Losing Inches and not weight

I never trust a scale to give me an accurate reading on body fat %. Scales use electricity to measure your body fat, and this can vary based on the amount of water in your system. If your going to use a scale, take it with a grain of salt. It will give you a good ball park figure.

Also of note, a scale will generally measure mostly lower body fat, where your hand held device will mostly measure you upper body. If I were you, measure my lower body only after drinking a glass of water, say, 15 minutes after drinking. Measure for three days, then average it.  I would then take the average of the upper and lower body.

This is just my opinion, there are certainly other ways of doing it, which would be more accurate, but I use what I got, and dont need precision.

To answer your question, muscle weighs more than fat, so yes, you are most likely losing body fat, but gaining in muscle mass, this is a good thing.

As far as measuring the loss of body fat, I suggest taking some pictures. You will be the biggest critic in judging your body. The fact that you are already losing weight in the mid section is great, and a clear sign you are in fact losing body fat.

Keep up the hard work, it is working!

Thanks for the reply.  It makes sense given muscle does weigh more, I've just never experienced losing BF an not losing weight at the same time. 

Any thoughts or guidelines as to what a good rate of loss is per week/month by Inches???  1" a week etc....

Thanks again for the reply.

Last time I measured myself (over a month ago), I'd lost 10.5" from various body measurements, but I've only lost about 17#  so far-I seem to be hovering between 215 and 220 right now. I've been eating healthy for 4-5 months with workouts and training for tri's for about 2 1/2 months.

I can see some real changes though. Smaller gut-more of a spare tire than a gut, leaner legs-can actually see some muscle definition.

As far as a rate of loss, I cant really help you out too much there. Your height, body build, what you eat, exercise, how much you have that can be lost, all of it plays a role.

If there is someone else who can answer that, I would also love to know!

From what I have read, around 2lbs is the most fat you can lose per week without going into deficit to a point where you start to lose muscle with it. Of course, some folks report big 10lb losses in a week but I'm sure a lot of that is water weight. 

Like you, I have not lost a pound in 3 weeks but I know that I had to drop another hole in my belt and my legs have definitely become a lot stronger so I'm certain that it must be some offsetting fat loss/muscle gain.  That is always a positive because you want to be strong for the tri.  Still, I certainly would love to show up a bit lighter too. 

Screw the scale.  The scale is the WORST thing for anyone, let alone someone on a diet.  The scale doesn't tell you anything but your weight.  You weight really tells you very little about the status of you health.

Two guys that are 6' tall.  One weighs 175 pounds and the other weighs 200 pounds.  Is one too fat?  One too skinny?  No necessarily.  They could both be perfect weight for their body structure. 

How your look, how your body feels, how your clothes fit is a much better measurement of your health and well being then a scale.  Throw the thing away.

Edited by JC5066 2009-07-29 2:07 PM

This user's post has been ignored.

You can absolutely not lose weight but get smaller.  Reason being is that if you take 1 cup of human body fat, and 1 cup of human muscle (meat) , the 1 cup of muscle will weigh more. 

I know it's kind of a grotesque analogy but it's true.  Muscle weighs more than fat, and as long as you're getting smaller (inch wise) don't worry about what the scale says.

Who cares what the scale says!  If you're losing inches and clothing sizes are getting smaller, ignore the scale, it means nothing!

I am suffering the same fate at present. I am losing size, as my clothes are becoming loose, but the scale doesn't seem to be budging. I am improving on the bike and the run but again no change in the scale. The paranoid me thinks they are taunting me and deliberately not moving just to pi55 me off!

Don't sweat it!  Losing inches is where it's at!  Congrats!!!   (ps--really hard to ignore the scale, i know, i do it too even though i know).

screw the scale.. Keep up the hard work

A pound is a pound is a pound- Just a point of clarificaiton, but 1 lb of fat loss is the same as 1 lb of muscle loss as far as a scale is concerned.  The same as 1 lb of muscle gain will show the same as 1 lb of fat gain...

BMI is a better tell of your overall fat/ muscle ratio, but even then, it does not qualify your overall health.  

Don't sweat the actual numbers!  If you are losing inches, but maintaining weight, you are probably greatly improving your overall health.   As you continue to work out, your motabolism will increase and unless you FEED your muscles the right things, you will lose muscle and fat.  You will keep losing inches, and the dreaded scale will start to reward you too (just don't get to attached to it)   

KEEP IT UP!  It sounds like you are on thr right track!  WAY TO GO! 
 

