gained inches but not weight

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jilldan55
jilldan55 Posts: 61 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I had to stop exercising this fall because my mom was diagnosed with aggressive lung cancer. I had no time to do anything but take care of her. So, now my body being use to exercising has gained inches in my hips and legs but the scale says the same thing. How does anyone determine their BMI correctly with this sort of thing happening to your body!

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  • jilldan55
    jilldan55 Posts: 61 Member
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    I had to stop exercising this fall because my mom was diagnosed with aggressive lung cancer. I had no time to do anything but take care of her. So, now my body being use to exercising has gained inches in my hips and legs but the scale says the same thing. How does anyone determine their BMI correctly with this sort of thing happening to your body!
  • eyescatchfire
    eyescatchfire Posts: 257 Member
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    I don't have an answer to your question, but I wanted to say I'm sorry to hear about your mom. The way that BMI is calculated has to be an estimate, because it only uses two factors, weight and height (obviously, not taking into account frame, etc.) I would say not to worry about it for the time being, and focus on your mom. Best of luck!
  • songbyrdsweet
    songbyrdsweet Posts: 5,691 Member
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    I'm sorry to hear about your mom. :flowerforyou:

    I actually don't use BMI because I've been lifting for so long that I have too much muscle mass for an accurate reading. It might work for some of the population, but as a whole I think it's outdated and useless for the most part. I would just track inches, because in the end weight really doesn't matter if you're fit and wearing whatever size of clothing you want to be in.

    Fat isn't very dense, so while it takes up a lot of space, it doesn't weigh much. So you may have experienced some muscle atrophy and some fat gain from having to stop using those muscles frequently. They are 'expensive' in terms of calories so you lose them fairly quickly. Fat gain can cause rapid inch additions without doing much to the scale initially. But luckily, muscle memory makes it easy to regain your previous strength so you will be back to normal in no time. :flowerforyou:

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