Reducing in size but not losing weight

matttye

I've been eating 1500 cals a day for the past three or so months and running every other day. I re-eat the calories I burn off running so that I stick to around 1500 a day.

I've been losing weight every week and have gone from about 15 1/2 stone at the beginning to 13st 12lb now, but for the last two weeks I haven't lost any weight. I know that many dieters hit plateaus.

The thing that's confusing me is, in the last two weeks I've found that my clothes have still been easier to fit into, but my weight hasn't gone down.

I know that muscle is denser than fat, but I can't build any muscle if I'm in a calorie deficit surely, so there must be some other reason my weight hasn't gone down.

Any ideas anyone? I'm going to try reducing my calories a little.

Thanks

belfastgirl23

My only suggestion is to have patience and it will sort itself out. Bodies are weird, it could be any number of different things. You might even find that overnight you lose 2lbs.

Also you may be adding muscle, I always think the general guidance on these things is fine but individuals vary a lot. Maybe your body is different, or different right now!

I'm not sure you should reduce cals btw, it might even be worth having a heavy eating day to shake your metabolism up a bit.

And hey, be proud of yourself that is an excellent weight loss!

matttye

belfastgirl23 wrote: »

My only suggestion is to have patience and it will sort itself out. Bodies are weird, it could be any number of different things. You might even find that overnight you lose 2lbs.

Also you may be adding muscle, I always think the general guidance on these things is fine but individuals vary a lot. Maybe your body is different, or different right now!

I'm not sure you should reduce cals btw, it might even be worth having a heavy eating day to shake your metabolism up a bit.

And hey, be proud of yourself that is an excellent weight loss!

Before I went onto this 'phase' of my diet if you like, I had an off day once a week and didn't see the same kind of results as I'm getting now, so I haven't had an off day in the past couple of months. I have a family meal on Tuesday then a work meal on Friday though, so will be having a couple of off days then!

I thought about muscle, but I've read that you can't lose and gain mass at the same time; you're either losing fat+muscle or gaining fat+muscle, not both.

It could be water retention as if I weigh myself after a long run I weigh about 5lbs less, but I weigh myself every Saturday morning to keep it 'fair.'

Thanks!

belfastgirl23

If you keep doing the right things, over the long term things will sort themselves out. Sometimes you just have to have faith! Keep going!

Mojisola

matttye wrote: »

The thing that's confusing me is, in the last two weeks I've found that my clothes have still been easier to fit into, but my weight hasn't gone down.

Does it matter what your weight is if you're losing inches?

It's always worth measuring yourself as well as weighing regularly. Sometimes one figure reduces; sometimes the other; sometimes both. (And, if things are going wrong, neither!)

Ms_Chocaholic

Yes I would also recommend measuring yourself rather than judging how you are doing by just the numbers on the scales.

When I lost nearly 2 stone the year before last, I weighed myself once in the January and never weighed myself again until the September.

KnightSmile

matttye wrote: »

I thought about muscle, but I've read that you can't lose and gain mass at the same time; you're either losing fat+muscle or gaining fat+muscle, not both.


Thanks!

The creator of LeanGains believes different...

http://www.leangains.com/2011/03/intermittent-fasting-for-weight-loss.html

~Chameleon~

Throw away the scales and use your tape measure instead

What you weigh is largely irrelevant. These two weigh the same. Which would you prefer to be

Carl31

you may have lost mass other than fat, such as muscle, lots of running does that. Be careful, running is great to keep fit, but long term could wreck your metabolism, leading to weight gain of you dont keep it up

AS well as running, do some resistance exercise to retain muscle mass, and dont worry about body weight. Im 5ft 9 and weigh 14 stone, theoretically im obese, but my bodyfat % is about 11%, so i dont care