You'd think that going on a strict diet and exercise regimen would help you drop pounds quickly, but most people actually gain weight at first. If this has happened to you, don't give up on your goals just yet.
'Phantom fat' is the experience you have when you've lost weight, but when you look at yourself you don't think you have, largely due to the fact that your brain takes a much longer time to adjust your spacial awareness. People might be commenting on how good you look, but in your head it doesn't feel like it.
The first stage of weight loss is when you tend to lose the most weight and begin to notice changes in your appearance and how your clothes fit. It usually happens within the first 4–6 weeks ( 1 ). Most of the weight loss in this stage comes from carb stores, protein, and water — and to a lesser extent, body fat.
Mostly, losing weight is an internal process. You will first lose hard fat that surrounds your organs like liver, kidneys and then you will start to lose soft fat like waistline and thigh fat. The fat loss from around the organs makes you leaner and stronger.
Too Much Stress Increases Stomach Fat
If you've been following a healthy diet and exercising regularly, but you still notice your stomach getting bigger, or you're having trouble losing that last 5 to 10 pounds, stress may be to blame.
If you are on a low-carb diet, it will help you lose weight as there will be water loss from glycogen in the muscles. But in this case, fat will not burn. Also, if you are doing cardio, you may lose weight quickly but burning belly fat might take time.
If you're losing inches but maintaining your weight and you regularly strength train, you may actually be losing fat and gaining muscle. The process of gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time is called body recomposition. Most scales don't differentiate between the amounts of body fat and muscle you have.
In terms of how your body looks, “it usually takes 4 weeks for your friends to notice weight loss, and 6–8 weeks for you to notice,” says Ramsey Bergeron, a certified personal trainer. “Your friends who don't see you every day are much more likely to see a change than someone you're around all the time,” he adds.
Do you ever wonder why the number on the scale doesn't move after you've made many changes to your diet and lifestyle? When the scale doesn't move, you are losing body fat while gaining muscle. Your weight may stay the same, even as you lose inches, a sign that you're moving in the right direction.
If you're trying to lose weight and better your health, don't let yourself be discouraged by the scale. If you're losing inches, you're making progress! Use the inches or the way you feel or other factors as a guide, and keep working toward better health and a better life for the future.
Daily weigh-ins.
If you're really committed to losing weight, weighing yourself every day can be helpful. Research shows that people who weigh themselves every day have even more success with weight loss than those who weigh in once a week.
As your body metabolizes fat, fatty acid molecules are released into the bloodstream and travel to the heart, lungs, and muscles, which break them apart and use the energy stored in their chemical bonds. The pounds you shed are essentially the byproducts of that process.
A new exercise regimen puts stress on your muscle fibers. This causes small micro tears, also known as micro trauma, and some inflammation. Those two conditions in your muscle fibers are the reason you may gain some weight.
Bloating Is Localized While Belly Fat Is Widespread
One easy way to tell the difference between bloating and belly fat is that, with bloating, only the stomach expands due to the excess gas accumulation. You will likely notice other bulges with excess fat, particularly on the abdomen, thighs, hips, and back.
You can lose overall body fat over time by eating healthy food choices, but that won't change your stomach size. It's possible that when people think about shrinking the stomach to lose weight, they're talking about how stomach stretching affects appetite cues.
While everyone loses weight differently, dropping as little as 3 to 5 pounds can show up on your face first, Eboli says.
Drinking Water Can Make You Burn More Calories
Drinking water increases the amount of calories you burn, which is known as resting energy expenditure ( 4 ). In adults, resting energy expenditure has been shown to increase by 24–30% within 10 minutes of drinking water.
As against areas such as legs, face and arms, our stomach and abdominal regions possess beta cells that makes it difficult to reduce the fats easily and lose weight in these areas. However, as per research, belly fat is the most difficult to lose as the fat there is so much harder to break down.
You should step on the scale first thing in the morning. That's when you'll get your most accurate weight because your body has had the overnight hours to digest and process whatever you ate and drank the day before. And you should try to turn that step into a regular part of your routine.
But on average, you should lose 10 pounds in exactly 5-6 weeks for a healthier and more achievable estimate. This means that you lose around 2 pounds per week, which is in line with the CDC's recommendation for safe weight loss at a rate of 1–2 pounds per week, a sustainable goal.
Muscle is denser than fat, and as it is more compact within your body, as you gain muscle mass, you end up looking thinner, no matter your physical weight. So, if you've been doing a lot of strength training lately, it's likely this is the reason that you're looking fantastic but not dropping those numbers.