4 lbs = 1 inch off your waist? 8 to 10 lbs = 1 dress size?
GoRun2
Posts: 470 Member
Google says
- A study found that volunteers lost 1 inch off their waist for every 4 lbs they lost
- 8 to 10 pounds is 1 dress size.
Just curious what is your experience? Of course it varies from person to person
- A study found that volunteers lost 1 inch off their waist for every 4 lbs they lost
- 8 to 10 pounds is 1 dress size.
Just curious what is your experience? Of course it varies from person to person
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Replies
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It doesn't just vary from person to person.
It varies depending:
- on how heavy you are: losing from 200 to 195lbs is not the same thing as losing from 150 to 145lb, for the same person
- and where you are in your weight loss journey: we often don't lose weight evenly all over our bodies throughout our weight loss journey, sometimes it's extremities first, and stomach later on, for example.
I needed to lose more lbs to go down a size when I was still obese than when I was in the normal BMI range.
Not sure about waist size, i was and am terrible at measuring myself regularly 😆9 -
Unfortunately, this hasn't been my experience. I have lost 22 lbs and only about 1 inch off my waist. I tend to store most of my fat there post-menopause. I have yet to go down a clothing size, but that is probably due to the fact that I just stuffed myself into clothing with elastic waists and that were cut to be baggier. If I had bought bigger sizes to accommodate the last weight gain, I probably would be down a size or 2 by now.8
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It depends on what size you're starting from. If you look at clothing size charts, plus sizes have a 2-2.5 inch size difference between sizes. Then the larger regular sizes have 1.5 inches and smaller regular sizes drop to an inch between sizes. So if like me, you started at plus size, my first size drop took over 20 lbs. It's successively gotten smaller the closer to goal I get.
Also for me, 10 lbs = 1 inch lost on my hips and waist no matter where I am. Though I also gain weight all over pretty equally.2 -
Since the day before my hysterectomy 6 months ago, I have lost about 14 pounds, gained 2” in my waist. Now wearing the biggest pants I own, not my biggest shirts.1
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Google says
- A study found that volunteers lost 1 inch off their waist for every 4 lbs they lost
- 8 to 10 pounds is 1 dress size.
Just curious what is your experience? Of course it varies from person to person
I’m 5’5” and I’m currently at my highest weight because I’m just starting my fitness journey.
This chart was pretty accurate for me!
At 160 pounds I had a 34” waist and wore a U.S. size 12 or L.
At 240 pounds I wore either size 18 or 20, I was between the 2X and 3X plus sizes and my waist was about 44”.
I am currently in the high 270s, close to 280 pounds. I typically wear size 24 or 4X plus size but it can honestly feel tight around my waist because I’m apple shape and most women’s aren’t cut for my shape - my waistline tends to be a bit larger. So sometimes I need size 26 or 5X plus size so the waistband doesn’t dig into my tummy. I try to do size 24 tho when possible. My waist is about 49”.
So yeah, for me it was about a dress size every 10 pounds and an inch on my waist for every 8 pounds.
I feel like when I was lighter, my apple shape was more obvious and my waistline grew faster. Like, my arms and legs were still skinny, I had a flat butt, small boobs, yet my tummy was noticeably big. I hate being apple shape. All my fat went to my tummy.
At a certain point tho, when I got heavy enough, it’s like my belly fat slowed down and the fat started going elsewhere. First it was my thighs, then rolls of back fat, eventually my arms even got fat which I didn’t expect because I always had skinny arms. My butt is still not round or perky it’s pretty flat which sucks but it is larger lol.
