Showers: The next weight loss craze?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

I’ve been a diet for the last 400 years, it feels like, and because of this I’ve got a scale in my bathroom that I utilize daily to track my progress. Generally I weigh myself when I’ve just woken up and am wearing t-shirt and manly boxers, but whenever I’m about to take a shower I step on the scale again to take advantage of a rare instance of complete nudity for the most unadulterated weight measurement possible.

After a while of this, I began to notice a trend. Then I investaged further, collecting sample evidence.

The findings were shocking. :eek::eek:SHOCKING!!:eek::eek:

Whenever I weigh myself, immediately take a shower, and then immediately weigh myself again (after toweling off), the scale says I weigh an average of 2 pounds less than I did before the shower. :confused:

This happens repeatedly, time and time again. Weigh, shower, weigh again, 2 pounds lighter.
If I go back in another 5 or 10 minutes, those 2 pounds have come back.

If anything, it would seem like I should weigh slightly more immediately after a shower, since there’s a considerable amount of water on me and in my hair. Did I have 2 pounds worth of soot and sediment on me that I’d washed off?

A medical enigma!

My only somewhat realistic hypothesis is that the steam from the shower somehow changes the environment of the room in a manner so as to alter the accuracy of the digital scale. Maybe the air pressure drops from the heat, or rises from the steam, which changes the relative mass measurable by a scale.

Or, the shower opens up all of my pores, which allows air to fill the spaces between them, making me that much lighter. Like a balloon.

That last one was a joke.

Unless it turns out to be the answer, in which case I was joking about it being a joke.

2

Every female knows that the most unadulterated weight measurement is first thing in the morning after you haven’t had anything to eat or drink for 8-12 hours, after you’ve emptied your bladder, and you’re stark naked with no makeup (I swear some days it weighs 2 lbs) And then there’s timing it around the whole cycle thing… but on the days you take your psyche aboard the poundage train the above applies. Other than this small hijack to highlight yet one more difference between the ladies and gents… I got nuthin.

Scuse me… gotta go take a shower.

3

In my experience digital bathroom scales will vary by 1-2 pounds anyway, no matter what you’re doing. Weigh yourself, wait for it to reset, weigh again, and it will be different. What you’re seeing could just be confirmation bias.

So: somebody needs to do some real scientific research here - keep a log of before/after shower weights for a month or two, and also with the following scales: 1 digital scale in bathroom, 1 digital scale outside bathroom (to account for temperature/humidity), and also an analog scale in each place. And randomize the order in which you weigh yourself. Also, weigh yourself before/after someone else takes a shower. I’m sure we’ll get to the bottom of this!

4

I second that. I have a digital scale and I’ve found that I need to step on and off three times to get a good average - those three readings often cover a 2lb range.

5

Don’t forget to empty the bowels. Lotta weight there!

6

Nah, your pee probably weights more (a pint’s a pound the world around).
Roddy

7

You’re not peeing in the shower are you? Be honest!

I’m not sure what the mechanism is inside the scale that converts downward force into a weight measurement but could that mechanism be decalibrated by the high humidity that exists during and just after the shower?

Try weighing some inanimate heavy object before and after the shower. Or weigh yourself and then turn on the shower but don’t get in. Then after the 5 minutes or so that it you would normally be in the shower, weigh your filthy self again.

8

My digital scale’s in the kitchen (only uncarpeted hunk o’ floor in the lair) and same phenom- plus or minus 2-3 lbs depending on atmospheric turbulence, biorhythms, how far over my gut I have to lean to see the readout, pre or post potty, whatever. Damn straight I’m getting on that thing 243 times until it reads lower than the day before

It’s the only aerobic exercise I get

9

The error, as you hypothesize, is due to the environmental temperature sensitivity of the electronic components within your set of scales, which alter the readout. For example, any resistors present will increase in resistance approximately linearly with temperature in this range. It’s also true that the metal bar which you deflect inside the scales will be more resistive and deviate more, though beyond the scope of your unit’s accuracy.

Analytical balances usually report this deviation in terms of ± weight/°C away from room temperature (unlikely to be found on your bathroom set, which are comparatively unreliable anyway). Air pressure is unlikely to change, unless your have a hermetically sealed bathroom, and your scales will compensate by zeroing anyway.

10

It’s generally not worth it to weight yourself every day. Your body’s daily fluctuations are usually greater than the amount you can lose in one day, anyway.

Since I started losing weight, I weigh myself exactly once per week, every Sunday as soon as I get up (post morningleak, of course.)

I have a very nice graph documenting my progress.

11

Maybe you’re just really, really filthy and the shower washed two pounds of dirt off you.