Losing pounds not inches

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Pawsfurthought
Pawsfurthought Posts: 13 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Hey guys...need a little help and advice. I have lost 16 pounds, but none of my clothes are fitting me any differently. I have been staying within my calorie goals, and exercising regularly (usually this means walking our two dogs for at least 20 minutes briskly). I'm trying to make changes that I can stick to long term. But I am getting a bit discouraged. At first, it was awesome to watch the numbers on the scale go down, and don't get me wrong, that's still great, but what I really need is to lose body mass, inches, not just pounds. Is this seriously still just water weight??? :noway: Say it ain't so!!!

Any advice/words of wisdom? It's getting hard to stay motivated. :frown:

Thanks!!!

Nicole

Replies

  • dad106
    dad106 Posts: 4,868 Member
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    Lift weights!

    Cardio is great and all... but it's not going to make much of a difference in the long run.
  • azmarante
    azmarante Posts: 8 Member
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    Stick to it and don't give up!

    It might depend on how tall you are. If you are on the taller side, even though you are losing weight you might not look it compared to someone who is shorter.
    Try imagining a German Shepherd losing 10 pounds compared to a Chihuahua losing 10 pounds - which dog do you think will show it more? (Sorry, this was the only analogy I could think of atm haha)

    Another reason is that we can't spot reduce, meaning 2 inches isn't going to come off your tummy just because that's where your trouble spot is. That 2 inches lost can be divided from your neck, your knee, your calf, your back, etc. So in other words you might be losing a tenth of an inch in one place but it doesn't really show on your tape measure.

    Like the above poster said, you might want to try to do some strength training or lifting weights. You might be losing weight, but you want to be losing fat not muscle. Fat takes up more space than muscle does. Muscle also weighs more than fat. So if you are losing muscle but not fat, you might be losing weight but not inches. Same thing for the other way, if you are losing fat but not muscle, you might not be losing weight but you'll be losing inches. Hope that makes sense.

    So the best thing to do is to try to retain muscle mass and lose fat. The best way to do that is do your cardio while including some strength training.

    Finally, you might just need wait a little more! Don't quote me on this but I read somewhere that it takes time for your body to show the effects of weight loss but it doesn't mean it won't!

    The same thing has happened to me, but I started waiting 2 weeks before taking out the tape measure after I see weight loss. Since doing that I've been seeing more physical changes. =)

    Don't lose hope and stick to your healthy plan!
  • nxd10
    nxd10 Posts: 4,570 Member
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    That just seems odd. Are you sure you're just not noticing it? Those 16 pounds came from somewhere!

    Toning will certainly help.

    You do have a lot to lose, so you certainly won't change sizes for a while. I'm tall and wore the same size over a 40 pound range. But I've lost around 20 pounds and my clothes fit noticably different - and I am also a walker.

    Take those puppies of yours for a 40 minute walk. And, use a pedometer and a clock to check your speed. At 3 mph I get no real muscle/cardio benefit from walking. But at 5 mph the muscles change noticeably.
  • Pawsfurthought
    Pawsfurthought Posts: 13 Member
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    Thanks, I will try up the work out stuff. I know I need to lose, but I really just wanted to make changes that I could see myself sticking to long term - and I am here to tell you I HATE exercising. So I know that a weight lifting regimen, while effective for the short term to get me there, is not something I will do throughout the rest of my life.
    Are you guys working out a lot/ If so, what are you doing?
  • dad106
    dad106 Posts: 4,868 Member
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    Thanks, I will try up the work out stuff. I know I need to lose, but I really just wanted to make changes that I could see myself sticking to long term - and I am here to tell you I HATE exercising. So I know that a weight lifting regimen, while effective for the short term to get me there, is not something I will do throughout the rest of my life.
    Are you guys working out a lot/ If so, what are you doing?

    I work out roughly 6 days a week:
    3 days run and 3 days weights.

    Also a weight lifting regimen is not just going to be effective for the short term.. it's going to affect everything you do in life. It will help make you stronger in real life so that you can lift heavy things and not struggle. It will help keep your bones strong, so that they don't weaken later on in life. It will help retain your lean mass so that when you do lose all the weight, you can eat more instead of less to maintain.

    There are so many benefits to lifting weights... and Once you get into it and see the strength progress, you get hooked.
  • sgarrard01
    sgarrard01 Posts: 213 Member
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    Sometimes for the first load of weight loss you may not see a big difference in size but certainly on the scales, this is down to 3 things:

    1) You will loose quite a large portion of water during the first few weeks
    2) There are three types of fat Subcutaneous (under the skin), Visceral (around your organs), Intramuscular (marbeling in your muscles). The first types of fat to come off your body (and some of the most dangerous) are visceral and intermuscular which is why you start to feel alot better in the first fewe weeks/months although these are all internal so you dont see a big difference externally!
    3) After the above has been expended (in part) the subcutanious fat comes of in the order it went on (think of it like peeling an onion) therfore you have to take measuremens from all over to see a difference, which can take quite a while...

    Stick with it! you'll see the changes soon!

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