Reading so many contradicting things. Confused!

halimaiqbal00

So I'm planning on firming up. I'm a 5' 7 female and weigh 143 pounds. My body frame is small and I am 'skinny fat'. I've been following ww for a good few years and my weight loss has halted. That's why I think it's time to focus less on scales and more on losing inches and gaining muscle.

My Fitbit tells me I burn 2200 calories as my tdee. How much should I be eating daily and how often should I be doing strength workouts and cardio, to reduce body fat and generally have a better looking body?

I've been doing my research and am confused. I don't know where to start. As I've been eating around 1400 calories a day, I'm nervous about consuming a large number more all of a sudden for fear that I'll gain weight

Maxematics

You posted a very similar thread just yesterday where people gave you answers about your eating and you didn't respond:

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10338789/so-scared-to-eat-500-calories-under-my-tdee#latest

If you want to gain muscle you're going to have to eat at a surplus of calories because you cannot gain muscle while eating at a calorie deficit. If you increase your calories, you may see initial weight gain at first due to water weight, but if you're still eating at a deficit it will taper off. However, if you want to actually build muscle and eat at a caloric surplus, you're going to have to accept that as you gain muscle, you will gain some fat as well while doing so. It's inevitable.

Anyway, as we said to you yesterday, if your weight loss has "halted" on 1400 calories you probably weren't eating 1400 calories, especially on WW with their "free foods". You should invest in a food scale at this point. At 5'7" and 143 you're not overweight by any means, but you could get leaner as well. You have to decide if you want to shed more fat first or just start building muscle. Building muscle is hard, especially for a woman. You have to eat at a surplus, eat enough protein, and hit the weights. It's not going to happen in days or a few weeks and you'll have to put on some weight to get there. That means putting on a half pound or so per week for a few months and then you'll cut to reveal any muscle gains.

halimaiqbal00

Thank you so much for the reply. I can't see my other post for some reason! I own a food scale and use that to measure carbs and fats but not protein so I think I'll start doing that too. Tho k I need to reprogram myself not to be so dependent on the scales.

Do you have any recommendations on how much strength training I should be doing and for how long, for the best results?

Sued0nim

halimaiqbal00 wrote: »

Thank you so much for the reply. I can't see my other post for some reason! I own a food scale and use that to measure carbs and fats but not protein so I think I'll start doing that too. Tho k I need to reprogram myself not to be so dependent on the scales.

Do you have any recommendations on how much strength training I should be doing and for how long, for the best results?

I don't know what that means ..no food is just carbs or fats (well apart from pure fat I suppose) ..what you are measuring is scale weight and then converting that to calories through inputting in databases

lemonychild

You should find "vismals " post in the success forum. The man explained this through out his post. It's clear cut and I suspect it will help u

star1407

http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10300319/most-helpful-posts-general-diet-and-weight-loss-help-must-reads#latest
Here op, have a good read at these posts. They answer all and any questions you might have

snowflake954

OP--I would look into recomp. There's a very successful thread on it by usmcmp "maintaining weight while losing fat". Do a search.