I lost about 45 lbs a few years ago, regained 30, and started over in March. I’m lifting three mornings a week — basic dumbbell stuff and squats in the garage — because I want to keep some muscle this time. I weigh every morning, which usually keeps me from lying to myself, but post-lift days are wild. After Monday’s leg session I was up 2.8 lbs, then back down by Thursday. This morning I was up 1.9 from yesterday, and my first thought was that I’d ruined everything. Then I remembered I slept 5 hours, ate a salty dinner, and my hamstrings are sore. I’m not looking for medical advice, just curious how other people who lift handle the scale noise. Do you go by weekly averages, measurements, progress photos, or just ignore the day after lifting?
Lifting three days a week is messing with my weigh-ins
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#2
Leg day always does this. Muscle microtrauma plus glycogen/water retention in the trained tissue can hang 2–3 lb for 24–72h. It’s not 2.8 lb of fat. I’d stop treating post-lift mornings as valid data points: weigh same time, but judge by 7-day rolling average and waist tape. Sharp question: does that Monday bump resolve by Thursday/Friday? If yes, it’s just repair edema/fluid and you can ignore it. If it stays elevated, then look at trends, not single days.
#3
I lift 3x/week too, and post-leg-day weigh-ins do the same to me: +2 to 4 lb after squats/RDLs, then it slides off over 2–3 days. What helped was switching to a 7-day rolling average and only comparing same conditions—after bathroom, before coffee. Are you tracking that average, or just day-to-day? Also, do your waist measurements or pants fit change during the spikes? Mine don’t, so I treat it as inflammation/glycogen water, not fat. If your weekly trend is flat or down, the daily post-lift number is mostly noise.
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