How to avoid becoming "skinny fat"?

drewlfitness

TimothyFish wrote: »

People who go to the gym don't become "skinny fat". Skinny fat means you are at a normal BMI, but because you aren't exercising you don't have the health benefits that a normal BMI would normally imply.

Good point. To clear up what I'm referring to when I say "skinny fat", what I'm referring to is the transition someone who weighs 260 lbs goes through to get down to 220-230.

The "skinny fat" I'm referring to is the outcome of all of a sudden weighing 220, but still having nearly the same body fat % as when the scale said 260.

If you're skinny, but sit on the couch and eat candy and never workout, then I think that would be better defined as "Skinny and unhealthy", perhaps?

Justygirl77

drewlamonte wrote: »

My calorie goal is 2100 per day. I typically burn between 400-800 calories a day at the gym. Many times I'll eat 400 calories for breakfast, then maybe a shake and some chicken for lunch. Then I go to the gym, burn the calories I previously mentioned, and myfitnesspal says I have around 1800 calories remaining.

Is it very important to make sure I actually get those remaining calories in me, in order to lose weight "correctly", aka in order to avoid becoming "skinny fat"? Or, is it OK to eat and workout like listed above, and end the day with myfitnesspal saying that I have "1000 calories remaining"?

(Note: The 2100 calorie starting amount already has a 750 calorie deficit built into it)

I see you are asking if you need to eat back the exercise calories so that you don't lose muscle while attempting to drop body fat.
First I want to ask, how are you determining your burns....from MFP entries, or from a tracker or HRM?
Also, how accurate is your measuring when you make your meals?
I ask those questions, because the 2100 calorie goal is an estimate. So it's a place to start as you begin to find your fat-loss zone.
What is your BMR? Your BMR will tell you the minimum calories you should eat if you are staying in bed. Since you probably not in bed, you should eat some more calories to fuel your life's activities. This is the number you get when you enter your stats into MFP. Wearing a tracker really helps at this point (like fitbit or jawboneUP or HRM) because you can have a more accurate estimate of your day's calorie burn.
Since you are also exercising, you will need to fuel the exercise. This is where the magic happens. You should eat enough to have energy for your burns, but also stop eating at that point. Whether that agrees with the MFP estimate or not, that's up to you....and your results.
I sometimes eat it back. I wear a Jawbone UP, and count on that to tell me if I'm keeping the 500cal deficit or not. In 3 weeks, I've lost 9 lbs, so it appears I am.
Do you measure yourself in other ways than the scale?
For me, no weight loss in the last few days, but 1/2in from my hips in the last 4 days. So it helps to use measurements other than the scale number to see your progress.
Weight-lifting always gives me scale and even measurement fluctuations for a few days after a session, before the hoped-for results become apparent.

So you should eat your BMR for sure....those are calories that belong to your body. You should eat calories to fuel your basic life activities. You should eat enough to fuel your exercise efforts....and still maintain a little deficit, so that your body dips into it's fat reserves without making you stressed. Measure your food with scale, it's worth the effort. Log everything you eat. Then the numbers can start making sense to you and you can work with those numbers.
It's good to be efficient with dieting....because a little muscle loss is inherent in a deficit, as I understand it. Although it is minimized with exercise.