The battle to lose weight is definitely one tough cookie. No pun intended here. Not only must you make a lot of changes to your eating habits, you have to stick to an exercise program to shed off those excess pounds. Crash diet proponents may tell you that it is possible to lose fat for one day using their diet plan without the benefit of regular physical activity, but that is often untrue. There is just no other simple way around it. To lose weight, you have to combine the efficacy of a well-balanced diet and exercise.

Which is why some serious fitness buffs get confused when the bathroom scale does not anymore register any changes even when they continue to sweat it out. This could have happened to you. You didn't make any changes to your exercise routine. You're still doing the same repetitions and sets. You are eating the same kinds of foods at the same proportions. But the same activities that used to make you lose weight have simply stopped working. Horror of horrors, when you stop to weigh yourself one morning, you may even find that you have gained weight! But you've never felt better in all your life. There's spring in your every step. Your clothes actually fit and you're turning heads and getting bell whistles wherever you go. Perhaps something is wrong with the bathroom scale. Perhaps something is wrong with you. But then again, perhaps nothing is.

The truth of the matter is, it is possible to lose inches but not pounds as you progress along your strength training program. How is this possible? The simple explanation lies in the fact that muscle weighs more than fat. When you stick to your resistance-training routine religiously, you begin to grow your muscles with the obvious effect that you look better overall-- with your lean and toned body. Upon taking your vital statistics, you see that you have lost a few inches on your waistline but have not made any progress where weight loss is concerned.

This state is considered a weight-loss plateau. For some people, this is a sign that tells them to switch routines to keep on engaging their muscles and continue to lose weight. However, if you have already reached your ideal weight when the plateau occurs, then you need not panic. You can continue doing the same exercises that you have been doing so you can still lose the inches and look well-sculpted and toned.

The situation, however, is different when you plateau at the time when you haven't reached your healthy weight yet. There are a few things you can do to rectify the situation. First, you can vary your exercises to keep your muscles challenged. Try increasing your workout times or lifting heavier pounds than what your body is accustomed to doing. Make your workouts more intense. You can also try doing interval training. Then you have to look at your diet. To lose both inches and pounds, you need to combine exercise with calorie restriction. To lose a pound of fat, for example, you need to take away about 3,500 calories from your diet. So watch what you eat. Be mindful of the liquid calories as these can add up fast without you knowing it. If none of these work, then you can see your doctor who can tell you what you're doing wrong or perhaps do some tests to rule out certain conditions that can explain why you are losing inches and not pounds.