Why do I lose inches but not weight?

Muscle weighs more than fat, so if you are losing inches but not weight then you are replacing fat with muscle. That's good.

Your calorie count seems too low. Was that an average day?

A pound of fat = a pound of muscle = a pound of cheese.

A pound of fat TAKES UP LESS SPACE than a pound of lean muscle. You can lose fat, gain muscle, and not lose weight. Focus on the inches.

Muscle weighs more than fat....

I'm 5ft4, I've been the gym about 3 years but only started the right exercises this year. I've dropped jean and top sizes from a size uk 14 to a 12 even my bust size has gone from a 38 to a 36. I've been a 11st ever since even though I have changed sizes.
I still have 2.5 st to lose. Although I've been quite on/off in going to the gym for the past few months.

I have an hourglass figure, I do notice I put on muscle easily. The type of exercise my PT gives me have been HIIT cardio/weights or cardio & body weights with a number of reps.


Any ideas why I'm losing inches but not losing weight? Could it be to do with calories? sometimes I don't eat too much or I find it hard to make up calories eating healthier and when I have counted my calories it gets to between 900-1100 .

First, congratulations on losing inches ... that's some success and should be celebrated.

Second - the posters who've suggested you need to eat more calories are likely right. At 11st (about 154 lbs), 19yrs old and 5'4" tall your BMR (what you'd need to maintain weight if you were on 24/7 bedrest) is 1529 calories according to the most common formula.

If you were to rest 16 hrs a day, work at a desk 7.5hrs a day and exercise half an hour a day, your TDEE would be 1900 calories... If you're more active than that it's likely even higher. As such 900-1100 calories a day does you no favors. If I were you I'd up my calories to about 1400-1500 for a few weeks (unless you have a thyroid or other metabolic condition) and see how it goes. You may find both inches AND weight come off, and you'll often get higher energy levels to-boot.

So is the MFP calories wrong with 1200cals? I'd probably only go 3 times to the gym a week and 4 times if I can manage. How do you make up the calories I can't seem to eat enough calories ? Also I'll be dairy free haven't started as of yet I was slowly getting into it.

Muscle weighs more than fat, so if you are losing inches but not weight then you are replacing fat with muscle. That's good.

Your calorie count seems too low. Was that an average day?

A pound of fat = a pound of muscle = a pound of cheese.

A pound of fat TAKES UP LESS SPACE than a pound of lean muscle. You can lose fat, gain muscle, and not lose weight. Focus on the inches.

*sigh* One cubic inch of muscle weighs more than one cubic inch of fat. (If you can add implied words to make someone else's sentence fit your meaning then so can I.)

And that's a very different thing than saying muscle weighs more than fat. That actually confuses people. It's better for everyone if you say something like "muscle takes up less space than fat, and has a tighter firmer appearance."

And elephants weigh the same as mice. After all, 10 tons of elephants weighs the same as 10 tons of mice. Actually, nothing in existence weighs more than anything else. Everything weighs exactly the same amount, you just have to adjust the volume of things to get that same weight. SMH

Everyone with any analytical thinking ability whatsoever knows that when a person says muscle weighs more than fat, they are refering to per unit volume. And per unit volume, muscle DOES weigh more than fat.

Muscle weighs more than fat, so if you are losing inches but not weight then you are replacing fat with muscle. That's good.

Your calorie count seems too low. Was that an average day?

A pound of fat = a pound of muscle = a pound of cheese.

A pound of fat TAKES UP LESS SPACE than a pound of lean muscle. You can lose fat, gain muscle, and not lose weight. Focus on the inches.

*sigh* One cubic inch of muscle weighs more than one cubic inch of fat. (If you can add implied words to make someone else's sentence fit your meaning then so can I.)

And that's a very different thing than saying muscle weighs more than fat. That actually confuses people. It's better for everyone if you say something like "muscle takes up less space than fat, and has a tighter firmer appearance."

And elephants weigh the same as mice. After all, 10 tons of elephants weighs the same as 10 tons of mice. Actually, nothing in existence weighs more than anything else. Everything weighs exactly the same amount, you just have to adjust the volume of things to get that same weight. SMH

Everyone with any analytical thinking ability whatsoever knows that when a person says muscle weighs more than fat, they are refering to per unit volume. And per unit volume, muscle DOES weigh more than fat.

Elephant and mouse are count nouns. An elephant weighs more than a mouse.

Fat and muscle are (in this context) mass nouns. You can't say a fat weighs more than a muscle.

I see people making mistakes on things because they hear "muscle weighs more than fat" and they don't quite understand it. You and I understand what it means, but it leads some people down the wrong path. Being more explicit by saying that muscle takes up less space than fat, muscle is smaller and tighter than fat, etc, is more helpful and less prone to cause confusion or lead to incorrect conclusions.

You say "Everyone with any analytical thinking ability whatsoever...." Have you met many people? There are a lot of them with no analytical thinking ability

Muscle weighs more than fat, so if you are losing inches but not weight then you are replacing fat with muscle. That's good.

Your calorie count seems too low. Was that an average day?

You don't replace fat with muscle and you will not build muscle while at such a large calorie deficit. When you eat at a deficit to lose weight you lose fat, water and muscle in the process. The OP is NOT building muscle with such low calories.. you need a surplus of calories and heavy lifting to build muscle.