Something else to keep in mind:

When you're working out consistently and building muscle, your body retains more water in the muscles.  This can lead to increased weight or not losing weight while you may still be burning fat and losing inches.  Eventually your body will release that excess water and the weight will decrease, but you'll probably experience these "plateaus" in weight loss later down the line as the body builds more muscle.
This is all a good thing - you're getting healthier and improving body composition!  Good work!

BMI isn't going to be a better indicator of change than weight for a single individual (since it is just weight/height - and height won't change). BMI is a statistical range for large populations, there are lots of exceptions when you apply it to individuals.

If you were only changing nutrition, then a lack of weight change would be disheartning - but since you are obviously training, then it should be exciting! You feel/see fat loss, but you are gaining that much muscle. Keep up the good work.

I stand corrected. 

Ask 100 different peole, get 100 different answers- depending on their experience, education etc. 

Just keep doing what you are doing.  That seems to be the overall theme in this thread.

Platdaddy - I feel your pain. I've recently quit getting on the poundage scale because it was beginning to be very demoralizing. I'm a 50yo female sitting at 180 for the last 4 months. I went down from 220 in January to 180 in May and there I stay + or - 2 or 3 pounds. I can relate to that stagnation of the weight. However, I do measure my body fat each time I go to the gym - it is slowly creeping down even though I'm not losing pounds. And I can report that the people at work all keep asking me how much more I've lost. I'm not that great at seeing it in the mirror either.  All I can say is don't stop now - keep going. Every now and then I swear at the scale (doesn't change the number, but it makes me feel better). I've learned to live with the fact that I'm going to be a big triathlete at my first one next month. I'm not attempting to lose any weight now. My committment to myself was whatever my weight was at the end of July - that was where it would have to be for the tri.  It's too important to me now to be able to feed myself enough for my training schedule. I've decided to worry about weight loss after the event now. I know none of this is likely to be exactly the same for anybody else, but it does help me to know that I'm not the only one swearing at that  friggin scale.

Good Luck!

Are you guys listening to the posts these guys are saying?

Your replacing fat with muscle.

Eg. if you lose a volume of fat equivalent to a 1litre milk carton, and gain muscle at the same time to that 1/5th of the same container, you will weigh the same. Since ur overall volume is down u'll notice you'll have less of the 'bulge' ]

PLatdaddy

I get it, I really do. I'm 6'2" male and have gone from 224 to around 200. I totaly relate to what alsgislady says my weight is staying the same but people compliment me & I feel & look leaner/stronger.

I was obsessing a bit about this until I bought a fat measuring calliper  which puts me in the ideal range unlike BMI which happily tells me I'm overweight

I think its really hard to forget about lbs as we are taught from a very early age that fat loss = weight loss & its an easy number to compare against. To be honest I still want to see the numbers go down a little as 196 was my target and I'm so close, what a hypocrite !

Definitely take photo's though, I posted some up after my 1st sprintin a tri suit & was ready for the abuse but got lots of compliments, good luck !
 

Just did another photo after reading this year, 10 months of training & I'm not superman but very happy !

Take some benchmark pics....... 

It is possible to lose fat and gain muslce at the same time and have the scale not move.  But you need a regular strength training routine to be gaining that muscle, just cardio won't do it.

I wouldn't trust the accuracy of the bf scales.  The measurements you get there will give you a lot of variability with your hydration level.  Bf calipers would do better provided you measuring consistently in the same places.  And its better to look at the fold measurements obtained and just watch them go down.  You'll get a different overall bf number based on how many skinfolds are in your sample and whose equation you use.  

Measurements and pictures are really the way to go to monitor bf loss.  Sometimes a picture can be worth 1000 words.   

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I don't know about 1000 words but definately two words.... Hubba Hubba!

You look amazing. I never would have guessed that the weight difference was so minimal.

You have inspired me to take some pics that I can compare with some I had taken many months ago.

Well done on your results...

x2 on those 2 words.

Dont read into BMI, according to BMI I am obese,  body fat is around 15% tho so not even close. I do have a home body fat scale i use just to measure the ratio of loss as opposed to using it for accuracy.