4 lbs = 1 inch off your waist? 8 to 10 lbs = 1 dress size?

GoRun2
GoRun2 Posts: 451 Member
edited November 2022 in Health and Weight Loss
Google says
- A study found that volunteers lost 1 inch off their waist for every 4 lbs they lost
- 8 to 10 pounds is 1 dress size.

Just curious what is your experience? Of course it varies from person to person
«1

Replies

  • GSPsnBees
    GSPsnBees Posts: 649 Member
    It depends on what size you're starting from. If you look at clothing size charts, plus sizes have a 2-2.5 inch size difference between sizes. Then the larger regular sizes have 1.5 inches and smaller regular sizes drop to an inch between sizes. So if like me, you started at plus size, my first size drop took over 20 lbs. It's successively gotten smaller the closer to goal I get.

    Also for me, 10 lbs = 1 inch lost on my hips and waist no matter where I am. Though I also gain weight all over pretty equally.
  • corinasue1143
    corinasue1143 Posts: 7,464 Member
    Since the day before my hysterectomy 6 months ago, I have lost about 14 pounds, gained 2” in my waist. Now wearing the biggest pants I own, not my biggest shirts.
  • Paindeme
    Paindeme Posts: 11 Member
    edited October 2022
    I think it depends on your fat distribution and height too. I'm 5'2 and it takes me about 10 lbs to lose an inch off my waist, but only 4-5 for my hips. I tend to have pretty small bust/waist measurements for my weight though I store everything below that :D
  • CurvyEmmy
    CurvyEmmy Posts: 225 Member
    Paindeme wrote: »
    I think it depends on your fat distribution and height too. I'm 5'2 and it takes me about 10 lbs to lose an inch off my waist, but only 4-5 for my hips. I tend to have pretty small bust/waist measurements for my weight though I store everything below that :D

    I’m so jealous! I’m the opposite. I wish I had a round butt, but my fat goes to my waist. I hate it :(
  • ninerbuff
    ninerbuff Posts: 48,961 Member
    Genetics matter. I'd like to see the study and how it came to their conclusions.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

    9285851.png
  • garlo12
    garlo12 Posts: 174 Member
    I also think genetics matter and your body shape, because when I was young and even now for the most part I always looked way smaller than my actual weight at the time I would be 145lbs and look 125 and was small on the top and when I was 160 or 165 in my thirties I still wore Junior sized clothes Sz 11&13 It never clicked in my head to go to missus sizes lol. Now, my stomach and back is my biggest part my highest weight was 264 and clothes 20-22 (5'4) I only stayed at that weight a little while because it's like my body said NOPE this is totally not happening ( but that was 2012 10 years ago I was 51 years old the year I joined myfitnesspal) I eventually went on to lose 49 over the years to now (with the help of Diabetes in 2014 I lost 15lbs in one month(March) before I was diagnosed in April of the same year. I said all this to say when I started really gaining weight it went straight to my belly, I've never really had a small waist at 130lbs my waist was 28 I also didn't have hips I had butt, thighs and pretty legs; so at 61 I'm still on the weight lost journey, but on that chart above I still don't fit on it at 216lbs (but my waist is an awful 45) I wear 16-18 and XL not 2X or 18-20 and my bust is 42-DD I used to be 34-B when I weighed 145lbs lol, I have to lose about 15lbs to lose a inch on my waist, I know this is long sorry.
  • dralicephd
    dralicephd Posts: 402 Member
    ninerbuff wrote: »
    Genetics matter. I'd like to see the study and how it came to their conclusions.

    A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
    IDEA Fitness member
    Kickboxing Certified Instructor
    Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition

    9285851.png

    I thought the same thing. How many people were in the study? Age? Men, Women, both?
  • nossmf
    nossmf Posts: 11,335 Member
    I just lump generalized statements like that in with BMI calculations...maybe good for large population averages, but individuals will be all over the place.
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 34,093 Member
    edited October 2022
    I'd like to see the study, too.

    A person can calculate an average for almost anything. If you average together small people losing a bit of weight with extremely obese people losing huge amounts of weight, there will be a numerical average answer for change in inches/sizes. Whether that number provides any useful or actionable information content is a whole different question.

    Same is true for more complicated, sophisticated statistical measures: Apply a tool in a dumb way, get a dumb answer, pretty much.

