Gaining Weight?

I know this is compeltely irrelevent to the subject ’physics’, but I was wondering, when do you (on average) weigh more, in the evening or in the morning? and why? thanks.
- Julia Kawai (age 14)
HBS, London, England

Julia -

You’re right that physics isn’t the really important thing here - the earth’s gravity pulls just as hard on you in the evening as in the morning. The real phenomenon is a lot simpler. Since we eat during the day, most people will find that they weigh several pounds more in the evening than they do in the morning. First thing in the morning, you haven’t had anything to eat or drink yet, so you tend to weigh a few pounds less.

-Tamara

(published on 10/22/2007)

Well, there are these girls in my class and they told me that they are going on a diet tomorrow. The weird thing is that they are the same weight as me(about 95-100 lbs.) We are in the sixth grade so I don\\\'t understand why they are going on a \\\"diet\\\". I don\\\'t feel that I need to loose weight but I really need some tips so I can try to talk to them about it. Please right back soon Thanks! -Girly
- Girly Tomboi (age 11)
Phoenix, AZ, USA

This is way outside our area of expertise, but it seemed worth saying something. Sometimes people (almost always girls in Western societies) get really crazy about trying to lose weight for no good reason. There\'s even a name for this disease, anorexia nervosa. Its main cause is clearly social, but that doesn\'t mean we really understand much about it. People can die from it, or get permanent heart damage. Probably your friends\' diet won\'t amount to much of anything good or bad, but it still sounds like a bad idea.

Mike W.

(published on 05/16/2013)