yourself that right now.

What's the answer? As you're listening to me say it: is the scale the only thing that defines my progress? The answer should be no, because the answer is no. That's why, if it's stressing you out, I want you to shift your focus to other ways to measure progress that actually show long-term changes. First and foremost, progress photos, hands down. And look, I understand, it's uncomfortable, but it's a form of accountability. You take pictures on day one, and then you can see the changes

six months later, because there are going to be some pretty cool changes if you've been consistent with your plan. The scale doesn't show you body composition changes. It's literally you versus gravity on that scale, and that's it. The scale doesn't know your muscle mass, unless you have a fancy scale. It's just a number. It doesn't know your bone mass. It doesn't know your muscle mass. It only knows you against gravity and how much you weigh. It doesn't show you body composition changes like photos do. And again, this is where, if you work with a coach, they can

help you figure out what fits best for you, in case taking pictures weekly is too much. You can do it every two weeks, or you can do it once a month. I would say every two weeks, because you're going to be able to see some changes over the course of a four-week or six-week period, from day one to week six. When you're taking these photos, you guys, make sure you're in the same lighting, the same conditions, around the same time of day, wearing the same things. First thing in the morning. Those are some of the ideal conditions to take the pictures

under. Another thing you can measure outside of the scale is your measurements. Sometimes your weight is going to stay the same, but your waist, your hips and your arms are going to start shrinking, or they're going to start getting more defined as well, which is going to be noticeable in the photos. If the scale isn't moving but your inches are going down, then you're making progress. So measurements are another really good one. Another way to measure without the scale is how your clothes fit. If you're taking your pictures in the same clothes you

started with at the beginning of your journey, then those clothes should be getting looser or feeling a little bit different as you continue to take your progress photos. If your jeans feel looser or your sports bra isn't as tight, that's real progress. If you go shopping, and I love hearing this from WarriorBabes, and you end up getting a pant size smaller, then that's progress, and continuing to go down pant sizes. And let me tell you again, I said this earlier: somebody could only lose three to five

pounds, yet they could be down five dress sizes, or they could look drastically different in their photos. Okay. And then a few other things: can you lift heavier? Are you running faster? Are you feeling stronger in your workouts? Those improvements mean your body is changing in ways the scale is not going to show you. How's your energy? How's your confidence? Are you sleeping better? Are you able to focus more on tasks throughout the day? Are you feeling more confident in your body? Those are things you should be paying attention to.

Either you use no scale and focus on all the things I just said, or you focus on all those things and you also use the scale. But first you have to get past the emotional barrier the scale has on you. If you can see it as just data, then you're winning. If you're not quite there yet, then just focus on those ways you can track your progress outside of the scale. Okay. And if you want to know about me, I actually haven't weighed myself in I don't know how many months. I don't look at it like that anymore.

I see myself in the mirror, and I can see progress that way, and what I need to change or switch up or incorporate, or whether I'm doing the right thing and should keep doing the same things. That's totally the way I track my progress, and maybe an InBody here and there. But it took me maybe three or four years to really get past the emotional barrier with the scale, especially from when

I was competing. Now I can, and I've gotten clients and a lot of our WarriorBabes to understand, that it is just a tool and you can use it without feeling frustrated. If you do want to use a scale and incorporate it into all the ways you track your progress, then the right way to do it is, one, to weigh yourself at the same time, as I said, under the same conditions: morning, after the bathroom, before food or water, wearing the same thing. The second way I would do it is if you're at the point where you recognize

that you don't have an emotional attachment to it and you see it as just a tool and data. What's really cool is you can weigh yourself daily but track weekly averages instead of daily fluctuations. If you weigh yourself seven days a week and average them out, you can see whether there's a decline, whether you're staying steady, or maybe you're increasing and you know you need to make some changes. That's a data point. Okay. And then you're using the scale as one data point, not your only measure of success.

I've had clients who understand that this is just a tool, and they've gained some really cool insight by tracking their weight daily and seeing how much they fluctuate, and when in the month they fluctuate, like when they start their period. They bring more awareness to the number and the data point rather than having an emotional charge, because they're weighing themselves throughout the month and it's different every single time. And what I'll say about only weighing yourself once a week is, if that's what you need

to do to create a better relationship with the scale, then that's the most important thing. But if you're only weighing yourself once a week, you could be weighing in, say on a Saturday, during a fluctuation at a high. Does that make sense? Say each week you weigh in on Saturday, but on Fridays maybe you go out with friends, or you have a cheat meal, or you overeat that day, or X, Y and Z, or it's leg day. With all the things I said earlier, you could be weighing in the next day at a higher

daily fluctuation. So weighing in once a week can skew your average. If you're learning to build a better relationship with the scale, I would do it bi-weekly. That's what I would recommend. But what's cool, like I said, is that when you weigh yourself every single day, you can see when the daily fluctuations happen, and you take the weekly averages over the course of time. But as I was saying, you guys, if the scale ruins your day or if it's dictating your

self-worth, take a break from it, because there are plenty of other ways to measure your progress. So the bottom line of this episode is that the scale isn't the problem. I want you to have a better mindset around it, and I'm hoping you can gain that from this episode. Knowing that it's a data point. It is emotional for some of you, and I want to honor that. But build the self-awareness, when you step on the scale, to see it differently and ask those questions I mentioned earlier: Did I have a little bit more carbs

yesterday? Did I eat more sodium? Is it my period? Did I poop today? All of those things can make it more of a data point for you, and that can start shifting the narrative. And there are way better ways to track real, lasting change: progress photos, measurements, how you're feeling in the gym, whether your clothes are fitting better. If the scale is stressing you out, please put it away. Please put it away and start tracking in other ways. All right, you guys. If this podcast helped shift your perspective, or if some light bulbs went off and

you feel better about how to navigate the scale situation, all I ask is that you share this episode with a friend who also needs to hear it, because a lot of people are still struggling with the scale. It's one of the biggest things I feel gets in the way of someone having an awesome fitness journey. All right. I hope you enjoyed this episode, and I will see you in the next one. Peace out. Real quick: if this episode resonated with you or gave you the push you needed, I'd love for

you to pay it forward. Drop a quick rating and review, share the podcast with someone who might need it, and help me keep spreading the word. Your feedback not only helps the show grow, but it might just be the nudge someone else needs to kickstart their transformation. Thank you so, so much for your support.