I've been measuring my waist and it's gone down from 35 inches to 33 in the past few weeks, but I've only lost about 5-6 pounds. I don't think the inches to weight ratio makes much sense, honestly, but I've read that you can lose inches while retaining water from exercising and such and you might have a sudden drop later on down the line on the scale.

I know it isn't muscle because it's far too soon(only about a month into restarting my lifestyle change) but do any of you have the same issue? My hip measurements haven't changed at all. I'm positive I'm measuring correctly because I always am sure to stand straight, do it first thing in the morning, and I have perfectly aligned freckles I can line the measuring tape up with on my waist.

What's up with this?

I don't measure myself, but it's a great idea! I've read plenty of posts that have had a similar experience. So many people get frustrated with the scale, but it's really not the best measure of short term fat loss due to water. Congrats!

Pick up 5 pounds of butter. See how much space that fat takes up?

You are mistaken if you really think that a month into your lifestyle change you aren't building muscle yet. Depending on what you're doing physically, you can very much have started building some.

Remember muscle weighs more than fat.

Scales are not the best for tracking these results because of this. You're doing great.

I feel so much more calm, thank you guys for your encouraging words. I had a bit of a drop on the scale this morning, not as much as I was expecting for the inches lost but I'm happy to be shrinking regardless! Scales are tricky buggers.