I just started my 5th week of Atkins.

After measuring and weighing over the past 4 weeks I noticed some interesting trends. When I lost weight over one week, I didn't lose considerable inches, but when I didn't lose weight over another week, I did lose considerable inches. E.g., last week, I didn't lose any weight, but I lost 1 inch from both my chest and my waist.

Is this typical? If I am losing weight, but not inches, what did I just lose? If I am losing inches, I would assume that I am losing fat, but then why doesn't it show up on the scale, or maybe a better question would be what is taking the fat's place?

Anyone have experience with this?

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

Wow Nat, thanks for the explaination. I've been perplexed by this for weeks now. I've lost 2 pounds in the entire last 5 weeks, but the inches have been falling off in handfuls. Not fully understanding what was happening under my skin has made this the most illogical experience. You've cleared things up nicely.

Nat

quote:

Those fat cells hate to shrink and will compensate with excess water


I am sure I have read that fat cells never actually take their leave of the body entirely and all they do is shrink and shrink. Perhaps a fat cell has a survival instinct and binges on water to retain its former identity.

I also seem to remember that when we get fat in the first instance we create more fat cells and they likewise are pretty much indestructable unless we resort to liposuction.

Nat, do I have my cell biology right? or is there another way of ridding ourselves of the little blighters for good?

Short of losing a limb, the number you have now is the number you'll have tomorrow. The number we make it out of adolescence with tends to be the same number we take into adulthood - I am not sure but I believe it is possible to manufacture more as adults However liposuction is the only way to truly rid yourself of the damned things - very unfair.

Nat

Actually my friend who had lipo done was told by her Doctor that we don't lose the fat, when it is sucked out of one place it will just come back in another place because we have a certain amount of fat cells. I think this is right. . . if I got any part of this wrong please correct me! What does change is the size of the cells.

Cheers
Feisty Minx

I'm fairly certain that if that's what the Dr. told her, then the Dr. is incorrect. Imagine fat cells as being like individually wrapped pats of butter. You pretty much can't suck the butter out of the wrapper without destroying the wrapper, and some of the wrappers will be sucked out as well. My understanding is that fat cells can fill and empty, and they can divide. As to whether some of them will eventually go away if you stay trim enough, long enough, I, like Nat, have read that once they divide on you, lipo is the only way of getting rid of them. That doesn't make intuitive sense to me, though, because we do know that the body is capable of reabsorbing the extra skin, blood vessels etc that we no longer need once we shed the weight, so I wouldn't be surprised if it's someday 'discovered' that the number of fat cells will indeed fall off after losing fat and keeping it off. This is also why it's so easy for those of us who have been really heavy to gain the weight back. We may have emptied out those cells, but all things said and done, we still have more of them just waiting to fill up again than the person who never got fat in the first place.

Cheers,

Friday

Thanks for all the info . . .so I don't need to diet afterall, I can be like my friend and just get it alllll sucked out! Great! lol Just kidding.

I really enjoyed learning about fat cells. I wasn't sure if I wa\s right or not I just know what my friend said her Doctor told her. . .she more than likely misunderstood.

I look forward to reading more, this site is wonderful!

Cheers
Minx