Don't you feel like a scientist sitting back conducting experiments on yourself? I sure do.

What you noticed is very common. When you lose inches you're seeing the result of fat being replaced by muscle. When you see the scales move down you're seeing the water and fat being lost. When you see a dramatic loss overnight you're seeing the effect of water being flushed out. Those fat cells hate to shrink and will compensate with excess water - you're still losing fat you just don't 'see' it on the scale.

As you noticed, they do not happen at the same time. If you wake up one morning and you've lost 2 lbs of scale weight and measure to find a half inche loss on your hips you lost the inch before that morning. I find I notice the whooshes of weight loss happen after I've lost inches.

Nat