[shoegal27]

Can somebody please explain this concept to me. I am loosing inches from my waiste but nothing is showing on the scale. What is happening and where is the fat going?

[5thelement]

Well, muscle weighs more that fat does. If you've been working out those muscles, could be that your resting metabolism rate is now higher, your fat is slowly disappearing, thus the inch-loss but not weight-loss. Congrats! :)

[sjunky13]

I dont weigh mysellf EVER! I go by the way my clothes fit. I dont care if I am a certain weight, its all about the inches. AS you lose FAT , your body replaces the fat with water , in a few days the scale will catch up. When lose weight you lose fat, musce, water..ect. The scale is the worst way to see results.

[shoegal27]

So when you loose inches, in essence, you are loosing fat also and gaining muscle? First it replaces it with water?

[DiorDeVille]

Say you workout for 30 minutes and burn 250 calories. Your body first burned the easy-to-reach calories (sugars, carbs, etc.) for the first 150 calories, hoping you were just running for the phone so it wouldn't have to put out that much effort. Instead, you kept going on the treadmill, your body realized it would need more serious fuel, so it moved to the fat storage and took out the last 100 of those calories. So you burned enough fat to lose, say, an ounce from the day's exercise. (DISCLAIMER - All numbers are for illustrative purposes and may be completely inaccurate.)

Meanwhile, while you're exercising, your metabolism gets a memo from your quads saying, "Shoegal is making me WORK and I need more fuel pronto." Your metabolism kicks up to top speed, rummages up the fuel (from the first paragraph) and starts burning it off, at 20 calories a minute instead of the 12 it was burning when you woke up that morning.

When you finally give it a little break between the elliptical and the weights, your body says, "Hey, shoegal is really using her quads! We better pay more attention to them, get them ready for the next time. Let's put this protein here in the quad muscle, bulk it up a bit so it can tolerate this kind of routine." So now your quads are bigger, stronger and ready to do better the next time you workout. They also weigh a little bit more because of the added bulk (added muscle). But because the quad is bigger and more powerful, it takes more calories to operate, so next time you workout, you burn 300 calories instead of 250, which means you lose a little more fat weight ... but your body still isn't confident that your quads can handle what you'll dish out next time, so it adds a little more protien to your quads and they weigh a little bit more...so your fat lose doesn't show up on the scale because the new muscle cancels it out.

Fortunately, a new ounce of muscle is half the size of an ounce of fat, so you are getting smaller, while weighing the same.

But eventually, your body will decide your quads are more than sufficient for what you're asking them to do, and your body will not add any more weight to the muscle. Meanwhile, you're still burning calories at a higher rate - say 30 per minute now - than you were without exercise, when it was just 12 per minute. So your body is taking more and more calories out of the fat storage and using them up faster because your bulked up quads require more fuel to operate...and your weight is dropping while your body's muscles stay the same, new, powerful, slim size.

Does that make sense? Sorry if it's too simplistic, but that's how it was explained to me and it really helped...

[Cristina]

Originally Posted by 5thelement

Well, muscle weighs more that fat does. If you've been working out those muscles, could be that your resting metabolism rate is now higher, your fat is slowly disappearing, thus the inch-loss but not weight-loss. Congrats! :)

Muscle doesn't weigh more than fat. A pound of muscle is equal to a pound of fat. Muscle is more dense than fat

Like Dior said, if you're building muscle and losing fat, you're getting smaller, while weighing the same (or more!).

[shoegal27]

Originally Posted by DiorDeVille

Say you workout for 30 minutes and burn 250 calories. Your body first burned the easy-to-reach calories (sugars, carbs, etc.) for the first 150 calories, hoping you were just running for the phone so it wouldn't have to put out that much effort. Instead, you kept going on the treadmill, your body realized it would need more serious fuel, so it moved to the fat storage and took out the last 100 of those calories. So you burned enough fat to lose, say, an ounce from the day's exercise. (DISCLAIMER - All numbers are for illustrative purposes and may be completely inaccurate.)

Meanwhile, while you're exercising, your metabolism gets a memo from your quads saying, "Shoegal is making me WORK and I need more fuel pronto." Your metabolism kicks up to top speed, rummages up the fuel (from the first paragraph) and starts burning it off, at 20 calories a minute instead of the 12 it was burning when you woke up that morning.

