Frustrated with static body fat %

toast4nat

I could really use some advice on what to do to start up good and consistent fat loss. I've been sitting at 26% body fat since I began working out three months ago.

You're free to take a look at my diary but for quick reference I work out 5 days a week; 15 minutes of weight lifting and 30 minutes of elliptical or jogging. I'm set at 1200 calories a day and am usually at a deficit and try to keep my carb intake to mornings only.

I'd like to get my body fat percentage down to between 15-20%

ana3067

1) You might want to lower your cardio and increase weight lifting. Could just be that you're not doing enough in the lifting department. I lift either 3x a week for about 40 mins each, or 4x a week for 30ish mins.

2) 1200 calories is not nearly enough to help fuel your workouts and minimize lean body mass losses. Set up a more reasonable goal, like 1lb or 0.5lbs/week. Also be sure you eat back your exercise calories if you are using the MFP method. If you've been losing weight in the last 3 months then you've probably lost some lean body mass.

3) You are not eating enough protein. What is your current weight? Eating your lean body mass in protein or multiplying your weight by 0.82 should give you an idea of how much protein you should eat daily.

I'd rec getting a food scale so you can be as accurate as possible with your intake. Only measure liquids, weigh everything else. Log daily. Notice any trends, increase or lower intake if you don't see any weight loss or see too much.

toast4nat

Thanks for your response.

1) I actually considered doing this today, I feel really good lifting weights. I'll look into a more intensive weight lifting regiment and cut back my cardio to maybe twice a week.

2) 1200 is what was suggested by MFP due to the fact I have a sedentary work (8 hours in front of the computer a day, fun). So you're saying I should avoid a deficit at the end of the day? And should update my goal? (I'm not sure, but I think it was a pound a week weight loss)

3) I weigh 132lbs. You're probably right about not getting enough protein, but I'm not sure how to supplement. Protein usually means cooking and I don't have time to do so except in the evenings for dinner. Otherwise, it's bacon/sausage/eggs (if I can convince my husband to make it) in the morning and tuna fish for lunch. Any suggestions?

Ugh, I really don't want to have to deal with a food scale. Nor a specialized diet. The only reason I'm so adamant against these is because I KNOW I will not be able to maintain doing it every day. I do log daily, except for the rare exception.

SnuggleSmacks

When you eat at a deficit, your body is just as happy breaking down muscle as it is fat. You have to work to protect your muscle so that your body will use fat instead. You do this by lifting heavy, eating adequate protein for muscle repair and keeping a reasonable, not-too-aggressive deficit.

toast4nat

So would you agree that these are the things I should do:

1) Increase weightlifting and protein intake
2) Decrease cardio and calorie deficit

Those are two things I would be more than happy to change, and would be easy to maintain.

steveyinasia

What tools are you using to measure your body fat?

toast4nat

I use an EatSmart scale that measures % Body Fat, % Total Body Water, % Muscle Mass and Bone Mass.

ana3067

Cardio isn't required to lose weight, so do it if yu enjoy it I almost never do it personally. But as far as the deficit goes, MFP assigns 1200 to pretty much everyone who chooses 2lbs/week as their goal. What goals did you set up? Also, I'm a student and sit around most of the day, but if I use MFP activity then I need to select lightly active. Few people are actually sedentary.

Basically, if MFP says that without exercise you could maintain on 2200 calories, then a 1lb deficit should be around 1700 calories. This is without exercise again, so when you exercise you'd log and eat back at least half of those calories. So if your goal at the end of the day ends up being 1950 calories, you'd want to eat up to that or as close as you can. Don't create more of a deficit from the existing deficit!

Here are some of the main foods I get protein from:
Poultry, meat, fish, eggs, greek yogurt, cheese, cottage cheese, whey powder, sometimes PB. I often mix protein powder with baked goods or e.g. yogurt + fruit. But I do make a lot of meats.

Personally I think that everyone can make/find time to cook, it's all about your priorities. If it means making stuff in bulk once or twice a week, then that's fine. Or cooking really large dinners a few times a week and having leftovers. At your weight, 100g of protein would probably be enough for daily consumption.

You don't need a food scale, it's just way more accurate. But if you can get within the ballpark then it's okay. It's really quite easy to weigh food though, but not necessary. And you definitely don't need a specialized diet, other than just eating more protein.

Also looking more closely at your diary, I think that you could make a few other changes for improved accuracy without buying a food scale. 1) don't use generic entries (look for USDA entries instead for fresh ingredients), 2) don't use generic recipes (e.g. your PB&J is a generic entry - instead just log the bread and the PB and the jam that you are actually using).

Aviva92

toast4nat wrote: »

I use an EatSmart scale that measures % Body Fat, % Total Body Water, % Muscle Mass and Bone Mass.

those body fat scales are highly innacurate. I would ignore it entirely. It's basically a toy.

I have the same scale. It's accurate for weight only.

toast4nat

ana3067 wrote: »

Also looking more closely at your diary, I think that you could make a few other changes for improved accuracy without buying a food scale. 1) don't use generic entries (look for USDA entries instead for fresh ingredients), 2) don't use generic recipes (e.g. your PB&J is a generic entry - instead just log the bread and the PB and the jam that you are actually using).

