Losing inches not weight?
san814
Posts: 22 Member
This may be a stupid question but I don't understand how I can lose a bunch of inches but my weight has stayed the same.
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My guess is that it is water weight or even glycogen stores increasing. My favorite scenario is that fat has decreased and muscle has increased - muscle is more dense than fat and takes up less volume per pound.
I've expereinced this before too. I went zero carb this summer and my weight went up almost 10lbs while I continued to feel smaller. By the 5th week I had relost those 10 lbs, plus another 5 lbs and was slightly smaller too.
Just give it time. If you are eating at a caloric deficit, you will lose weight and not just inches.3 -
I'm experiencing the same thing because I've been hitting the gym. If you're working out you are probably gaining muscle and losing fat which could be why you're losing inches and not pounds.
Congrats on the changes you've made and your progress!3 -
dianaward0216 wrote: »I'm experiencing the same thing because I've been hitting the gym. If you're working out you are probably gaining muscle and losing fat which could be why you're losing inches and not pounds.
Congrats on the changes you've made and your progress!
A new gym routine will cause water retention too. Double whammy! 0 -
Simple, muscle weighs more than fat does and muscle takes up less space than fat does...hence losing inches, stable weight. Do you exercise or work out at all?
https://stronglikemommy.com/2012/10/09/muscle-and-fat-myth-busters/0 -
Isn't it great?! A much healthier way to reach a healthy bodyfat3 -
dianaward0216 wrote: »I'm experiencing the same thing because I've been hitting the gym. If you're working out you are probably gaining muscle and losing fat which could be why you're losing inches and not pounds.
Congrats on the changes you've made and your progress!
I just want to address the "you're probably gaining muscle and losing fat which is why you're not losing scale weight" issue. From Lyle McDonald:
Basically, without knowing the OP's frame of reference for weighing, menstrual cycle, macros - emphasis on protein intake, current/goal body weight, current/goal body fat, training experience, style of exercise, frequency, health goals, etc. there are A LOT of factors for why scale weight doesn't move, yet measurement values change.
Water balance is always a thing and has no energy value whatsoever but can and will manipulate scale weight. Rate of lean body mass and fat loss are very different, and while a pound of muscle and fat weigh the same but occupy different volume, the fact that muscle is also more readily catabolized under the assumption protein intake is inadequate, water balance could very well be replacing the volume of muscle lost, sparing whatever actual fat remains.
Another thing is that fat loss is completely a PITA and will take longer than you want. Unless you're on a crash diet, fat loss is going to take as long as it takes your body to understand that it doesn't need it. So if you're at a caloric deficit, eating enough protein, not losing strength, or proportionately maintaining strength as you lose inches/weight, then more than likely, you're at least retaining / reducing the rate of muscle loss and most of that loss will be fat.
Arbitrarily throwing out the phrase "it's probably muscle gain" is negligent at best for someone's actual body composition.
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Simple, muscle weighs more than fat does and muscle takes up less space than fat does...hence losing inches, stable weight. Do you exercise or work out at all?
https://stronglikemommy.com/2012/10/09/muscle-and-fat-myth-busters/
Just to clarify, muscle is more dense than fat. An oz. is an oz. be it water, muscle or fat, they all weigh the same oz.2 -
I really think everyone knows that muscle doesn't literally weigh more than fat by equal measure. But by volume it does and I think that's what people mean when they make a statement like that.
The suggestion is that potentially they've created some new muscle or even bone density and that is part of what's making it appear they haven't lost weight.
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retirehappy wrote: »Just to clarify, muscle is more dense than fat. An oz. is an oz. be it water, muscle or fat, they all weigh the same oz.
Yep, never said they didn't. So have to agree with Sunny_Bunny_ above:Sunny_Bunny_ wrote: »I really think everyone knows that muscle doesn't literally weigh more than fat by equal measure. But by volume it does and I think that's what people mean when they make a statement like that.
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I agree with that. The nuance of why there's no scale change has so much involved as a process that the phrase has become akin to "starvation mode" for me (ಥ﹏ಥ)
The heuristic is basically this: if you want to lose fat, eat at a deficit and lift weights to retain muscle; if you want to gain muscle, eat at a surplus and lift weights to stimulate growth. Your training supports your diet. Your goal determines your diet. Simultaneous fat loss and muscle gain is not uncommon, but it's also not perpetual*
https://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/getting-strong-while-getting-lean.html/
https://www.bodyrecomposition.com/muscle-gain/general-philosophies-of-muscle-mass-gain.html/
*Caveat:
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Also google brown fat. In the beginning when you change to this WOE, it is not uncommon for white fat to change to brown fat which is denser. The brown fat has more mitochondria which will burn fat.3
