If you're losing inches but maintaining your weight and you regularly strength train, you may actually be losing fat and gaining muscle. The process of gaining muscle and losing fat at the same time is called body recomposition. Most scales don't differentiate between the amounts of body fat and muscle you have.
Muscle is denser than fat, and as it is more compact within your body, as you gain muscle mass, you end up looking thinner, no matter your physical weight. So, if you've been doing a lot of strength training lately, it's likely this is the reason that you're looking fantastic but not dropping those numbers.
A weight loss plateau may be explained by muscle gain, undigested food, and fluctuations in body water. If the scale doesn't budge, you might still be losing fat.
"The less weight you start with, the harder it is to lose. It will be easier for a 200-pound person to lose weight than a 100-pound person." This is the same reason that it takes longer to lose those last 5 pounds than it does to lose 5 pounds at the start of a weight-loss journey.
The first stage of weight loss is when you tend to lose the most weight and begin to notice changes in your appearance and how your clothes fit. It usually happens within the first 4–6 weeks ( 1 ). Most of the weight loss in this stage comes from carb stores, protein, and water — and to a lesser extent, body fat.
It's long been a complaint that those last five pounds can often be the hardest to lose. And the answer to why this is the case reveals a lot about the dynamic relationship between body weight and appetite (what we feel when we say we're “hungry”), and about how, as humans, we're almost always “ready to eat”.
It simply takes time. Another common reason why people report not losing weight despite reducing their calories is that they don't give it enough time. Our bodies will do their utmost to hold on to our fat reserves and you often have to be in a calorie deficit for a while before you will see any meaningful weight loss.
You've gained muscle.
And here's an often overlooked fact: Muscle tissue is more dense than fat tissue. So as you gain more muscle and lose fat, you change your overall body composition, which can result in a higher weight, but a smaller figure and better health.
In fact, inch loss is considered as a healthier way of losing weight. If you only want to lose weight, rather than building muscles then focus on cardiovascular exercise instead of strength training.
Mostly, losing weight is an internal process. You will first lose hard fat that surrounds your organs like liver, kidneys and then you will start to lose soft fat like waistline and thigh fat. The fat loss from around the organs makes you leaner and stronger.
A Slower Metabolism
Eating too few calories can cause your metabolism to slow down, meaning you won't burn as much fat off when you engage in physical activity.
You'd think that going on a strict diet and exercise regimen would help you drop pounds quickly, but most people actually gain weight at first. If this has happened to you, don't give up on your goals just yet.
As you work out, you are building lean muscle which weighs exactly the same as fat but is leaner. if your clothes are looser but the scale is the same, this is because of the lean muscle you have built.
Eating too few calories
Eating too few calories can cause a major decrease in metabolism. Although a calorie deficit is needed for weight loss, it can be counterproductive for your calorie intake to drop too low.
Physical activity: Walking, chasing after your kids, playing tennis and other forms of exercise cause your body to burn more calories than being sedentary. Smoking: Nicotine speeds up your metabolism, so you burn more calories.
Being active is key to losing weight and keeping it off. As well as providing lots of health benefits, exercise can help burn off the excess calories you cannot lose through diet alone. Find an activity you enjoy and are able to fit into your routine.
Your slower metabolism will slow your weight loss, even if you eat the same number of calories that helped you lose weight. When the calories you burn equal the calories you eat, you reach a plateau. To lose more weight, you need to either increase your physical activity or decrease the calories you eat.
The diet doesn't have enough calories
Eating too little — say, 1,000 calories a day — can prevent you from losing weight, too. "When you don't eat enough, your body is starving and it's not going to lose any extra weight" because it needs those energy stores to keep you alive, Fakhoury said.
Many people complain that they gain weight around the holidays, but you'll be happy to know that you can't really gain weight from a single meal or day of overeating.
Body-weight loss is usually noticed around the belly, waistline, and thighs first. This is because your body stores fat in different locations. For instance, men hold more fat around their belly, while women store it on their thighs and hips. Weight loss gradually starts with a reduction in belly size.