Each person's weight varies throughout the day. Your weight is different in the morning versus the night, before and after eating, and so on. Therefore, if you are tracking your weight, be sure to measure at the same time daily.
An individual’s weight can vary as much as 2 to 3 percent or approximately five pounds within a 24-hour period. The fluctuation can depend not only on the day's caloric intake but also on water retention or undigested food.
Women often experience more weight variance than men, because eating habits and water retention rates change before, during and after menstruation. Water retention in both genders is one of the major causes of perceived weight gain. Commonly known as "bloat," water retention is generally caused by eating a lot of salty foods and not hydrating sufficiently.
Weight variance can also be the result of an allergic reaction to certain types of foods. In such cases, rather than breaking out in a rash or getting an upset stomach, the body’s "allergic reaction" to the culpable food is to retain water. Unlike more serious allergic reactions, bloat does not require an epinephrine shot or emergency treatment. Once the food leaves the system, the bloat subsides and the weight goes back down.
What is a healthy weight?
This is where there is the most variance. Even people of the same height can be at quite varied weights and be healthy. Variances may depend on age, bone structure, ethnicity, gender and genetics.
One of the most commonly used methods to determine a healthy weight for your body type and height is based on the body mass index (BMI). According to webMD, a BMI of less than 18.5 places you in the underweight category. If it is higher than 25, you are in the overweight category. Although a BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 places you in the recommended weight range for your height, this is only a general rule of thumb. Body builders, for example, often have a very high BMI and are not considered overweight and when other health measurements are taken into consideration (such as resting heart rate, blood pressure, cholesterol levels, etc.) are found to be healthy. Thin people who don’t exercise and eat poorly aren’t necessarily healthy just because their BMI is between 18.5 and 24.9.
There is no ideal body shape or size. Do you feel good and have lots of energy? Are you mobile and able to do what you want to do? Do you eat healthy nutritious food, exercise regularly and live a healthy lifestyle? If you can answer yes to these questions and do not have any mysterious health issues, you could already be at your own personal healthy weight. It may be hard to ignore the so-called ideal bodies shown by the media, but aspiring to look similarly to an ultra-thin model is not the path to health.
Instead, why not aspire to have your body working well, with all its systems working together to support each other?