Trouble losing belly fat :(
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sweetjess195
Posts: 19 Member
I am a 27 year old female. I've always been pretty skinny my entire life however, that was due to the stress of break-ups where I wasn't eating and lost a lot of weight in a short amount of time. I never really learned how to eat right and what "in moderation" meant.
A few summers ago, I gained a lot of weight in a short period of time. I had previously gone through a bad break-up and lost a lot of weight, and after moving forward, was still eating like I did when I was stressed/depressed. Sure, Bojangles once a day won't make you gain weight when its the only thing you're eating, but when I was eating that (thinking it would be ok) plus drinking and pizza and so forth, it caught up to me QUICKLY!
Within the last month, I REALLY started watching what I was eating. I have almost entirely cut out processed foods. I will admit, I do have the occasional helping of trailmix that includes m&ms and dried fruit, but I log everything in My Fitness pal. I also take progress pictures every Friday morning to compare. This morning I compared my current photos to my very first photos on April 15 and although I see a difference, I feel like the way I've been eating and exercising should have shown better results.
With that said, I feel stuck. I am a VERY active person. I exercise 5-6 times a week and sometimes twice a day. For example, last week's schedule was:
Monday: Athletic Conditioning class at my gym (this class includes HIIT). During this class, I burn anywhere from 500-700 calories
Tuesday: Athletic Conditioning (500-700 calories) and my softball game (I usually burn between 400 and 500 calories during one game)
Wednesday: Athletic Conditioning (500-700 calories)
Thursday: Athletic Conditioning (500-700 calories) and my softball game (400-500 calories)
Friday: Off
Saturday: 30 minutes cardio on the elliptical machine and 30-45 minutes weights (I typically burn between 400-600 calories when I do my own workouts)
Sunday: Athletic Conditioning (500-700 calories)
The week sometimes varies. Some days I won't have time to go to Athletic Conditioning before softball or I may take 3 days off, but that is rare. I also try to eat more during the days I do a gym class and play softball since I typically burn over 1000.
My diet is pretty simple. For breakfast I have gluten free oatmeal with stevie, cinnamon, chopped pecans and blueberries. Lunch is one of the tuna creation packets and veggies (green beans, peas or broccoli). Sometimes I may add an avocado or some kind of carb like sweet potato or quiona. Dinner is usually just a protein (chicken, 1 egg and egg whites or fish) and veggies (green beans, peas or broccoli). If I burned a lot of calories from physical activity that day, I may make another carb for dinner. My snacks can include apple slices and peanut butter, quest bar, boiled eggs, raw almonds, avocado, trail mix, popcorn or baby carrots with hummus.
My "goal" daily calorie intake is 1,782. Most days I hit that, give or take a few calories and as I stated, the days I'm burning a lot of calories, I may take that up to about 1900 calories. But I hardly ever eat over 2,000 unless its a cheat day, which doesn't happen often. I do drink but it is usually once or twice a week, if that.
I don't want to get discouraged since I know that it is very unrealistic/unhealthy to expect to drop a good amount of weight in a short. Maybe I am being unrealistic by not being happy that I'm seeing SOME kind of change. But I thought after a month, I should see more of a difference.
After seeing my above post, does anyone have any immediate suggestions? Am I not eating enough? Also, how many grams of fat should I be eating? I've always been told between 60-70. And most of my fat intake is healthy fat from avocados and nuts.
A few summers ago, I gained a lot of weight in a short period of time. I had previously gone through a bad break-up and lost a lot of weight, and after moving forward, was still eating like I did when I was stressed/depressed. Sure, Bojangles once a day won't make you gain weight when its the only thing you're eating, but when I was eating that (thinking it would be ok) plus drinking and pizza and so forth, it caught up to me QUICKLY!
Within the last month, I REALLY started watching what I was eating. I have almost entirely cut out processed foods. I will admit, I do have the occasional helping of trailmix that includes m&ms and dried fruit, but I log everything in My Fitness pal. I also take progress pictures every Friday morning to compare. This morning I compared my current photos to my very first photos on April 15 and although I see a difference, I feel like the way I've been eating and exercising should have shown better results.
With that said, I feel stuck. I am a VERY active person. I exercise 5-6 times a week and sometimes twice a day. For example, last week's schedule was:
Monday: Athletic Conditioning class at my gym (this class includes HIIT). During this class, I burn anywhere from 500-700 calories
Tuesday: Athletic Conditioning (500-700 calories) and my softball game (I usually burn between 400 and 500 calories during one game)
Wednesday: Athletic Conditioning (500-700 calories)
Thursday: Athletic Conditioning (500-700 calories) and my softball game (400-500 calories)
Friday: Off
Saturday: 30 minutes cardio on the elliptical machine and 30-45 minutes weights (I typically burn between 400-600 calories when I do my own workouts)
Sunday: Athletic Conditioning (500-700 calories)
The week sometimes varies. Some days I won't have time to go to Athletic Conditioning before softball or I may take 3 days off, but that is rare. I also try to eat more during the days I do a gym class and play softball since I typically burn over 1000.
