Help to explain pounds lost???

Hkruse11
Hkruse11 Posts: 13 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Ok....this may sound like a silly question but I am sooooo confused. I weigh in at my doctors office once a week. She has a fancy scale that tells you how many pounds you've lost and how many pounds of fat you've lost. It measures your body water weight, fat free mass, etc. Well yesterday she told me I lost a pound off my weight and 2 1/2 pounds of fat. But my actual weight only went down 1 pound. So how did I manage to lose 2 1/2 pounds of fat without it affecting my actual weight?? Can someone please explain this to me??? Thank you!

Replies

  • addmorecloud
    addmorecloud Posts: 78 Member
    Maybe you had built some muscle, or were holding more water that day?
  • newdaydawning79
    newdaydawning79 Posts: 1,503 Member
    Maybe you had built some muscle, or were holding more water that day?

    Exactly what I was going to say. :)
  • agthorn
    agthorn Posts: 1,844 Member
    Probably water. It would be almost impossible to build any significant amount of muscle in a week.
  • FierceFox81
    FierceFox81 Posts: 89
    Maybe you had built some muscle, or were holding more water that day?

    Yup :) Because muscle weighs more then fat. My guess with that would be you lost 2 1/2 lbs of fat (YAY!) and gained some muscle (BIGGER YAY!). That's awesome and really a great thing. The more muscle you gain the faster and easier it is for your body to burn that fat away. Keep up the good work!
  • DocMarr
    DocMarr Posts: 132 Member
    It is to do with your lean to fat ratio. It means that you lost fat but gained muscle. In this case you lost 2.5lb of fat but gained 1.5 lb of muscle so overall you only lost a lb in weight. Muscle is more dense and takes up less space than fat, so you can weigh the same but seem slimmer.

    For example. between April and October last year I didn't lose a pound of weight. I stayed 67kg for all those months, but in that time I continued to lose fat and gain msucle at the same rate - so my fat % went down and I lost 3 inches off my waist - even though my weight on the scales stayed exactly the same.

    That's why scales on their own are not a great measure of success. It can seem like you are on a plateau and not losing weight but if you are losing fat and gaining muscle then you are succeeding. Well done on your fat loss! :)
  • Hkruse11
    Hkruse11 Posts: 13 Member
    Thank you all for the explanations. I feel much better now knowing that I'm still making progress. It's a slow journey but I'm determined to be successful!
  • AZKristi
    AZKristi Posts: 1,801 Member
    Your body weight fluctuates depending on how much undigested food is in your stomach/intestines and how much water is retained by your body. If you drink a gallon of water before you weigh, you will obviously get a higher number on the scale - but you obviously don't store additional body fat by drinking water. Likewise, if you go to the bathroom before weighing you will weigh less. You may excrete water, or undigested food/fats, but you don't crap out stored body fat.
  • sijomial
    sijomial Posts: 19,809 Member
    No matter how fancy the machine is there will be a degree of inaccuracy. Assuming it's using bio-impedance it can be affected by simple things such as having a full stomach, full bladder, glass of water before measuring, dehydration etc..
    You should try and be as consistent as you can be before testing weekly but in reality it's an estimate not an exact measure. Useful as a trend over time but wouldn't be too hung up on the results week on week.

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