Losing inches not weight

jelleigh
jelleigh Posts: 743 Member
edited June 2020 in Health and Weight Loss
Can anyone tell me about this phenomenon?
I weighed in at the beginning of June and am down about 13 lbs since mid April. I'm also down inches. Since June 1st my weight hasn't budged but my clothes are continuing to feel looser.

Now I'm not complaining, and I get that I could be retaining water or whatever and that can affect the scale, but how long would that last for? Shouldn't I eventually see SOME movement? It's not like it's only been a day or two- it's two weeks and if anything I've gone up a bit.

Edit to add that last year when I weighed this same amount,I was a full size larger? So the size seems to be not even a little correlated to the weight which I guess I'm surprised about?

I know this isn't muscle gain since it takes like a month for a woman to put on even just a lb of muscle. So anyone else experience this? How long did it last for?

Replies

  • whoami67
    whoami67 Posts: 297 Member
    Have you been strength training? That's what it sounds like.

    I've had this happen before for different reasons. One, when strength training. And the other times by using a diet method that is not allowed to be mentioned on MFP. On that, I'll lose about 20 lbs and stay the same size. Then over the next 6 weeks, I'll drop a couple sizes. When I maintain after that method, I'm usually at least a size smaller than when I lose counting calories.
  • jelleigh
    jelleigh Posts: 743 Member
    Ya its true. I'm more interested in what size I am and how much additional fat i'm carrying than what the number on the scale says. I have been strength training a bit I guess? Like nothing hardcore but I'm doing Beachbody 21 Day fix which is essentially HIIT with weight training. So does that mean that I'm toning up and the muscles are getting tighter but my outer layer of fat is staying the same? Like... does it mean that my actual loss has stalled? Or is it more likely (if my intake hasn't changed) that I'm still losing but its being masked by water retention?
    Although i'm less concerned with what weight I am, I do still have like 40lbs to lose (and that wont even put me at a really low body fat %) so I want to make sure i'm still progressing.
    To try to keep myself sane, I'm trying not to weigh in (officially - as in recording it and 'counting' it ) except for once a month (the week right after TOM). Then I am likely to see a larger drop that isn't masked by water weight. But curiosity got the better of me and i stepped on a scale early and well... here I am worrying about things that don't matter.
  • tinkerbellang83
    tinkerbellang83 Posts: 9,128 Member
    I found when doing a quite an intensive progressive strength training routine, not hardcore but lifting heavier than I would normally gradually, I retained water more or less throughout the duration of it, despite losing inches my weight wouldn't shift unless I kept my weight/reps the same for a couple of weeks.

    If you know your calorie intake is pretty spot on then I'd not give it too much thought, if there's room for improvement in your intake logging then maybe tighten up a bit and see how you get on, then you can just trust the process and know that if you're in a calorie deficit the scale will eventually catch up.
  • mmapags
    mmapags Posts: 8,934 Member
    jelleigh wrote: »
    Ya its true. I'm more interested in what size I am and how much additional fat i'm carrying than what the number on the scale says. I have been strength training a bit I guess? Like nothing hardcore but I'm doing Beachbody 21 Day fix which is essentially HIIT with weight training. So does that mean that I'm toning up and the muscles are getting tighter but my outer layer of fat is staying the same? Like... does it mean that my actual loss has stalled? Or is it more likely (if my intake hasn't changed) that I'm still losing but its being masked by water retention?
    Although i'm less concerned with what weight I am, I do still have like 40lbs to lose (and that wont even put me at a really low body fat %) so I want to make sure i'm still progressing.
    To try to keep myself sane, I'm trying not to weigh in (officially - as in recording it and 'counting' it ) except for once a month (the week right after TOM). Then I am likely to see a larger drop that isn't masked by water weight. But curiosity got the better of me and i stepped on a scale early and well... here I am worrying about things that don't matter.

    This in the bold. Water weight masking fat loss if your measuring, weighing and logging is on point.

    I know some people struggle with more frequent weighing. But one thing I found was helpful was to weigh more frequently (In my case, daily.) and use a trending app. With the trending app, I was able to record the weigh in as nothing more than a data point. Sometimes it was up on a day. Sometimes it was down. But I watched the trend and that is what really matters.

    After awhile of doing this and body measurements, I was able to detach emotionaly from what the scale number was on any given day and look at it more as just one data point of many in a bigger picture.

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