My diet is pretty simple. For breakfast I have gluten free oatmeal with stevie, cinnamon, chopped pecans and blueberries. Lunch is one of the tuna creation packets and veggies (green beans, peas or broccoli). Sometimes I may add an avocado or some kind of carb like sweet potato or quiona. Dinner is usually just a protein (chicken, 1 egg and egg whites or fish) and veggies (green beans, peas or broccoli). If I burned a lot of calories from physical activity that day, I may make another carb for dinner. My snacks can include apple slices and peanut butter, quest bar, boiled eggs, raw almonds, avocado, trail mix, popcorn or baby carrots with hummus.
My "goal" daily calorie intake is 1,782. Most days I hit that, give or take a few calories and as I stated, the days I'm burning a lot of calories, I may take that up to about 1900 calories. But I hardly ever eat over 2,000 unless its a cheat day, which doesn't happen often. I do drink but it is usually once or twice a week, if that.
I don't want to get discouraged since I know that it is very unrealistic/unhealthy to expect to drop a good amount of weight in a short. Maybe I am being unrealistic by not being happy that I'm seeing SOME kind of change. But I thought after a month, I should see more of a difference.
After seeing my above post, does anyone have any immediate suggestions? Am I not eating enough? Also, how many grams of fat should I be eating? I've always been told between 60-70. And most of my fat intake is healthy fat from avocados and nuts.
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Replies
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Read the stickie at the top0
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I would make sure you are logging absolutely everything you eat and drink. I find alcohol can set me back quite a bit and have had to scale back on the booze. There can be a big difference in calories when it comes to eating a small avocado vs a large one. You may actually be burning fewer calories than you think, so it might be good to log it as a hundred/ two hundred less than you think. Long story short, if you aren't losing any weight, then you are just taking in more calories than you need to. Congrats on choosing to lose weight in a healthy manner and I think it's great you've cut down on processed crap. I need to follow in your foot steps. Feel free to add me if you want a friend.0
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For many people, belly fat is the last to go. That means that you may see huge improvements in other parts of your body before you see it in your midsection. One month and with 27 lbs to go, you are a ways off from that point.0
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I use the polar watch to track my calories. Can it be off THAT much?
I haven't gotten on the scale because I think its more important to notice a change in your clothes and seeing a difference by comparing progress pictures than relying on a scale.
I do see a different in the progress pics, but its minimal. My clothes are looser though, so I guess thats a plus.
I also don't drink a lot. Typically, I only drink on Saturdays and it varies. I may have a night where I drink 6-8 vodka/water or it may be where I have one drink and call it a night.0 -
Weight loss is not linear for one thing (can't lose just the belly...sorry)
You are obviously an athlete and you go to a gym regularly and play sports. You only lift some weights for about 30 minutes??? What does this athletic conditioning class entail? Is it cicruits (using weights or body weights), muscle conditioning, cross training, etc..
1) You are either eating more than you think you are (not logging accurately and eating back way more exercise calories...I know I would be)..
2) Lay back on the booze. 2 days of drinking a week would kill my diet.. Yes I could drink a 6 pack if I don;t eat on those days.. But then I would be a cheap date too.0 -
You don’t give some crucial information. Current height and weight is a good start. It seems you’re 27lbs away from your goal, so I’m not sure why you’re concerned about your belly fat at this stage. Why don’t you just focus on weight loss in general?0
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Weight loss is not linear for one thing (can't lose just the belly...sorry)
You are obviously an athlete and you go to a gym regularly and play sports. You only lift some weights for about 30 minutes??? What does this athletic conditioning class entail? Is it cicruits (using weights or body weights), muscle conditioning, cross training, etc..
1) You are either eating more than you think you are (not logging accurately and eating back way more exercise calories...I know I would be)..
2) Lay back on the booze. 2 days of drinking a week would kill my diet.. Yes I could drink a 6 pack if I don;t eat on those days.. But then I would be a cheap date too.
The athletic conditioning class is a mixture of cardio and weights. We do a lot of intervals so it would be something like burpees for one minute, shoulder presses for one minute, jumping jacks for one minute and lunges for another minute. We will repeat that 4 times, then move on to another round of cardio and weights. So the one day I mentioned where I lifted weights for 30 minutes was just an example of a day where there wasn't a class for me to go to.
I'm pretty confident I'm not eating back my exercise calories or not logging accurately enough to make a difference. I measure out my food and use the labels when entering them into MFP. I very rarely eat over my daily calorie goal of 1,782. It makes me wonder if I'm not eating enough since, if I burn 1,000 calories in a day, that only leave 782 left from food, not counting what I burn at rest.0 -
You don’t give some crucial information. Current height and weight is a good start. It seems you’re 27lbs away from your goal, so I’m not sure why you’re concerned about your belly fat at this stage. Why don’t you just focus on weight loss in general?
