Um, I have 40 pounds to lose, and have lost 8. It doesn't mean nothing to me. Is it 100% accurate 100% of the time? No. But I'm not going to get where I'm going without the numbers on the scale going down.
Um, I have 40 pounds to lose, and have lost 8. It doesn't mean nothing to me. Is it 100% accurate 100% of the time? No. But I'm not going to get where I'm going without the numbers on the scale going down.
But it does mean something if you measure it. Yes, the scale needs to drop too and it will. The woman photo didn't have a whole lot to lose. But there are often times the scale will get stuck but the inches will drop. And once you do get closer to "normal" it's possible your weight will not match your body. You may weigh heavier than someone who has never done any lifting.
It still amazes me how two people with the same stats can have two dress sizes between them.
I think this is far more true when you are smaller, like this person, than when you are in the higher numbers. If you're increasing your exercise significantly and building muscle, you are still likely to lose more fat than you gain muscle. A pound of muscle weighs the same amount as a pound of fat, it just takes up less space.
So let's look at it like this. You start off weighing 250 pounds. If you live a sedentary life, a general calorie calculator says that it will take 2338 calories per day to maintain that. To lose one pound a week at a sedentary life, you would eat about 1800 calories per day. You would lose 4 pounds a month. According to this article, it takes about a month for a beginner to gain a pound of muscle. So if you're dieting and exercising and trying to build muscle, you still should be showing a loss of 3 pounds a month even if you gain a pound of muscle.
If you weigh 160 pounds, you can still have the same thing happen where you are losing more than you gain in muscle, but it's also more likely that you're gaining muscle slightly faster if you've been working on it the whole time AND you're losing slower. So if you're losing 2 pounds a month instead of 4 and gaining 2 pounds of muscle a month, then yes. But when you weigh more, this is far less likely.
I'm not saying you shouldn't find solace in losing inches, because you totally should. And the scale is not the end all and be all. But I know that when I didn't know much about nutrition and was still eating like garbage but working out, that whole muscle weighs more than fat thing didn't really help me out. I was not gaining muscle at a rate which would cancel fat loss.
That was awesome! Thank you for posting the link. While I do have a "goal weight" listed, that is not my real goal and never has been. My goals are mostly health oriented (I want awesome numbers from my blood work), but I also have a jeans size as a goal - size 4. My 115 GW came from my husband doing the math and figuring that the most likely area for me to fit into a 5 is 110 - 125 (he's a big math nerd and is loving giving me help with my tracking and figuring during all of this. Since 115 falls between his numbers and is the middle of the healthy BMI range for my height I went with it. However, I only did that to have a number because so many people and so many websites ask, my real true goal is those jeans and those good lab results. If I get into a 4 long before hitting 115 and my doc says my blood work makes him happy then I will start working my maintenance plan at that point.
I think this is far more true when you are smaller, like this person, than when you are in the higher numbers. If you're increasing your exercise significantly and building muscle, you are still likely to lose more fat than you gain muscle. A pound of muscle weighs the same amount as a pound of fat, it just takes up less space.
So let's look at it like this. You start off weighing 250 pounds. If you live a sedentary life, a general calorie calculator says that it will take 2338 calories per day to maintain that. To lose one pound a week at a sedentary life, you would eat about 1800 calories per day. You would lose 4 pounds a month. According to this article, it takes about a month for a beginner to gain a pound of muscle. So if you're dieting and exercising and trying to build muscle, you still should be showing a loss of 3 pounds a month even if you gain a pound of muscle.
If you weigh 160 pounds, you can still have the same thing happen where you are losing more than you gain in muscle, but it's also more likely that you're gaining muscle slightly faster if you've been working on it the whole time AND you're losing slower. So if you're losing 2 pounds a month instead of 4 and gaining 2 pounds of muscle a month, then yes. But when you weigh more, this is far less likely.
I'm not saying you shouldn't find solace in losing inches, because you totally should. And the scale is not the end all and be all. But I know that when I didn't know much about nutrition and was still eating like garbage but working out, that whole muscle weighs more than fat thing didn't really help me out. I was not gaining muscle at a rate which would cancel fat loss.
Very well written, especially the last paragraph! Yes, I hate to see this advice taken the wrong way. Weight loss is still 80% diet and only 20% exercise, regardless. If a person is eating RIGHT and exercising, THEN the scale is not something to worry about. Everything needs to line up.
But it does mean something if you measure it. Yes, the scale needs to drop too and it will. The woman photo didn't have a whole lot to lose. But there are often times the scale will get stuck but the inches will drop. And once you do get closer to "normal" it's possible your weight will not match your body. You may weigh heavier than someone who has never done any lifting.
It still amazes me how two people with the same stats can have two dress sizes between them.
True, but this is posted in the section of the forum for folks who have 100 pounds to lose. To send the message to people with a large amount of weight to lose that "you can totally transform your body without losing a pound" does a disservice. Yes, at the end of your weight loss journey, the scale may not make a difference. But at the beginning and middle, it really does.
Why the scale means NOTHING.
