weight loss or inch loss

Becca21
Becca21 Posts: 361 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
hiya
what do you go by inches lost or number on the scales. and why
one week i lost 2lb second 3lb and for the past 3 week s nothing
but ive lost a total of 13.5inches of my body..

Replies

  • TavistockToad
    TavistockToad Posts: 35,719 Member
    noone else knows the number on the scale, but everyone can see when you lose inches...
  • natm91
    natm91 Posts: 39
    Both but i prefer inches lost everyone can see them and to answer your question muscle weighs more than fat so if your toning up loosing inches you may not loose weight but you look better for it :D
  • chellebublz
    chellebublz Posts: 568 Member
    I try to look at both. I've lost 11 pounds but no inches yet.
  • Fozzi43
    Fozzi43 Posts: 2,984 Member
    noone else knows the number on the scale, but everyone can see when you lose inches...

    This^^

    Measuring wins everytime.
  • Becca21
    Becca21 Posts: 361 Member
    Both but i prefer inches lost everyone can see them and to answer your question muscle weighs more than fat so if your toning up loosing inches you may not loose weight but you look better for it :D

    muscle doesn't weigh more than fat
    a lb is a lb no matter what?
  • ptewasin
    ptewasin Posts: 15 Member
    Watching my weight makes me nuts, and truthfully, I don't care if i weigh a ton if I can wear a size 10. This is how i stayed the same size all my adult life until an automobile
    accident change my whole life style: I decided what size I wanted to be and would not buy larger clothes, ever (unless I was pregnant). :drinker:
  • 89nunu
    89nunu Posts: 1,082 Member
    Both but i prefer inches lost everyone can see them and to answer your question muscle weighs more than fat so if your toning up loosing inches you may not loose weight but you look better for it :D

    muscle doesn't weigh more than fat
    a lb is a lb no matter what?

    But the same volume of muscles weighs more than that volume of fat...
  • neandermagnon
    neandermagnon Posts: 7,436 Member
    loss of inches = loss of fat ,usually, if you don't suffer from intestinal bloating or something, but even if you do then loss of inches = not bloated any more. It could be a loss of muscle tissue, although if your muscles appear to shrink when you're not training them, it's probably just loss of glycogen and water from the muscles (you'd have to not train and eat insufficient protein and/or calories for quite a long time before you'd get enough actual loss of muscle tissue to lose inches as muscle is more compact than fat)

    loss of inches = generally good news, unless you've been totally sedentary and not eaten properly

    loss of weight could be anything, it could be loss of fat, it could be loss of bone density, it could be loss of muscle, it could be (and often is!!) loss of water, it could be that you chopped your leg off or something (that's a way to lose a lot of scale weight in a very short time, and illustrates that weight loss is not the goal, fat loss is)

    loss of weight = could be good news, could be bad news, could be water weight screwing with your head


    personally, I don't do one or the other, I do both and also skinfold measurements and use all of these to determine if my body composition is moving in the right direction (i.e. more muscle and less body fat). Scale weight is not the be all and end all, but in combination with other information like inches, skinfolds, what you look like in the mirror and how your clothes fit, it is useful.
  • ladyraven68
    ladyraven68 Posts: 2,003 Member
    Both but i prefer inches lost everyone can see them and to answer your question muscle weighs more than fat so if your toning up loosing inches you may not loose weight but you look better for it :D

    muscle doesn't weigh more than fat
    a lb is a lb no matter what?

    By volume, muscle does weigh more than fat.
  • neandermagnon
    neandermagnon Posts: 7,436 Member
    Both but i prefer inches lost everyone can see them and to answer your question muscle weighs more than fat so if your toning up loosing inches you may not loose weight but you look better for it :D

    muscle doesn't weigh more than fat
    a lb is a lb no matter what?

    By volume, muscle does weigh more than fat.

    ^^^^ correct

    muscle is denser than fat

    1000cm cubed of muscle is heavier than 1000cm cubed of fat (or whatever volume you happen to specify)
  • LindseyAlyssa
    LindseyAlyssa Posts: 156
    I'm all for measurements. I've been stuck at the same weight for a bit, and yet my measurements are going down. Too many variables factor into weight loss you see on a scale, so I found it's less stressful to focus on measurements. And as someone said, no one knows how much you weigh unless you tell them. I'd rather focus on my visual appearance (and general health) than stress over a number that may or may not accurately represent my progress.
  • Lyadeia
    Lyadeia Posts: 4,603 Member
    I prefer inches lost every time. I measure everything, including the scale weight, to see a progression, but when it comes down to it, it's the inches lost or gained that changes my dress size.
  • hifromjamers1984
    hifromjamers1984 Posts: 300 Member
    Inches, definately. It's much more encouraging than the scale sometimes. Especially when the scale goes up but your measurements go WAY down. :)
  • alwayskungfu
    alwayskungfu Posts: 92
    Inches are the real teller, and never let your muscles go they fire your metabolism!
  • froggy77064
    froggy77064 Posts: 49 Member
    inches for me as well. my 1st go around at losing weight,i got down to 206 from 260+.mainly lost it by running and eating right. stopped running during the winter(injury) and put most of it back on,got back up to 245 :(
    this time around i added weight trianing and some cardio(bad knee still).i'm down to 218 but size wise my closes fit looser than they did at 206. i feel better and am a lot happier this go around.

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