To be baffled as to how I could have lost weight

[SEmyarse]

I usually hover about 12 stone. I do a lot of exercise, but also eat too much crap leaving me about 1.5 stone overweight. I sometimes make real efforts with diet, but it never seems to help at all.

The last month or so I've felt a bit under the weather, and so apart from the running around I do at work I've not done any extra exercise. I've not been to basketball, zumba or badminton which I would usually do routinely, and have done no extra running or cycling either. I've also been munching excessively.

So unsurprisingly i feel and look fat, and realised this morning when I struggled to get my big comfy shorts on. So with gritted teeth I climbed onto the scales to see the damage, to be astonished at a reading of 11st 5. Clearly a mistake. i can see in the mirror I look much fatter, terrible belly and big double chin being the worst bits, but even if I was deluding myself I know there are loads of my clothes I've not been wearing because I can't do them up. I know for an absolute fact that I was 12st recently when I was wearing my smaller jeans.

I've now been next door to use her scales. She's as confused as me that they say 11st 4 (so even less), and has admitted that she'd noticed I looked bigger lately. So what the hell is going on?

[PandaNot]

Get yourself to the doctor. Losing weight without trying and not being able to fasten clothes around my midriff would concern me.

[Almostfifty]

I agree, go to the doctor.

[SuperLoveFuzz]

Loss of muscle since you've not been exercising?

[WhyCantIuseTheNameIWant]

Muscle weighs more than fat.

You may have lost muscle but gained fat...

Keep an eye on it for a few days. If you continue to lose more and feel unwell, get checked out.

[FarFromAnyRoad]

I'd probably want my thyroid and/or blood sugar levels tested. Another recommendation for an appointment with the Doctor.

[DeanParrish]

Fluid retention? Agree you need to see your GP.

[LondonLady29]

See your GP. However I had this at the end of last year. I had a virus and felt very under the weather and even though I was comfort eating rubbish and stopped going to the gym which I had done a lot, I lost about a stone. Apparently the body uses a lot of energy fighting off the bug. I didn't look thinner either I looked flabbier because I wasn't exercising.

[OfaFrenchMind]

Like everybody else, better safe than sorry, go see the doctor.
Best wishes for you to get better!

[DonnaKebab66]

Muscle does not weigh more than fat. A pound is a pound, whether it's a pound of muscle or a pound of fat. Muscle is denser, so if through exercise, fat turns into muscle you will look more slender and toned.

[DearTeddyRobinson]

Fat cannot be turned into muscle. Fat is fat. It can be burnt off by exercising.
Anyway get yourself to the GP, sounds like at the very least you need a full blood test

[DorisLessingsCat]

You have lost muscle and gained fat?

[CainInThePunting]

Just a thought but when did you last change the battery on your scales?

I have got excited about weight loss before now only to realise the battery was dying...

[CainInThePunting]

Sorry, ignore me. I didn't read the last two lines

[PurpleSwift]

Fat does not turn into muscle! Jeez. I agree you should be visiting a doctor if you can't think of anything.

[f1fan2001]

Visit your doctor