I guess you can expect to lose inches with less weight when you’re skinny but when you get big it’s a larger amount of weight between inches?5 -
I agree with all of the above. And I'll also say, don't trust Google, they know not of what they speak. 😂6
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I think it depends on your fat distribution and height too. I'm 5'2 and it takes me about 10 lbs to lose an inch off my waist, but only 4-5 for my hips. I tend to have pretty small bust/waist measurements for my weight though I store everything below that
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I think it depends on your fat distribution and height too. I'm 5'2 and it takes me about 10 lbs to lose an inch off my waist, but only 4-5 for my hips. I tend to have pretty small bust/waist measurements for my weight though I store everything below that
I’m so jealous! I’m the opposite. I wish I had a round butt, but my fat goes to my waist. I hate it
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Genetics matter. I'd like to see the study and how it came to their conclusions.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
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I also think genetics matter and your body shape, because when I was young and even now for the most part I always looked way smaller than my actual weight at the time I would be 145lbs and look 125 and was small on the top and when I was 160 or 165 in my thirties I still wore Junior sized clothes Sz 11&13 It never clicked in my head to go to missus sizes lol. Now, my stomach and back is my biggest part my highest weight was 264 and clothes 20-22 (5'4) I only stayed at that weight a little while because it's like my body said NOPE this is totally not happening ( but that was 2012 10 years ago I was 51 years old the year I joined myfitnesspal) I eventually went on to lose 49 over the years to now (with the help of Diabetes in 2014 I lost 15lbs in one month(March) before I was diagnosed in April of the same year. I said all this to say when I started really gaining weight it went straight to my belly, I've never really had a small waist at 130lbs my waist was 28 I also didn't have hips I had butt, thighs and pretty legs; so at 61 I'm still on the weight lost journey, but on that chart above I still don't fit on it at 216lbs (but my waist is an awful 45) I wear 16-18 and XL not 2X or 18-20 and my bust is 42-DD I used to be 34-B when I weighed 145lbs lol, I have to lose about 15lbs to lose a inch on my waist, I know this is long sorry.3
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Genetics matter. I'd like to see the study and how it came to their conclusions.
A.C.E. Certified Personal and Group Fitness Trainer
IDEA Fitness member
Kickboxing Certified Instructor
Been in fitness for 30 years and have studied kinesiology and nutrition
I thought the same thing. How many people were in the study? Age? Men, Women, both?
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I just lump generalized statements like that in with BMI calculations...maybe good for large population averages, but individuals will be all over the place.2
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I'd like to see the study, too.
A person can calculate an average for almost anything. If you average together small people losing a bit of weight with extremely obese people losing huge amounts of weight, there will be a numerical average answer for change in inches/sizes. Whether that number provides any useful or actionable information content is a whole different question.
Same is true for more complicated, sophisticated statistical measures: Apply a tool in a dumb way, get a dumb answer, pretty much.
My personal experience was as others have said: When I was obese, I had to lose quite a few pounds (tens of them) to drop a size; that took multiple months. Once I got close to a healthy weight, I was dropping sizes much more quickly (small number of weeks), even though I was losing pounds intentionally more slowly.
For me, inches came of from different places during different phases of loss. At first, I think I was losing thin layers all over, including weird places like face and feet (not to mention visceral fat inside the body). The external body fat around my waist is among the last to go. That means that waist changes are proportionally different at different times.
I can't imagine either size changes or waist-measurement changes being a linear function (1 inch or size per X pounds) across a large range of weight loss as time passes. But one could calculate an average.2 -
Sound advice. As for the rest, I have never really tracked any else than weight. The enormous advantage of weight as an indicator is that it is easy, cheap and – if measured with reasonable care – highly reliable. No other indicator I know of is as easy and reliable, to the best of my knowledge. I wish there were. That said, after having lost 60 kg, I am finally seeing that my circumference seems to dropping below 1 m, so I just might start to become more interested in that measurement, even if my rolling fat rolls are a good indication I have some way to go without having to bother about circumferences.Same is true for more complicated, sophisticated statistical measures: Apply a tool in a dumb way, get a dumb answer, pretty much.
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It is certainly interesting to see how people lose weight. I'm 5 lbs from my goal. I don't think I will be as thin as I was the last time I weighed that amount. Oh well. I plan to lose 5 lbs and hold tight through the holidays. I'll reevaluate in January. I do have an outfit for NYE that I'd like to fit into.4
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Good for you. I am curious to learn how you (or anybody else) set such precise goals. Personally, I have no goal at all, except for "I will know it when I'm there". Once I think I am there, or very very close, I plan to get an MRI or a DXA to estimate how close that opinion seems to be to reality in order to avoid overshooting the goal, but that's it, and even that is far from set in stone.It is certainly interesting to see how people lose weight. I'm 5 lbs from my goal. I don't think I will be as thin as I was the last time I weighed that amount. Oh well. I plan to lose 5 lbs and hold tight through the holidays. I'll reevaluate in January. I do have an outfit for NYE that I'd like to fit into.
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BartBVanBockstaele wrote: »
Good for you. I am curious to learn how you (or anybody else) set such precise goals. Personally, I have no goal at all, except for "I will know it when I'm there". Once I think I am there, or very very close, I plan to get an MRI or a DXA to estimate how close that opinion seems to be to reality in order to avoid overshooting the goal, but that's it, and even that is far from set in stone.It is certainly interesting to see how people lose weight. I'm 5 lbs from my goal. I don't think I will be as thin as I was the last time I weighed that amount. Oh well. I plan to lose 5 lbs and hold tight through the holidays. I'll reevaluate in January. I do have an outfit for NYE that I'd like to fit into.
