4 lbs = 1 inch off your waist? 8 to 10 lbs = 1 dress size?

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  • Dougf09
    Dougf09 Posts: 10 Member
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    GoRun2 wrote: »
    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.
  • davert123
    davert123 Posts: 1,568 Member
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    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.
  • etraderpaul
    etraderpaul Posts: 5 Member
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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.
  • SheilaDundon
    SheilaDundon Posts: 8 Member
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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.
  • LaurieKane1
    LaurieKane1 Posts: 6 Member
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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.
  • ronicaw57
    ronicaw57 Posts: 108 Member
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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.
  • nooshi713
    nooshi713 Posts: 4,877 Member
    edited November 2022
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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.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 27,910 Member
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    BartBVanBockstaele wrote: »
    GoRun2 wrote: »
    BartBVanBockstaele wrote: »
    GoRun2 wrote: »
    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.
    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.

    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.
    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.

    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.
  • BartBVanBockstaele
    BartBVanBockstaele Posts: 623 Member
    edited November 2022
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    kshama2001 wrote: »
    BartBVanBockstaele wrote: »
    GoRun2 wrote: »
    BartBVanBockstaele wrote: »
    GoRun2 wrote: »
    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.
    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.

    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.
    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.

    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.
    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.

    Anyway, success on your journey. You have less far to go than I have, and that is wonderful!

  • Indiri13
    Indiri13 Posts: 104 Member
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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.
  • BartBVanBockstaele
    BartBVanBockstaele Posts: 623 Member
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    Indiri13 wrote: »
    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.
    That is a great analogy.

  • marinabumber
    marinabumber Posts: 1 Member
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    Interesting topic. I have found in my 4 months since tracking, having lost 11 kg that I also lost 11 cm in my hips. Not sure on my waist, I have been measuring it the wrong way when I first started.
    Someone casually told me: sure, you didn't know that? 1 kg = 1 cm
    I found it interesting, but I can see by reading this topic that experience varies vastly!
  • XxAngry_Pixi
    XxAngry_Pixi Posts: 236 Member
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    This has not been the case for me at all. I lost over 50 lbs and barely changed my dress size or waist measurement. Then my weight loss plateaued for about 5 months but I went down 2 dress sizes 🤷‍♀️
  • westrich20940
    westrich20940 Posts: 878 Member
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    Surely as you said it varies person to person...but I did my own math and based on it, I lost a size (dress/pant size) for every 6.8 --- so let's call it 7lbs I lost.

    So....sure, pretty accurate I'd say. Individual height will have an effect on this -- I'm 5'3".
  • kaydensmom2009
    kaydensmom2009 Posts: 57 Member
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    I’m 5’2”. It took 40lbs when I first started to drop one pants size, from an 18 to a 16. My last drop in size only took 5lbs to go from a 2 to a 0, from 120lbs to 115lbs. Overall I dropped 9 pants sizes and lost 85lbs, but you drop clothing sizes differently throughout the process. As you get smaller it takes less pound loss to drop a pants size.

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