The Truth About Muscle
You think of fat as being heavy, but the truth is that muscle is heavier. When you burn off fat while building muscle, you probably won't see much difference when you step on the scale. There is a bright side, though. Stew Smith of Military.com says that even though muscle weighs more than fat, it takes up less space. So although you may not lose weight after starting a diet and exercise regimen, you will lose inches.
The Water Illusion
If you want a pleasant, albeit misleading, surprise, weigh and measure yourself after intense exercise. You will see a drop in weight as well as inches due to the water you sweated away while working out. The amount of the "loss" you see can vary from day to day depending on the water content in your body before you start working out. In their book "Losing it! Making Weight Loss Simple" published in 2013, Dhruv Gupta and Prachi Gupta wrote that the more water that's in your body, the more that's eliminated, resulting in more inches and weight lost. Just keep in mind that as soon as you drink more fluids, those inches and weight will return.
Pace of Fat Loss
When you start exercising to lose weight, you aren't literally turning fat to muscle. You'll be building muscle and burning fat -- two separate issues. People who are new to exercise can become discouraged early on if they build muscle faster than they lose the fat. It can cause them to see a weight increase initially, as well as an increase in inches. That's because they're building strong, firm muscle under a layer of fat. Personal trainers such as Matt Siaperas counsel clients to see it through and get to a point where the intensity and frequency of their exercise is burning off the fat. At that point they'll see a slight drop when they step on the scale, but will usually see a significant drop in inches.
Set Your Goal in Inches
Because of the way your body works and how muscle is constructed, you won't be able to meet both goals of losing weight and inches. You'll have to settle for one or the other. Consider that your goal is to lose 15 pounds and trim enough inches off your form to fit into pants that are two sizes smaller than the one you wear now. After three months of consistent workouts and watching what you eat, you drop the two pants sizes, but you only lose 10 pounds. In her 2011 book "Cure Diet Disease with Invisible Weight Loss," Barbara Yarnell advised readers to forget about the scale and consider the inches lost a success. You might weigh five pounds more than you wanted to, but you hit your target pants size. You'll have firm muscles and good shape, and the muscle you've gained will burn fat around the clock, making you less likely to gain the weight back that you've lost.
