[twinieten]

What is the typical number of inches a person can expect to lose in a month? I've lost only a half inch in size, and about 4 pounds in 6 weeks. In the past 5 months, I've lost almost 15 pounds and proximately 11 inches. Is this normal? I expected larger inch changes, but maybe I'm expecting too much.

I measure myself, and there's no way in H-E-double-hockey-sticks I would let anyone else do it! I measure to the inch or half inch, and nothing in between (like 3/4 inch, etc.). I know there is a lot of room for error when measuring myself, so I don't measure more often than once a month.

[runningfromfat]

It really depends... are you exercise? Specifically, are you lifting?

If you're just dieting vs. exercising vs. lifting you're going to see very different results. Dieting alone will probably give you the least inches lost/pound whereas lifting will give you the most inches lost/pound and just flat out cardio is probably somewhere in between.

I do heavy lifting and when I started I actually went through a period where I lost a lot of inches but didn't lose weight for awhile. This actually happened to me a couple of months ago again. Other times I'll drop more weight but not see much of a change in my inches. For some reason they never happen at the same time!

I have noticed, though, that now that I've been lifting for awhile, I've been losing about 1 inch on my waist for about every 10lbs lost. More specifically, I always seem to notice an inch difference when I just got into a new decade (so 189,179lbs,169lbs etc). The rest of my body is all over the place and it's definitely not consistent! I'll lose from my hips for awhile and then my bust, then my arms, legs etc.

Basically, long story short it's all over the place BUT if you want to lose more inches quickly I highly recommend lifting. I know I can fit into smaller sizes now than when I was at this same weight before.

[carter]

I don't think it's possible to make meaningful generalizations about how much weight translates to how many inches. It's going to vary so widely, not just from person to person, for but for one single person along the course of her process.

For me, I occasionally go through phases where my weight loss slows down but my body changes shape rapidly. It's almost as though every 25 pounds or so, my body pauses to rearrange itself. These phases are even more dramatic when I am doing a lot of strength training.

The converse of that, of course, are the other phases where the weight is coming off slowly but steadily while my body seemingly isn't changing at all.

And that's just me - even with one body I can't make a general statement equating pounds to months to inches. Comparison between people is even more futile, with our different physiques, our different fitness levels, our different heights, our different amounts of weight to lose, our different amounts of strength training. The best you can hope to do is watch your own body and try to learn your own patterns.

[twinieten]

Thanks! I think comparison is an excellent tool in order to gauge where I am in comparison to others, and where I am compared to typical results. I do exercise, I don't strength train. I see a significant change in my shape, but I'm baffled by the fact that I haven't lost more inches.... at the same time, I suppose what I've lost isn't terrible either.

[sontaikle]

Oh goodness it seems everyone has a different experience when it comes to pounds vs inches that it can really be hard to say how many pounds one would have to lose to also lose inches. Should you have lost more inches by now? It's extremely hard to tell. There's also the fact that your body might decide to play catch up and you'll lose inches without losing weight.

My experience is all over the place, but I found that generally I would drop inches before I dropped the weight. I would get stuck at a weight briefly, lose inches and then drop the weight in a few days. It was strange, but I suppose that's how my body worked. I weight lift though, so that may have something to do with it.

I got stuck at 146 for about three weeks but I dropped almost two dress sizes in that time! Just after I dropped five pounds rather quickly.