Losing inches, not weight! Help...

This exact thing happened to me with the 30DS, right around week 3. Stick with it, and maybe take a few 'recovery' days after the first 30 days.

What someone explained to me is that your muscles, as you build them, form tiny tears, and these tears hold water. I don't know if that's what happened for me, but, stick with what you are doing!!!! I've posted this before - I lost like crazy in the first 2 weeks, then gained and lost the same pound for 3 weeks. Now, the scale just steadily goes down. Hang in there!

Bump!

The same thing is happening to me. I lost a bit, but now the scale isn't moving. My pants are looser these days, but the scale is showing me the same number.

Don't worry. Sounds like you're doing everything right. You're building muscle and while it is denser and takes up less space on your body, that number on the scale isn't going to change right away.

Don't be discouraged. When you have more muscle, your body will have to burn more calories to maintain it, so the scale will begin to move.

As for me, as long as I see a positive change in my numbers, I'm happy. For example, I'm the same weight as my last weigh in, but I lost an inch off of my arms and an inch off of my tummy.

Hope that helps, but I'm sure there is someone out there who can explain the science-y stuff better. *^^*
~TheGlitterMouse

I'm in my third week of P90 (just the first level, NOT P90X) and I've been fitting into smaller clothes/clothes have been fitting better, but the actual scale has not budged more than 5lbs.

I know there is a phase of muscle-building where I'm gaining muscle so I gain weight, but when will the scale actually start to move down? I tend to get discouraged at this phase, so I want to make sure I hve something to look forward to.

For actual workouts, I do one weight lifting workout (30m) to two cardio/fatburning workouts (41m) with one day off per week. I tend to do this in the evenings after dinner and I follow lifting workouts with a protein shake. I've also stayed under or at my calorie goal (eating back most of the workout calories) except for 1 or 2 days per week when I am over.

Thoughts? Encouragement from plus size ladies who have dealt with this before?

I don't know if this will work for you or not, but read the link below my ticker called My Journey. I was doing P90X, elliptical and strength training 6 days a week. I did leave one rest day, but I don't think it was enough for my body. When old injuries flared up, my workouts were stopped dead in their tracks and I had to focus solely on my food intake. I changed my meals plans, I watched my sodium intake like a hawk and I drank more water. I started to include more fruits and vegetables. I ate them, but not often enough. After 3 weeks I dropped just shy of 10 lbs. I had been stuck at the same weight for 3 months.

It's weird what it takes to get an individual's metabolism going again. I recently had another plateau and didn't budge for 5-6 weeks. All I did was add dark chocolate as an evening snack. I lost 2.4 pounds in 7 days. I blogged about it. Strange, but true.

I can almost guarantee that more exercise is not the answer. Take a really good look at your food diary. Amount of calories you are eating. Cutting out most of the processed foods. Adding fruits and vegetables. Drinking more water. Watch that sodium level carefully. Tweak your meals. Is breakfast your biggest meal of the day? Etc.

Good luck to you! Hang in there... it will come!

scales suck/people on this site worry too much about weight or pounds....I am a pro fitness trainer and if I get a client that lost 15 inches, 10 per bodyfat and no pounds they will blow anyone elses loss of 10 pounds out the door
if you want some advice email me at lordsfitness@aol.com ps doctoral candidate in fitness good luck!

Everyone that is worried about the scale rather than the inches needs to give themselves a round of applause… congratulations you have successfully been brainwashed by society.

Losing inches means you are losing body fat, and that is all that matters. Who cares what the scale says? There is no such thing as “ideal weight”, you need to be concerned with body composition. I could show you 500 different men and women all at the exact same height, bodyweight and BMI and they would all look different; some would look good, some wouldn’t, because height, weight and BMI tell you nothing about how much fat vs. muscle a person is carrying.

I seriously upped the weights over the last week or two and I have gained 3lb - but I have lost 5 inches over 5 areas and got my waist under that dreaded 30 inch mark.

I do know it is mostly water weight (could be a little extra muscle too as I look different - expecially my shoulders - and my thighs and obliques are rock hard) that I've gained. I know losing the inches is much more important. I know getting my waist under 30 inches theoretically puts me into a lower health risk bracket.

But yes - seeing that scale go up/stay the same can be disappointing. I keep reading threads like this to encourage myself and to try to undo the 'scale fixation' I seem to have developed.

Stick with it & try to focus on the inches. I'd say hide the scales!!! But I know I couldn't do that - yet.

BUMP

Thanks every body -

I am definitely happy about inches -- and I do think they are more important than the scale -- BUT when the scale is 333 for a 6ft woman, I think we could agree that's not a good number to keep around!

I'll definitely keep pushing, because besides that I have energy for things that I didnt have three weeks ago. Now to turn my eye to food and see what the culprit is....

If you felt like sharing your food diary, please feel free to add me as a friend! I keep mine open to all MFP friends if you need ideas too. I'm only .6 lbs from goal as of this morning. I'm down a total of 32 pounds and it feels great! Keep up your commitment and dedication to better health. Although it is frustrating at times... you ARE heading in the right direction.