Belly fat and disproportional weight loss

dhalsim2

I'm a 42 year old, 5'11" man and have had great success with MFP. I went from 214 lbs. to 147 lbs. However, my weight loss wasn't very proportional. My friends and family were saying that 147 lbs. was too low and that I was starting to look unhealthy. I agreed to an extent, but I had gone that low because despite being thin in the face, chest, legs, and arms, I still had a big belly. My doctor told me that I should gain some of the weight back, so I went up to 170 lbs. and my face looks healthy now, but most of that gained weight went back onto my belly. I'm trying to find a good balance to minimize my belly without looking skeletal elsewhere.

Any tips?

mitch16

How quickly did you gain the weight back? Was it a controlled bulk or just a free for all?

HoneyBadger302

The curse of being human is that we can't choose where our bodies lose weight.

I'm a female, and I'm an apple - which means my arms, legs, face, chest will all lose first, while I still have a nice, plump, bulbous middle section.

I can't get rid of that until my body fat is low enough to force my body to use it up.

It can suck, as I will will have visible muscles above and below that, including serratus that look great, but still have a belly (not a good bikini look).

Maxxitt

It might be time to focus on body recomposition rather than scale weight. If I get this link right, cruise through this thread (it's super long but there is excellent information there). http://community.myfitnesspal.com/en/discussion/10177803/recomposition-maintaining-weight-while-losing-fat/p1

db121215

HoneyBadger155 wrote: »

The curse of being human is that we can't choose where our bodies lose weight.

I'm a female, and I'm an apple - which means my arms, legs, face, chest will all lose first, while I still have a nice, plump, bulbous middle section.

I can't get rid of that until my body fat is low enough to force my body to use it up.

It can suck, as I will will have visible muscles above and below that, including serratus that look great, but still have a belly (not a good bikini look).

Agreed HoneyB. My huge boobs are long gone. And while I look great with cloths on, I have the dreaded belly flap. I can't comfortably do a two piece, or a very fitted on piece dress. I keep working at it, but as you said, it's the last place of considerable fat. I just try to keep toning the area as much as a can. I wish I could have kept some boob and lost the flap LOL

dhalsim2

mitch16 wrote: »

How quickly did you gain the weight back? Was it a controlled bulk or just a free for all?

I was on a 1200 net calorie diet for about a year to lose weight. When my doctor said that I needed to gain weight (mostly because of a heart surgery that I am recovering from), I took it up to 1800 calories and started a slow weight gain. But next time I saw my doctor, he said, "No, that's not nearly enough. Go for 3000 calories. If you can't get that many calories eating healthy food, then start eating junk food." I didn't argue with him.

So my climb from 147 lbs. to 150 was slow and controlled, but then I got up to 170 lbs. by binging. I really didn't want to undo all the work that I had done over so long, so I decided to see a nutritionist. She said that my cardiologist didn't know what he was talking about and that the 1800 calorie diet would have been perfect.

Fflpnari

Do you weight lift?? time to recomp?

malibu927

dhalsim2 wrote: »

mitch16 wrote: »

How quickly did you gain the weight back? Was it a controlled bulk or just a free for all?

I was on a 1200 net calorie diet for about a year to lose weight. When my doctor said that I needed to gain weight (mostly because of a heart surgery that I am recovering from), I took it up to 1800 calories and started a slow weight gain. But next time I saw my doctor, he said, "No, that's not nearly enough. Go for 3000 calories. If you can't get that many calories eating healthy food, then start eating junk food." I didn't argue with him.

So my climb from 147 lbs. to 150 was slow and controlled, but then I got up to 170 lbs. by binging. I really didn't want to undo all the work that I had done over so long, so I decided to see a nutritionist. She said that my cardiologist didn't know what he was talking about and that the 1800 calorie diet would have been perfect.

I don't think either of them were right. Your BMR at 147 pounds was 1600 calories, which is the amount of calories your body was burning just to live. If you were sedentary, 1800 was likely below maintenance. 3000 calories was enough of a surplus that you did gain a lot of fat.

The fact of the matter is you starved yourself, lost a lot of muscle, and then when you were bulking you ate too high of a surplus and (I'm assuming) didn't do anything to gain muscle. Now is when you should be doing something for that, provided your cardiologist is okay with you lifting.

evileen99

Start a heavy lifting program while eating at a surplus. You'll also need a decent protein intake. Opinions vary, but around .8 grams per pound of body weight is a common goal. So you're looking at 130 grams or so a day.

megs_1985

https://thinkeatlift.com/how-to-lose-fat-and-gain-muscle-at-the-same-time/. Also check out Alan Aragon and Lou Schuler. Eat at maintenance and do a progressive strength program.