The scale doesn't tell everything

The scale doesn't tell the whole story, so we need to learn not to depend solely on it to determine our success.

About the end of July my weight loss started really slowing down. I had started focusing more on exercise and my weight loss nearly stopped. Taking advice I had seen on here, I started to measure myself.

My first measure was on 7/21/12. I weighed 202.2 at that time. I did my monthly measure today and since 7/21/12 I have lost 22 inches, but only 14 pounds. It would have been more, but I only lost 2" in October due to eating horribly the entire month and really slacking on my exercising.

Even though it is frustrating when the scale doesn't go down it doesn't mean we aren't doing something right and aren't getting results. I really wish I had measured myself when I first began so I could know just how far I've come.

I also found that an increase in exercise was accompanied by slowing down of weight loss.

I notice my waist size changing in bursts which are always accompanied by a slow week's weight loss. Which is why I track via my waist and not solely by the number on the scales.

Well you know muscle weighs more than fat...so all the exercise may be slowing down our weight loss because we are adding on muscle! I can already tell a difference in my muscles. My calves are more defined, my arms a little stronger, and when I felx my abs, I can feel them...through a nice thick layer of fluff, but hey, I've never really been able to feel them before!

I also have gotten very muscular, especially in the upper body, where I do a lot of resistance work. I have done more in the past and done it for longer, but I have not done so weighing this little. My arm and shoulder muscles are definitely visible. It is my natural tendency to get muscular when I exercise, more so than for most women.

Doing a strict Atkins induction for more than a week seems to have broken me free, and I'm losing again. Yay!

eKatherine that is great! It's always nice to see the scale move! I wouldn't say my upper body is muscular. I'm a little whimpy when it comes to arm workouts. My legs are pretty muscular, though. I used to play soccer, so they've always been fairly strong.