On Beginner Template - Losing weight, but not reducing inches from my waist

I’m on the Beginner Template and have been steadily losing weight since I started. I went from 182 lbs to 164 lbs (40M, 5’7"), my lifts are still going up, but I haven’t reduced inches around my waist (started at 36" and now maybe 35.5"?). I honestly think I look better in my clothes somehow and with my shirt off, but not sure if I’m losing lean muscle if my waist isn’t decreasing. I’m eating approximately at maintenance, but I’m not strict about it. Should I up the calories to make sure I’m not losing muscle? Otherwise, my energy levels have been great.

DrM,

Thanks for the post. While there’s no reliable ratio between weight loss and waist circumference decrease, I would expect to see a pretty significant change from this amount of weight loss. This leads me to wonder about measurement error. For example, if you’re measuring in an area that does not capture the stored adipose tissue, you might miss the decrease in waist circumference. =

As far as what to do, I think this is kind of a choose your own adventure based on your preferences. I don’t think you’re likely to be losing an excess amount of muscle- about ~30% of the weight people lose is LBM- though not all of this is skeletal muscle. I don’t see a reason to up the Calories if your energy is good, you’re still having good training sessions, and you’re not as lean as you want to be. On the other hand, if you don’t want to get any leaner and have been maintaining weight for ~ a month or so, you can add Calories back to suss out how high you can go at your current weight without gaining more weight. In general, maintenance level at a lower BW is ~ 300 to 500 Cal higher than the Calorie level needed to lose weight.

-Jordan

Thanks Jordan,

I think you may be right that the waist measurement may not be capturing where my weight loss is occurring. My wife says it looks like I lost a lot of weight in the region above my waist and that my quads are more defined, so maybe I’m losing fat in those areas. I’m Asian, and all the research on waist circumference suggests I want to strive for under 33", so that’s what I’m doing. Energy levels are great, so I’m going to maintain the status quo till my lifts start to stagnate and then reevaluate.

Thanks again for the templates! I don’t think I’ve had this much sustained progress in my lifts and fitness without feeling totally broken down. Wish I discovered this in my 20s, but that’s how it goes.

Yep, I would be shooting for < 32-33" in your case then.

Love hearing about the progress too. Keep up the great work.