Lost 10kg in 2 months, but waste is still 42 inches?

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benjaminfields25
benjaminfields25 Posts: 7 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
In another topic I posted about my difficulties with my weight staying the same, it turns out that my scales were busted and giving me the same reading as before.

I weighed myself yesterday using a proper set of scales in a pharmacy and my weight is 97kg which is 10kg less than I weighed almost 2 months ago so I am very pleased with the results.

I purchased a new set of scales and it gives me an accurate reading. I do weight myself on a daily basis and understand that weight will fluctuate.

After 2-3 months of hardcore dieting (calorie deficit) and exercising at least an hour everyday it seems my hard work is finally paying off.

I did however go out the other night and got drunk by drinking way too much and the next day I had a huge 15" meat feast pizza and yes it was stupid thing for me to do and I was physically sick after eating it (stomach has obviously shrunk and I did have to throwaway a slice).

Yeah wasn't the best idea, probably had about 6000 calories in the space of 2 days.

It did give me a huge boost in energy and my usual brisk walk/interval jog was so much easier today.

I haven't eaten today as the pizza took care of my hunger, but do intend to have a light dinner and continue my diet this week and won't be having another takeaway any time soon.

All of that aside, at the start of my diet my waste was 42 inches, I did the exact same measurement today and it is still saying 42 inches, that's on an empty stomach with the same measuring tape I used before.

So here's my question, why has my waste stayed the same after loosing 10kg? Could it be where I'm just walking and weight is only being lost on other areas of my body?

Replies

  • penguinmama87
    penguinmama87 Posts: 1,158 Member
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    benjaminfields25 wrote: »

    So here's my question, why has my waste stayed the same after loosing 10kg? Could it be where I'm just walking and weight is only being lost on other areas of my body?

    That would be my guess. I lost inches from the rest of my body before my waist measurements started to drop at all, basically from the outside in. As @springlering62 mentioned it could also be very temporary. Like when I step on the scale, I try to measure regularly under similar conditions (in my case I do every other week.)

    I've never been a big drinker but now especially I try to avoid alcohol because while one or two drinks may not have that many calories, it does lead to poor decision making about what I eat. So you're definitely not alone in having that experience! And even though it wasn't ideal you can use it as a learning opportunity moving forward. Weight loss is a game of trends over time. A bad day is just one day.
  • benjaminfields25
    benjaminfields25 Posts: 7 Member
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    Thank you both for your informative and insightful posts, I'm glad I'm not the only one who is in a similar dilemma!

    Hopefully after loosing a few more pounds I start to see a difference in waste size.

    I did an additonal 1900 steps this evening after dinner, just 3 times around the block with a very steep gradiant hill which I brisk walk/jog up as I'm trying to better my cardio.

    I think if I do that every day this week as well as the 8500 steps I do during the day then hopefully it will settle my mind as by doing that I think it will burn the added calories I consumed from the alcohol and pizza.

    I still can't get over the amount of energy a pizza that size gives you, I felt like a could run a marathon and that was after a night of drinking!
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 32,381 Member
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    benjaminfields25 wrote: »
    Thank you both for your informative and insightful posts, I'm glad I'm not the only one who is in a similar dilemma!

    Hopefully after loosing a few more pounds I start to see a difference in waste size.

    I did an additonal 1900 steps this evening after dinner, just 3 times around the block with a very steep gradiant hill which I brisk walk/jog up as I'm trying to better my cardio.

    I think if I do that every day this week as well as the 8500 steps I do during the day then hopefully it will settle my mind as by doing that I think it will burn the added calories I consumed from the alcohol and pizza.

    I still can't get over the amount of energy a pizza that size gives you, I felt like a could run a marathon and that was after a night of drinking!

    On top of what others have said (which is all true),

    1. We lose fat weight potentially anywhere on our body, or maybe over our whole body in a very thin layer. That may mean that any one measurement will be unchanged for a while, but other measurements are changing; or that tiny changes all over don't show clearly in any one tape measurement.
    2. We can have fat *inside* our torso, around our organs. That "visceral fat" is a particularly dangerous type, health-wise. Losing that internal fat can have little impact on appearance or tape measurements, but a very real impact on health risk. It's not unusual for that fat to be lost earlier in the weight loss process, IMU.

