7 Reasons Your Scale Spiked Up (& How To Fix It!)

So your scale spiked up and you're freaking out because you think you gained fat, ruined all your progress, and you might as well quit. You're also probably ready to throw this thing out the window. I want you to hold off on that just for now because I'm gonna explain the 7 reasons why your scale spiked up. So at the very least, you can understand why. You still might be a little bit ticked off, but you won't be so emotional and not freak out as much, and you will keep going on your journey. And if you still want to throw it out of the window at the end of this video, Fine, you can do it. The first reason is actually because something most people don't know about: when you have a hard workout, your body is going to actually store more water weight. And here's why: when you work out hard, you break down your muscle tissue, your muscle fibers. When you break down your muscle fibers, there is inflammation inside of your muscles. With this inflammation comes along with some short-term Water weight. So if you have like a super hard leg day, for example, and you wake up the next morning and your scale has spiked up, that is actually quite normal. And it's almost a sign that you like killed that workout and did a really good job because otherwise your muscles wouldn't be as sore. You wouldn't have as much inflammation in your muscles. On top of the fact that especially when you're doing like a leg day, for example, your leg muscles, your quads, your glutes, your hamstrings are bigger, muscles. So they are going to store more inflammation and store more water weight than let's say your biceps or your shoulders or something like that. So if you do find you went pretty hard in your workout, your scale spiked up, that is normal. I'm also going to throw in here, if you are newer to following a real strength training program, so not just like Beachbody, Orangetheory, that sort of stuff. I'm not— nothing inherently wrong with that, but they're just not A real strength program. So if you are new to following a real strength program, you kind of just started getting into the mix of things, your muscles are going to store more of something called glycogen. Just think of glycogen as energy for your muscles. So now that you're lifting weights and pushing your muscles and doing all these things, your body needs to store more of this glycogen so it's ready for the workouts that you are doing. This is also going to lead to some short-term water weight retention as well. So if you combine these 2 things, you're easily— the scale could easily spike up 2, 3, 4 pounds in one day just from your workouts. And again, you didn't gain fat from this. It's just water weight. The second reason, everybody's favorite word, or it should be your favorite word, carbohydrates. When you eat carbohydrates, for every 1 gram of carb that you eat, your body is going to store 3 to 5 grams of water weight. And so if let's just say for example, maybe you went out to eat, maybe you're on vacation, maybe you, you know, just had more carbohydrates than usual. If let's say you had 150 to 250 extra grams of carbs than what you normally do, which by the way isn't really hard to do, your scale could spike up anywhere between that like 2 to 3 pounds just because you are storing more water weight. Remember what I talked about with the glycogen in your muscles? When you eat more carbs, your body stores those carbs via glycogen In your muscles. And actually, this is probably why if you ever had a day where maybe you thought you like ate a little bit more, the next day or the next workout that you do, you probably have a really good workout. That's because you're storing extra glycogen in your muscles, which means you can push harder, push closer to failure, lift heavier, have more energy. But again, this will make that number on the scale spike up, especially in combination with number 3. And this is especially the case if, you know, maybe you're going out to eat, maybe you are, you know, maybe eating some home-cooked food from your family members or friends or whoever. When you eat more sodium, you are also going to increase your stored water weight. This is not a bad thing. I wanna make this very clear. A lot of people are like afraid of eating sodium. You should not be afraid of eating sodium because sodium is one of the main electrolytes in your body. People often think about being hydrated and drinking water, which is fine, but if you are drinking so much water and not replacing your electrolytes, especially sodium, you're actually going to dehydrate yourself a lot more. This is why you might have heard people like putting salt in their water or that sort of stuff. It's actually— again, I'm not a doctor and you can always check with your doctor, but that's how you can actually make sure your electrolytes are going to be replenished. But nonetheless, if you're currently, let's say you're currently, your body is used to 2,500 milligrams of sodium per day. And just for the record, I don't really recommend you track how much sodium you intake unless you are making sure that you are getting enough electrolytes during your day. So you can do it for that reason. And I'll tell you how much sodium per day you should be consuming. But let's just say you're used to 2,500 and one day you have 3,500 or 4,000 