Scale stuck 25 days, waist down 2 inches—recomp or water?

Waist down 2 inches is not a stall. That's recomposition.

Same thing happened to me around 20 lbs down. Scale froze 5 weeks, shirts got loose.

Are you measuring waist same time of day? Morning before food?

Lifting can cause water retention. That matches a flat scale with a smaller waist.

The lab changes are interesting. Fasting glucose dropping while weight is flat usually makes me think body comp and maybe better insulin sensitivity.

I had a similar 6-week flat spot at 172 lbs, waist 35 to 33, and my fasting glucose went from 99 to 91. I stopped weighing daily and used a 7-day average plus monthly tape.

The scale eventually dropped 3 lbs in one week. If sleep or stress is bad, water can hide a lot.

Are your lifts still going up? That was my tell. The frustrating part is the scale noise, not the fat loss.

Common surprise: once creatine enters the picture, the scale does the same thing it always does — it parks there on water. The waist tape, meanwhile, just keeps shrinking. Worth knowing before comparing progress signals: one of those numbers is measuring something the other one isn't.

What are your lift numbers doing? If they're up, the scale is lying.

Cycle week? I can hold 3-4 lbs water and still lose inches.

Creatine does add intracellular water. Not fat. The tape is the better trend here.

I agree with tape over scale, bu tI'd also check if calories have crept up. I was “stuck” at 166 for a month, then realized weekend oils and bites were adding ~250/day. Started weighing on weekdays only and the scale moved again.

Not saying that's your issue, just that logging drift is common after 4 months. Your A1c and glucose improvements are a win regardless.

I'd kill for a 2-inch waist drop. Keep going.

Recalc afte r18 lbs is fair, but I'd bet on water and logging drift first.

Two inches off your waist at the same scale weight isn't a plateau, that's your body redrawing the map — 34.5 to 32.5 is a whole dress size in some brands, and the glucose and A1c drops say the inside is changing too.

Contrarian take: I'd stop weighing daily for two weeks and just take the tape every Sunday morning, same spot, before coffee. The scale will catch up on its own schedule.

Before changing anything I'd build a 7-day rolling average and look at the last three weeks rather than any single day, because daily weights lie constantly. Mine looked like a 25-day stall until I averaged it and saw the pattern: weekdays I was honestly around 1,650, weekends I was closer to 2,100 once you add restaurant oil, bites off my kid's plate, and a couple glasses of wine — roughly 400 a day averaged out, which was enough to hide a real deficit.

I also weigh food for one week every couple months, because my "tablespoon" of peanut butter is usually two. If your average is genuinely flat while waist and fasting glucose keep improving, I wouldn't cut calories yet — I'd hold three more weeks and let tape and photos be the primary readout.

Sleep and lifting soreness wreck my scale for a week at a time. After a heavy leg day I'll sit two pounds up for three or four days just from inflammation and water, and five nights under six hours of sleep does the same thing.

You're lifting three times a week, so I'd ask whether the last three weks were heavier in the gym than the weeks before.

Two stall patterns worth knowing about: one ran 23 days, another 31. Both times nothing changed protocol-wise, and both times the tape measure kept moving the entire way — then the scale dropped 2.5 lbs in four days like nothing had happened.

Common surprise: around day 20 of that first stall, the instinct is to panic-tighten down to 1,300 calories. That's the move that tends to backfire — feeling awful and hungrier, then eating it all back on the weekend anyway.

The part people forget: if measurements and glucose are trending right, holding steady is a decision, not inaction.

Measure waist same time, same spot, exhale normally—mine swings 1.5 inches between morning and after dinner.

Weekend sodium is my scale's favorite party trick. I'm 5'4, similar calories, and one Friday sushi dinner with soy sauce plus a Saturday brunch can hold 3-4 lbs of water until Wednesday. For 25 days straight? That's not weekends.

But here's my contrarian take: if your waist is down 2 inches and fasting glucose dropped 8 points, the scale is the least interesting number on your list. I'd track sodium and carb timing for 5 days, not to change anything, just to see if you're retaining.

My weird data point: a 45-minute hot bath the night before weigh-in dropped me 1.8 lbs, then it came back after coffee. So water is loud. I'd also take front/side photos in the same underwear and lighting every 10 days.

If those change while scale doesn't, that's recomp, not a plateau. What does your ring or watch band fit do? That's my cheap water meter.

I'd do a 3-day weighed fod log every few weeks. My portions creep up around week 4 of any deficit—an extra 80-100 cal of nut butter and olive oil adds up to a 0.5 lb/week stall that looks like nothing.

Also, if you're lifting 3x and walking 8k, you might be under-eating protein at 110g for your weight. I'd bump to 130g for two weeks and keep calories same. That moved my waist without scale changes.