Losing inches, not pounds!

Losing inches is better than losing pounds. Plus, you'll be gaining weight in muscle.

I'll never understand why people think this is a problem. :laugh: Who can see the number on the scale? You, and only you. Who can see the inches lost? Everyone!

That said, if you're new to your exercise routine, you're likely retaining fluid. Exercise creates tiny microscopic tears in the muscle, and as the muscle heals, it holds onto fluid (inflammation). It's normal and temporary and will go away in a few weeks.

Personally, I find it much more rewarding to track my progress by how clothes fit, measurements, and in photos. Sometimes the scale doesn't go down. Sometimes it goes up. Sometimes it stays the same. But if you're tracking your progress in other ways, you can see the changes you've made.

^^this

my mother always used to say "i dont care if i weigh 400lbs as long as my clothes still fit and i can lift my children with ease..." granted, that was a gross exaggeration (the 400lbs part), but i never knew what she meant until recently. i have only used the scale recently for my own personal curiosity. i don't sweat it if it's higher than the day or week or month before because *i* know that im working my @$$ off and ive never felt better

to add to this... ive only lost 4lbs - give or take - but i dont think that with p90x NOTHING is happening with my body. that's just crazytalk

I'll never understand why people think this is a problem. :laugh: Who can see the number on the scale? You, and only you. Who can see the inches lost? Everyone!

That said, if you're new to your exercise routine, you're likely retaining fluid. Exercise creates tiny microscopic tears in the muscle, and as the muscle heals, it holds onto fluid (inflammation). It's normal and temporary and will go away in a few weeks.

Personally, I find it much more rewarding to track my progress by how clothes fit, measurements, and in photos. Sometimes the scale doesn't go down. Sometimes it goes up. Sometimes it stays the same. But if you're tracking your progress in other ways, you can see the changes you've made.

I love this girl. She knows her stuff.


Op, how many calories are you eating? Also what is your weight loss goal per week? You should be at 1 lb per week based on your ticker and should aim to eat an extra 200 calories days you exercise. I say 200 because the average person i have seen doing Jm burns from 200-300

I'm at 1200 cals a day. According to MFP, when I do my workouts, I supposedly burn about 450 cals. I always have a whey protein shake after. I am a vegetarian, so it's difficult to eat that much protein otherwise. Sometimes on workout days it seems impossible to eat that many calories back, but I do so I don't go into starvation mode.

Do yourself a favor. Either preplan your workout or include it into your lifestyle calculation and dont worry about exercise calories. Or on days you workout, eat 200 extra calories during the day. Even if you dont work out the extra calories will probably benefit your body.

I used to feel the same way-I hated the fact the number one the scale barely moved! But when I started to measure inches, I noticed major improvement:)

I agree with everyone on here!! Inches are so much more rewarding!! It took me FOREVER to realize that but now that I have, I have never been happier and more proud of myself for what I've done and what I've continue to do. I've been on a serious plateau for about a month now but the inches still keep coming off so I consider it a WIN!!

Natalie, I'd encourage you to look at some success stories for 30 Day Shred or Ripped in 30 or any of the Jillian Michaels workouts. One consistent theme you'll see is that the people say they saw more inch reduction than weight loss. Their pictures are very motivating too. It is for that reason that I joined a group that started Ripped in 30 that just started Monday. You'll see by my ticker, I have plenty of weight to lose, but because I never took before pictures I didn't notice the 26 lbs I lost before that. That's a lie sort of, my clothes fit better, but I didn't actually measure anything with a tape measure or take pictures. When I joined the group I made sure to take those pics and measurements so I could see the results myself.

Anyway, my point is, losing inches is awesome and the weight will come with it. If you stick with what you are doing your body will look and feel amazing since you've added the strength component right from the start. Maybe alternate from a JM workout one month and then take a month off to focus more on cardio if you want to see the scale move quicker. But don't take out the strength training alltogether just to see the scale move. As the earlier post stated, you're the only one who sees the scale, everyone else sees those inch losses and better toned body! Keep up the good work!!!

Great post I am doing a 10 week body transformation challenge at a local martial arts studio and have only lost about 4 lbs in 8 weeks but have lost over 2 inches in the waist and the hips ... after the weigh in today I was very frustrated but after reading this thread I realize, I feel better and my clothes are fitting better. Keep up the good work.

Thank you so much for this! I am having the same problem I recently started walking 6.2 miles a day and was feeling discouraged with the scale until I measured myself and found i had lost and inch on hips waist and neck