Adding a bath to our daily schedule and culture is just another convenience that is beneficial to our health. Your body can take in one to three cups of water after swimming or taking a shower, which will increase your actual weight by a few pounds. Read this article and try to figure out why you will lose weight after taking a bath.
Does Taking A Shower Affect Your Weight
Showering does, in fact, affect your weight—and in very unexpected ways. For starters, your skin is the largest organ in your body and is a fairly good absorber of liquid or water. That implies that your skin absorbs moisture while you’re taking a shower.
One to three cups of water can be absorbed by the body during a shower, adding a few pounds to your weight.
If you weigh yourself while your hair is still damp after a shower, that could also have an impact on your weight. Water in your hair doesn’t add a lot of weight if you have a pixie cut. However, having long hair that is still wet from the shower can significantly add to your weight.
Surprisingly, you occasionally lose weight after taking a shower. Although it doesn’t seem possible, other elements in the shower, such as temperature, can cause this.
Why Do I Weigh Less After Showering
Your daily routine includes taking a shower, so you typically don’t give it much thought. But if you’ve tried searching the internet for weight loss strategies, you’ve probably heard about how taking a shower can help you lose weight.
If you’re the experimental type, you may have even tried weighing yourself before and after a shower and discovered that you do, in fact, weigh less afterward. Although it seems like magic, there are likely explanations for why that is the case.
You Lose Dead Skin, Hair, And Dirt During A Shower
You shed dirt, loose hair, and dead skin while taking a shower. Although there has been a small amount of mass lost, it is minimal and won’t typically have an impact on how much you weigh. However, that helps you feel lighter after a shower.
Additionally, even though it doesn’t appear on the scale, you are actually losing weight as a result of all the shedding.
You Peed In The Shower
You probably relieved yourself in the shower, whether on purpose or not, which is a more likely explanation for why you weigh less afterward.
Showering, especially in a warm one, relaxes the muscles, including the one that controls urination.
Your blood pressure increases as you take a cold shower. In order to lower your blood pressure and warm you up in response, the kidneys will attempt to remove extra fluid, which will make you feel the need to urinate more.
The sound of the water pouring in the shower may also deceive you into thinking you need to urinate more.
The amount on the scale might go down if you did this activity while taking a shower because a healthy bladder can hold about two cups of liquid or 400 to 500 milliliters.
Shower Steam Gets Rid Of Water Weight
In addition to being incredibly relaxing, steam showers can also aid in weight loss. Consider it similar to a sauna. Similar to an aerobic workout, the steam in your shower raises your heart rate.
When you weigh yourself after taking a shower, your pores will be open and you’ll have just enough water flushed from your system to tip the scale.
You may start to perspire from the steam even after exiting the shower. As your body tries to cool itself through perspiration as it gets hotter, you lose a significant amount of weight. Another explanation for why you might weigh less after taking a shower is this very action.
However, keep in mind that any weight you lose as a result of the steam in the shower is water weight. What you lost can easily be replaced by drinking water.
Hot Showers Burn Fat
You may lose weight after taking a shower if your shower was hot. Recent research suggests that taking a hot shower or bath for at least an hour can burn about 140 calories, which will aid in weight loss. You can burn the same number of calories during a 30-minute walk.
Despite how relaxing it may sound, taking a hot shower won’t likely keep you there for an entire hour. Even if you only take daily 15-minute hot showers, you might nevertheless notice a change in the number on the scale.
Cold Showers Burn Even More Fat
Unless you’re trying to cool off on a particularly hot day, taking a cold shower doesn’t seem like it would be very appealing. A second explanation for why you might be losing weight after taking a shower is getting a good rinse in icy water.
This is entirely related to brown adipose tissue (BAT), or what is commonly referred to as “good” brown fat. Brown fat is a cell structure that burns calories to fuel your body, as opposed to the “bad” white fat that accumulates in your body and contributes to weight gain.
Normally inactive, brown fat becomes active when your body temperature drops, such as when you’re standing in a chilly shower. Thankfully, the brown fat starts working quickly after you brave the freezing shower.
How To Weigh Yourself Accurately
- Weigh yourself naked
That does indeed include your underwear. When you weigh yourself, you absolutely don’t want to be wearing anything at all because that just leads to needless errors. Either do it right before or right after your morning shower.
- After using the restroom, weigh yourself
Since most people use the restroom shortly after getting up, this shouldn’t be a problem; however, you should always use the restroom before stepping on the scale. Once more, the goal is to minimize contradictions.
- Check your weight in the morning
I already mentioned that the best time to weigh yourself each week is in the morning. The most reliable time to determine how much weight you are gaining or losing is right after you’ve effectively fasted for 8+ hours.
- Don’t consume anything beforehand
It should go without saying, but skip breakfast before getting on the scale. Don’t even drink a glass of water.