Recently, I turned 50, and to celebrate, I went on a wonderful trip to Florida with my parents and my husband, Jason.
I made a decision before I went. I was going to enjoy myself.
I was going to eat what I liked, drink what I liked and not spend my holiday worrying about calories, portion sizes or what the scales might say when I got home.
And that’s exactly what I did.
I came back 9lbs heavier!
Now, years ago, that would have sent me into a complete panic. Nine pounds! I’d have been horrified.
But these days, I understand my body a lot better.
I knew I hadn’t gained 9lbs of body fat. Some of that extra weight would have been water retention from salty food, eating more carbohydrates than usual, flying and simply having more food in my digestive system.
My guess was that perhaps half of it was actual weight gain, although there’s no way of knowing precisely from the scales alone.
And do you know what?
I didn’t panic.
Because I’ve finally found the key that unlocks the door.
I understand how weight loss actually works.
I went back to eating normally, tracked my food for three weeks, and the entire 9lbs disappeared.
No crash dieting. No punishing myself in the gym. No trying to undo two weeks of enjoyment by starving myself.
Just getting back to the habits I know work.
But I can assure you, I’ve been that girl.
The one who gets on the scales every morning, sees she’s suddenly 2 or 3lbs heavier than yesterday and immediately thinks she’s done something terribly wrong.
How is that even possible?
I ate well yesterday. I exercised. I didn’t go mad with the biscuits.
And yet here I am, apparently 3lbs heavier!
Cue the Google search.
“Can you really put on 2 or 3lbs overnight?”
I’ve searched it myself, and I suspect thousands of other women have too.
The thing is, I knew the maths didn’t add up.
There’s a commonly used estimate that gaining a pound of body fat requires approximately 3,500 calories above what your body burns.
It’s only a rough guide, but using that calculation, gaining 3lbs of fat overnight would mean consuming around 10,500 calories more than your body needed.
Clearly, that hadn’t happened.
But knowing something logically and not panicking when you see the number on the scales are two very different things!
Why Women’s Weight Fluctuates So Much
Here’s something I wish more women understood.
Our bodies are not consistent, and neither is our weight.
We have periods. Then, eventually, we don’t have periods.
In between, we’ve got years of hormonal fluctuations, perimenopause and menopause to navigate.
And that’s before we even consider what we’ve eaten, how much salt we’ve consumed, whether we’ve exercised, how well we’ve slept or whether we’ve been to the toilet!
All these things can influence what the scales say.
Which brings me to something that might surprise you.
Why I Weighed Myself Every Day for a Year
We’re often told that we should only weigh ourselves once a week.
Personally, I think that’s one of the most misleading pieces of weight-loss advice I’ve ever heard.
In fact, I sometimes wonder if a man came up with that idea! 
Because anyone who’s spent years dealing with periods, hormonal fluctuations, perimenopause and menopause will know that a woman’s weight can change dramatically from one day to the next.
And if you happen to weigh yourself on the wrong day, you could spend the next week believing you’ve achieved absolutely nothing.
When, in reality, you might be doing everything right.
Imagine you’ve been eating well, exercising consistently and doing everything you’re supposed to.
You weigh yourself on Monday.
Then you do exactly the same the following week, but this time you’ve retained a couple of pounds of water.
The scales haven’t moved. They might even have gone up.
You feel deflated.
You start questioning whether your diet is working, whether you’re eating too much or whether all that exercise is a complete waste of time.
But what if you’d weighed yourself every day?
You might have seen your weight moving up and down throughout the week while the overall trend was gradually heading downwards.
And that’s exactly why I decided to weigh myself every day for an entire year.
Not because I was obsessed with my weight.
Because I wanted to understand it.
I wanted to see what actually happened to my body throughout the month, how it responded to different foods, exercise, hormonal changes and everything else life throws at us.
And what I learnt completely changed how I looked at the scales.
Some mornings I’d be heavier for absolutely no obvious reason.
Other mornings I’d suddenly drop a couple of pounds despite having done nothing particularly different.
And over time, I started to recognise the patterns.
I realised that a single number on the scales tells you very little.
It’s the trend over time that tells the real story.
Now, I’m not suggesting everyone should weigh themselves every day. For some people, that would create more anxiety than reassurance.
But for me, understanding those fluctuations took away much of the fear.
The scales stopped being something I dreaded and became something I understood.
Why Can You Weigh More After Exercise?
Here’s another thing I’ve noticed over the years.
After a particularly hard run, I would often weigh more the following morning.
You’d think it would be the opposite, wouldn’t you? You’ve been out running, burning calories, working hard, and then the scales have the cheek to tell you you’ve put weight on!
