Confused... Losing inches but not weight?

megnay

OK, when people say this I get so confused. I know muscle weighs more than fat, so maybe that's what this means? I wonder how you can lose inches and not be losing at least a bit of weight. I'm not too hung up on numbers anymore, but am just curious.

Aaron_K123

You lose fat, which is less dense and therefore occupies more volume, and you retain water (which is denser than fat and therefore occupies less volume for the same amount of weight. Fat floats on water, water is denser than fat. Hence, lost inches...same weight.

This is a good thing if your intention is fat loss and its perfectly normal. It is unlikely that it is due to muscle gain as it is almost impossible to gain muscle at a calorie deficit and even if you do gain muscle it takes many months to put on just a small amount.

Amanda_Gx6

First and foremost: Muscle and Fat weigh the same, however muscle is more dense therefore taking up less space. Muscle is smaller than fat a pound is a pound is a pound

you may be losing weight in one area of your body and building muscle in another.

Morgaath

Human body fat: 0.918 grams per cubic centimeter
Human muscle: 1.049 grams per cubic centimeter

Water (@4c): 1.000 grams per cubic centimeter (listing the water as the body has a tendency to hold onto it)
Water (@37c): 0.993 grams per cubic centimeter --- 37c is human body temp (98.6f)
This would be why fat floats to the top of the water, and muscle does not.

1 lbs of fat would be 494.1 cubic centimeters
1 lbs of muscle would be 432.4 cubic centimeters
A difference of 61.7 cubic centimeters = 3.76 cubic inches.
But, despite the size difference, they weigh the same.

Morgaath

And as Arron said, ignore the scale, worry about what the mirror and your clothes tell you.
I have been at about 190lbs for about 4 months, but my clothes are getting loser in the waist, and the mirror is showing I am getting more definition, and I keep adding more weight on to my lifts, and running faster.
My original goal was to hit about 170lbs because MFP asked that, and not what I really wanted, which is what percentage of body fat do I want to get to...and even that has changed as I keep hitting goals: Started at 34%, goal of 24%, hit that and aimed for 20%, hit that and now shooting for 17%, when I hit that....I'll look in the mirror, maybe stay, maybe try for 15%... So -10%, -4%, -3%, and maybe -2% later.

Lizzy622

I would rather lose inches. I have done both - lose pounds but no inches and inches but no pounds. It just depends what your body wants to do at the time. Exercise also strengthens muscles so there is less sag.

megnay

Thanks for the info guys! Trying to educate myself more on all this stuff. It definitely helps when I get on the scale and I gain. This has been happening, a fluctuation of a few pounds, whereas my clothing is getting too loose on me and I'm mentally a lot happier. So seeing those results makes me not care too much about the number!