Impossible weight fluctuations.

[spangles]

When I awoke this morning, after going to the loo, I hopped on my bathroom scales (mechanical). I can't see the exact dividing lines with my ageing eyesight, but I get a decent idea, and they act as a check to the accuracy of my other scales.

Anyway, they were reading a 3lb drop - down to 12st 4lbs. Very welcome after two weeks' standing still at 12st 7lbs. So I went into the living room to confirm it on my digi scales. Yup. 12st 4lbs - let joy be unconfined. I woke up my husband to tell him, had 250mls of water and then went back to sleep a happy bunny.

Woke up about 3 hrs later, had a big wee, ad then jumped on the scales again to double check. Now they were back to yesterday's 12st 7lb reading. Went to check on the digi scales again. Yup. 12st 7lbs.

Now 250mls of water weighs a whisker over half a pound, and anyway, i had an enormous wee before i weighed again. So wtf happened there? Did i breathe heavy air?

This is not a first. When I was a slimfast dieter in my twenties, i used to weigh last thing at night and first thing in the morning - and would occasionally find that i had gained weight overnight, even though i'd eaten and drunk absolutely nothing.

My husband told me it's completely impossible, despite it obviously actually happening, so i'm narked off with him.

But wha' g'wan?

 

[spangles]

Just ftr, i'm not upset - upwards fluctuations are a part of frequent weighing and represent a more accurate and complete dataset. The answer to this thread is not 'weigh less often'... i just want a physical explanation of how it can be possible.

 

[Jennifer89]

Ay, ive also nptoced fluctuantions when ibe eatn/drunk nothing. Wud be interestion to know the "why"s. X

 

[Lily]

The Moon's in Uranus?

LOL, how is that possible?

I've often joked that there's something up with the gravitational force in my kitchen (the place where I go and weigh myself in the morning). Maybe there is...

{{hums theme to the Twilight Zone}}

 

[Lily]

Huh. It's a Wiki article, so maybe not 100% accurate. But spring scales are affected by differences in the local gravity, which can vary by almost 0.5% at different locations on Earth. Is it me, or is 0.5% rather a lot?

Weighing scale - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Or could it be the moon? I was joking before, but...

Ah well. Another reason not to take too much notice of what your scales say on a day to day basis, then!

 

[spangles]

well, 0.5% would be 1lb on a 200lb person, but i assume you'd be looking at stronger environmental factors than the difference between my flat and somewhere else in my flat...

but it isn't that - cos both sets of scales agreed with each other... so maybe the whole atmospheric pressure etc in london changed during those three hours?

 

[Lily]

well, 0.5% would be 1lb on a 200lb person, but i assume you'd be looking at stronger environmental factors than the difference between my flat and somewhere else in my flat...

but it isn't that - cos both sets of scales agreed with each other... so maybe the whole atmospheric pressure etc in london changed during those three hours?

Spooky. Someone should tell NASA!

 

[Lily]

well, 0.5% would be 1lb on a 200lb person, but i assume you'd be looking at stronger environmental factors than the difference between my flat and somewhere else in my flat...

Is that all? LOL, I couldn't get my brain to work it out. Gravity has an accelerational pull of 9.8 m/s/s - so a 0.5% shift would increase that by... 0.049 m/s/s... erm... :8855:

but it isn't that - cos both sets of scales agreed with each other... so maybe the whole atmospheric pressure etc in london changed during those three hours?

Spooky. Someone should tell NASA!

 

[Lily]

Bit of fun - see how much you'd weigh on a different planet.

Your Weight on Other Worlds | Exploratorium

 

[wanttobeslim!]

That's weird- I'm sure once my coffee kicks in I'll figure it out!!!!