    My personal experience was as others have said: When I was obese, I had to lose quite a few pounds (tens of them) to drop a size; that took multiple months. Once I got close to a healthy weight, I was dropping sizes much more quickly (small number of weeks), even though I was losing pounds intentionally more slowly.

    For me, inches came of from different places during different phases of loss. At first, I think I was losing thin layers all over, including weird places like face and feet (not to mention visceral fat inside the body). The external body fat around my waist is among the last to go. That means that waist changes are proportionally different at different times.

    I can't imagine either size changes or waist-measurement changes being a linear function (1 inch or size per X pounds) across a large range of weight loss as time passes. But one could calculate an average.
  • BartBVanBockstaele
    BartBVanBockstaele Posts: 623 Member
    edited November 2022
    AnnPT77 wrote: »
    Same is true for more complicated, sophisticated statistical measures: Apply a tool in a dumb way, get a dumb answer, pretty much.
    Sound advice. As for the rest, I have never really tracked any else than weight. The enormous advantage of weight as an indicator is that it is easy, cheap and – if measured with reasonable care – highly reliable. No other indicator I know of is as easy and reliable, to the best of my knowledge. I wish there were. That said, after having lost 60 kg, I am finally seeing that my circumference seems to dropping below 1 m, so I just might start to become more interested in that measurement, even if my rolling fat rolls are a good indication I have some way to go without having to bother about circumferences.

  • GoRun2
    GoRun2 Posts: 451 Member
    It is certainly interesting to see how people lose weight. I'm 5 lbs from my goal. I don't think I will be as thin as I was the last time I weighed that amount. Oh well. I plan to lose 5 lbs and hold tight through the holidays. I'll reevaluate in January. I do have an outfit for NYE that I'd like to fit into.
  • BartBVanBockstaele
    BartBVanBockstaele Posts: 623 Member
    edited November 2022
    GoRun2 wrote: »
    It is certainly interesting to see how people lose weight. I'm 5 lbs from my goal. I don't think I will be as thin as I was the last time I weighed that amount. Oh well. I plan to lose 5 lbs and hold tight through the holidays. I'll reevaluate in January. I do have an outfit for NYE that I'd like to fit into.
    Good for you. I am curious to learn how you (or anybody else) set such precise goals. Personally, I have no goal at all, except for "I will know it when I'm there". Once I think I am there, or very very close, I plan to get an MRI or a DXA to estimate how close that opinion seems to be to reality in order to avoid overshooting the goal, but that's it, and even that is far from set in stone.
  • GoRun2
    GoRun2 Posts: 451 Member
    edited November 2022
    GoRun2 wrote: »
    It is certainly interesting to see how people lose weight. I'm 5 lbs from my goal. I don't think I will be as thin as I was the last time I weighed that amount. Oh well. I plan to lose 5 lbs and hold tight through the holidays. I'll reevaluate in January. I do have an outfit for NYE that I'd like to fit into.
    Good for you. I am curious to learn how you (or anybody else) set such precise goals. Personally, I have no goal at all, except for "I will know it when I'm there". Once I think I am there, or very very close, I plan to get an MRI or a DXA to estimate how close that opinion seems to be to reality in order to avoid overshooting the goal, but that's it, and even that is far from set in stone.

    I used to weigh 125 and fit in the clothes in my closet. I didn't do well with covid and gained a ton of weight. I'm 130 now and hoped that getting to 125 would work.
  • keshaldra
    keshaldra Posts: 101 Member
    kamaphia wrote: »
    Unfortunately, this hasn't been my experience. I have lost 22 lbs and only about 1 inch off my waist.

    I think this is closer to "accurate", and it depends on height very much as well (along with other variables: genetics, etc.). The taller you are, the more weight you have to lose total in order to lose inches around the waist, since you're losing weight off of a greater distributed non-waist area as well. For me, as a 6'2" male, it's roughly 20 pounds/size, give or take

  • BartBVanBockstaele
    BartBVanBockstaele Posts: 623 Member
    edited November 2022
    GoRun2 wrote: »
    GoRun2 wrote: »
    It is certainly interesting to see how people lose weight. I'm 5 lbs from my goal. I don't think I will be as thin as I was the last time I weighed that amount. Oh well. I plan to lose 5 lbs and hold tight through the holidays. I'll reevaluate in January. I do have an outfit for NYE that I'd like to fit into.
    Good for you. I am curious to learn how you (or anybody else) set such precise goals. Personally, I have no goal at all, except for "I will know it when I'm there". Once I think I am there, or very very close, I plan to get an MRI or a DXA to estimate how close that opinion seems to be to reality in order to avoid overshooting the goal, but that's it, and even that is far from set in stone.

