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.
In fact, inch loss is considered as a healthier way of losing weight. If you only want to lose weight, rather than building muscles then focus on cardiovascular exercise instead of strength training.
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.
Losing Inches vs. Pounds. If you're just starting on your weight/fat-loss journey, understand that you're likely to lose more pounds first, rather than inches, especially within the first week or two. That's because your body is getting rid of all that extra water weight, according to the Mayo Clinic.
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.
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.
Where you'll lose weight first is largely determined by genetic factors. Just as your body is programmed to gain weight in certain areas, it's also programmed to lose weight in certain areas. Your sex, age, and hormones also play important roles in where and how quickly you lose weight.
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.
Coming to the point, you will first lose “hard fat” (visceral fat) that surrounds your organs like liver, kidneys and later, you will burn soft fat (belly fat, thigh fat, back fat, etc.). Women accumulate fat cells around their belly area, hips, thighs and these areas are usually the last from.
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 much weight a person needs to lose for it to be noticeable is also subjective as it depends on your frame and starting body mass index, according to Guzman. On average, a 15 to 20-pound loss (approximately 2 to 5 percent of your starting body weight) is enough to notice "significant changes in your body," he said.
Sometimes people lose weight but not inches (and vice versa), which can leave anyone feeling frustrated and confused. First, it's important to recognize that weight loss, when done in a healthy, sustainable way, is quite slow.
if your clothes are looser but the scale is the same, this is because of the lean muscle you have built. Building lean muscle has lots of benefits. Did you know building muscle will help boost your metabolism so you can burn fat even whilst you rest?
You can also lose inches in 30 days. "Just in my own 15 years of experience in working with patients, I have seen some lose up to five to 10 inches in a month from losing four to eight pounds," Jim told POPSUGAR.
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.
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.
Excess visceral fat can pose serious health risks, but when you embark on a healthy diet and exercise plan, this fat is often the first to disappear. This means you're likely to notice weight loss in your abdominal area first. Too much visceral fat can make your belly protrude.
While everyone loses weight differently, dropping as little as 3 to 5 pounds can show up on your face first, Eboli says.
A healthy weight loss pace is about 1-2 pounds per week (5). More rapid weight loss is likely to harm your body, and won't bring sustainable results. How many pounds to lose an inch? In general, it takes about 8 pounds to lose your first inch.
"By the time you hit 10 pounds, your jeans will feel differently, absolutely," Blum says. "Just a little looser. Theoretically, 10 pounds is considered one size." Once you get past that first couple pounds where you might not be able to tell, Blum says, you really do start to lose body fat.
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.