    If your pizza gave you a huge energy boost, consider whether your current calorie goal (target weight loss rate) could be too aggressive. 10kg (22 pounds) in 2 months is quite fast loss, and may be OK if you're quite significantly obese, and under close medical supervision to watch out for potential problems from fast weight loss.

    If we try to lose weight very fast, it can affect our daily energy level, and mean that we burn fewer calories in daily life (not to mention exercise intensity), so trying for fast loss can be a bit counter-productive if that happens.

    If you ate 6000 calories in 2 days - and that's all - you don't have much if anything to make up for, and I'd suggest not thinking of it in that way in any case. (Food is not sin to be expiated via the "punishment" of extra exercise: It's just food. We need some.)

    Look at it this way: 10kg loss in in two months means you've eaten roughly 77,000 calories fewer than your body burned in that time period. If we assume 30-day months, that's about a 1283 calorie deficit, i.e., you've been averaging eating 1283 calories fewer than you burn.

    You don't say how much your calorie goal is now, but let's say it's the minimum for a man, 1500 calories. *If* that were your goal, that implies that you'd be burning an average of 2783 calories daily so far (by adding your weight loss of about 1283 calories to the amount eaten of 1500).

    6000 calories over 2 days is 3000 calories per day, 2783 of which you'd burn off in those 2 days with these example numbers. That leaves a mere 434 calories over maintenance totaled over the two days, which just by going back to your daily routine would be even-up after about another third of a day (434/1283 = 33.8%). It's possible that you burned off a fair fraction of the 434 calories just in your higher-intensity exercise performance the next day.

    Looking at it another way, again using the example numbers not your real ones, that's two and a third days delay in reaching ultimate goal weight, the two days where you ate at maintenance calories plus that roughly third of a day that wipes out part of the next day's deficit. IMO, that's not really something worth expending a lot of stress over.

    I'm a pretty small li'l ol' lady, age 65. I've eaten around 6000 calories in *one* day, more than once. Yes, sometimes that included eating a whole pizza by myself. Even on my 5'5", 125 pound body, doing that on the rare, rare occasion has virtually no significant impact on my bodyweight.

    The majority of our days determines the majority of our progress. Rare exceptions are much less important, a drop in the ocean. You'll be fine, without compensatory measures, I'm sure.
  • gooner2525
    gooner2525 Posts: 4 Member
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    benjaminfields25 wrote: »
    In another topic I posted about my difficulties with my weight staying the same, it turns out that my scales were busted and giving me the same reading as before.

    I weighed myself yesterday using a proper set of scales in a pharmacy and my weight is 97kg which is 10kg less than I weighed almost 2 months ago so I am very pleased with the results.

    I purchased a new set of scales and it gives me an accurate reading. I do weight myself on a daily basis and understand that weight will fluctuate.

    After 2-3 months of hardcore dieting (calorie deficit) and exercising at least an hour everyday it seems my hard work is finally paying off.

    I did however go out the other night and got drunk by drinking way too much and the next day I had a huge 15" meat feast pizza and yes it was stupid thing for me to do and I was physically sick after eating it (stomach has obviously shrunk and I did have to throwaway a slice).

    Yeah wasn't the best idea, probably had about 6000 calories in the space of 2 days.

    It did give me a huge boost in energy and my usual brisk walk/interval jog was so much easier today.

    I haven't eaten today as the pizza took care of my hunger, but do intend to have a light dinner and continue my diet this week and won't be having another takeaway any time soon.

    All of that aside, at the start of my diet my waste was 42 inches, I did the exact same measurement today and it is still saying 42 inches, that's on an empty stomach with the same measuring tape I used before.

    So here's my question, why has my waste stayed the same after loosing 10kg? Could it be where I'm just walking and weight is only being lost on other areas of my body?

  • gooner2525
    gooner2525 Posts: 4 Member
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    Hey Ben. Well done for all of your success. I'm down 21 Ibs in 2.5 months and it seems I live a very similar lifestyle, about an hour training each day and a caloric deficit. However that is only Monday to Friday. Sunday I eat kind of okay but don't really track, on a Saturday I allow myself to eat and drink whatever I like. This seems to do me good as it keeps restarting my metabolism and I have yet to stall in my weight loss journey.

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