losing weight but not inches

jaymek92

hello all!
i'm in a bit of a curious predicament here.
in the past year or so, i've gone from my lowest weight of around 145 to my highest weight of 180. that whole time, i could wear american eagle size 10 jeans and the snugness didn't change much. i just assumed that i was building muscle but also gaining fat as i gained weight, which is why my measurements didn't change too significantly. they changed maybe 1-2 inches.
now, since january, i've been eating a mostly clean diet, training for a half marathon, doing crossfit on weekends, and lifting heavy weights. as a result, i've lost 19 pounds off of my 5'4" frame in the past 11.5 weeks and am now at 155.
but my measurements aren't changing. i haven't lost anything off of my bust, my waist, my hips, or my thighs. my high hip (around my belly button) has gone down about an inch and i don't know how much smaller, but my upper arms have gotten a bit smaller.
i'm not losing much (if any muscle), because all of my lifts have increased. i went from deadlifting the bar to hitting a new one rep max last week of 160. i went from squatting 45 to 100. my bench went from 45 to 75. i can now hold a wall handstand for 10-15 seconds before i lose my balance or my wrists start to hurt, while before i couldn't even tip back because my shoulders were too weak.
i haven't noticed too much difference in my body composition. i've noticed that my hamstrings are starting to get a little bit bigger now (as in i can see a curve whereas before they were totally flat) and i don't have the rolls of back fat anymore.
but other than that, nothing.
so my question: where are my lost pounds coming from?
i can see some of them being from water weight, but not all 19. we've all seen those pictures of how huge x pounds of fat is, so why is losing it not taking inches off of my body?
am i doomed to have my body measurements stay the same no matter how much weight i lose? that would suck, considering i have four pairs of jeans the next size down just waiting for me to lose enough inches off my hips/high hips!

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lizard053

Perhaps you are losing both muscle and fat? Or your body is rearranging your weight so that the inches aren't coming off? I'm not sure, it's really bizarre! Congrats on the weight loss and the increased lifting! That's totally awesome!

I know there is fat that can sit among your organs and within your muscles, perhaps that's melting away. I really am at a loss! Sorry.

dg09

By looking at pictures of myself, I can tell that it's very weird how losing lbs/inches works. Some I would lose a big chunk of weight (30-40) and not see a difference, then I would lose 10-15 and the difference would be really noticeable.

I can't say for sure for you, because we obviously differ in size/gender etc, but I'd say just keep at it, which I'm sure you will. Eventually when the lbs comes off, and so will the inches.

jaymek92

You sort of answered your own question by stating that you didn't gain but 1-2 inches when you gained weight. Why would you expect to lose more inches than you gained?

Everyone carries their weight differently. Is your face/neck thinner? Are your wrists smaller? Those jeans may never fit as it could be your bone & muscle structure making you that size. I know no matter how hard I try that I'll never get below a size 8 cause of my hip bones... even when I was under 120 in high school I still was in a size 8.

no and no. the only time i've ever noticed a difference in my face/neck is when i was extremely bloated during school pictures of freshman year.
i carry most of my fat between my natural waist and my mid-thighs, so i would expect to lose some inches there eventually.
the weird thing is that in most places i measure, like my upper thighs and high hips, the amount of fat that i can grab has decreased, but the inches are the same. if i was gaining weight, i could understand that because then i would be building muscle in those places at the same volume i'm losing fat, but my weight has decreased.

jaymek92

Perhaps you are losing both muscle and fat? Or your body is rearranging your weight so that the inches aren't coming off? I'm not sure, it's really bizarre! Congrats on the weight loss and the increased lifting! That's totally awesome!

I know there is fat that can sit among your organs and within your muscles, perhaps that's melting away. I really am at a loss! Sorry.

thanks!
i didn't consider visceral fat. hopefully i'm losing that! i can't see me losing much more weight without losing inches if that's the case. i mean, how much visceral fat can one girl have?

ThisisMiss

It is weird, isn't it? All I can say is that I've lost nearly 14lbs and have only lost about half an inch around my hips and waist and that's it! Hopefully we both see some inches coming off, yeah?