I used to weigh 125 and fit in the clothes in my closet. I didn't do well with covid and gained a ton of weight. I'm 130 now and hoped that getting to 125 would work.1 -
Unfortunately, this hasn't been my experience. I have lost 22 lbs and only about 1 inch off my waist.
I think this is closer to "accurate", and it depends on height very much as well (along with other variables: genetics, etc.). The taller you are, the more weight you have to lose total in order to lose inches around the waist, since you're losing weight off of a greater distributed non-waist area as well. For me, as a 6'2" male, it's roughly 20 pounds/size, give or take
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That certainly makes sense. Thank you. That means our situations are quite different. I have been fat for so long I don't even remotely remember how much I used to weigh. I do remember that my father called me a fat pig when I weighed 58 kg, but I have reasons to think that the 58 is just a false memory from about 40 years ago.BartBVanBockstaele wrote: »
Good for you. I am curious to learn how you (or anybody else) set such precise goals. Personally, I have no goal at all, except for "I will know it when I'm there". Once I think I am there, or very very close, I plan to get an MRI or a DXA to estimate how close that opinion seems to be to reality in order to avoid overshooting the goal, but that's it, and even that is far from set in stone.It is certainly interesting to see how people lose weight. I'm 5 lbs from my goal. I don't think I will be as thin as I was the last time I weighed that amount. Oh well. I plan to lose 5 lbs and hold tight through the holidays. I'll reevaluate in January. I do have an outfit for NYE that I'd like to fit into.
I used to weigh 125 and fit in the clothes in my closet. I didn't do well with covid and gained a ton of weight. I'm 130 now and hoped that getting to 125 would work.
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BartBVanBockstaele wrote: »
That certainly makes sense. Thank you. That means our situations are quite different. I have been fat for so long I don't even remotely remember how much I used to weigh. I do remember that my father called me a fat pig when I weighed 58 kg, but I have reasons to think that the 58 is just a false memory from about 40 years ago.BartBVanBockstaele wrote: »
Good for you. I am curious to learn how you (or anybody else) set such precise goals. Personally, I have no goal at all, except for "I will know it when I'm there". Once I think I am there, or very very close, I plan to get an MRI or a DXA to estimate how close that opinion seems to be to reality in order to avoid overshooting the goal, but that's it, and even that is far from set in stone.It is certainly interesting to see how people lose weight. I'm 5 lbs from my goal. I don't think I will be as thin as I was the last time I weighed that amount. Oh well. I plan to lose 5 lbs and hold tight through the holidays. I'll reevaluate in January. I do have an outfit for NYE that I'd like to fit into.
I used to weigh 125 and fit in the clothes in my closet. I didn't do well with covid and gained a ton of weight. I'm 130 now and hoped that getting to 125 would work.
So sorry your father was a jersey. Hope you don't mind me saying so.2 -
Google says
- A study found that volunteers lost 1 inch off their waist for every 4 lbs they lost
- 8 to 10 pounds is 1 dress size.
Just curious what is your experience? Of course it varies from person to person
I like the paper towel roll analogy. 1 piece of paper off a full roll does really nothing visually. But the final piece of paper off the roll wraps around the roll 2-3 times. I feel this holds true in weight loss. The closer you are to your goal weight the more noticeable each lb becomes.1 -
Its too variable to say anything like this. If the same study were extended then I am sure it would have found completely different results.0
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6'5 male ... for me it's ten pounds per inch. I have lost 170 lbs and that ratio has been fairly consistent.1
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I started losing in January 2021. I went from 183 down to 160. I had liposuction on my belly, and all around my middle. The doctor said he removed 15 lbs of subcutaneous fat. It showed in the mirror but no so much on the scale or with the tape measure. He said it would take a year to finally complete. I don't have the rolly polly fat anymore, but I still have the visceral fat behind the abdominal wall. They say that is the most dangerous fat. I stopped using MFP for about 9 months and I'm back on in the last week. I've dropped 3 pounds and weigh about 165. An 8-10 pound weight loss is about right for 1 dress size for me. I'm wearing some 10s and some 12s. I'm 5'3". I'd like to get down to somewhere under 150. I've set the loss rate on MFP at 1/2 pound per week because then I'm losing on a calorie amount that will be close to maintenance (I think?) . I's a life long journey, but I do feel like I am happier and have more direction in my life when I am eating better, exercising moderately and losing a bit. thanks for listening.2
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I have gone from 187 now I’m 137, a 50 pound loss (and yes I am proud of myself). 20 years ago when I was this weight I was in a size 5 jeans, now I am in size 10. My bra is still 40 and my tops only went down to large. So there is no way this could be the same for everyone when it isn’t even the same for me in a span of 20 years.1
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When I was squeezing into a size 24, but really a size 26- 28, it took 25 pounds to go down a size. Now at 36 pounds to goal, I am losing inches because I walk about an hour 5 days a week. I am a size 14 now, but will probably get to a size 10 at goal. I am 6 feet, so weight loss is less noticeable at smaller amounts. I am not going down a size at 10 pounds, more like 15.2
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10 lbs is about one dress size for me. I would guess I lose an inch of waist for every 10 lbs of weight.
