Ok, this is weird.... Ommentum Fat? Inches gone but not weight?

[sirant]

Hi everyone.

Something strange (yet good) is happening and I am not sure why. I have recently read the Dr. Mehmet Oz book called "You: On a Diet". Not a bad read and answers a few good questions. One thing he mentions is ommentum (SP?) fat, which is the layer of fat under the stomach muscle next to the organs. According to his book this is the dangerous and most troublesome fat. He also claims your success should be measured on waist size, not on a scale.

For years in my weight loss battle I have always felt my stomach was distended or puffed out, and that even if the external fat dissapeared, my belly would still stick out, but just be harder. I am assuming this must be a result of high levels of ommentum fat.

Ok, that all said, here is the weird thing. I hit a plateau a few weeks ago and only recently started going down again. After a couple weeks of holidays and visitors from home, my weight was up and down erratically all over the place. But basically I have not really lost any weight, just stayed in the same general area.

However.... My belt size has dropped dramatically. I haven't lost weight, but now I am struggling to un-bunch my pants so they dont look ridiculous at work. I am wearing a belt comfortably I havent EVER been able to wear and my love handles are darn near gone!!!! But I havent lost any weight.....!

Also now I can feel my external tummy fat as I did before, but it feels looser. And when I do suck in my gut, it goes WAY back, not like it did before... Could it be possible that somehow my ommentum fat is finally going away? And if so, why no weight loss? From the dramatic change in clothing size and the way my clothes fit on me, I would have thought at least some weight would go away.... Not that I am complaining mind you...

I have made one small change to my overall program, and that is for 3 weeks I have been taking Tonalin CLA supplements. And oddly enough it is during that period that I seem to be "shrinking". I have also started doing 50 daily pushups again and regular squats and lunges. I believe this may be part of the reason I am not losing weight, since I can feel the muscle coming on, but the clothing size difference is so dramatic it seems I should have dropped some weight too.

I am currently still sitting around the 267-270 pound mark and holding. I am a naturally big guy (a chest my skinny buddies are green with envy over) and my doctor figures my ideal weight should be around 240. Could it be possible my fat loss is matching my muscle gains and causing the plateau? I always figured a plateau was achieved when fat loss stopped, but based on my clothing thats simply not the case....

Any ideas??

sirant

 

[dariqueen]

It is totally possible to stall in weight loss and still lose inches. That's why the scale is not always reliable, and should be ignored sometimes.

 

[Daymon74]

I'm no expert, but I do know lean muscle tissue weighs more than fat. If you are building muscle, it would make sense to me that you're still losing the fat, but gaining lean muscle tissue. Sounds like whatever you are doing is working.

 

[Qjay]

Oh, MAN! Congratulations, Sirant!
I totally agree with what you are saying about Dr. Oz (and that is a cool name, I'm looking for him at the library!), and I have had a similar experience for many years; losing weight itself is really tough, but I often lose inches very well. I'm not promoting the doctor, I've never read his works, but I agree wholeheartedly with the "inches, not pounds" perspective.

Weight is an abstract number; you can't really "see" how much weight you have gained or lost. You can measure inches though, and the most important thing to do is to get your body to the SIZE you want to be, to look the way you want to look and are happy with, and to make sure you feel the way you want to feel. So many people obsess about pounds, but a scale can't tell the difference between fat, water, and muscle.

Seriously, congrats on the lost inches, and the pounds too

Oh, I almost forgot! Fat is burned in an "all over" sort of way, but the deep body fat is a bit slower to be metabolized in a lot of cases, but the biggest thing is this: body fat gets burned from wherever IT wants to be burned, not where you want. It is very possible that this deep body/ommentum fat has suddenly triggered itself to go away, in which case your organs are going to be getting into better shape as well, so to speak.

Keep doing what you're doing, and with any luck, one of the real professionals will be able to shed some light on the very great "problem" you're having.

 

[Happychubette]

sirant

That's so good for you Sirant. All your hard work is paying off big time. I just got You on a Diet from the library today!