Loss of inches vs lbs

Terri2874

In the past few months I've lost several inches but numbers on the scale have remained pretty much the same. Is this normal when adding muscle?
My goal is to lose about 10lbs

psuLemon

What kind of exercise are you doing because it's rather difficult to gain new muscle.


Generally, you can lose inches and have some offsetting water weight that would mask it. But I would also try to account for some measuring error.

Terri2874

I've been doing cardio and strength training 5 to 6 days per week

psuLemon

terridstankiewicz992 wrote: »

I've been doing cardio and strength training 5 to 6 days per week

How many calories are you eating? Are you following a structured lifting program? And how long as it been?

Terri2874

No...I'm not using a structured program but I have my own routine. Have been working at it steadily since October
I try to stay at or under 1750 calories per day

psuLemon

terridstankiewicz992 wrote: »

No...I'm not using a structured program but I have my own routine. Have been working at it steadily since October
I try to stay at or under 1750 calories per day

If you aren't following a progressive overload program, focused on compound lifts, the likely hood of gaining muscle is probably slim. And even during a bulk, women can only gain about 1 lbs of appreciable muscle a month due to the lack of testosterone.

Do you use a food scale?

Also, unless you have a lot of knowledge in weight training, I would recommend following a structured program like New Rules of Lifting for Women or Strong Curves. Your strength gains and overall results will be much better.

CalorieCountChocula

Sooooooo what's the science going on here? (Everyone loves talking about science here so...) That is, one goes on a diet. It's going fine. Calories get cut. One pound (or whatever) comes off a week. Fine. Then weight loss stops (or slows to a silly fraction). No pounds or even ounces a week but the person gets measurably smaller. Yay. Half victory. NSV. 500 is a good average in baseball. Etc. It's not muscle building though as almost everyone on the entire planet will go out of their way to tell you in almost an offended tone. OK, so it's extra water. The fat is leaving but extra water arrives. Or is the water leaving but the fat isn't? Or is muscle leaving but neither of the other two are? I dunno. Anyhow, science this one out with a few logical real proven scenarios. Go.

DizzyMissIzzy

I had the same thing happen! For the last 6 months I've been lifting and doing cardio and trying to eat healthy, but nothing structured. I lost 4 inches and 2 pant sizes, but my weight has stayed the same.

I just started working with a trainer so I'm on a very strict and structured macro-counting diet and I'm doing much more HIT with both my weight lifting and cardio (actually we're doing less cardio than I'm used to, which was weird at first) but I can already see the numbers on the scale moving!

I'm assuming the diet is the main reason, but I'm still fairly new to this, so that's only a speculation!

Terri2874

You know....I've been resistant to the idea of using a scale...but maybe I should.
My diet is pretty good overall...but could be improved

Christine_72

terridstankiewicz992 wrote: »

You know....I've been resistant to the idea of using a scale...but maybe I should.
My diet is pretty good overall...but could be improved

I was too in the beginning, I was not going to be one of those obsessive people who weigh all of their food. But I eventually came around, and now I weigh absolutely everything, It's a habit I don't even think about anymore.

If you want to be accurate with how much food you're eating then I highly recommend getting a food scale.

quiksylver296

Christine_72 wrote: »

terridstankiewicz992 wrote: »

You know....I've been resistant to the idea of using a scale...but maybe I should.
My diet is pretty good overall...but could be improved

I was too in the beginning, I was not going to be one of those obsessive people who weigh all of their food. But I eventually came around, and now I weigh absolutely everything, It's a habit I don't even think about anymore.

If you want to be accurate with how much food you're eating then I highly recommend getting a food scale.

Yes. And it isn't difficult. Buy a digital scale and learn how the tare button works. Put your plate on the scale, tare it out, add your veggies for example, log them, tare them out, add your protein, log them, tare them out, etc, etc.

psuLemon

terridstankiewicz992 wrote: »

You know....I've been resistant to the idea of using a scale...but maybe I should.
My diet is pretty good overall...but could be improved

For those who have a lot more weight to lose, then a foods scale might not be necessary. In many cases, people tend to set aggressive goals, so they have room for error (which would occur) but when you have very little to lose, then you inherently have less room for error. For me, where my goal is abs, I will be using a food scale.

CJsf1t

I am having the same problem OP! Since last 5-6 months I have lost almost 35 inches all over. But barely 5 kilos! In fact I am fitting into most of my pre- pregnancy clothes, while I am still 8 kilos away from my pre- pregnancy weight! I am not doing any strength training yet. Only hiit and cardio. I am stumped as to why there is no weight loss too!

Liftng4Lis

Inches trump pounds.......well, in most cases, but then I'm female and don't have to worry about that!

codsterlaing95

psulemon wrote: »

terridstankiewicz992 wrote: »

No...I'm not using a structured program but I have my own routine. Have been working at it steadily since October
I try to stay at or under 1750 calories per day

If you aren't following a progressive overload program, focused on compound lifts, the likely hood of gaining muscle is probably slim. And even during a bulk, women can only gain about 2 lbs of appreciable muscle a month due to the lack of testosterone.

Do you use a food scale?

Also, unless you have a lot of knowledge in weight training, I would recommend following a structured program like New Rules of Lifting for Women or Strong Curves. Your strength gains and overall results will be much better.

I thought women could only gain 1 lb of muscle/month, whereas untrained males could gain 2 lbs/month due to higher testosterone?

psuLemon

codsterlaing95 wrote: »

psulemon wrote: »

terridstankiewicz992 wrote: »

No...I'm not using a structured program but I have my own routine. Have been working at it steadily since October
I try to stay at or under 1750 calories per day

If you aren't following a progressive overload program, focused on compound lifts, the likely hood of gaining muscle is probably slim. And even during a bulk, women can only gain about 2 lbs of appreciable muscle a month due to the lack of testosterone.

Do you use a food scale?

Also, unless you have a lot of knowledge in weight training, I would recommend following a structured program like New Rules of Lifting for Women or Strong Curves. Your strength gains and overall results will be much better.

I thought women could only gain 1 lb of muscle/month, whereas untrained males could gain 2 lbs/month due to higher testosterone?

Sorry, you are correct it was a typo..

Terri2874

Thank you all so much for your insight:-)
It's amazing what we can learn from each other