Losing size but not weight. What's wrong??

Thank you!! I've been working very hard. Its just I know I need to lose more fat and I'm not sure how to go about that. [/quote]

More protein, less carbs. I`m not saying quit carbs, but don`t eat more than 20% carbs in your daily diet. That`s a sure way to lose fat.

rawley69 wrote: »

You are losing fat. You said it yourself, your muscles are getting bigger. Meaning they're growing. Muscle WEIGHS something too.

Muscle is more dense than fat...meaning a pound of muscle is around 82% the volume of pound of fat.

Agree in 100%. From my own experience sometimes my scale showed that I gained. Since then I`m also measure myself once a month.
OP You look good!!! I can see your hard work

Carbs don't matter. Calories matter - that's all.

I can see your point here and am in the smae situation. yes , got a little more muscle and things are tighter and firmer but not leaner. not sure what to do Ive been at this for a year and as you staying at on a low calorie diet , often low carb. makes no differnce what I do it seems. Ive noticed certian other peopel are like this , they look obese but are very athletic and eat healthy. I have had 2 friends now who have faced this problem after taking prednizone steriods. (though I havent) they did everything to try to lose weight ,vegan diet , no carb diet , liquid diet, walking miles everyday, eliptocal everything. if you find an answer I'd love to hear about it.its weird like once the fat is there its not leaving come hell or highwater. oh well atleast with high water the fat will help us float. I think my body is waiting for the next great flood haha

That is an awesome result. Your question has already been answered above (muscle is denser so you weigh the same but get smaller - google 'body recomposition'). I just wanted to say congratulations and keep going.

Here is some site to help calculate how many carbs daily person should eat when you on diet.
http://www.calculator.net/carbohydrate-calculator.html
Each one of us need carbs but in different demand. Some one who is very active, exercise a lot would be straggling with 20% of carbs. Carbs give you energy and to be successful with weight loss you need that energy. You shouldn't eat less then 130 grams of carbohydrates per day. 130g/ day is the average minimal usage of glucose that the brain uses on a daily basis. I love carbs and I eat from 240-300g a day and still I lost more then 100lbs. In my case carbs are my friend, sugar is enemy.

Thank you! Carbs are not evil. And fat, too, while we're on the subject. We need to eat fat in order to lose it. Funny how that works.

Studies are now showing that if you consume 1.5 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight while doing strength training, you'll maintain muscle mass, but cut fat. There's a great article in the June issue of FitnessRX for Women about it. (If you're not familiar with the magazine, it's a good one. Contributors all have PhDs in their fields. Science based, no fluff.)

With your strength training, what you want to do is cut your body fat % and increase your lean muscle mass. It's a slow process, but by eating enough protein it can be done.

Also, how tall are you? At just shy of 160 lbs, I'm betting your BMR (ie, how many calories you need if you were in a coma, doing absoloutely nothing) is higher than 1200. If you're not fueling your body properly you won't see a change. I've been eating 2000 calories a day coupled with strength training four days a week and the occasional run with my dog and have been consistently losing 3.5 pounds a month. I'm 5'3". I could go faster, yes, but I want to build muscle and lose fat. If I were to be more aggressive with my cut I'd lose muscle mass, and I don't want to do that.

Weight loss doesn't matter, fat loss does. Keep going, you are making progress.

I think that "weight" doesn't matter. So what if you are overweight? You are losing fat if your pant size is going down. I agree water retention could be masking your loss and recomposition could be happening. If you are losing inches, then I stick with it. If you stop losing inches or weight, then tighten up on your tracking and measuring and I would opt to try HIIT instead of steady state cardio.

You lost two pant sizes! I'd be ecstatic if I were you!

I always find drinking "enough" water is a bit of a hidden formula. I never used to drink enough, despite thinking I did, and I always had weight stalls, 4-5 weeks of weight staying the same. I researched a lot and read up, I now make sure I drink 4-5 litres of water a day. It's amazing how much water the body stores when you're not drinking enough. Up to 8lbs.
Drink plenty of water and after 2-3 days that excess lbs flies off.

Nothing's wrong - you're making visible progress and buying new clothes - who cares what the silly scale number is?

Start swimming more than anything, I saw my best friend become so lean right in front of my eyes.

krayzcan wrote: »

I weigh 160 and I'm 5'6. That's still overweight.

Eventually the weight will follow. Give up now and you'll never see how far you could have gone. I was the same for 3 weeks, inches lost off my waist but not a pound lost. Now I'm down 5lbs this week, idk how much is water and how much is fat but I'm showing scale progress now. Had I gotten mad a week ago and changed things up I may have broken whatever plan my body had going on.

Give it time.