    I used to weigh 125 and fit in the clothes in my closet. I didn't do well with covid and gained a ton of weight. I'm 130 now and hoped that getting to 125 would work.
    That certainly makes sense. Thank you. That means our situations are quite different. I have been fat for so long I don't even remotely remember how much I used to weigh. I do remember that my father called me a fat pig when I weighed 58 kg, but I have reasons to think that the 58 is just a false memory from about 40 years ago.

  • GoRun2
    GoRun2 Posts: 451 Member
    GoRun2 wrote: »
    GoRun2 wrote: »
    It is certainly interesting to see how people lose weight. I'm 5 lbs from my goal. I don't think I will be as thin as I was the last time I weighed that amount. Oh well. I plan to lose 5 lbs and hold tight through the holidays. I'll reevaluate in January. I do have an outfit for NYE that I'd like to fit into.
    Good for you. I am curious to learn how you (or anybody else) set such precise goals. Personally, I have no goal at all, except for "I will know it when I'm there". Once I think I am there, or very very close, I plan to get an MRI or a DXA to estimate how close that opinion seems to be to reality in order to avoid overshooting the goal, but that's it, and even that is far from set in stone.

    I used to weigh 125 and fit in the clothes in my closet. I didn't do well with covid and gained a ton of weight. I'm 130 now and hoped that getting to 125 would work.
    That certainly makes sense. Thank you. That means our situations are quite different. I have been fat for so long I don't even remotely remember how much I used to weigh. I do remember that my father called me a fat pig when I weighed 58 kg, but I have reasons to think that the 58 is just a false memory from about 40 years ago.

    So sorry your father was a jersey. Hope you don't mind me saying so.
  • Dougf09
    Dougf09 Posts: 10 Member
    GoRun2 wrote: »
    Google says
    - A study found that volunteers lost 1 inch off their waist for every 4 lbs they lost
    - 8 to 10 pounds is 1 dress size.

    Just curious what is your experience? Of course it varies from person to person

    I like the paper towel roll analogy. 1 piece of paper off a full roll does really nothing visually. But the final piece of paper off the roll wraps around the roll 2-3 times. I feel this holds true in weight loss. The closer you are to your goal weight the more noticeable each lb becomes.
  • davert123
    davert123 Posts: 1,568 Member
    Its too variable to say anything like this. If the same study were extended then I am sure it would have found completely different results.
  • etraderpaul
    etraderpaul Posts: 5 Member
    6'5 male ... for me it's ten pounds per inch. I have lost 170 lbs and that ratio has been fairly consistent.
  • SheilaDundon
    SheilaDundon Posts: 8 Member
    I started losing in January 2021. I went from 183 down to 160. I had liposuction on my belly, and all around my middle. The doctor said he removed 15 lbs of subcutaneous fat. It showed in the mirror but no so much on the scale or with the tape measure. He said it would take a year to finally complete. I don't have the rolly polly fat anymore, but I still have the visceral fat behind the abdominal wall. They say that is the most dangerous fat. I stopped using MFP for about 9 months and I'm back on in the last week. I've dropped 3 pounds and weigh about 165. An 8-10 pound weight loss is about right for 1 dress size for me. I'm wearing some 10s and some 12s. I'm 5'3". I'd like to get down to somewhere under 150. I've set the loss rate on MFP at 1/2 pound per week because then I'm losing on a calorie amount that will be close to maintenance (I think?) . I's a life long journey, but I do feel like I am happier and have more direction in my life when I am eating better, exercising moderately and losing a bit. thanks for listening.
  • LaurieKane1
    LaurieKane1 Posts: 6 Member
    I have gone from 187 now I’m 137, a 50 pound loss (and yes I am proud of myself). 20 years ago when I was this weight I was in a size 5 jeans, now I am in size 10. My bra is still 40 and my tops only went down to large. So there is no way this could be the same for everyone when it isn’t even the same for me in a span of 20 years.
  • ronicaw57
    ronicaw57 Posts: 117 Member
    When I was squeezing into a size 24, but really a size 26- 28, it took 25 pounds to go down a size. Now at 36 pounds to goal, I am losing inches because I walk about an hour 5 days a week. I am a size 14 now, but will probably get to a size 10 at goal. I am 6 feet, so weight loss is less noticeable at smaller amounts. I am not going down a size at 10 pounds, more like 15.
  • nooshi713
    nooshi713 Posts: 4,877 Member
    edited November 2022
    10 lbs is about one dress size for me. I would guess I lose an inch of waist for every 10 lbs of weight.

