I have been working a very labor intensive job for about 3 months now and have lost enough inches on my waist to go down two pants sizes yet my total weight when I go on the scale remains around the same. How is it possible that I lost 4 or 5 inches off my waist yet the scale doesn’t change? Is it possible what weight in fat I am loosing is made up for with an increase in muscle mass?
Depending on the type of work you are doing, you could be losing fat while gaining both muscle and bone density.
If you were mostly untrained/inactive before starting this job, you’ve most certainly grown/densified a lot of bone.
That’s what happened to me with my previous job. Family and friends kept telling me that I look good and thinner but the scale was more or less the same. I do feel better and went down a size so it’s a win for me overall.
Muscle is denser than fat. You can “gain weight” while losing volume.
Also location it’s stored. Some people carry it differently, but fat often builds up around a persons mid-section and causes that pear/apple body shape. Muscles gain bulk on the ones being used. A person can loose the inches of fat around their waste, then build up muscle mass in their arms/shoulders. The fat loss is noticeable because a person starts using a different belt notch or their pants fall down, but the added muscle bulk around the arms will be less likely to require replacing/adjusting one’s clothing.
My doctor calls this remodeling
I didnt know bone density changed naturally, I thought you had to fracture it a bunch of times to build density. Very interesting!