milligrams of sodium. Your body can easily spike up 1 to 3 pounds of water weight just from that right there. And so again, if let's just say, for example, you combine a hard workout and then you went out to eat and had more carbs and had more sodium, between just these 3 things combined, you could easily spike up 3 to 6 pounds on the scale just from these 3 things alone. We haven't even gotten into point 4, point 5, point 6, and 7 yet. So And really quickly, how much sodium is normal for most people to have? Depending on the individual, anywhere between 2,000 to 5,000 milligrams per day. Again, this is very person dependent, and please go ahead and check with your doctor to make sure, um, you know, if you have hypertension, those sort of things, always check with your doctor. Just a general range. Now, number 4 is going to be for my ladies in particular. And so during your period, during that time of the month for you, You probably know this, but you are going to be more bloated and you are going to be storing some extra water weight. You have a uterus. I don't know what else to tell you. You are going to be more bloated. You're going to store more water weight during this period of time. Again, you probably know that, but just like being reassured that like when your scale spikes up 2, 3, 4, 5, 8 pounds— and just really quickly, I have coached, I'd say, predominantly women in my career. Um, I'd say 70%, 75% women. I have seen with nothing else, no other changes, like not even including this right here, I've seen people spike up anywhere between 4 to 10 pounds due to a woman being on her time of the month, uh, being on her period, right? That is like— I've seen that over and over. So if you— if this is happening to you, I know it can be very discouraging to be super on point, be dialed in, Hitting your calories, hitting your macros, but then seeing the scale spike up 6 pounds because you're on your period. But remember, it's just water weight. And I'm not saying you have to do this, and I can talk about this in a second as well, but if during that week you still ate in a calorie deficit, after the water weight is gone, you would still be losing fat during that week even if the number on the scale spikes up. Remember that. If you are in your calorie deficit, you're— you can still lose body fat that week. And after the water weight's gone, you would find the scale go down not only to what it was before it spiked up, but then even beyond that. Now, I don't necessarily think you have to stick to your calories during that period of time. You know, every woman is different that I have worked with at least. And so find what works best for you. I have found that maybe just increasing 200 to 400 to 500 calories during those couple of days where you might get incredibly hungry can be beneficial for you. But again, that will— that is up to you. I will leave that up to you to decide. But know it's normal when your scale spikes up. Now the 5th one is also something most people don't think about or know about, and that is going to be one of the most important things in your life, which is sleep. And the reason your scale would spike up if you don't get as good of sleep or if you don't get as long of sleep as you normally do. The first one is if you're not getting good quality sleep, then 2 things aren't going to happen. Number one, you're not going to be able to— your body won't be able to do its digestive, uh, its digestive process as well as it normally does. And so you will just not digest your food as well. So when you step on the scale the next morning, you haven't digested as much food as you normally would, which is making your person weigh more on the scale. Remember, the scale weighs more than just like your fat and your muscle. It weighs water, it weighs bones, it weighs how much food is in your stomach, right? So if you get worse quality sleep, you wouldn't digest your food as much. And usually your stress and your cortisol is a little bit higher because you just haven't gotten good quality sleep, and sleep is where your body de-stresses. So if you aren't doing that, then a little bit higher cortisol also going to lead to a little bit more scale spiking as well. And if you don't get as much duration of sleep, it's the same concept. Your body just does not have as much time to be able to digest the food that you ate, which means again, you'll step on the scale and your person will weigh more because of your sleep. And another one here, if you go to sleep, uh, later than you normally do, that would be also a reason. Or if you wake up earlier than what you normally do, that will also be a reason your scale might spike up. Now, number 6, I actually just mentioned, but I wanna go a little bit more in depth into it, is your stress and your cortisol. Now, especially right now, I'm not sure when you're gonna watch this cuz YouTube videos stay up forever, but we're in 2024 and there is this big kick on cortisol, cortisol face, cortisol weight loss. That's why you're not losing weight. Cortisol is why you're— is not why you're not losing fat over the long haul. What cortisol is going to do in the short term when it comes to your scale spiking up. The higher your cortisol levels, usually the more water weight you store. So if you are like, you know, you're going through a super stressful time right now, you very