    At my heaviest weight of 150 lbs, I have a waist of 30” and dress size 10-12.

    At my lighter weight of 120 lbs, I have a waist size of 27” and a dress size of 4.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,052 Member
    GoRun2 wrote: »
    GoRun2 wrote: »
    It is certainly interesting to see how people lose weight. I'm 5 lbs from my goal. I don't think I will be as thin as I was the last time I weighed that amount. Oh well. I plan to lose 5 lbs and hold tight through the holidays. I'll reevaluate in January. I do have an outfit for NYE that I'd like to fit into.
    Good for you. I am curious to learn how you (or anybody else) set such precise goals. Personally, I have no goal at all, except for "I will know it when I'm there". Once I think I am there, or very very close, I plan to get an MRI or a DXA to estimate how close that opinion seems to be to reality in order to avoid overshooting the goal, but that's it, and even that is far from set in stone.

    I used to weigh 125 and fit in the clothes in my closet. I didn't do well with covid and gained a ton of weight. I'm 130 now and hoped that getting to 125 would work.
    That certainly makes sense. Thank you. That means our situations are quite different. I have been fat for so long I don't even remotely remember how much I used to weigh. I do remember that my father called me a fat pig when I weighed 58 kg, but I have reasons to think that the 58 is just a false memory from about 40 years ago.

    I have a clear memory, 35 years old, of a male coworker calling an actress from the US soap opera General Hospital a "fat cow." She clearly wasn't. He may have been trying to make a joke. It wasn't funny.
  • BartBVanBockstaele
    BartBVanBockstaele Posts: 623 Member
    edited November 2022
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    GoRun2 wrote: »
    GoRun2 wrote: »
    It is certainly interesting to see how people lose weight. I'm 5 lbs from my goal. I don't think I will be as thin as I was the last time I weighed that amount. Oh well. I plan to lose 5 lbs and hold tight through the holidays. I'll reevaluate in January. I do have an outfit for NYE that I'd like to fit into.
    Good for you. I am curious to learn how you (or anybody else) set such precise goals. Personally, I have no goal at all, except for "I will know it when I'm there". Once I think I am there, or very very close, I plan to get an MRI or a DXA to estimate how close that opinion seems to be to reality in order to avoid overshooting the goal, but that's it, and even that is far from set in stone.

    I used to weigh 125 and fit in the clothes in my closet. I didn't do well with covid and gained a ton of weight. I'm 130 now and hoped that getting to 125 would work.
    That certainly makes sense. Thank you. That means our situations are quite different. I have been fat for so long I don't even remotely remember how much I used to weigh. I do remember that my father called me a fat pig when I weighed 58 kg, but I have reasons to think that the 58 is just a false memory from about 40 years ago.

    I have a clear memory, 35 years old, of a male coworker calling an actress from the US soap opera General Hospital a "fat cow." She clearly wasn't. He may have been trying to make a joke. It wasn't funny.
    Contexts are important, of course. I never had a problem being called fat. I hated being fat, but since it was (and is) reality, that was the appropriate word. Of course, from there to calling someone fat who isn't, is a big step and I most definitely disagree with that.

    Anyway, success on your journey. You have less far to go than I have, and that is wonderful!

  • Indiri13
    Indiri13 Posts: 104 Member
    Think of your body as a roll of paper towels and the individual pieces as pounds. At the outside of the roll it takes multiple pieces to cover the outside so to lose a layer takes a larger amount of pounds. As you get closer to the inside of the roll it takes less pieces to go around it so losing a layer takes a smaller amount of pounds. When I'm at my largest I needed to lose 20-25 pounds to go down a size from 18 to 16 (this amount needed will vary depending on your height, etc). At my smallest I only have to lose 5 pounds to go from a size 8 to a 6 because there are less "paper towels" around the outside.