If I’m half a stone lighter why am I two sizes bigger?

[TapsNoseBecauseIKnow]

Today I tried on a jacket that I haven’t worn for a few years. It’s too small. A lot too small. But I’m half a stone lighter than when I bought it.

Does peri menopause really do this our bodies? I’m still active, more so, because I’m between times I got a dog and walk a minimum of 2 miles a day on top of my everyday pottering about.

I guess I’m 3 inches bigger all over. What’s happened?

That's not possible really is it? That's not how mass works. Menopause doesn't make you expand with air all over

So either your significantly less muscular than before (unlikely unless you were weight lifting before), your scales are wrong or your body shape has changed so that the jacket no longer fits e.g. your arms are bigger even though your waist is smaller. Or the jacket has shrunk. Your body cannot be 3 inches bigger all over and weigh less

Perhaps the garment shrunk in washing?

I genuinely do weigh less - I lost a stone but then put back on half a stone. The jacket was tight even as I put it on round my shoulders and arms today. My arms have fleshed out, that’s for sure. And it used to do up around the hips and now it won’t even get close.

That’s what I’m hoping. But I washed it on a colder wash than the label says and air dried it.

I keep losing this half stone and putting it back on again. Am I just rebooting my body with fat?

i Get this OP! I own jeans that when I bought them, I weighed about the same as I do now. I have put on a few stone over many years, then I lost the 3 stones. I now weigh the same as about 15 years ago. The jeans absolutely do not get past my thighs.
my body shape must have changed and I’m probably a lot ‘less firm’ than I was. I’m also peri

My waist and hips are also bigger since childbirth.

My experience is similar, I’ve weighed the same (give or take 3kg) the last 5 years, but stuff that used to fit around the hips is definitely a lot tighter/won’t fasten now! I feel like any and all fat now lays down on my belly and hips, legs and arms are noticeably more lean than they have been for years

It’s still possible for clothes to shrink on a colder wash if the spin speed is too high.

Alot of us get bigger round the middle with peri unfortunately.
I'm the same weight now as when I was younger but my waist is 5ins bigger. I'm a normal BMI and exercise regularly.....it's just I'm now a totally different shape!

5 inches?!

This may be a stupid question but if we’re the same weight or less, where do the extra inches come from? Less muscle mass which has converted to fat?

It’s because muscle reduces with age and muscle weighs more than fat. So you can have less muscle and be lighter with more fat.

You naturally have less muscle as you age. The reason slim young people look better/firm etc is because you naturally have a higher muscle percentage when you're younger.

So at the same weight as when you were younger, you'll now have more fat and less muscle.

You can change it though - you just need to do some strength training. It'll make your figure look great

It happens to most of us. I weigh 9 and a half stone now but my measurements are the same as when i weighed 10 and a half stone in my twenties.

Every time you diet around 25% of the weight loss is muscle unless you are actively strength training. When you regain it will pretty much all be fat. So if you keep loosing and gaining you will end up with a lot more fat and less muscle. You need to up protein (1.6g per kg of ideal weight) and start lifting weights to get an improved body composition.

Muscle is denser/heavier than fat, takes up less room and is stored in longer lines in different places.

Fat takes up more room, weighs less than muscle and doesn't sit nicely - it just bunches up and falls wherever gravity pushes it.

Hence - less weight, different shape.

I just buy stuff that has more curves nowadays to accommodate. Easier than exercising 😄

Thanks all. I am giving up sugar and getting my stretchy dyna band thing out of the cupboard.