well might have your scale spike up a couple of pounds because you're holding on to a little bit more water weight. On top of the fact that when you're trying to be in a calorie deficit and lose weight, that is already a stress on your body. Remember, your body doesn't know stress from workouts, stress from a calorie deficit, or stress from, you know, your job or your spouse or your kids or your family or whatever. It's just no stress. And so if you're already in a calorie deficit and you're going through a super stressful time, you might have a bit more water weight being stored from cortisol. But again, as long as you continue to stay in your calorie deficit, you will continue to see that number on the scale go down, even if right now you might be storing So, if you're storing an extra 2, 3 pounds of water weight, over time, that number will go down if you're in a calorie deficit. And, that's the other part of stress and cortisol. This just impacts your actions. So, for example, when some people are stressed, what do they do? They stress eat. They make themselves feel better by stress eating snacks, chips, ice cream, Doritos, cookies, whatever the case may be. That would put you out of your calorie deficit. It's not the stress that's stopping you from losing weight. It's the fact that you're stress eating. Or for example, if you're stressed, maybe you're, you know, you're not getting your walks, you're not going to go get your workouts in. Maybe you're skipping workouts in the morning because you're sleeping in. It's the actions that happen after you're stressed. It's not inherently the stress that would stop you from losing body fat. Weight losing— here, losing weight, sorry, weight and losing body fat are sometimes two different things. So as long as you are still in a calorie deficit, you will still lose this even if in the short term this isn't going down. And number 7, a very simple one, and so I'm not going to go too in-depth into it, but there will be a bonus right after number 7 which I think you should, you know, quite frankly know about. Number 7 is gonna be very simple. Sometimes you just gotta poop. That's it. Sometimes you just gotta go number 2 and you'll literally see your scale drop 2, 3, 4, 5 pounds. I'm sure you have seen this before. And really quickly, I get this question a lot: when should you weigh yourself? I would try to weigh yourself right when you wake up in the morning, before you eat or drink anything, and after you use the restroom. That is when you get your most accurate weight. Once you get that in the morning, do not weigh yourself the rest of the day. You don't need to weigh yourself multiple times a day. Get it in the morning and move on with the rest of your day. That's the most accurate time anyway. There's no reason to be weighing yourself after you go and work out or at night or all these things. No. When you wake up, before you eat or drink, after you use the restroom, that's when you weigh yourself. All right, now the bonus one right here is just something I want to remind you of. And remember, so all these reasons are why the scale spiked up. None of them had to do with you gaining fat, because in 1 pound of fat there is 3,500 calories. So if you actually were to gain 1 pound of fat You would have to eat 3,500 calories above your weekly maintenance calories in order to gain 1 pound of fat. And so stick with me here, I'm going to erase this, give me a second. Let's say your calorie deficit is 1,500 and your maintenance calories are 2,000. Remember, fat loss comes down to being in a weekly calorie deficit, so your weekly maintenance calories are 14,000, because if you take 2,000 times 7, that would give you 14,000. You would need to eat 17,500 calories— sorry, you would need to eat 17,500 calories for that week to gain 1 pound of body fat. Let me say that again. You would need to eat 17,500 calories— I should probably erase that and put 500. Sorry. 17,500 calories. Now, a couple things. You might be thinking, holy shit, if that's actually true, how did I gain 30 pounds? You were eating a lot of calories and probably not moving a lot. But this is where if one day, let's say for example, you end up eating 2,000 calories or 2,200 calories, maybe you went out to eat and you ate a little bit more than you normally would, 2,200, maybe even 2,500 calories. Okay. Okay, so if you ate 2,200 calories, that would put you at 2,200, 200 calories above your maintenance. Or even if you ate 2,500, just that's just 500 calories above your maintenance for that one day. If the rest of the day, or I'm sorry, the rest of the week you were eating in a calorie deficit, you wouldn't even get close to this number right here. Not like, not even close. So when you do end up having a day where you overeat and the scale Spikes up and you're thinking you gained body fat. You do not gain one of these unless you are 3,500 calories, not even above your deficit, on your maintenance calories. So please stop freaking out the next time the number on the scale goes up. And I know it can be very discouraging, but if you would like some one-on-one personal coaching, personal help through your journey, we do that and we offer that with my coaching program. So just click the link in the description of this video And we'd be more than happy to help you through your journey. All right, chat next time.