But there’s a perfectly good explanation.
When we exercise, particularly when we push our muscles harder than they’re used to, we can create tiny amounts of damage in the muscle fibres. These are often called microtears, and they’re a normal part of the training and recovery process.
Your body responds with a temporary inflammatory response, increasing fluid in the affected tissues to support repair and recovery.
So those muscles you’ve just worked so hard can temporarily hold extra fluid while they’re recovering.
And guess what that means?
You can actually weigh more after exercising, even when you’re making progress.
Over time, with the right training and recovery, your muscles adapt and become stronger.
So imagine doing a really tough workout, waking up a pound heavier and deciding your exercise isn’t working!
When, in reality, your body might simply be recovering from all that hard work.
Sometimes the very exercise you’re doing to improve your body is the reason the scales have temporarily gone up!
Muscle, Fat and Why Your Body Can Change Without Losing Weight
And there’s another thing worth remembering.
Muscle is denser than fat.
Now, you’ve probably heard someone say that muscle weighs more than fat.
Strictly speaking, a pound of muscle weighs exactly the same as a pound of fat.
But muscle takes up less space.
And that’s an important difference.
As you build muscle and lose body fat, your body shape can change considerably without much movement on the scales.
You might find your clothes are getting looser, your waist is getting smaller and you’re looking noticeably more toned, yet your weight has barely changed.
I’ve seen this happen with clients many times over the years.
They’re disappointed because the scales aren’t moving as quickly as they’d hoped, but when we look at their progress photographs or measurements, the difference is obvious.
Their body composition is changing.
They’re building muscle, losing fat and becoming stronger.
And yet that little number on the bathroom scales isn’t giving them the credit they deserve!
Of course, building muscle takes time. You aren’t suddenly gaining pounds of muscle overnight.
But over weeks and months, these changes can make a real difference to your shape and how your clothes fit.
That’s why I always tell my clients that the scales are only part of the story. You can be getting smaller, stronger and leaner without getting lighter.
So Why Am I Not Losing Weight Despite Exercising?
Because there’s another side to this.
Sometimes the scales aren’t moving because of water retention.
Sometimes you’re losing body fat, but temporary changes in water weight are hiding your progress.
Sometimes you’re building muscle while losing fat.
And sometimes, the uncomfortable truth is that you’re simply eating more calories than you realise.
I know because I’ve been there.
Exercise is fantastic for your health, strength, fitness and body composition, but it doesn’t automatically guarantee weight loss.
You can work incredibly hard in the gym and still consume more energy than your body needs.
And it’s surprisingly easy to do.
A slightly bigger portion here, a handful of something there, the odd glass of wine or a little treat you completely forget you’ve eaten.
It all adds up.
I’ve worked with clients over the years who genuinely believed they weren’t eating very much.
Then we started looking properly at their food intake, and suddenly the mystery wasn’t quite so mysterious!
That’s why I believe tracking your food, even if it’s just for a few weeks, can be such an eye-opener.
Not because I think everyone should spend their lives counting calories.
Quite the opposite.
Because understanding what you’re eating gives you the knowledge to stop guessing.
And once you understand that, everything becomes so much easier.
You don’t have to be perfect.
You just need to understand what you’re doing.
The Scales Are a Tool, Not a Verdict
At 50, I can finally say that I understand my weight better than I ever have.
I can go on holiday, enjoy myself, come home heavier and not feel the need to punish myself for it.
I know what to do because I’ve taken the time to understand what actually works.
And that’s something I try to teach my clients at Fayesfitness.
Weight loss doesn’t have to mean giving up everything you enjoy.
It doesn’t mean never going on holiday, never eating cake or spending the rest of your life worrying about what the scales might say tomorrow.
It means understanding the difference between temporary fluctuations and genuine changes in body fat.
It means recognising that exercise can temporarily increase your weight while making you fitter and stronger.
It means understanding that building muscle and losing fat can change your body without dramatically changing the number on the scales.
It means being consistent without expecting perfection.
And perhaps most importantly, it means learning not to let a number on the scales ruin your day.
Because I’ve wasted enough mornings in my life feeling miserable over a number that, quite frankly, probably had more to do with last night’s dinner than anything else!
The scales don’t know how hard you’ve worked. They don’t know how much stronger you’ve become, how your clothes fit or how much healthier you’re feeling.
They’re simply measuring how much you weigh at that particular moment.
And once you understand that, they lose an awful lot of their power.
Because sometimes those extra 2 or 3lbs aren’t three pounds of fat.
They’re just 2 or 3lbs of reasons not to panic.