Where is that information coming from? I'm 150lbs/ 5'5 and I want to be around 140, but I'm more concerned about how I look, rather than what my weight is.0 -
are you using a food scale to weigt all your solid foods?0
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sweetjess195 wrote: »You don’t give some crucial information. Current height and weight is a good start. It seems you’re 27lbs away from your goal, so I’m not sure why you’re concerned about your belly fat at this stage. Why don’t you just focus on weight loss in general?
Where is that information coming from? I'm 150lbs/ 5'5 and I want to be around 140, but I'm more concerned about how I look, rather than what my weight is.
Your profile states you’re 17lbs away from your goal (which I misread as 27, sorry about that). If you’re concerned about how you look rather than weight, maybe start taking body measurements in several points. This can be more indicative of your progress than a scale. Aside from that, I’d focus on strength training.0 -
sweetjess195 wrote: »You don’t give some crucial information. Current height and weight is a good start. It seems you’re 27lbs away from your goal, so I’m not sure why you’re concerned about your belly fat at this stage. Why don’t you just focus on weight loss in general?
Where is that information coming from? I'm 150lbs/ 5'5 and I want to be around 140, but I'm more concerned about how I look, rather than what my weight is.
if you are more concerned with body composition then I would suggest eating at maintenance or in a .5 pound per week deficit, and start a heavy lifting regimen like strong lifts, starting strength, or new rules of lifting for woman, and maybe mix in some cardio on off days.0 -
sweetjess195 wrote: »
Actually, I see a lot of cup measurements in your diary.0 -
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sweetjess195 wrote: »You don’t give some crucial information. Current height and weight is a good start. It seems you’re 27lbs away from your goal, so I’m not sure why you’re concerned about your belly fat at this stage. Why don’t you just focus on weight loss in general?
Where is that information coming from? I'm 150lbs/ 5'5 and I want to be around 140, but I'm more concerned about how I look, rather than what my weight is.
Your profile states you’re 17lbs away from your goal (which I misread as 27, sorry about that). If you’re concerned about how you look rather than weight, maybe start taking body measurements in several points. This can be more indicative of your progress than a scale. Aside from that, I’d focus on strength training.
Its ok
I think that was left over from a long time ago. 0 -
sweetjess195 wrote: »
that instead of using your food scale you are using cups to measure things, which will lead to inaccuracies..
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sweetjess195 wrote: »
That means you’re not, as you said, using a food scale to track what you’re eating, and this means you could be eating more than you think because cups aren’t as accurate as a food scale.
Examples:
Berries - Blueberries, Fresh, Raw, 1/4 Cup, 0.35 cup
Trader Joe's Gluten Free Oats - Rolled Oats, 1/2 cup
Avocado - Haas, 1 medium fruit (100g)
Kirkland - trailmix, 1/2 cup
Hang on, I’ll try to find this great video showing the difference…0 -
sweetjess195 wrote: »
that instead of using your food scale you are using cups to measure things, which will lead to inaccuracies..
Gotcha! So I use the food scale for things like sweet potato or chicken. When I use cups is when the label says "1/2 cup of quiona is xxx amount of calories".0 -
sweetjess195 wrote: »sweetjess195 wrote: »You don’t give some crucial information. Current height and weight is a good start. It seems you’re 27lbs away from your goal, so I’m not sure why you’re concerned about your belly fat at this stage. Why don’t you just focus on weight loss in general?
Where is that information coming from? I'm 150lbs/ 5'5 and I want to be around 140, but I'm more concerned about how I look, rather than what my weight is.
Your profile states you’re 17lbs away from your goal (which I misread as 27, sorry about that). If you’re concerned about how you look rather than weight, maybe start taking body measurements in several points. This can be more indicative of your progress than a scale. Aside from that, I’d focus on strength training.
Its ok I think that was left over from a long time ago.
On that topic, you might want to update your weight and goal, because that will change your calorie goals!
Anyway, it’s important to be accurate in your logging because the closer you are to your goal weight, the smaller the deficit you are maintaining, and the easier it is to wipe it out with inaccuracies that add up. Also, exercise calories are usually really overestimated, so most people only eat back about half.
Finally, I second ndj regarding a heavy lifting program. I’m following Starting Strength and it’s making a much bigger difference in the way my body looks than running daily (which I used to do). 0 -
sweetjess195 wrote: »sweetjess195 wrote: »
that instead of using your food scale you are using cups to measure things, which will lead to inaccuracies..
Gotcha! So I use the food scale for things like sweet potato or chicken. When I use cups is when the label says "1/2 cup of quiona is xxx amount of calories".
Honestly, I ignore those. I don’t know why packaging insists on using cups for stuff. I never ever do, but instead go by the weight equivalent usually listed in brackets.
Edit: found the video! Check this out:
https://youtu.be/JVjWPclrWVY 0
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