Five reasons your weight fluctuates – and it’s not because you’re getting fat! Feel like your weight seesaws more than your four-year-old niece on a sunny day at the park? Relax. Even if you’re doing everything perfectly, there are lots of reasons why the number on the scale could be up a kilo or two. According to dietician Melina Jampolis, author of The No-Time-To-Lose Diet, these are some of the usual suspects.

You were thirsty
Downing 450ml of any fluid can cause an immediate “gain” of half a kilo.

You’re backed up
Constipation can tilt the scale by as much as one kilo if it’s been more than a couple of days since your bowels did their thing.

You’re going on holiday
To Thailand. The changes in air pressure can make you retain water on flights longer than four hours, which can show up as an extra 0.5 to one kilo on the scale.

You ate the sweet-and-sour chicken
Have a salty dinner and you could wake up one to two kilos heavier – your body retains water to dilute all that sodium.

Your period’s on its way
Hormone fluctuations in the three days leading up to your period can make you retain up to 2.5 kilos of water.