When you finally give it a little break between the elliptical and the weights, your body says, "Hey, shoegal is really using her quads! We better pay more attention to them, get them ready for the next time. Let's put this protein here in the quad muscle, bulk it up a bit so it can tolerate this kind of routine." So now your quads are bigger, stronger and ready to do better the next time you workout. They also weigh a little bit more because of the added bulk (added muscle). But because the quad is bigger and more powerful, it takes more calories to operate, so next time you workout, you burn 300 calories instead of 250, which means you lose a little more fat weight ... but your body still isn't confident that your quads can handle what you'll dish out next time, so it adds a little more protien to your quads and they weigh a little bit more...so your fat lose doesn't show up on the scale because the new muscle cancels it out.

Fortunately, a new ounce of muscle is half the size of an ounce of fat, so you are getting smaller, while weighing the same.

But eventually, your body will decide your quads are more than sufficient for what you're asking them to do, and your body will not add any more weight to the muscle. Meanwhile, you're still burning calories at a higher rate - say 30 per minute now - than you were without exercise, when it was just 12 per minute. So your body is taking more and more calories out of the fat storage and using them up faster because your bulked up quads require more fuel to operate...and your weight is dropping while your body's muscles stay the same, new, powerful, slim size.

Does that make sense? Sorry if it's too simplistic, but that's how it was explained to me and it really helped...

That is fantastic Dior, thank you oodles and oodles. Crystal clear.

[godsavechanel]

your body is building muscle, which is heavier than fat, but looks smaller

[Peaches23]

yeah thats what has been happening to me too it makes you look skinnier but the scale doesn't budge.

[shoegal27]

I am not complaining about it, don't get me wrong, its just confusing?

[Sternchen]

Originally Posted by DiorDeVille

Say you workout for 30 minutes and burn 250 calories. Your body first burned the easy-to-reach calories (sugars, carbs, etc.) for the first 150 calories, hoping you were just running for the phone so it wouldn't have to put out that much effort. Instead, you kept going on the treadmill, your body realized it would need more serious fuel, so it moved to the fat storage and took out the last 100 of those calories. So you burned enough fat to lose, say, an ounce from the day's exercise. (DISCLAIMER - All numbers are for illustrative purposes and may be completely inaccurate.)

Meanwhile, while you're exercising, your metabolism gets a memo from your quads saying, "Shoegal is making me WORK and I need more fuel pronto." Your metabolism kicks up to top speed, rummages up the fuel (from the first paragraph) and starts burning it off, at 20 calories a minute instead of the 12 it was burning when you woke up that morning.

When you finally give it a little break between the elliptical and the weights, your body says, "Hey, shoegal is really using her quads! We better pay more attention to them, get them ready for the next time. Let's put this protein here in the quad muscle, bulk it up a bit so it can tolerate this kind of routine." So now your quads are bigger, stronger and ready to do better the next time you workout. They also weigh a little bit more because of the added bulk (added muscle). But because the quad is bigger and more powerful, it takes more calories to operate, so next time you workout, you burn 300 calories instead of 250, which means you lose a little more fat weight ... but your body still isn't confident that your quads can handle what you'll dish out next time, so it adds a little more protien to your quads and they weigh a little bit more...so your fat lose doesn't show up on the scale because the new muscle cancels it out.

Fortunately, a new ounce of muscle is half the size of an ounce of fat, so you are getting smaller, while weighing the same.

But eventually, your body will decide your quads are more than sufficient for what you're asking them to do, and your body will not add any more weight to the muscle. Meanwhile, you're still burning calories at a higher rate - say 30 per minute now - than you were without exercise, when it was just 12 per minute. So your body is taking more and more calories out of the fat storage and using them up faster because your bulked up quads require more fuel to operate...and your weight is dropping while your body's muscles stay the same, new, powerful, slim size.

Does that make sense? Sorry if it's too simplistic, but that's how it was explained to me and it really helped...

That was a FANTASTIC explanation!!!

Your explanation makes me want to go out and exercise!

Good job

[maybeimeow]

Originally Posted by Sternchen

That was a FANTASTIC explanation!!!

Your explanation makes me want to go out and exercise!

Good job

Agreed!!