At my heaviest weight of 150 lbs, I have a waist of 30” and dress size 10-12.
At my lighter weight of 120 lbs, I have a waist size of 27” and a dress size of 4.0 -
BartBVanBockstaele wrote: »
That certainly makes sense. Thank you. That means our situations are quite different. I have been fat for so long I don't even remotely remember how much I used to weigh. I do remember that my father called me a fat pig when I weighed 58 kg, but I have reasons to think that the 58 is just a false memory from about 40 years ago.BartBVanBockstaele wrote: »
Good for you. I am curious to learn how you (or anybody else) set such precise goals. Personally, I have no goal at all, except for "I will know it when I'm there". Once I think I am there, or very very close, I plan to get an MRI or a DXA to estimate how close that opinion seems to be to reality in order to avoid overshooting the goal, but that's it, and even that is far from set in stone.It is certainly interesting to see how people lose weight. I'm 5 lbs from my goal. I don't think I will be as thin as I was the last time I weighed that amount. Oh well. I plan to lose 5 lbs and hold tight through the holidays. I'll reevaluate in January. I do have an outfit for NYE that I'd like to fit into.
I used to weigh 125 and fit in the clothes in my closet. I didn't do well with covid and gained a ton of weight. I'm 130 now and hoped that getting to 125 would work.
I have a clear memory, 35 years old, of a male coworker calling an actress from the US soap opera General Hospital a "fat cow." She clearly wasn't. He may have been trying to make a joke. It wasn't funny.2 -
Contexts are important, of course. I never had a problem being called fat. I hated being fat, but since it was (and is) reality, that was the appropriate word. Of course, from there to calling someone fat who isn't, is a big step and I most definitely disagree with that.kshama2001 wrote: »BartBVanBockstaele wrote: »
That certainly makes sense. Thank you. That means our situations are quite different. I have been fat for so long I don't even remotely remember how much I used to weigh. I do remember that my father called me a fat pig when I weighed 58 kg, but I have reasons to think that the 58 is just a false memory from about 40 years ago.BartBVanBockstaele wrote: »
Good for you. I am curious to learn how you (or anybody else) set such precise goals. Personally, I have no goal at all, except for "I will know it when I'm there". Once I think I am there, or very very close, I plan to get an MRI or a DXA to estimate how close that opinion seems to be to reality in order to avoid overshooting the goal, but that's it, and even that is far from set in stone.It is certainly interesting to see how people lose weight. I'm 5 lbs from my goal. I don't think I will be as thin as I was the last time I weighed that amount. Oh well. I plan to lose 5 lbs and hold tight through the holidays. I'll reevaluate in January. I do have an outfit for NYE that I'd like to fit into.
I used to weigh 125 and fit in the clothes in my closet. I didn't do well with covid and gained a ton of weight. I'm 130 now and hoped that getting to 125 would work.
I have a clear memory, 35 years old, of a male coworker calling an actress from the US soap opera General Hospital a "fat cow." She clearly wasn't. He may have been trying to make a joke. It wasn't funny.
Anyway, success on your journey. You have less far to go than I have, and that is wonderful!
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Think of your body as a roll of paper towels and the individual pieces as pounds. At the outside of the roll it takes multiple pieces to cover the outside so to lose a layer takes a larger amount of pounds. As you get closer to the inside of the roll it takes less pieces to go around it so losing a layer takes a smaller amount of pounds. When I'm at my largest I needed to lose 20-25 pounds to go down a size from 18 to 16 (this amount needed will vary depending on your height, etc). At my smallest I only have to lose 5 pounds to go from a size 8 to a 6 because there are less "paper towels" around the outside.3
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