Weight dropping but waist Staying the same?

[Subsistence]

There is a chance I'm going down in a fit of neuroticism but the last few weeks of my cut have yielded the following results:

Weight: 189.7-->187.0-->185.1
Waist: 32.25-->32.125-->32.125
Neck: 15.25-->15.0-->15.0
BF% (navy method): 12.1%-->12.4%-->13.4%
LBM: 166.8-->163.9-->162.2

Strength (6wks ago-->now)
Squat: 347.5x3@9.5 --> 280x8@8.5
Bench: 247x3@10 --> 257x2@10
Deadlift: 422x2@9 --> 411x1@9.5

Back injury caused me to deload on squats. It handles volume better than intensity.

As you can probably infer it's around this point I feel like I'm staring down the barrel of raw LBM losses and getting a little squeamish. My rational take on this is that weight loss is not linear and any number of variables could account for a 0.5" or so tracking error on waist measurements. But a small part of me is yelling "ABORT MISSION" and begging me to dive head first into poptarts and icecream to salvage what is left of my gains.

Long story short: Is this sort of phenomenon something you observe with your clients and if so, do you modify your strategy in light of it or just assure them it's more noise and less signal?

As always thanks for your time.

[Jordan Feigenbaum]

it's around this point I feel like I'm staring down the barrel of raw LBM losses and getting a little squeamish

I think loss of LBM (non fat components of the body) are unavoidable during a "cut". I'd be wondering about total body water stores and what not to see what aspect of LBM is being lost- though it's unlikely to be made up of significant muscle protein.

Long story short: Is this sort of phenomenon something you observe with your clients and if so, do you modify your strategy in light of it or just assure them it's more noise and less signal?

Yea it happens quite often. I look for continued trending of the waist and weight to see what's going on. I'd imagine your weight is more of an outlier to drop ~2lbs in a week with no other metrics being changed. If the waist doesn't trend down, then I'd expect the weight to trend back up slightly unless there was continued calorie restriction of greater proportions. So if the pics look okay, and the weight more or less keeps the same trendline (not increasing dramatically), and the waist starts to move- everything is in line with the natural history of body fat loss IMO.