Pounds of fat converted to inches?

There really isn't an accurate way to calculate how many inches. If I was going to try this is what I'd do.

1) Figure out what your body-fat percentage is
2) Measure the circumference of your current waist
3) Figure out what your "ideal" waist circumference is for your height
4) Figure out what your "ideal" body-fat percentage is.

Do the following calculation:

(current bodyfat - desired bodyfat) / (Current waist - desired waist).

That would tell you what percentage bodyfat you would need to drop per inch drop in your waist. This makes a big assumption that this is proportional.

Now you have the % bodyfat you need to drop so just multiply that percent by your current bodyweight to give the pounds of fat you need to loose then multiply that by 3,500 for the number of calories you need to burn.

That is a really really rough estimate I just made up on the spot but it'd be something.

So as an example.

Lets say you wanted to get down to 20% bodyfat and with that you would have at your height a 26 inch waist. Lets say that currently you are at 32% bodyfat, 160 pounds and a 32 inch waist (I'm just making up numbers here).

So that would be (32-20)/(32-26) = 2. So that would mean that a 1 inch drop would be a 2 percent drop in bodyfat. A two percent drop in bodyfat would be (.02 * 160) or 3.2 pounds which would be about 11,200 calories per inch.

Do understand that I am making this up based on the assumption that if you lose fat you lose it proportionally across your whole body which might be a wrong assumption.

Yeah, you know that makes no sense, right?

OP, the only way you can guarantee to lose a defined number of inches in a certain area is liposuction. Your body pulls fat from wherever it darn well feels like. It's not proportional in the slightest. The number of inches you lose depends on variables such as your % of LBM, how much muscle you have in any specific area, etc. There's just no way to predict what happens when you lose.

***Generally*** about 10 pounds on a female = 1 inch at the waist.

It matters because it's not the right answer. The actual answer is that there's no way of predicting. Yes, it's frustrating, but it's true. She's better off getting accurate information and learning something, even if it would be nicer if there were a different answer. Making something up that isn't based in biology is just setting the person up for disappointment later when they don't get the results they thought they would.

His answer was perfectly fine given the stated assumptions. She asked a near impossible question and he gave a best guess approximation.

The real answer is a healthy dose of "who the hell knows" with a side of "no ****ing clue" but his answer is a decent guess given the ridiculousness of the question.

Sarah I'd suggest setting a goal as some number in some amount of time (like an inch in two months or something) and set up a workout or eating plan to try to attain that goal. Then, after two months of sticking to whatever that initial plan was adjust based on your results. Really the calculators and planners and everything are all overgeneralizations. The only really trick to this is to realize that whatever you estimate you will be at after a certain amount of time if you are wrong that's okay. That isn't a reason to quit that is just information about what is true for you that you can then use to adjust for the next month.

Pick a number, pick an amount of time, track calories and track workouts and watch what happens over a good stretch of time and adjust. Whatever that initial number you pick is doesn't really matter as long as you don't allow yourself to be discouraged if that original estimate turns out to be wrong.

Do what it takes to motivate yourself to start and you know what if what it takes is making up a number you can set your eyes on and head towards that's fine as long as you are willing to adjust your course along the journey as you learn form your own body and experience.

If you are already at your goal weight, than you need to start exercising to change your dimensions.

QFT.