Read this if the scale is not moving

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2

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  • DixieDarlin1987
    DixieDarlin1987 Posts: 553 Member
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    this is really great, thank you for sharing! I've been stuck at the same weight for quite a while now, even though I've been busting my butt and watching what I eat. But I know things are changing...slowly. I can see a big difference in my arms, they're BIGGER so they must weigh more, but they're also prettier than they've ever been before. The changes are much less noticeable in my thighs and butt but if it's happening in my arms, I'm sure it's happening elsewhere too...So keep at it everyone!
  • yanicka
    yanicka Posts: 1,004 Member
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    I think her scales must be faulty lol!

    Then mine must be too LOL

    I started MFP in november 2010, went from a size 10 to a size 4 with a 4 pounds lost!!!!
  • mummum2
    mummum2 Posts: 415 Member
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    That's why I take measurements, those are my moral booster, when you see the inches loss! don't like using the scale at all, but do for MFP.
  • allisoncook87
    allisoncook87 Posts: 160 Member
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    You may be putting your body in starvation mode find out your BMR and never go under that. If you need to eat more you gotta excercise more :) Hope this helps
  • momof26
    momof26 Posts: 83
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    Thank you for sharing!!!
  • pammbroo
    pammbroo Posts: 550 Member
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    Thank you so much for this! Definitely gives hope and inspiration to those of us who fight continually with that mean 'ol scale! :happy:
  • velix
    velix Posts: 437 Member
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    hahaha re: broken scale!

    my weight loss has been really slow (slow and steady wins the race right?) I lost 30 lbs a year and a half ago, and have kept it off, so I am not going to complain too much - but I was getting discouraged - then a girlfriend of mine came to visit last September and she showed me her weight loss / body toning in 12 weeks via pictures - and the change was incredible. Since then, I have started taking pictures once every 3 weeks. I have lost 12lbs since the first week of November and while each picture doesn't look like much on its own ( I am currently at 213lbs), when they are lined up, I can really see the changes. I would share them, but silly me did the pics in bra & underwear ... .

    The progressive pictures are great motivation in two ways. When I feel gross, I look at the progress, when I feel comfortable (and slack off), I look back at the pictures (especially the early ones with back fat and all) and just sit and stare, and think about whether that's really what I want to look like for the rest of my life..to acknowledge progress but realize that I am not done. It might sound self-deprecating, but it is actually a healthy dose of reality.
  • jacksonde24
    jacksonde24 Posts: 103
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    This was a great article. The scale isn't moving for me either but last night I could have swore I looked smaller when I looked in the gym mirrors during kickboxing class.
  • myofibril
    myofibril Posts: 4,500 Member
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    LMAO. I"m thinking the same thing. No way she can be 160 and a size 4. That's a huge amount of muscle and it can't fit in a size 4!! I'm a size 4 and I weigh 113!! I want to know what her height is. I'm 5'0

    The thing is whilst 1lbs of muscle weighs excatly the same as 1lb of fat (obviously!) that pound of muscle is much denser and takes up far less space than the same weight of fat.

    Thinsk of it this way. You have two cardboard boxes of exactly the same size in front of you. In front of one box is a pile of marshmallows in 500g packets. In the front of the other are 500g slabs of chocolate. Obviously you will be able to pack in far more slabs of chocolate into one box in comparsion to amount of marshmallows in the other box given the difference in dimensions between them. Therefore the box containing the chocolates will end up weighing more when filled to the top than the one containing the marshmallows.
  • maeflower1234
    maeflower1234 Posts: 87 Member
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    I enjoyed the pictures. I couldn't read all of it (I'm at work) but did she say what she did to workout?
  • dlaplume2
    dlaplume2 Posts: 1,658 Member
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    Thanks for sharing. That was awesome.
  • TerriMama23
    TerriMama23 Posts: 17
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    oh wow thanks for sharing that article with us .... i am glad to have read that today
  • Jessica_Lo
    Jessica_Lo Posts: 199 Member
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    LMAO. I"m thinking the same thing. No way she can be 160 and a size 4. That's a huge amount of muscle and it can't fit in a size 4!! I'm a size 4 and I weigh 113!! I want to know what her height is. I'm 5'0

    The thing is whilst 1lbs of muscle weighs excatly the same as 1lb of fat (obviously!) that pound of muscle is much denser and takes up far less space than the same weight of fat.

    Thinsk of it this way. You have two cardboard boxes of exactly the same size in front of you. In front of one box is a pile of marshmallows in 500g packets. In the front of the other are 500g slabs of chocolate. Obviously you will be able to pack in far more slabs of chocolate into one box in comparsion to amount of marshmallows in the other box given the difference in dimensions between them. Therefore the box containing the chocolates will end up weighing more when filled to the top than the one containing the marshmallows.

    I get that...but that much denser? So say we are the same size and we are the same size clothes. What she is saying is she has 50+ lbs more muscle than me? That just doesn't make any sense. Not that I know about this at all. I plea ignorance, but just thinking of it logically. Now if she was 10 - 20 lbs I would say ok, maybe thats reasonable. But 50 lbs?
  • wolfchild59
    wolfchild59 Posts: 2,608 Member
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    Seeing blog entries like that really make me wish I'd started this whole journey out with pics and measurements rather than just the scale. I started in March 2010 at 180 pounds and lost 40 lbs by about the end of August/early September. By then I'd dropped three pants sizes and was feeling pretty good...then I plateaued. That made me realize that I had put off working out long enough, ignored all my excuses and started with a light cardio workout that I slowly built up over time and added some weights for toning as well. Mostly hoping that it would help me break through and lose the last ten pounds I'd wanted to.

    Well, I've only "lost" two more pounds since I started working out, but I've also dropped two more pants sizes since then. So obviously I can tell that I'm losing inches and size, but the scale lies and tells me that I've barely made any advancements. While the scale was definitely my friend before I started working out, it's kind of just there as a check-in point these days.
  • neelia
    neelia Posts: 750 Member
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    Great story!
  • myofibril
    myofibril Posts: 4,500 Member
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    I get that...but that much denser? So say we are the same size and we are the same size clothes. What she is saying is she has 50+ lbs more muscle than me? That just doesn't make any sense. Not that I know about this at all. I plea ignorance, but just thinking of it logically. Now if she was 10 - 20 lbs I would say ok, maybe thats reasonable. But 50 lbs?

    Actually, I think you are right on that score. 50lbs more is a LOT even taking into account potential difference in bf% and height (unless she is fairly tall as you indicated in your first post.)

    Would be interesting to know her full stats. Makes me wonder...
  • rockabyesarojane
    rockabyesarojane Posts: 471
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    bump!
  • yanicka
    yanicka Posts: 1,004 Member
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    bump for the evening peoples
  • pipeline516
    pipeline516 Posts: 1
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    Good point, muscle weighs much more than fat.
  • skinnyack
    skinnyack Posts: 683
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    I hope I'm not a size 4 and 160 either as she said... but i can vouch for a smaller sizing change. I was wearing a loose 12 at about 162, got into 10s at 160 and have since been able to fit into a size 8 (same brand, same cut) still weighing 160. Change took about 45 days. Size 8 isn't perfect yet- but I'm kinda excited looking at this. I may be a very hot 145 and that's only 15 lbs away- which is in line with my original goal. Had started to worry I needed to try to drop to 130, which was slightly intimidating. I need to take my pics again to see if I can tell comparison wise. I'm so glad she documented so well.

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