Thanks for this, I had a feeling this was screwing up my logs. I had to sort through like... five different PB&J's before I found one that was similar to the components separate. I'll just do that from now on.

These are my current goals, what do you suggest?

Net Calories Consumed* / Day 1,200 cal/day
Carbs / Day 150.0 g
Fat / Day 40.0 g
Protein / Day 60.0 g

Calories Burned / Week 620 cal/week
Workouts / Week 5 Workouts
Minutes / Workout 40 mins

I'm looking into a new weightlifting regiment right now, from bodybuilding.com

And then protein; I'll have to figure this out; there is a ton of meat in my freezer, maybe I'll cook up a bunch of high protein dishes this weekend and freeze some. Will be good for lunches for my husband as well.

kimny72

You've already gotten great advice. Wanted to add that a goal of 15-20% body fat is I think fairly aggressive for a woman, like the level of a pro athlete. So you might need to focus strictly on your macros, your calorie goal, and a weight training regimen to get there. If I'm wrong, hopefully someone with more experience will correct me!

I'm not trying to be negative, just don't want you to get too discouraged if it's difficult to get there! Good luck and keep at it :drinker:

toast4nat

I know it's aggressive, but in high school my body fat % was 17.5, and I was not athletic, but was more active than I am now. I know it's kind of ridiculous to think that I could get back to a % I was at 10 years ago, but I'd like to try.

kimny72

Can't hurt to try, right? Just don't get too frustrated by that number. Those scales can be unreliable, so focus on several different gauges of success - weight, measurements, body fat %, how your clothes fit, etc.

toast4nat

Thanks. I don't use the measurement aspect of the scale much as I know it can be inaccurate, but 26% definitely seem plausible based on what I see in the mirror. That's why I'm so frustrated, because I see my belly and back flubber and it's not going away. But I'm ALSO seeing the nice tone starting in my arms from weightlifting, so it looks like that's the way to go!

ana3067

toast4nat wrote: »

ana3067 wrote: »

Also looking more closely at your diary, I think that you could make a few other changes for improved accuracy without buying a food scale. 1) don't use generic entries (look for USDA entries instead for fresh ingredients), 2) don't use generic recipes (e.g. your PB&J is a generic entry - instead just log the bread and the PB and the jam that you are actually using).

Thanks for this, I had a feeling this was screwing up my logs. I had to sort through like... five different PB&J's before I found one that was similar to the components separate. I'll just do that from now on.

These are my current goals, what do you suggest?

Net Calories Consumed* / Day 1,200 cal/day
Carbs / Day 150.0 g
Fat / Day 40.0 g
Protein / Day 60.0 g

Calories Burned / Week 620 cal/week
Workouts / Week 5 Workouts
Minutes / Workout 40 mins

I'm looking into a new weightlifting regiment right now, from bodybuilding.com

And then protein; I'll have to figure this out; there is a ton of meat in my freezer, maybe I'll cook up a bunch of high protein dishes this weekend and freeze some. Will be good for lunches for my husband as well.

You don't need a fancy workout routine at all. A full body 3x a week or upper/lower split is just fine for most people! Something like this would be fine:
aworkoutroutine.com/the-beginner-weight-training-workout-routine/

Otherwise I have also done upper/lower which I plan to switch to, and I will do it like Wendler 531 periodization one without the tricep work. I just can't squat and deadlift on the same day so the ABA/BAB or upper/lower with dedicated days works best for me.

But for goals I meant more like in your settings for your goal weight loss. Otherwise for caloric intake, maybe try an outside calculator? I like these three (the last one includes exercise - sedentary is too low of an estimate)
health-calc.com/diet/energy-expenditure-advanced
exrx.net/Calculators/CalRequire.html
scoobysworkshop.com/accurate-calorie-calculator/

just use averages, so e.g. if you sit 40hrs 5x a week but only sit for like 3 hours over the weekend then that's about 6hrs sitting on average. So yu'd put that, not 8hrs.

For protein though, you could very easily just cook up the meat alone in bulk and then some veggies if you want. Or rice. I usually just bake chicken breast if I need something quick. Or pork tenderloin is easy too, so are hamburgers.

toast4nat

I see what you mean about the goals. That's a tough one, because I know muscle will be heavier than fat. But I guess my goal would be 120 lbs, since that is an ideal weight for my age and height.

I will take a stab at this weightlifting regimen I'm looking at right now, but I foresee some issues as my apartments gym does not have free weights, only dumbbells and three machines (one of which, the pull down, has been broken for about a month). I will try my best though.

Thanks for providing those other calculators! Hopefully I can get a better understand of where I should be at intake wise.

I might also look into getting some whey protein as a supplement. Can't hurt.

CherryChan81

have you lost any weight during these 3 months? I started 3 months ago too... there are some fat % loss and weight loss, but not waist size... *frustrating*

toast4nat

I started at 140 on Sept 21, I weigh 132 today. I've lost an inch off my waist, but it's not noticeable.

Kevalicious99

Those scales can be out as much as 8%. You should look at trends with those scales .. not so much the numbers. I think that 15% is too low .. probably nearer 20 would be better.