# #54 - The Science of Scale Fluctuations: Why the Scale Can Increase in a Calorie Deficit

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-leaner-you-podcast-with-daniel-rosenthal-and-santo-chiappetta-7244823/54-the-science-of-scale-fluctuations-why-the-scale-can-increase-in-a-calorie-deficit
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-leaner-you-podcast-with-daniel-rosenthal-and-santo-chiappetta-7244823/54-the-science-of-scale-fluctuations-why-the-scale-can-increase-in-a-calorie-deficit.md
Podcast: [The Leaner You Podcast with Daniel Rosenthal and Santo Chiappetta](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-leaner-you-podcast-with-daniel-rosenthal-and-santo-chiappetta-7244823)
Published: 2026-02-23T08:01:00+00:00
Episode link: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/leaner-you-podcast/episodes/54---The-Science-of-Scale-Fluctuations-Why-the-Scale-Can-Increase-in-a-Calorie-Deficit-e3fe9tm
Audio file: https://anchor.fm/s/1005eb3c4/podcast/play/115860854/https%3A%2F%2Fd3ctxlq1ktw2nl.cloudfront.net%2Fstaging%2F2026-1-22%2F418578188-44100-2-acf4ecd674ac9.mp3
Processing state: not_requested
JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-leaner-you-podcast-with-daniel-rosenthal-and-santo-chiappetta-7244823/episodes/54-the-science-of-scale-fluctuations-why-the-scale-can-increase-in-a-calorie-deficit
Duration seconds: 3148

## Resource

You’re in a calorie deficit. You’re training, hitting steps, and staying consistent. Then you wake up and the scale's up a couple of pounds. In this episode, we break down what that number actually represents. We explain why day to day changes are almost never fat gain or fat loss. We cover the main drivers of short term fluctuations: glycogen and water, training stress and inflammation, sleep and cortisol, sodium, hydration, and for women, the menstrual cycle. Then we lay out how to use the scale correctly, how to interpret trends, why we look at three weeks, and when daily weigh ins are not worth the mental cost. Chapters 00:00 Scale up despite doing everything right 02:07 Why fluctuations happen and why they’re normal 05:04 What “body weight” actually includes 06:15 Glycogen and water: the carb connection 09:10 Why low carb drops weight fast 11:30 Carbs and relationship with food 15:18 Training stress, inflammation, recovery 18:01 Sleep cycles, cortisol, and water retention 20:28 Work stress, under eating, and “stalled” scale loss 22:47 Big deficits: physiology pushes back 27:23 Menstrual cycle and luteal phase fluctuations 30:22 Sodium, restaurant food, hydration, creatine 36:08 Best way to use the scale: consistency 38:56 Why once per week is often misleading 40:10 Three weeks to see a real trend 43:03 Using calories and context to explain spikes 46:06 When daily weigh ins aren’t worth it 48:34 Don’t chase water loss with detoxes or pills 50:46 Wrap: patience, trends, and consistency If, after listening, you’d like help applying this to your own situation, you can book a 10-minute Strategy Call with Daniel to see if we'd be a good fit: ⁠⁠⁠ rosentrain.com/exploratory-call ⁠⁠⁠⁠ Follow Daniel on Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.ins…

## Actions

- request_transcript: `POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-leaner-you-podcast-with-daniel-rosenthal-and-santo-chiappetta-7244823/episodes/54-the-science-of-scale-fluctuations-why-the-scale-can-increase-in-a-calorie-deficit/transcription-requests` — Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
- read_markdown: `GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-leaner-you-podcast-with-daniel-rosenthal-and-santo-chiappetta-7244823/54-the-science-of-scale-fluctuations-why-the-scale-can-increase-in-a-calorie-deficit.md` — Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

A page view does not enqueue transcription. Agents should invoke `request_transcript` explicitly when they need this episode processed.

## Transcript

Full transcripts are not published on public pages unless there is a clear rights basis.