I lose at least half a pound in weight in the shower. What’s going on?

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific concepts
  
  

Shower head with streaming water
Washing away the weight? Photograph: Burwell and Burwell Photography/Getty Images

If I weigh myself naked before taking a shower and again immediately afterwards, my weight has always dropped by at least half a pound (approximately 200g) and sometimes by over a pound. It can’t all be dirt. I rarely take as long as five minutes in the shower so I can hardly have sweated off that much. Why does this happen?

John Malcomson, Sheffield

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