Losing Weight but Not Inches - What is the Point?!

In for reads. I too have lost eeight butmy belly measurments have not budged in about 4 months

You are not too old to look good. You are losing fine so have patience with yourself and your body. You stated you lift heavy things but what type of weight lifting are you doing?

If it's your trunk, it may be because that's just where your body hangs on to its fat. That's what mine does. I've lost weight every where else but there. My legs and arms are almost looking skinny, but my waist and hips have barely changed.

I have a total of about 20 pounds left to lose and I think all 20 of it is sitting right on my abdomen.

How long have you been back at it?
Have you measured in lots of places?

For me its happening the opposite. Loosing inches and hardly any weight. I am lifting 5 days a week.

Hey there, Ready2rock.

There are several potential factors to losing pounds but not inches.

1, the most common: You just aren't seeing the results yet. Unfortunately we can't lose weight on particular zones of our bodies, the weight disappears from everywhere slowly. Though you may lose 10 pounds, it may not be your waist that's tapering. Where you'll see results first is dependent on your gender, age, ethnicity and genetics. For example, my crappy genetics say "Congratulations, you did great! Your breasts are the first to go." >:| In these cases, there really is a light at the end of the tunnel, slowly you'll notice it's not just your three magic numbers changing but the fact that your thighs don't rub or that your knees are nice enough to pull that summer dress back out.

2: Your type of exercise may be making you bulk up. This isn't bad because once that last bit of excess fat sheds you'll be hardbodied, but for now your size may not change much. If you're doing a lot of strength training and only a little cardio, you're actually making yourself bigger because the muscle stacks under the fat and pushes it up! This is a nice way to get curves, but if you're wanting a daintier look, your exercise may be counter-intuitive.

3: The exact opposite of above, not enough exercise and too much calorie-cutting. You may be seeing the pounds go down, but you won't be gaining definition because all those pounds are coming from unfed muscles shriveling away! Initially people are impressed with the numerics of it, but then they realize that they're still sagging and puffing in undesirable places, though their numbers are where they want to be at.

4: The literal shape of your body. I have utilized a waist-training corset for years and have gotten amazing results. This is because my ribs used to be rather wide. Combine with my tiny shoulders and small chest, and you've got a rather bland top-half that doesn't lend itself to weight-loss. There are training devices for feet, ribs, and even nose bridges that utilize pressure to very slightly change your shape for good. They require a lot of patience, because you won't see the results with the corset on for the first year or so! Plus you should definitely consult a physician about altering your bones, as doing so on your own is very dangerous! But waist-training is surprisingly cheap for its permanent results, and if you find yourself having extremely wide ribs, you may find that weight loss won't give you the same attractive taper it's giving to your gym-buddies.

5: Water weight, sodium-intake, puffing, swelling. This is a lot harder to diagnose and attack, but it can make a lady who is 120 look 140. This is more about your salt, the amount of water, alcohol, time your drink and eat, and most especially your ladyparts doing their ladythings with your ladyhormones. Which would be, making trouble for you (as usual.) If you notice changes in the texture of your body over the course of hours to 3 days that is extreme fluctuation in size and feel, you may want to talk to your doctor about it and see if they can help suggest ways to stabilize you with lifestyle changes, or even medication if need be.

You are not too old to look good. You are losing fine so have patience with yourself and your body. You stated you lift heavy things but what type of weight lifting are you doing?

Does it make a difference what type of lifting it done?

Possibly and along with the duration.

BE HAPPY! A loss is a loss no matter where is comes from. :happy: You cant control where the body reduces itself so dont try. Just keep at it and eventually you will see things even out. The worst is to set yourself up for failure and unrealistic expectations which then allow and excuse yourself to fail.

It took me nearly 35 pounds before I really needed to buy new clothes and another 10 before people really noticed that I was even losing weight. There was weeks and months when NOTHING changed, not my clothes or the scale despite all my hard work.
Well almost 3 years, 150 lbs, and 8 dress sizes later I'm glad I never gave up and listed to those who encouraged me, even if I wish my tummy and my calfs were smaller I'm way happier being smaller then I was being larger.

You are not too old to look good. You are losing fine so have patience with yourself and your body. You stated you lift heavy things but what type of weight lifting are you doing?

Does it make a difference what type of lifting it done?

Possibly and along with the duration.

How and why? I'm curious to know if I too am doing this right

Heavy means different things to different people but if you aren't lifting heavy enough and long enough for your height, weight, and eating properly then you won't lose inches.

Have you taken any progress pictures? With myself, I didn't think I was losing any inches from certain spots (probably from not measuring myself properly) until I looked at pictures to compare and noticed that there was actually a fairly significant difference. It might be a lot easier for you to notice a difference if you could compare pictures side by side?

I think you need to be patient with yourself.If you have lost those pounds you are sure to lose those inches too.Do not give up just yet because you might have lost the inches but not where you wanted to.You might need to not only eat right but also do exercise to do away with them.You could do target exercise which will help you to lose the inches from where you want.Well !! Good Luck, for your efforts.

I used to measure my waist and got tired of seeing the same crappy measurement. So I stopped. But now finally I get to whine about pants getting loose. I don't know where the fat could be coming from otherwise. Intra muscular? Lol

How heavy are the things you lift?

I had a 2 month plateau recently and have only started to come off that by a couple of pounds. It was so hard to see everyone losing weight around me, though I was genuinely happy for my MFP friends. After careful review of my food logs and exercise, I learned that I needed to increase my intake to change up things--and it worked. I also discovered that I was logging one of my foods wrong and that accounted for an additional 110-220 calories a day I had missed. Really go over your food diaries and see if you can find places for improvement or change or accuracy. It's a good starting point if everything else seems to be at a stall.

Just an idea, but maybe you pulled that tape super tight before and not so much now?
Oke, probably not this,..but maybe wrong side of the tape?

Some measurements don't change much with weightloss, they are just your frame. Say you measure your waist at the top of your hip bone, that bone won't move. Have your arm and leg measurements changed?

You lost over 50lb, where did you start?