Losing Inches Or Weight: Does Anyone Feel Like They Are Losing Weight But The Scale Doesn't Show It?

Have you been burning fat for sure because you are seeing the difference in body shape, but want to know how to get the scale number to drop???

Please, from a personal trainer, forget the scales. If you feel great, look great, WHY focus on what you weigh?

Muscles is denser than fat, therefore the same amount of weight looks smaller than when it’s fats. It's all about percent body fat. It could be you're probably gaining muscle. I do know of most people that went from 104 to 135 pounds but look same thin, just more muscle. You’re building more lean body mass. Don’t worry about the scale.

Sometimes it’s not so much the weight as it is the improvement in your body. So long as you’re seeing your body change I would not pay so much mind to the scale. As your body fat is being replaced with muscle.

Also, It’s a lot more to that. There could be other factors around your lifestyle or habits that you may not be focusing on like ..sleeping 7-8 hrs a day, keep hydrated and drink 3 litres of water, meditate/relax and recover from workouts.

For anyone who is curious about how it works, here goes! According to an online study from Cambridge, Harvard, UCLA. Weight LOSS occurs simultaneously with muscle growth during the body reconstruction process. Muscle mass is gained through the delivery of fat stores. The more fat there is to burn, typically the faster results in muscle mass and overall WEIGHT LOSS. Water stores will regulate with proper water intake, meaning, up to one gallon of water per day will alleviate water storage in the body. You will see a dramatic WEIGHT LOSS in the first 6-12 weeks with complete change in diet, water intake, and more aggressive physical activity. Cardio makes the heart work faster/harder which is necessary for fat burning. Thirty minutes or more (sustained) of cardio per day will cause fat loss and muscle reformation. Additionally, weight training will also burn fat and add muscle, but at a slower burn. The combination of both several times a week will cause the body to shift fat and water stores until eradication occurs. One gallon of water per day helps regulate digestive health and will work on flushing the system during this time. The consumption of food is a massive key component of the process of WEIGHT LOSS.

Humans have always been hunter/gather animals. Protein, fruit, nuts, legumes, fibers, vegetables are what humans are meant to consume. Leave your diet to these fresh and unprocessed consumption choices and weight LOSS will occur naturally with the lack of processed sugars, saturated and trans fats, greasiness, and other foul chemical ingredients that cause blood pressure/sugar issues, hormonal fluxes, and insulin issues. In the end, play by ALL the rules and WEIGHT LOSS will occur.

Don’t worry about getting weighed, you can usually tell whether you are losing inches or not by the way your clothes feel ... the scale is a trigger for me so I stay off of it .... Test yourself on old clothes you'll see your progress. You should also consider drinking at least 1/2 of your body weight in ounces of water every day believe me it works.

Worrying too much about the scales can cause increased stress ...keep doing what you're doing. There's a lot of work that goes through weight loss, by consuming a balanced nutrition and staying in a calorie deficit ...do resistance training 3 x a week, you are guaranteed an all round results.

Like I said before, one way is to make sure you are in a caloric deficit. In order to lose body, you must find your caloric maintenance. That is approximately: between (lbs) x 16. Ex. 160 lbs x 16 = 2560 cal.  To lose weight you must be in a caloric deficit, which is usually: between (lbs) x 10 to 12.

Ex. 160 lbs x 10 to 12 = in the range of 1600 to 1920 cal

It takes about 3,500 cal to burn 1 lb. To make things simpler let’s round 1920 to 1950. And let’s take 100 off the maintenance, 2460. Your maintenance cal minus your caloric intake at a deficit (2460-1960) = 500 cal. If you eat at a 500 cal deficit everyday for 1 week (7 days) 500 x 7 = 3500 cal, you will lose about 1 lb/ week. 

Cardio plus a diet with a caloric deficit will just increase the amount of energy expenditure and increase the amount of weight you lose per week. 

Moreover, you usually need a higher protein % when in a caloric deficit. Usually around 1.8-2.7 g/kg of body weight. Hang in there, who cares what the scale says if you like what you see? Mindset, eating habits general wellness matters a lot. Stop worrying about the scale just worry about the mirror unless you are trying to make weight for something specific.

That being said, we all have different body's. You may be building muscles. Some scale measures fat vs muscle so that may help you distinguish the 2 and have a better understanding of why your number hasn't dropped. You could do fat% test once a month. Grab a soft measuring tape & start measurements. Get a good scale that tells you your body fat, water weight etc. When you are weightlifting it can take longer to see a drop on the scale, but you get faster measurements, take before & after pics their more accurate than the scale, it's more about what you look like than how much weight you've lost. Remember when you do weigh yourself, do it 1st thing in the morning after using the restroom.

If you are too caught up in worry about what your scale says, Easy - Don’t use it. Hid the scale. You have to know what’s your purpose, shape or weight. We are different in that way, fit for some of us is heavier. Besides, muscle ways more then fat. As you train you should be burning fat and building muscle. So don’t go by the scale. I wouldn’t even go by the mirror at this time. Go by your clothes. I know it's very hard to be motivated, being overweight borderline obese and seeing your scale ain't moving, even after eating clean and gym 6 days a week or so. You see the difference but the scale can be discouraging. It is very understandable. Really, you just need to relax and enjoy the changed. You might want to get a scale that shows fat percentage not just a normal scale. But believe me you are not the only one who is putting in work and wonders why the scale hasn't moved.

You can go see a physiotherapist that use a tool to identify your problem spots, and if you monitor that you will be motivate. You still don't have to give up. Take a bike fast and hard for 45 minutes per day, walk briskly for 4 miles per day, strength train for 30 mins or more a day. Eat only whole foods, chicken and fish only, no pork or beef. Egg whites, protein whey powder that has 1gram of sugar etc. And a gallon of water per day. And that, is a good way to go.

Don’t worry they are only numbers and don’t mean anything. I’ve always wondered if measurements on scale are accurate. Look at your body and you can tell you don't need a scale to show you that you are losing fat. If you know for a fact you are losing fat but when you measured it seems you gained, so you should be really proud to know yes you are losing but the weight showed you're gaining so you added that to muscle. Simple as that. Remember, muscle weighs more than fat, forget the scale the numbers that count are your clothing sizes, go by how you look & feel. If adding muscle it won’t and should not go down.

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