It's possible to gain muscle and reduce body fat without actually seeing a change in your weight. This happens when you lose 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.
You may be losing weight and gaining muscle
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.
How quickly will you lose weight? The volunteers reduced their waist sizes by an average of 1 inch for every 4lb (1.81kg) they lost. So if you lose 1lb (0.45kg) a week you could hope to reduce your waistline by an inch after four weeks.
Multiple regression tells us that on average, for every 8.5 pounds lost, people dropped an inch off their waist. (And for every 1.5 kilograms lost, people dropped a centimeter off their waist.) Every 10 pounds lost was accompanied by 1.18 inches of waistline reduction.
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.
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.
As you work out, you are building lean muscle which weighs exactly the same as fat but is leaner. if your clothes are looser but the scale is the same, this is because of the lean muscle you have built.
Inch loss is important if high waist circumference (belly fat) is more than 90 cm in males and 80 cm in females. It can affect your heart and other main organs with risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes. Weight loss scale misleads you, it only tells the weight but not the fat loss and muscle gained.
Most researchers agree that it's best to weigh yourself first thing in the morning. That way, you're more likely to make it a habit and be consistent with it. Weighing yourself in the morning helps especially with age-related gains, which can be more difficult to control.
“Your weight won't be consistent if you weigh yourself on Friday and Monday,” she says. “Many people have a different routine on the weekends. They might eat out more, drink alcohol or snack more. Compare that to Friday, if you've been eating consistently for five days, and you'll see a big difference.”
You've gained muscle.
And here's an often overlooked fact: Muscle tissue is more dense than fat tissue. So as you gain more muscle and lose fat, you change your overall body composition, which can result in a higher weight, but a smaller figure and better health.
Too many starchy carbohydrates and bad fats are a recipe for that midsection to expand. Instead, get plenty of veggies, choose lean proteins, and stay away from fats from red meats. Choose healthier fats in things like fish, nuts, and avocados. Even a moderate cutback on carbs (grains, pasta, sugars) can help, too.
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.
Eating too few calories can be the start of a vicious cycle that causes diet distress. When you cut your calories so low that your metabolism slows and you stop losing weight, you probably will become frustrated that your efforts are not paying off. This can lead you to overeat and ultimately gain weight.
It is commonly said that if you eat too few calories, your metabolism will slow down to a point where you no longer lose weight. Part of this is true: as you lose weight your energy expenditure does drop. However, consuming too few calories cannot and will not cause you to gain weight. This is simply impossible.
“When you start exercising, your muscles start gobbling up fuel called glycogen,” says Krista Scott-Dixon, Ph. D., Director, Headspace Adjustment Bureau, Precision Nutrition. Since glycogen stores water, you could gain up to 10 pounds in water weight alone, says Scott-Dixon.
"The biggest thing people do that slows their metabolism down is eating too few calories," said Fiore. 1200 calories per day is roughly the amount you need to perform basic functions, she suggested, and when a person eats fewer than that, the metabolism slows down to conserve energy.
There are only a handful of natural ingredients that are proven to boost your metabolism. The most popular thermogenic ingredient is caffeine. Caffeine has been shown to boost metabolism and increase the burning of fat. Other thermogenic ingredients include green tea, capsaicin, green coffee bean, and turmeric.
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.
As soon as you bend down, the muscles in your body that do the bending also act to pull up the lower half of your body. So this reduces the pressure your body places on the scales, and make you appear to weigh less.