Newbie: How to know my starting weight when my weight fluctuates?

[nidavellir]

Hello! Newbie here My name is Nida, I'm 21, 5"4, and currently doing a research master in the Netherlands. In lockdown I was slacking with my diet & exercise and I gained a little weight, which I now would like to lose again to feel just that extra bit confident. Only, after weighing myself a couple of times, I've realized that I have no idea what my starting weight is because my weight fluctuates quite a bit. I also don't know what I weighed exactly before the bit of extra weight, so I wouldn't know what number would make sense. So basically, I don't know my weight.

I always weigh myself in the morning before breakfast, but still I was 54kg (119 pounds) one morning, and then 56 (123 pounds) for a couple of days. A while later I'm 54 again, and now I have no idea if that's weight loss (because 56kg was my starting weight and the 54 was just a weird fluke) or stagnation (because 54kg was my starting weight and the 56 was just a weird fluke). Mainly, I'm a little confused as to how I'm supposed to track progress when I have no idea what my 'real' starting weight is. I hope this makes sense- any tips for how to deal with this?
Thanks!

 

[Llama]

Hi Nida, and welcome to the forum! It´s normal for your weight to fluctuate depending on hormones. water and sodium intake, gut filling, sodium, muscle soreness, and probably other things I´m not currently thinking of. You´re never going to get a perfect measurement from the scale. And in the end it doesn´t really matter what you weigh on any given morning as long as your average weight (averaging out over a week, for example) is a healthy one. Which, if you don´t mind me saying so, yours is at 5 foot 4 and 54 kg. A BMI of 20 point something? You´re clearly not doing this because you´re obese and need to lose weight for health reasons. So why focus on scale weight? You could compare waist measurements, 100 m sprint time, the fit of your favorite jeans, or whatever you´re really interested in.

 

[Cate]

Hi, Nida & welcome to the forum. It really doesn't matter what weight you start at. Just pick one. As LaMa says at what seems like a healthy weight anyway it might be best to find a different target. Measure yourself maybe?

 

[nidavellir]

Hi Nida, and welcome to the forum! It´s normal for your weight to fluctuate depending on hormones. water and sodium intake, gut filling, sodium, muscle soreness, and probably other things I´m not currently thinking of. You´re never going to get a perfect measurement from the scale. And in the end it doesn´t really matter what you weigh on any given morning as long as your average weight (averaging out over a week, for example) is a healthy one. Which, if you don´t mind me saying so, yours is at 5 foot 4 and 54 kg. A BMI of 20 point something? You´re clearly not doing this because you´re obese and need to lose weight for health reasons. So why focus on scale weight? You could compare waist measurements, 100 m sprint time, the fit of your favorite jeans, or whatever you´re really interested in.

Hey, thanks for the nice and positive reply Yeah definitely, I am nowhere near overweight- I am just naturally on the thin side and it did not feel great for me to gain some weight during lockdown, so I guessed that focusing on the scale would be the easiest way to lose it again. Focusing on measurements & performance seems like a good idea, thanks!

 

[nidavellir]

Hi, Nida & welcome to the forum. It really doesn't matter what weight you start at. Just pick one. As LaMa says at what seems like a healthy weight anyway it might be best to find a different target. Measure yourself maybe?

Hey! Thanks for your reply and for the tip. I think I'll be weighing myself occasionally just to see how it goes, but I'll definitely be trying measurements as well from now on!

 

[alligatorob]

Hey Nada, welcome!

As the others say weight fluctuations are quite normal and can be for a variety of reasons that have nothing to do with fat gain or loss. Can also be frustrating...

What I do is weigh myself quite often, over time I have found it helps me better understand the fluctuations and what any given weighin means or doesn't. There is a thread you could look at and see where folks here weigh frequently and talk about it Weigh Yourself Everyday Club You could try posting your weight there for a while and see if it helps.

Best of luck to you!